So far, I have misjudged driving times, gotten lost (and found again) twice, and missed my scheduled swamp tour. Fortunately, the tour is rescheduled for tomorrow morning, but it still puts a wrinkle in my planned itinerary. But I am nothing if not resilient. And, when it comes to travel, I make a point of trying not to freak out too much when plans go awry. Because I was looking for an elusive gas station in Kentucky while trying to drive through the much-bigger-than-I-thought Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, I saw some interesting parts of off-highway Kentucky and witnessed a pretty impressive thunderstorm.
Because I misjudged the driving time from Clarksdale, MS to LaPlace, LA, I rushed myself and not only ran late of the swamp tour, but I took a wrong turn onto a huge bridge that didn't allow a quick turnaround. As a result, I saw swamps anyway, the industrial side of Louisiana, and got a feel for the highway system. Many of the highways are high up on stilts (so to speak) and are surrounded by swampland and lakes. The raised roadways make sense, as this area is prone to flooding and heavy storms. Which brings me to the next thing I may not have found otherwise: hurricane evacuation routes.
Winding my way back into Baton Rouge from lower Louisiana there were blue signs along the roadways, directing residents along evacuation routes. In the book Gumbo Tales, by Sarah Roahen, she describes how Hurricane Katrina impacted her and those around her. She is a food journalist, so her view skews towards how the storm affected the cuisine traditions of New Orleans. I can't help but get emotional reading about the storm and the aftermath. I've been reading about New Orleans since I learned what jazz music was, and in a small way, it's become a part of me. So, reading about what New Orleans and other Louisiana residents had to go through (and in some cases, are still going through) hits especially hard.
After barging into Baton Rouge without an appropriate map (I tried several different ways of procuring a good map of the city...all failed. So I had to make do with a less than detailed version I managed to pull from the Internet), I flailed around the downtown area. As it was late, due to my previously-mentioned lateness, the Capitol building was closed, but I could still look at it and the surrounding grounds. The stairs to the entrance are interesting in that they list the states of the U. S. in order of the dates of their statehood. Starting at the bottom, with the 13 colonies, you climb up the steps to get to the current state roster.
