The way home

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Jean d'Arc, the 'Maid of Orleans,' stands guard in New Orleans' Vieux Carre near the French Market.

We got home just in time to have to winterize the van by running RV antifreeze through the water lines.

We enjoyed our trip and accomplished our goal of supporting New Orleans through our presence and dollars; more of the former than the latter, however.

Although damage from Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent failure of the levees is well evident, rebuilding is going on. We saw many homes in the process of being repaired or replaced. New homes are dotting the area.

General Andrew Jackson, the 'Hero of New Orleans' in front of the old government center.

We really enjoyed our stay in New Orleans. The city has charm and much to see and do. We spent time wandering the Vieux Carre and drove through various neighborhoods As we stayed here longer than on previous trips, we got to see areas that we had never seen before.

There are many restaurants with regional foods. Although we are limited in what we eat, we found many tasty dishes. Cajun, Creole, and southern style cooking have many foods prepared with many herbs and spices. Creole foods are spicy without being hot; Cajun foods are often spicy hot. I ate one of the best BBQ beef dinners that I have had outside of Texas; Sarah had jerk chicken, a Caribbean dish, with a fruity-tasting spicy sauce.

We found the people friendly. Strangers engaged us in conversation. People offer us food and drink. Everyone has a story of damage and/or relocation. We met people who had been in Florida, Texas, North Carolina. We met an older couple at synagogue services who were living in the second floor of their home while on and off contractors rebuilt the first floor. Everyone has a story to tell.

One of the interesting streets in the Vieux Carre.

We met people who are here with Habitat for Humanity and Acorn, two organizations that are gutting and building homes. Some come for a long weekend, others for months. Churches and synagogues organize volunteer groups to come to New Orleans and help with the rebuilding.

Of the eight synagogues in New Orleans, seven have been repaired; the eighth is considered a total loss and will not be replaced. It is a similar story with the churches. We attended services with Louisiana's oldest congregation (older than anyone present) which is housed in Louisiana's largest synagogue.

The synagogue where we attended services had storm, but not flood, damage ($250,000); it's been repaired. So have been most of the other area synagogues. The one along the lake shore was flooded and is a total loss and the property is up for sale.

Home insurance pays for storm damage, but not for flooding. Flood insurance is separate and comes from FEMA through insurance companies. Those who have both kinds of insurance have been able to rebuild with little out-of-pocket expense. Many people had no insurance. They made a bad decision.

There is talk of the government giving rebuilding money to those who lacked insurance. Those who have been paying insurance premiums for decades are asking if they will have their premiums refunded.

Some of the antebellum and Victorian mansions further along St. Charles Avenue are larger than those of the Garden District. The street car line, put out of commission by Hurricane Katrina, had been in operation since before the Civil War. The cars date from the 1920s. It is currently being renovated.

Regular people's housing is eclectic. Below are some examples:

In the Vieux Carre, homes are built to the street with no easements. More elegant homes have a central courtyard or garden

We left on US 90, the Old Spanish Trail, which traverses a narrow band of land between Bayou Sauvage and the Mississippi River. Homes here had been built on piles to keep them safe from storms. The piles weren't high enough; almost all of the homes were destroyed. New homes are being and have been constructed further off of the ground.

We dashed through Mississippi and Alabama (just two stops for some biking), then on to Georgia to share Purim with members of our family there.

Savannah, GA, a very pretty city, was platted by the British as Georgia's first city. There were more than two dozen squares for outdoor activities. Nearly two dozen remain; we visited every one of them.

We ate lunch in the old railroad building which has been commandeered by Gen. Sherman for the headquarters of the military commander of the city. We ate dinner along the picturesque waterfront on cobbled River Street.

One of the squares is the City Market, now a place for restaurants and clubs.

Bordering one of the squares is Mikvah Israel, one of the oldest synagogues in

the U.S. and one of the few built in the Gothic style popular at the time.

Fort Pulaski (above), named for the Polish count who came to the U.S. to fight for freedom and died in the siege of Savannah in his 32^nd year, was constructed with 8-foot thick masonry walls. It was considered unbreachable when it was constructed in the 1830s, but a few decades later the invention of the rifled canon made masonry forts obsolete.

You can easily see the repaired breach to the left. Some of the holes still have projectiles in them.

They aren't kidding when they talk about alligators in the moat.

It is a short drive from Savannah, GA to Charleston, SC, but it took us a few days because we were relaxing on the beach (70 degrees) in Beaufort, SC. While there, we ate at Gullah Grub, a small restaurant serving the foods of African-Americans living on the outer banks.

Charleston, SC

Fort Sumpter sits in Charleston harbor. We could see it from the shore, but did not visit. Charleston has many historic, or at least 'old,' homes. Charleston was not taken by force during the Civil War, but was shelled regularly. It was said the there was not an unbroken window left in the city.

From there we took a slow drive home using much of US 301 rather than the interstate. We saw historic (or old) downtowns and businesses which closed shortly after I-95 was opened. The interstate gave us speed, but took away much of the regionalism that people often went to see. Local eateries, for example, have been replaced by chains.

The age-old question: How long would it take a redneck, randomly shooting a rifle, to write "To be or not to be," in Braille, on the road signs of Alabama?

Regards,

Allen & Sarah

*** STOP ***

We told you that there was a stop ahead.