Day 5 - Homeward Bound

Shrevesport LA - We did a quick drive around the Shreveport/Bossier area but it is quite run down and other than the casinos there isn't much to see.

Back in the car for the drive to New Orleans the terrain changes to bayous and bridges around Baton Rouge. We decided in the interest of time we wouldn't make any side trips and finished our sandwiches with potato chips.

Notice the water between the raised highways. I-10 runs across the southern part o fLouisiana. It passes through Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge before dipping south of Lake Pontchartrain to serve the New Orleans area and then passing through Slidell before leaving the state.

In August 2005, the I-10 Twin Span Bridge was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, rendering it unusable. Initially, the bridge was repaired through a $30.9 million contract with Boh Brothers Construction Company. However, Louisiana has since replaced the bridge with two higher elevation spans in 2009 and 2010.

Traffic was really heavy from Baton Rouge to New Orleans probably because it was Good Friday and everyone seemed to be coming from Texas for the weekend or else getting their boats out for the season.

Superdome - served as an emergency centre during Katrina. It originally cost $165 million to build and the repairs to the roof after the hurricane cost $100 million. When the roof flew out it damaged most of the windows in the Hyatt located nearby as well as several other buildings.

I snapped these photos as we were looking for our hotel.

We found our hotel in the French District, a Wyndham that really was not up to our standards but the location was perfect at Royal and Canal.

We went out to look around and get our bearings. We stopped for a drink in Brennan’s in the Astor Hotel after it was impossible to find a table in the Carousal Bar in the Hotel Monteleone.

We had a beer and a wine and shared a plate of charcutiere  which was delicious with various dried meats and crackling.