The park itself is no big deal. It's rather plain with sparse trees. I'm told by one of the locals that there were a lot more trees before hurricane Katrina. The two ponds at the back of the park show the effects of Katrina as evidenced by the downed trees on the south side of the ponds. The other evidence of Katrina are the 30 or so single-wide mobile homes parked at the rear of the park. The locals call this area the "hood." We're told many of the residents are New Orleans hookers and drug dealers. We lock our door even during the day when we're here.
There are a lot of permanent and long term residents here, which I don't like. It seems that when a park has a lot of these people in it, these people lose respect for the park and its occupants. There are also a lot of working folks here and the sparsely graveled, but still noisy, road right behind our coach sounds like a freeway beginning at 6:00 a.m. when people are rushing off to work in their cars and trucks.
Just yesterday there was a story in the news about FEMA trailers that are toxic. The FEMA employees have been told to stay out of the trailers due to the toxicity but there are thousands of people still living the these trailers. Why are they still living in them? Probably because all the residents, at least here, have to pay for is their propane. They don't even have to pay for electricity or water.
As we've driven through New Orleans around the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods we see plenty evidence of Katrina. Many residences and businesses are still unoccupied. Doors of homes are still spray paint marked from the door-to-door search after the hurricane. There are also signs of recovery. Many new buildings and fences have gone up and there's lots of fresh paint of all colors, many very gaudy colors.
The weather has turned from cold to hot and humid. It's only in the high 70's but with the humidity it feels warmer. We were going to drive to a plantation today but on checking the route I found it was 75 miles from Slidell. We decided not to drive that far and spent the day relaxing, watching TV and, in Ann's case, napping. We did walk down to the pond and saw the larger alligator lounging on the log.
On Monday we start west. We'll probably take six or seven days to get to Las Vegas. Maybe more if we find something to see on the way. We may go to the Space Center in Houston.
The USA map shows the states we've visited on this trip. I didn't include Montana because we didn't take the motor home there. However, we did drive the car to West Yellowstone, Montana. All the states on the map are states we spent at least one night in.
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