For Celina, the last week of vacation has begun and Andrea’s birthday is just around the corner. Like almost every year, this is the time for a vacation-ending, mother’s birthday trip. And because Andrea wanted to go back to NOLA (New Orleans), this was the chosen destination for our tour to refresh our memories from 2020.
On Wednesday at around 10 a.m., we started our trip with a new car battery, as the old one had given up the ghost over the weekend due to the persistent heat. But now everything was working again and we chugged comfortably towards New Braunfels, later passing Houston on our way to the Texas/Louisiana border. Here, our journey came to a virtual standstill due to several traffic jams. And the thick storm clouds ahead of us and behind us looked anything but promising. In fact, it seemed like there were mostly idiots on the road that day (including professional drivers who weren’t too concerned about securing their loads). After spending about two hours in various traffic jams, we decided not to drive to NOLA that day, as according to the navigation system, we would not arrive until after 10:30 p.m. at the earliest. So we booked a hotel in Lafayette and decided to continue our journey the next day.
Oak Alley Plantation
The next morning, we booked a room in NOLA, but since we couldn’t check in at our hotel until 4:00 p.m., we made a stop at Oak Alley Plantation. During our last visit, we focused exclusively on the main house because we had arrived shortly before closing time. This time, we explored the surroundings more and learned a little more about the everyday life of the slaves in their huts. And of course, Celina took lots of photos again. When storm clouds approached our location on the horizon, we decided to continue our drive to NOLA so we wouldn’t get caught in the rain.
We drove past several imposing mansions before rain, lightning, and thunder transformed the surroundings into a watery landscape.
New Orleans
In the afternoon, we reached NOLA in our freshly washed car in drizzling rain, which quickly stopped and left the air humid and heavy. Never mind, now it’s off to the Hard Rock Café to grab a few pins and something to eat and drink. That’s one of the reasons we’re here, after all…
We had already provided sufficient details about New Orleans itself in our 2020 travel report, and not much has changed since then. It remains a colorful and noisy city that you either like or dislike.
Biloxi, Mississippi
The next morning greeted us with hot and humid weather, so our clothes were already soaked before we could even have breakfast. We had actually planned to treat ourselves to a few fish rolls at the French Market, but somehow we couldn’t find the restaurant from our last visit, which caused visible displeasure in our little daughter. So we did what we regularly do on our trips… we drove to McDonald’s. Then our little one’s mood lifted again and we set off for our next destination—to visit the sea (and yes, to get more Hard Rock Café pins).
Around noon, we crossed the border into Mississippi and, after a quick stop at BUC-EE’S, we reached Biloxi, a small town that mainly lives off casinos, tourism, and fishing. After purchasing the coveted pins, we strolled along the empty sandy beach and Celina was able to take numerous photos for new projects.
And then it was slowly time to start the return journey. We kindly completed the drive to Lafayette, where we stayed overnight again, in rain that was sometimes heavy and sometimes light, so that we arrived with a shiny car. (In this context, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Saint Peter for regularly helping us to keep our car clean on this tour…)
In distress on the swamp boat
In the evening, we decided that we wouldn’t drive straight home the next day, but would go on a swamp tour instead, because swamps and bayous are what you imagine when you think of Louisiana. These tours were offered about 20 minutes away from our hotel, so we set off on this adventure early in the morning. When we reached the camp, we were delighted to find that there were no other guests besides us and we got a tour all to ourselves. Perfect!
We cruised leisurely through the swamp, saw alligators, birds, and turtles, drove through green water plants and between trees, drove over floating tree trunks…
… and then the engine died. Our guide tried everything he could to restart it, but to no avail. And so we drifted along the bayou without power or steering, hoping that the friendly alligators hadn’t noticed our predicament. There was only one solution left… call base camp and ask for help. In the meantime, we enjoyed the absolute silence, interrupted only by a few bird calls. A few minutes later, our rescuer arrived in a bright yellow T-shirt and we climbed into the rescue boat to speed back to camp. Our stranded steamboat was simply tied to a tree and left behind. Maybe it will be used as a nesting place for birds in the future, who knows? At camp, we boarded a new boat with our guide and started the tour all over again.
This time, our boat held out and we even got some extra time to really enjoy the scenery. And yes, this tour was definitely the highlight of our trip for all of us.
And why exactly 207 Tour?
A small fun fact about this tour was that we had room number 207 in every hotel we stayed at. We had never had the same room number at every place we stayed on any trip before.