Up early, colder than Monday morning - where is the heat - the sun is out and it is beautiful, but really cold. I'm wearing ski gloves to walk the dogs. We had planned to go into New Orleans and do the Garden District, Magazine Street and check out some other areas but we needed to nail down some places to stay in Florida. So Tina worked the laptop and phone most of the morning while I spent some time reading. Eventually it was late enough we decided to save our exploring for the next day, so we spent the day relaxing inside the rig where it was warm.
Day Three In New Orleans
Up at 6:15 AM to get the rig ready for a trip to the other side of the river. We had an 8:30 AM appointment to get the oil changed, filters, lube, etc. It is even colder than the day before with the temperature hovering close to 36 degrees. With the wind blowing it felt more like 26 degrees. After pulling out of the park we headed west on I-10 and took the Hwy 90 West exit. Ooopps. Should have taken the Business 90 exit. Heh, heh - no problem, we'll just do what we did the day we came in and loop back around. By golly, it worked. Soon we were up and flying across the Greater New Orleans Bridge. Three miles later we exited from Hwy 90 and drove to the RV Fixit place. We got everything set and took the car down to the ferry across the Mississippi that would take us to the Garden District. Unfortunately our directions were a little incomplete and we drove all through Gretna City for twenty minutes before locating the terminal. Wheww! Dang! Bad luck, the car ferry wasn't running, just the passenger only. Well, since we hadn't had breakfast yet (we planned to eat over on the other side) we drove to Shoney's and had a buffet breakfast with grits, ham, sausage, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy. Yum!! 
Then we got back on the freeway, headed back across the bridge and ran into a toll booth lineup to get back across the bridge. Slowly we inched our way forward, got back on the bridge, crossed the Mississippi and got on I-10 to the Garden District. Exiting the freeway we slowly wandered all through this lovely historic area of stately old homes, some of which would qualify as mansions. It was really amazing, street after street of side-by-side homes, separated by wrought iron fences or brick walls or hedges. Most lots were barely bigger than the house unless there was a carriage house or separate servants quarters. These are all private residences and very well maintained. Around the fringes of the district are smaller homes, also very nice but many of these are still being repaired or renovated after Katrina. One of the homes we viewed was the childhood home of Anne Rice, noted author and one of Tina's favorites. We spent some time doing a walking tour as it had finally warmed up.After touring the Garden District, we drove to Magazine Street, a six mile stretch of small shops and business that lined both sides of the road as it wound through numerous small communities. This led us to riverside drive and we drove along the river for a while. Eventually we drove down St Charles to Carollton where we stopped for a bit of shopping. This was the area we originally planned to go to for breakfast as there were about eight different restaurants clustered in a two square block area. Parking in front of the Chinese Restaurant we waked over to the bank and got some cash then crossed the street to the Pet Supply Store where we got the dogs a new Squeeky toy and some treats. We walked around some more than decided to check out another part of New Orleans. Driving out Carollton towards the heart of downtown New Orleans, we managed to get distracted and went off route (no, we weren't lost again) and had to do some exploring to find our way back to Business 90 so we could go back across the river and pick up the RV. We got there and after spending time visiting with the owner and his staff we got the bill and it was only $65 for everything - amazing!! Thanking everyone for their great service and friendliness, w hooked up the car and headed back home, through the toll booth, across the bridge, onto I-10 and back to the RV Resort.
By this time it's almost 5:00 PM so we decide to have an early dinner and spend the evening relaxing after our very eventful day!!
To see all of todays photos, click on he following link:
Distance this side trip, 50 miles.
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