City of New Orleans
Sunday 5.11.23
An early start today (0545) and the coach takes us to the station. Unfortunately the City of New Orleans is not arriving for some considerable time. So we return to the hotel and we are able to have breakfast (thank goodness) before returning to the station. A wait but the train does arrive and we all climb aboard for the best Amtrak can provide – we are upstairs with a great view over the countryside and we wend our way south towards New Orleans. No great speed reached but there is a constantly changing landscape rolling past with many little junctions no doubt providing for freight traffic at many places.
Train timing obviously allows for the service to be horrendously late as it is probably going to arrive at its final destination on time! Given the early start the odd doze is in order as well!
Our itinerary means that we disembark at Hammond, Louisiana where our coach has been waiting (probably for several hours). The drive onwards is along Interstate 55 in Louisiana where Wikipedia confirms that 23 miles runs through the Manchac swamp and is one of the longest bridges in the world – with the railway running alongside for most of the distance before it veers away toward New Orleans. It was completed in 1979 and although the map shows ground beneath us it looks more like water to me – and presumably the usual residents of any swamp!
Oak Valley Plantation
Our return to the coach is predicated, as we are now really in the Deep South, by our visit to a cotton plantation – Oak Alley. The house appeared in “Interview with the Vampire” and other television programmes and films. Care has been taken to try and explain the two stories – those who lived in the big house and those who lived, originally as slaves, in the huts which are probably in a better physical state now than they ever were when in use.
The weather has been much warmer since leaving Nashville and even though we are here in the later afternoon it is very warm.
Our onward journey picks up Interstate 10 which uses another long bridge – I-10 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge – along the edge of Lake Pontchartrain and various wetlands before reaching the City of New Orleans, often these days referred to as NOLA (New Orleans Louisiana) where we will be halting for a few days.
Our hotel is not far from the famous French Quarter and we head there for dinner. The first couple of places are already busy and Hard Rock has empty tables – and nothing available for an hour! Across the way however is the Bourbon House which asks us to wait for a few minutes and a space is cleared – so it is all possible.