New Orleans/FL Trip (Day 17) - New Orleans, LA - Destin, FL

Today is departure day from the Good Sam Club RV park at the University of New Orleans on Lake Pontchartrain . The RV park is here because the federal government (FEMA) brought in trailers to house people during the post-Katrina recovery phase; they put in the infrastructure (water, sewer, and electric) to accommodate the trailers. When the trailers left, they wanted to rip out the infrastructure, but someone thought the better of it and the site is now a popular RV group site managed by the university. While we were staying here, there were also about 25 or so Airstream trailers belonging to members of the National Airstream Association who met here for Mardi Gras.

As previously mentioned, there are still a few FEMA trailers in use around town and many houses and other buildings still need to be rebuilt or demolished. New Orleans has a long way to go to full recovery and has many social and low income housing issues that will be hard to resolve. Nevertheless, the spirit of the people we talked to is strong and hopeful for the future. And, if any NFL team was to win the Super Bowl other than the Eagles, the Saints deserved to do so. It is hard to describe how proud the locals are of their team and the enthusiasm displayed by the "Who Dat" Nation around town. The win may give the city a boost in the tourist economy (the second largest segment in the state economy after sugar cane agriculture and oil & natural gas) and help encourage much needed development around town. They also have a new mayor taking over in May. He will be the first white mayor in many years and won over 64% of the vote in a city with an overwhelming majority of black voters. Everyone is hopeful he will be able to overcome the long-standing Louisiana tradition of institutionalized graft and corruption and get the city moving again.






The X on the side of the abandoned houses has special significance. The numbers on top of the X is the date the house was searched. The numbers on the right and bottom of the X are the number of animals and/or human bodies that were found in the house, and the writing on the left of the X stand for the emergency unit that searched the house. The units searching houses ranged from the police, military, national guard and many others. It is another reflection of what happened almost 5 years ago, what has not been done, and what remains to do to achieve full recovery.

We got on the road about 9:30 am with about 100 lbs. of Mardi Gras beads and trinkets and had an easy 200 mile drive to Destin, FL.

The Destin area has lots of hotels on the beach and associated recreation activities in the area. We also understand it is a popular spring break destination for college students.

We are staying at a U.S. Army recreation site run by the Ft. Benning, Georgia army base. It is a very nice site on the bay side of Destin about 2 miles from the ocean. It is right next to the water and has apartments, hotel rooms, and a RV park, as well as a dock for crabbing and fishing, a marina, and a pool. The RV park is full of what appears to be mostly retirees, but the rest of the facility seems relatively empty. We have full hook-ups and 70 cable TV channels - not bad for $19.00 a night.


We ate dinner at McGuire's Irish Pub, not far away from the RV park. It was great food (Black Angus hamburgers) and atmosphere, with a huge Irish gift shop, live music, and wine store. Their trademark decor in the bar is literally thousands of one dollar bills stapled to the ceiling and walls. They all appeared to have notes written on them (e.g. "great food! Pat & Judy were here 2/17/09"). The place was packed and the waiter said it was just a typical Wednesday night.

Tomorrow is laundry day, a drive around the area, and maybe a walk on the beach.