Swampy Louisiana

Now that is what you call a house on stilts.  If the water gets up to the 1st floor it will be deep enough for a super tanker to sail past.  Quite scary that they think that depth of water is possible.  Either that or the designers got a nice fee for making it greatly over engineered :-)

Maybe they work for the same company as the dirt contractors.  That is what you call 'money for old rope'

This is the ramp onto a bridge.  When riding it you feel like you are about to do an Evel Knievel stunt.

Good cheap food and a great welcome.  Just like McDonalds.  NOT!!!!!

The coastline of Texas and Louisiana have been destroyed by the car.  If you look out to sea the horizon is dotted by oil rigs and on land there are dozens of refineries pumping out noxious fumes.

and the rivers are full of supertankers

Some of the more unusual road kill that I have seen

This is the most mosquito infested campsite I have ever used.  I pulled up at the municipal campsite of Cameron that does not allow tents ?????? and closed at 2100.  I decided to camp just outside the gate and I was warned by the guard of the 'no tents allowed and we close at 2100 campground' that the bugs can get quite bad.

She was not wrong!!!  These are the mosis on roughly a foot by foot area of my mosquito net.  Can you imagine trying to strike camp in the morning?   It was too buggy to cook and when a couple launching their boat realised this they gave me one of their sausage sandwiches.  It was still warm and very tasty.  The previous night the security guard, Shonie, took pity on me and let me use the microwave and utensils in her office to cook. 

Meet 83 year old T Mae of Booths Grocery.   She has had a shop on this site since 1953.   The first fell prey to Hurricane Rita and she rebuilt after Hurricane Ike.

She fed me this spicy sausage thing that was actually quite tasty.  My sausage eating skills must have impressed her since she refused payment.

Spanish moss but it is not a moss and the filaments once stripped were used as a furniture stuffing and called horse hair.

This dual lane bridge is 19 miles long and goes straight across Henderson Swamp..

The first hotel I used in Baton Rouge did not feel too safe.  Especially when one of the other guests told me that he just stays in his room with the door locked and that way the drug dealers and prostitutes did not bother him. 

This graveyard was just round the back of the hotel.  I imagine the plots are for old guests of the hotel who did not keep the Bear Spray sat on top of the chair keeping the door shut :-)