I have mentioned Ted Jackson on this blog before. He is a photographer for the New Orleans local newspaper, The Times Picayune. It was at his house that our family spent the lion's share of Independence Day.

While there, he showed us slides of the pictures he took during Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. Some of those, but not all, are on the website that I also referenced earlier on this blog.

One of the pictures is a close-up of a woman crying. Ted told us that the picture was taken at a Sunday worship service at a New Orleans church the Sunday after the hurricane. The words being sung at the time the photo was taken were:

"He gives and takes away. He gives and takes away. My heart will learn to say Lord blessed be your name."

A little different singing those words there and then.

Other notes.

I believe taking vacations as a family is important. It seems to me to be important whatever the cost. The times we have spent in the car together, though certainly sometimes tiresome and frustrating, are invaluable. We talk. We ask questions. We read Bible stories and the Bible together. We talk of life lessons often without our three children knowing that we are talking about life lessons.

Outside of Cafe Du Monde late one evening with the family in bed and after I had walked down there I saw a gentleman lug a large case in front of the cafe and begin emptying it's contents. He stopped and unloaded his wares next to a homeless-looking man playing guitar amazingly well, in the classical style. So well, that I wished I had asked him his story. There certainly was a time in his past when he was taught and taught well. He captured the attention of many of the patrons. Anyway, the man next to the guitar man unloaded a large telescope, a stool, and a sign displaying his desire to sell you a look through the telescope into the night sky and him point out to you, the looker, certain heavenly bodies. He had a website scrawled on the side of his wooden case, and I left repeating it to myself because I did not want to forget it, but I forgot it. So, if you are there and see the telescope man write down the website and send it to me, please.

I don't know if New Orleans will recover, should recover, any of that. I do know from what I saw while there that it will be beyond all comprehesion if it does because the city has gone through what is beyond all comprehension for me. We drove along a levee, one that broke, I think it was the London Street levee. We drove during in the dusk of the evening and there was not a soul in sight, in sound. We drove deserted streets with deserted shops and stores, deserted and destroyed homes, many seemingly not touched by their owners since the storm. On most of them there were the scribbles and codes of the rescue crews as they searched from house to house. What they wrote I could not decipher for sure except when they wrote in mostly complete sentences. "Found one cat and one dog." They almost always put the date. I think the storm was the 29th, maybe the 27th of August. Most of these houses next to the levee were not searched until September. One had 9/29 written on the door.

I am painting the high school and middle school buildings. Some of you might know that I painted some in high school. Not art painting, house painting. Caleb helped me today. It was nice to take breaks with him, go pick up a hot dog and coke at the store with him, examine our work together. It was a great memory for me.

We arrived home shortly ago. We began this morning in New Orleans at about 10:10. One side note on last evening - we had been paying $24 a night for parking at the hotel only because on the side streets in the French Quarter there were no spots. However, last night I found one on Royal St. and parked there, and the car made it. No break-in's, no tickets although we did receive a parking ticket later this morning when we left our car in what we thought was an "ok" area for about 15 minutes but returned to a pink-slip of paper on the car.

Anyway, we left and soon after leaving I noticed something awry with the car. My guess was that there was a tire problem. We had already had a tire problem upon leaving the zoo because we had run over a screw. Caleb and I changed the tire in the belly of a building yesterday afternoon while it stormed. So, I thought it was the spare or perhaps the other front tire giving me the grief. I had already purchased two new rear tires before leaving on the trip. The problem was characterized by a shaking of the steering wheel in my hands and rhythmic thumping as I traveled down the road to Baton Rouge. We could travel about 60 mph without my hands vibrating too much. At a Baton Rouge Walmart, the Express Lube and Tire told us that it would be a 3.5 hour wait. So on we traveled to Port Allen, right across the river from B.R. A very nice gentleman and his wife helped us at their local tire joint. He balanced a new front tire, fixed the one with the screw and sent us on our way. For awhile a little better, then worse but not bad enough to stop. We traveled about 60 mph the rest of the way home, approximately 9 hours worth.

On the way we stopped at Sonic twice, Subway, a Schlotzskys - however you spell it - for a bathroom break for Jeb, and a couple of other gas stops.

Good to be home. No bad mail. No bad phone messages. Grass green, plants and dog alive.

Wednesday we visited the Audubon Zoo, one of our favorites. For the most part, things there seemed to be back to normal though they were probably a little understaffed due to the absence of personnel at the snack/drink shops/carts. The animals, with no notable exceptions, were present and made them themselves quite visible. After the zoo, we changed the tire, rested in the hotel, and drove around N.O. some to get a feel for the hurricane damage. More on that in a later post.

We debated stopping along the way home and letting the kids swim one more time in a hotel pool and jump from bed to bed. Obviously, we did not. By the way, they did get Leslie to jump from bed to bed in the hotel. That was their big goal.

Zoos we have visited:

Aububon
Fort Worth
Dallas
Abilene
Waco
Caldwell Zoo in Tyler
Some small zoo in north Mississippi, maybe Starkville
Columbia, South Carolina
San Diego, California
Nashville, Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
San Antonio
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Oklahoma City

Trip Day Two - Writing this on day three due to lack of internet access in New Orleans. We have found that some services are not quite up and running, yet. And that is understandable.

We woke up in Natchtoches and headed south on Interstate 49 to New Orleans. We went first to the Aquarium and enjoyed the visit exceedingly. Turns out most of the fish perished in the storm due to the unanticipated failure of the back-up generator which was supposed to keep the oxygen in the water tanks. The penguins and some other birds were shipped to other aquariums. The facility was mostly back to normal although there were some outdoor tanks that were not functioning.

Our entry into the city was in an area mostly unaffected, at least to our untrained eye. So, so far we have not seen the devastation. Wednesday, I will probably venture into the eastern areas to have a look.

Last night after a swim in the hotel pool. The kids went to sleep and I decided to walk the streets. I enjoy getting out and seeing the people. I walked to Cafe Du Monde and enjoyed beignets and Diet Coke. I didn't choose to partake of the Cafe Au Lait. Not a coffee drinker. I got somewhat disoriented on my return walk but made it safely after witnessing some nightlife that was disgusting.

This morning we rose and drove across the causeway over Lake Ponchartrain to the home of Ted and Nancy Jackson. Here we were joined by other Jackson family members from McComb, Mississippi, where I grew up, and a local family from Ted and Nancy's church. Lunch consisted of most excellent burgers, tender corn on the cob, and beans. After lunch we traveled to Ted's sailboat, Whisper, and took a short jaunt by motor then by sail on Lake Ponchartrain. Back to the house afterwards for watermelon and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Right now, Ted has just finished showing us a slideshow of his pictures during Katrina. Ted was in the city living on the go for the first week before hooking up with family members and then returning to the city for more coverage and rescues. He and the staff of the N.O. newspaper received two Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage. This is in addition to an earlier one won by Ted and a reporter for another story on the overfishing of the Gulf of Mexico. We have talked about old times, old friends, and the stories about the people of New Orleans during and after the hurricane, the stories no one knows. Unbelievable stories. Unbelievable pictures.

Some quick things:

1. Beignets are far, far superior to the donut. Even Shipley donuts.

2. There are albino alligators.

3. Male seahorses have the babies.

4. Maison Dupuy hotel in New Orleans was a very good buy at $70 a night even with some of the services, like internet access, still disabled.

5. People are looking for something so badly that they will look in putrid places to find it.

6. Hearing the local news in a disaster area is different. Here, for obvious reasons, the hurricane dominates everything.


Tomorrow, we will go to the Audubon Zoo and try to ride the St. Charles avenue streetcar if it is operational. We will spend tomorrow night and head back toward home on Thursday.

There is more to write but I need to log off and visit.

Trip Chronicle #1 - We are headed to New Orleans. Leaving at about 2:30 today we have now made it to Natchitoches, Louisiana - pronounced Nakutish. After an investigation of the Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, and Econo Lodge, we settled on the Econo because it was $64 bucks, an open pool, and breakfast of some type. The pool was warm, uncomfortably warm, like Ebola/Ecoli/Staff infection warm. So, I limited our time to about twenty minutes. We swam right after our arrival, Erin, Jeb, and I did. Leslie and Caleb hung out in room 127 watching Remember the Titans.

After the swim, we drove through the historic downtown of N. which we hardily recommend. For you movie buffs, Steel Magnolias, an early Julia Roberts movie, was set in this locale. The town is built along the Cane River and is quite picturesque(sp). We also stopped at Sonic and Burger King with all of us eating for $6.45.

We are headed to N.O. to see the Aquarium and the Aububon Zoo, both outstanding. We will also see some friends from Mississippi, Ted and Nancy Jackson. I wrote some about Ted in an earlier blog. He was photojounalist for the N.O. newspaper. We are scheduled to spend the 4th with them on Lake Ponchartrain with them in his sailboat.

Back to the Econo Lodge. This one is unique in that there is a window-seat/nook/bed/ where Erin is sleeping tonight.

One question regarding hotels is the absence of fitted sheets. Now, that is partly our experience because we stay in Econo Lodge's and other similar establishments. One Miller rule of travel is that the place we are staying needs a pool, which is easy to find, and that it is cheap, but safe. Where we stay isn't a big deal. We would rather spend money on something other than lodging, particularly lodging that we are in for less than twelve hours.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, and Wednesday we are staying in the Maison Dupuy Hotel. A really good rate on hotels.com led me to this unknown establishment.

Other independent travel thoughts:

1. Interstate 20 is terribly boring even as interstate highways go.

2. I think everyone should take vacations.

3. Travel with one small bag per person. Keep stuff separate.

4. Children who cannot tie their own shoes must travel with shoes that velcro shut.

5. Scenic roads are almost everytime superior.

6. Anything but an interstate is scenic.

7. I do not understand what makes a breakfast continental.

8. Staying in a motel room with the curtains pulled tight and the air-conditioning cranked down low = good sleep. Especially when cleaning up is taken care of by someone else.

9. I think that there should be some sort of quick, disposable tooth brushing contraption.

10. All historical markers must be read.

It is now 10:47 p.m. Everyone is still up watching Remember the Titans or reading. In the morning, we rise and head south. First, through Alexandria, which I remember is mostly industrial blight, then Baton Rouge, home of the kittens, on to N.O.