A NOT SO WARM WELCOME



MONDAY

TRAVEL DAY
YEAR #2 - STOP #62

"The Bayou State"
is our 27th visited state



We have arrived in the Bayou State of Louisiana and I know what you're thinking. New Orleans, French Quarter, Bourbon Street, cajun food and party time! Well not this visit, we're saving all that for early next year when we pass back through Southern Louisiana. This visit will be a short three day stay in Northern Louisiana before crossing back over the Mississippi River into what else, Mississippi.

We have an appointment there next week at an Airstream dealership to get our electric awning fixed. It just quit working! It's all still under warranty, but we're hoping for a quick fix and then we can get back on the road. If parts are required to fix it they'll need to be ordered. We'll then have to hang around in the area for a couple of weeks to wait for the parts to arrive, which we're prepared to do.


You may be wondering about the title of this blog post. Today when we passed the "Welcome to Louisiana" sign I had a silent thought, not a very warm welcome! The forecast for our three nights in Louisiana are lows of 26°F on Monday, a mere 20°F on Tuesday and finally 30°F on Wednesday. The lowest temperature we have experienced in THE POD so far has been 26°F earlier this year on April Fools Day, and it was no joke! We are sure to break that record this week! FYI - The forecast HIGH for Tuesday is only 38°F with winds between 15-25mph.

The photo on the left is what the ground around our water utility post looked like at 10:00AM Wednesday morning. The park asked for everyone to leave their water faucet dripping overnight so that it wouldn't freeze and burst the pipes. The dripping water and strong winds blowing it sideways made for some interesting ice formations around the campground. It was noon before the temps rose above freezing.



For all you numerologists out there!

Do you think that there is anything odd about the fact that today is 11/11 and we just arrived at our 111th stop (62 this year + 49 last year) since starting our journey? Also add in the fact that Tricia and I originally planned on getting married on 11/11/11 but realized we already had a previous commitment for that date. So rather than postpone our wedding, we moved it up a week. I can't make this stuff up, I'm just sayin'!


Something else for you all to think about!

If you were planning to erect a dam to create a hydroelectric facility, which would knowingly flood an area creating a reservoir, why wouldn't you harvest all of the trees in the soon to be lake and make use of the resources instead of letting them go to waste? It just doesn't make any sense to me!

A small section of Poverty Point Reservoir in Louisiana



WEDNESDAY - Our whole reason for visiting this region of Louisiana was to visit the Poverty Point World Heritage Site. Poverty Point is the location of an ancient American Indian earthworks monument, built 4000 years ago, hundreds of years before the great Mayan cities found in Mexico and Central America, or even before the famous Machu Picchu in Peru.

Today is our last day in the area so it's now or never. There is not much left to see of the earthworks except a 72 foot tall outdoor mound and a few other smaller ones. There is however a wonderful indoor museum to explore and a short video of the history of this undertaking by the native people.

The largest of the mounds affectionately named "Mound A"

It's hard to imagine the effort it took to build this place. It was built using nothing but back breaking manpower, no aid from domesticated animals or even wheeled carts. It is estimated nearly 2 million cubic yards of soil were relocated to construct the mounds at Poverty Point National Monument.




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TWO PEAS