Great River Road 2011: Day 28 - A Free Day in New Orleans, LA

By: Fred & Lola Osmun - Adventure 15

Day 28, our first full day in New Orleans and a free day to do whatever we wish before the final two very full days of activities. Laundry, repairs, sightseeing on our own, resting, etc. were the order of the day.

Besides the regular daily blogs and pictures of our Adventure Caravan, I like to remember a few other things over the previous 27 days of our adventure. Our first state was Minnesota, North Star State, Land of 10,000 lakes (on their license plates).

Being able to see the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River where it started out of Lake Itasca was a real treat.

St. Paul Minnesota is the home of the Mall of America. If you go you need comfortable shoes, and maybe a GPS unit. A person could get lost real easy in a place that big.

Wisconsin, America's Dairyland (currently used on license plates); Iowa, Hawkeye State; Missouri, Show Me State; Tennessee, Volunteer State; Mississippi, Magnolia State and Louisiana, Pelican State. All are listed as current state nicknames.

As we traveled down the river, the Upper Mississippi has 27 locks, designed to maintain an average nine foot depth for barge traffic. Barges are limited to three wide and five long, plus the push boat, in order to fit through those locks. Below St. Louis, Missouri there are no locks and we saw barge traffic of seven wide and seven or so long being pushed along the river.

Also as we drove along the mighty river, we saw thousands of acres of corn, soybeans, cotton and even sugar-cane. And since it is early fall, a lot of harvesting was going on with some very big machines.

It was also great to sample the various cooking styles of different areas of the country. YUM! Dick & Marsha Marshall, Lola and I enjoyed an evening meal at one of Don's Seafood Restaurant and Oyster Bar.

After the official end of our adventure, several of us are staying over a couple extra days and visiting the World War II museum.

This evening we were entertained by our fellow traveler, Ira Miller, on bass guitar. He dedicated one of his songs to Spence, our Tailgunner, knowing that "On The Road Again" is Spence's favorite song. Gunter was taking advantage of the music to do a little dancing with some of the ladies. An enjoyable end to a great day.