Day 54 – New Orleans, baby! We need to stay in NOLA at least a month in order to visit every restaurant we’ve heard about and see everything that’s been recommended to us! Some, though, are priorities and wherever we do decide to go, we will follow-up with reviews.
(This above was written the morning we left Grand Isle.)
Here it is more than one week later and we haven’t been posting at all. We were just too busy in New Orleans to post everyday. Rob was really good about sorting thru the pictures he was taking & getting them in order, but I dropped the ball entirely & quit writing. Now we find ourselves WAY behind. Suffice it to say, though, New Orleans was SO interesting; completely different, like its own little country full of fabulous people.
We got up at 5 a.m., packed up and headed out at 7:00 (63 degrees, clear, breezy & sunny). The camera was working this time so we took a few pictures of the drive back to more crowded areas, through the bayou/cajun country, surrounded by water, with ships, locks & bridges, and on to New Orleans.
Arrived at Pontchartrain Landing in Eastern New Orleans at 9:30 a.m. We were lucky we’d read about this RV Park before we got there. We knew to expect the area surrounding the Park to have very rough roads and be in an old industrial area, and that it wouldn’t seem very inviting until we reached the Park itself. Pontchartrain Landing is located right on the Industrial Canal which connects the very huge Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (known around here as MR.GO). We later learned that the storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina pushed the Gulf waters back up MR.GO and into the Industrial Canal and other canals throughout the City, and into Lake Pontchartrain, causing 55 levees to break in a fairly short period of time which flooded NOLA leaving 80% of the City underwater. More about that later.
Pontchartrain Landing is a secure, gated waterfront resort. It has a marina, rental units,villas, houseboats, RV camping, and in the future, a tiny house community. Full hook-ups, all the amenities. A bar & restaurant (the Lighthouse Bar & Grill), laundry facilities, a pool & hot tub, and a shuttle which goes to the French Quarter 3 times daily. The shuttle is what attracted us because the driving and parking situation at the French Quarter is supposed to be impossible. For RV campers there is everything from basic camping near the road (the cheapest) to two sites on the water (the most expensive) which have covered patios with a bar area and private hot tubs. We chose the next step down and got one of ten waterfront sites without the patio and hot tub. The price was reasonable with our Passport America discount. Our site was #9 and directly across the canal from us the steamboat, the “City of New Orleans” was tied to a dock – added a nice flavor to our view.
The customer service we got from everyone we met from the day we arrived to the day we left was incredible. At check in, a guy named Shaun was fantastic, handling many different jobs at once while helping a line of customers. We were directed to our site by a guy with a golf cart who practically hooked up everything for us. Even though it was French Quarterfest time, we didn’t have anyone parked next to us. The sites were just large enough to fit everything in just right; on each side were flowering bushes that gave us privacy, and a palm tree out front, a picnic table on a concrete patio. It was a beautiful day. After setting up and settling in, we set up the chairs and watched the activity on the canal. 78 degrees, sunny and breezy.
When checking in, Shaun had given us a bunch of literature about the City and we knew we needed to decide what we were going to do, and when, so that we could get reservations before the tours were sold out and the shuttles were full. We figured out a schedule and headed back to the office where Shaun made us reservations at various places we had chosen, and he gave us discount coupons for everything we had picked and several maps of the City. He also told us about a free movie which the Park offered every morning at 9 a.m. about Hurricane Katrina.
By this time we were ready for an early dinner and not wanting to drive anywhere, we decided to try the Park’s Lighthouse Bar & Grill restaurant. We sat outside on the patio overlooking the marina. The drinks were great and we had several. I ordered the Bar-B-Que Shrimp Sandwich and Rob ordered the Bar-B-Que Shrimp Platter, each came with one side choice, and we decided to split both dishes so we could try each other’s food. We also split a slice of Key Lime Pie for dessert. Our server, Carolyn, was really good – evidently the chef asked her if Rob wanted the regular smoked BBQ Shrimp or the special New Orleans-style BBQ Shrimp which was not on the menu, and she said for him to make the New Orleans shrimp. OMG, it was SO good! She definitely made the right decision! It was served in a bowl with slices of buttered hot french bread for dipping. The sauce was unique and that’s what made the dish: spicy, salty, brownish in color, not at all like the standard catsup or cocktail sauce type of BBQ sauce, lots of garlic and citrus. My sandwich was good, nothing to jump up & down about. My side choice was garlic fries; they were good. Rob’s side choice was mac & cheese which he liked; I thought it was okay. Key Lime Pie was fantastic. Speaking of key lime, one of the drinks we had was a Key Lime Martini which was so good that you would want to order 20 more – dangerous. The meal wasn’t that expensive and dinner outside, plus the service, were perfect. We had a short walk back to the RV. Soon after, the entertainment at the bar started and they were pretty good; we could hear them from the RV. It was a good day.