9. Continuing down the Mississippi on the American Queen to New Orleans

The American Queen still continues to be our home as the temperature slowly warms up as the cold front passes and we head south downstream.
The Queen still impresses with a gracious layout and furnishings.

Lace and fineness without the need for expensive wharfing facilities. 

Four of these coaches travelled with us to give hop on hop off tours of towns visited, along with other special excursions. 

St Francisville is a region in the Parish of Feliciana on the banks of the Mississippi where sugar cane has reined supreme. It is now a quaint little town which opened its doors on a Sunday for the influx of passengers from the American Queen.

Under the old oak tree. 

Cedar/Oak tree growing in harmony in Feliciana Parish.
We remember the yellow ribbon around the old oak tree, but are not sure of the relevance of the pink ribbon. 

Myrtles Plantation built in 1796 was another example of the proceeds from sugar cane.
Life surely was sweet for some back in the day.

An early version of a swinging ceiling fan in the form of a harp can be seen on the back wall.  The fan would have been hung above the centre of the table, and propelled by a rope powered by slave labour.
High ceilings are required to avoid the table being cleared inadvertently by the swinging fan.

The ornate cornices were the most impressive aspects of the mansion.   

Nottoway Plantation is the largest antebellum (pre civil war) mansion built in the south, has a floor area of 4,900m2,  and was also built on the proceeds of sugar cane.
The mansion was intentionally built bigger than the White House just to prove some sort of point. 

The side view of the mansion. 

The front view facing towards the Mississippi.  A 7 metre levee bank now restricts the view to the river.
  

The White Ball Room

Extensive drapes were another proof of wealth, especially when intentionally over-length.
Sleep was often difficult with a room full of tourists. 

All furniture and crockery are originals.
The chairs were all designed for appearance, not comfort. 

Foot on table leg, complete with toes and toe nails. 

Note the knife rest to keep the table clean from a used knife.
 Every place setting was hand painted and unique.

Our transport parked on the other side of the levee bank. 

An Airboat Swamp Tour has been on our bucket list ever since the Gentle Ben TV series of the 1960s.
We also realised how the alligators we saw here were mere fledglings to the crocodiles we encountered in the Kimberley coast of Australia last year.
Crocodiles seemed to view humans as a delicacy to be enjoyed at every chance, whereas, the alligators appeared to have a more relaxed outlook on possible future meals. 

Hearing protection recommended.
This is not the vessel to be used for covert operations due to the noise created by the 600HP V8 motor perched on the back. 

Add enough horsepower and almost anything will attempt to fly. 

Carpet of green

Cypress trees in the area do not have an issue with over-watering.
A contrast to Australian drought conditions. 

A second glance is required to realise we are in a lake, not a park!

Alligator with weed sash. 

Phyllis Diller once said "You know you are old when someone compliments you
on your alligator shoes, and you are barefoot!"  

Cruising over for a closer look.

A crocodile would never allow this sort of action.  Instead it would be demonstrating the "Crocodile Roll".

Skimming across the water, the boat needing only a couple of inches to float. 

There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun, and its been the ruin of many a young man, and fortunately Don was not one of them.
We concluded our voyage down the Mississippi River in New Orleans, covering 1,030kms since our departure at Memphis.

It makes us wonder how a building under construction can simply collapse in October 2019, causing loss of life which could have been far worse.
New Orleans will be in a state of chaos due to city streets being closed until this building is imploded early in 2020.
Meanwhile, a large exclusion zone impacts badly on the city. 

St Louis Cemetery No.3 is one of many above ground cemeteries in the city, used due to the high water table causing coffins to surface soon after burial.
The legendary funerals of the area escorted by the swinging brass bands were not seen during our stay.

More expense must sometimes be spent in death than in life. 

Shared crypts and mausoleums are the solution to the grave issue of floating coffins surfacing from the ground.  

Wandering Bourbon Street, New Orleans, was another one of life's magical times, with music as we have never before experienced.  To walk down Bourbon and Royal Streets, the senses were bombarded by a cacophony of so many incredible sounds, from world class jazz bands playing on the streets for audiences to drop money in buckets, to kids as young as 8 years old playing drums on buckets, others tap dancing, bars with massive sound systems filling the neighbourhood with noise and vibrations, and cars cruising down the streets with sub-woofers turned up to the max, having blown the car's windows out and no doubt the ear drums of the occupants.

Fortunately, no one seems to rush in New Orleans. 

People, bands and vehicles vie for space on the roads. 

Doreen Ketchens' Band and Royal Street band in The French Quarter.

Royal Street is shared without fuss by all modes of transport and music.

The donation box on the right was pulled in to allow the truck to pass.  So too the foot on the left. 

Footpaths are kept clear for pedestrians. 

The barrier ensures safety of the musicians. 

Doreen's band has been performing without charge on Royal Street for decades.  The sound echoing off buildings, cars and trucks is spell binding.  Her performance on the clarinet as she hits the high notes has to be seen to be appreciated.  Upon our google search of her, we were astounded to note she is worth in excess of $25 million today.  Busking apparently pays if you are good enough.  No wonder she can afford to play on the streets all day!  It was obvious that she loves what she is doing.

The sound of music obliterated traffic and city noise when Doreen belted out the high notes. 

Aussie koala on the inside of the music box; donated to the music fund by Carrol. 

Yet another superb band, simply jamming away together in the gutter.
Incredible talent!! 

The TV series NCIS is filmed continuously around New Orleans with many large vans of equipment taking over the roads during filming.  We hadn't watched the program on TV, however, recognised one of the stars from advertisements.  We watched for twenty minutes or so as he repeatedly walked about 50m to a van in order to get the one shot the producer was happy with.

He has the director's chair and looks like a director.
Must be a director...or a star!!

Spot the silver screen and silver haired star!

New Orleans' World War Two Museum is a massive monument to the struggles of WW2 and concentrates solely on this part of history.  We were sorry not to see more acknowledgement of the other countries working alongside the United States in many of the conflicts. 

Impressive displays requiring quite a high building for aerobatics. 

Mules rule in New Orleans, dating back to days before horse power became such a prerequisite in vehicles.

The mule and the carriage are just like the river.
That ol' man river
He don't say nothing
But he must know something
'Cause he just keeps rolling
He keeps rolling along. 

Messages to ultimately offer health improvements to some patrons were seen behind the bar in one of the hotels where we dined to the sounds of two jazz bands.

Mardi Gras World gave us a chance to see the year long preparation of floats for the upcoming Mardi Gras.  The procession takes hours to pass any one point, with thousands of brightly coloured 'throws' being tossed into the crowd by the folk on the floats.  Individuals on the floats pay to participate, and pay for their own gifts to throw, sometimes tallying many hundreds of dollars in the form of necklaces of plastic beads, coins called doubloons, which are stamped with krewes' logos, parade themes and the year, plus an array of plastic cups and toys such as Frisbees, figurines and LED trinkets.  The plastic cups are sometimes referred to as New Orleans dinnerware.

Massive floats of up to 4 in a line towed by a tractor. 

Year round preparation of the floats.

Styrofoam blocks glued together before sculpting.
Cheaper and lighter than granite and bronze. 

Planning in three dimensions.
The head is an after thought. 

Longue Vue House and Gardens were built in 1942, somehow being finished when the rest of the world was involved in World War Two.  The house was fully air conditioned, something relatively unheard of in its day.

One of the featured 22 fountains on the property. 

One of the first houses built with air conditioning.
The air conditioning ducts in the cornices, above, were so much more subtle and
 elaborate than  air conditioning ducts and vents used today.

Note the subtle air conditioning ducts. 

Generous usage of murals. 

Longue Vue House, also housed an art gallery.  Artist's impression of Cancer Alley depicting 150 petrochemical plants along the 85mile stretch of Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. 

New Orleans' Bourbon and Royal Streets are one of the World's iconic entertainment districts, up there with New York's Broadway, London's West End and Eleebana's Pannamena Crescent.  The district is bustling day and night.
New Orleans also had quite a police presence, and with people everywhere, we felt safe at all times.
We were fascinated by the number of similar looking law enforcement vehicles in the area; Police, Harbour Police, Sheriff, State Trooper and the NCIS; all with slightly different roles, but with the same end goal (or gaol).

This group entertained us outside the St Patrick's Church.  When they had finished their stunts, another group took up the space.

Performer preparing for takeoff. 

Making it look easy.

Head protection during a spinning maneuver. 

Impressive rotations with minimal ground contact. 

And sometimes no ground contact. 

It is all about perpetual motion. 

Runners in the starters hands for the 100m sprint.
They came to an abrupt stop shortly after the gun sounded. 
The MC of this group made a point of telling the young folk to keep themselves fit:
stay off the drugs, stay off  cigarettes, and alcohol!

St Patrick's Church has stood proudly looking over the Mississippi for 180 years.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the years since it was constructed.

Such a pleasant contrast to the hustle and bustle of life outside. 

Majestic majesty. 

An interesting volunteer curator at Louisiana's Civil War Museum in New Orleans advised us when hearing our accents that Australians and Kiwis outnumber (in his opinion) the number of visitors from America to the museum.  He assumed it was that Americans are not interested in this part of their history where they turned on each other, hence avoid it.  The museum was built in 1891 and contains many fine artifacts from the day.

Architecture at its best to show off an era. 

Just as classy inside as outside. 

Better than new condition. 

We settled into the Cafe Beignet on Bourbon Street to watch Steamboat Willie, assuming we were to see Mickey Mouse's first ever cartoon with synchronized sound dating back to 1928.  Instead we were entertained by the other Steamboat Willie, who has been an iconic part of the jazz scene since 1972.
We dined on local cuisine of gumbo soup, beignets and hot bread pudding; with a chance to farewell this great part of the world.

Great open air dining and music. 

Night time buskers
The youngest chap had plumbing issues due to losing the taps from his shoes,
but carried on regardless without missing a beat. 

Friday night in Bourbon Street.
The unseen music filling the air from the bars, cafes and hotels made conversation difficult. 

After a two hour flight south east, we discovered Art Deco architecture is alive and well in Miami. We were there for less than 24 hours, but really got a great feel for the city.
As with many cities we have visited, free trolley buses do the circuit around the city every 15 minutes or so encouraging all to get out and explore.

Art Deco Miami

Straight from a scene of Miami Mice.

 Apollo Lunar Module on Miami Beach.
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin can be seen indicating the direction of the Kennedy Space Centre for a return to base.

Umbrella hire is $AU30/day.
Cheaper to take your own. 

More lunar designs

High rise construction has been banned in certain areas to maintain the Art Deco theme. 

Modern cars are the main detraction of the streetscape.

Nicely polished!

Cruise ships enter the port at daybreak to offload passengers, restock, and depart at sunset with thousands of new passengers.
We were entertained by a procession of seven ships leaving the port before catching our free shuttle back to our hotel.  Free shuttles definitely are the way to go for tourists, in not needing to worry about special transport cards or local currency.

This Disney ship played "It's a small world after all" on the ship's whistle, 
allowing everyone within miles to know that it was leaving the port.

Continuous procession of ships leaving port on dusk. 

At 228,000 tonnes, Symphony of the Seas is the world's largest cruise ship and can carry up to 6,680 passengers.
The Titanic was 52,000 tonnes with  2,435 passengers.
It makes interesting reading in that there are not enough life boats on Symphony for the number of persons on board. 

Does my backside look big from this angle?

We next head up the road to Fort Lauderdale to join one of the dam ships, The Koningsdam (others in the fleet are the Volendam, Rotterdam and Veendam), for the Caribbean leg of our trip.
We also consider how good we have it in Australia with simple things such as paying bills.

Australia has it so easy and sensible regarding pricing, where what you see is what you pay!!
There is no such thing as having the exact money ready to pay, due to the hidden extras on top of the advertised price of State Sales Tax, Parish Tax, Conversion Tax; then there is the 15 to 20% tip, or $1/drink as well.

Yo ho ho!! See y'all round (as they say in the south).
Fair seas, God bless.
Don and Carrol.