We traveled about seven hours today from Evergreen to New Orleans, stopping along the way for fuel in Alabama and Mississipi. The trip was mostly uneventful except for the last few miles of I10 coming into New Orleans. It was like a washboard! Rattled several things loose inside the RV and rattled our nerves. Like yesterday, I sat in the backseat so I could elevate my leg. What I’m finding is that while that keeps the swelling down, it makes it harder for me to put weight on the foot. I actually woke up able to put my foot flat today and apply some pressure to it, and several times today I was able to walk instead of hop. I still found myself leaning on Lex, my walking stick, or the walls of the RV for support, and I discovered the joys of having a rolling office chair! It allowed me to get into the kitchen and make breakfast and help get the interior of the rig ready to go this morning.
Honestly, though, it seems the more I try to walk on it, the more I’m able to walk on it. I think I’m going to try and keep pushing it in hopes of getting back on my feet as soon as possible. After all, we’re in New Orleans! There are a million things to do and see if only I can walk there! Shuttles and taxis will get me part way there, but I need to be able to do more than take one, small sliding shuffle step every few seconds without wincing. The whole thing makes me want to rent a scooter of some sort so I can get around, but we don’t have a lift on the truck so wouldn’t be able to transport it.
We arrived in New Orleans and checked into Pontchartrain Landing RV Park at around 4:00 p.m. The staff here is very professional. We had a gentleman show us to our site and guide us in (even though it was a pull-through). The place has security coded gates, a pool, a bar, and pizza and wing delivery to your site! There are also the requisite laundry, propane filling station, showers, and convenience store. Lex got us all hooked up and then got the doggies out so I could limp to the door. My foot was feeling well enough to support my weight by that point in the day, so I actually vacuumed the living room. The dog hair was out of control, and I didn’t want to start my week in NOLA staring at the disgusting stuff. The vacuum is rather like having a cane that happens to suck up dirt, so it’s one chore I was able to do without much discomfort. Oh, and it turns out that our picture window has a direct view of the navigational canal. Nice!
View of Pontchartrain Landing from the second-floor deck of their Main Pavilion
It’s hot and humid here, so we were both sweaty and tired after our journey, Lex particularly so since she had to do all the work AND drive, poor thing. We both got showers, changed clothes, and then headed out for dinner. I found a place online called Daquiris & Company, a bar and grill. It was only about a mile or so away near University of New Orleans’ Lakeshore campus. The place was really loud and seemed more bar than grill, but my muffaletta and Lex’s shrimp po boy were really good. Of course, we also got some frozen hurricanes as well. Yay for lax open container laws! They give you drinks in to-go cups here!
The restaurant happened to be right next door to a Walgreens, so Lex went in and checked to see if they had crutches. They certainly did! And I was able to charge them to my FSA. Yay for Payflex! I’ve never used crutches before, so I guess there will be a bit of a learning curve. I’ll practice tomorrow, I suppose.
We really are practically right on the lake. In fact, the park is in this industrial neighborhood on Port Authority property, and we are on the WRONG side of the levee wall here. In fact, the street we’re on has locks at either end so it can be shut down in the event of a flood, protecting the neighborhood on the other side of it. You best believe I’ll be watching the weather closely while we’re here in the event that Tropical Storm Alex takes a turn this way.
As we came into New Orleans, we saw plenty of empty foundations and damaged structures, lots of closed businesses. Five years later, and this place is still struggling to recover. Of course, we saw lots of brand-new construction as well. I believe this RV Park was probably mostly reconconstructed after the storm. The plant life all looks really new. I can’t imagine it would have survived the storm. We’re in the Gentilly/Desire area of New Orleans only a couple of blocks from Lake Pontchartrain. This area got hit hard from what I understand.
Lex is back to work in the morning, and I’ll have a fresh set of papers to grade. Even so, I don’t want it to be all work no play while we’re here. I’m going to try to find us things to do in the evening that don’t require a lot of walking. Not sure what that will be aside from eating out or listening to some jazz, but hey, that sounds like a good time! I’m hoping that we can go on a riverboat dinner cruise. That shouldn’t require me to walk very much.
On a sour note (literally), our fridge is still on the fritz. Very frustrating. Fifty degrees is NOT an acceptable operating temperature! I just went grocery shopping, and now I’m worried everything will be spoiled. Mind you, the freezer is still working like a charm. It’s just the fridge. I’m going to check with the office tomorrow and see if they know of a mobile repair service. If not, I’m not sure what we’ll do. Lex has to work, so we can’t really pull up stakes and go to the Camping World and spend the day at the shop. Instead, I may resort to the ice chest until the weekend when perhaps we can make a stop and take care of this problem.
Tags: injury, New Orleans, repair, rv, Travel
I remember i10. It’s still messed up. That’s from 2006 when we had our Shrine convention there.
The muffaletta is Michelle’s fav. in NO.
I had one here from a NO restu. in nEdgewood. Good. I never had a bad poboy.