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| There's where the diesel tanker struck the bridge. They still hadn't pulled it out of the river by the time I left. |
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| I'm pretty sure this photo was taken in the Lower Ninth Ward that was so devastated when the levies broke. Damn that George W. Bush for blowing up those levies on purpose! |
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| These people fixing up the pink house are from AmeriCorps. I could tell by the logo on their shirts. |
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| Now we are in St. Bernard Parish. This looks like it was once a nice home. Three years later it is still empty. |
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| This one isn't even here anymore. Just a foundation is left. |
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| It's not happy times at Carnival Mart these days. I came to the conclusion that businesses that were doing well before the hurricanes came back and those that weren't stayed closed. |
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| Maybe this location wasn't doing great business. |
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| The Chalmette National Cemetery is located adjacent to the battleground of the Battle of New Orleans. While there are veterans from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam buried there, I was interested in this bird that had just snagged some giant bug or other creature. |
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| And here is the battlefield. This is the side where the American defense was. |
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| They built up a earthworks barrier along the Rodriquez Canal that was originally a border between two plantations. The canal is the only remaining constructed feature from the time of the battle. |
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| I remember going to Flamingo Gardens in Florida and seeing all the different kinds of birds all living together. Here we see all the white birds walking away from the dark birds. Racist bastards! |
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| The Highlanders came from this position in the battle in aid of the main attack from the right. |
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| This is where Pakenham and Gibbs mounted their
main attack. But the Americans fired their cannon 'til the barrel melted
down, so they grabbed an alligator and they fought another round. They
filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind, and when they
touched the powder off the gator lost his mind. At least that's what Johnny Horton said. |
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| By Wednesday they had finally opened up the river to traffic. |
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| The hotel was just down the block from the Old Ursuline Convent. It is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley and the only remaining building of the original French colony. It was authorized by Louis XV and was completed around 1752. |
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| Across the street from the convent is the Beauregard-Keyes House, so named because it was once the home of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard and author Frances Parkinson Keyes. Not at the same time, of course. Keyes was born eight years before Beauregard died. |
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| I wanted to have something Lousiana-ish for dinner and I saw that the River's Edge Restaurant had something called a Creole pizza. I figured it would have some sort of good seasoning to it, but it was basically just a vegetable pizza without anything particularly Creole about it. I did have some nice fried pickles for a starter. They were good. |
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| Now it's Wednesday morning and time to leave. So it's out the gate of the hotel parking lot and on the road for the eight-hour drive back home. |
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