Escaping New Orleans & The Tchefuncte River

 Fontainebleau State Park; Mandeville, Louisiana (north shore of Lake Pontchatrain)

A map to put the places into perspective.

The wind was blowing hard when I passed thru New Orleans on my way to this campground. Accuweather warned me that a wind advisory had been issued for 9 a.m. and would last all day. My tow distance was very short since I was just going to the other side of Lake Pontchatrain but the wind is what was bothering me. There were sustained winds in the upper 20 mph with gusts in the mid to upper 30 mph. I hadn't towed in such conditions with my new truck and that was a concerning unknown. Over the years I've easily towed in those windy conditions while towing a fifth wheel and even my current trailer, but my new truck hadn't been tested in that way yet. I know there are a lot of people who tow their RV's with weight distribution hitches and/or sway bars, but I've always believed that if the trailer is loaded correctly, sway bars are not needed and if the rear suspension is strong enough, weight distribution hitches are also not needed. My RPod seems to have been designed with this in mind since the only things of any weight behind the trailer axle is the furnace, water heater and spare tire. 

The windy conditions were going to be exacerbated (oops, that word slipped out from my previous life) by having to pass over the Twin Span bridges on Interstate 10. We were completely exposed to the wind. Ok, OK, I've built this up long enough. The new truck, "Freedom", did just fine. "Liberty" shook her booty a couple of times when some strong gusts hit us in our starboard quarter (wow, something must be wrong with me, those words go even farther back into an earlier life,,, it means the back, right corner), but Freedom put her right back in line. I'm now comfortable and confident in the new truck, although I still don't like all BS stuff on her and she better quit hollering at me if she knows whats good for her. That car she was hollering about wasn't even that close. I have a pair of wire cutters and not afraid to use them, if I can figure out which wire to cut. Oh, crap, nevermind.

At least the roads were in good shape. It helped ease my concerns about the wind.

This campground is on the north shore of Lake Pontchatrain. The entire area has a strange vibe to it. Although today is day four of my stay, I still haven't put my finger on that vibe. It feels like a strange combination of a touristy coastal town and "any small town" in the USA. It's not a bad Ju Ju feeling like I had gotten down at Fort Jackson a while back, but more like a heeby jeeby type of feeling.

Our campsite. Notice the Starlink attached to the grab-bar at the door. It worked fine even though I didn't fine tune the alignment.

This is looking out my back window. The squirrel eats it nuts while looking at the window. At first I thought it was looking at me, but I think it was seeing the reflections in the window. It was interesting to watch.

This road is inside the park and lined with live oaks with spanish moss.

It is a nice sculpture down by the shore. That is Lake Pontchatrain in the background and a nice fishing pier on the left. 

Strange looking bench before going out on the pier.

Another strange bench. This one is at the end of the fishing pier. The boy on the right is the grandson to the grandfather to the left, but not in the picture. They were making memories.

A view looking at the fishing pier. When I booked this campground, I had hopes of some nice sunsets but the weather hasn't cooperated. That's that strange bench on the left again, almost like a throne with it's own concrete pad.

Besides getting a prescription filled at Walmart, my plan was to visit two other places. Turned out that I couldn't get to one of those places because of emergency roadwork. I was able to get to the other one though. It was the Maritime Museum of Louisiana located in Madsionville which is the next town over from Mandeville. It is located along the Tchefuncte River (pronounced chah-funk-tuh). I figured I hadn't been disappointed in a museum in so long that I would give this one a try. Score = 6 out of 10. The best parts of the museum were the documentary videos stationed inside the museum. One video that liked in particular told about life along the Tchefuncte River. The river is only 70 miles long and empties into Lake Pontchatrain. The majority of lumber, bricks and pine pitch that was used to build New Orleans was made or harvested in this area and floated down the river then across the lake to New Orleans. After the Yankees captured New Orleans during the Civil War, the line of demarcation between the Union Troops and Southern Independence Fighters was the Tchefuncte River. There was a lot of interesting activity back then in terms of trade, blockade running, smuggling, etc, all of it seemingly centered on this river.Too much to get into in this post, and unless something strange happens in the future, I don't have any plans of returning to this area, so if I learn more about it, it will be online or library time.

The entrance to the museum. They do have a nice building. 

Some of their displays with half of a paddle wheeler replica to the right. 

This "jacobs ladder" gave me some rough flashbacks. I had to climb one of those when I was in the Navy. My ship and our sister ship was getting underway and I was sent to our sister ship to observe and critique their "sea and anchor" detail in their Combat Information Center as both ships got underway. To get me back to my ship, they put me on a Captains boat and took me to my ship. It hadn't even crossed my mind how I was going to get onboard until I saw the Jacobs Ladder hanging over the side. Stepping onto that ladder from a moving boat while the ship was making probably 5 knots was an experience. Climbing the ladder was something I only want to do once. My heart still races just thinking about it.

That's the Tchefuncte River from a nice city park in the town of Madisonville. 

Tomorrow is moving day with thunderstorms in the forecast. This has surely been some strange weather the last week to 10 days. I'll be headed east to a National Seashore Campground just the other side of Biloxi.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road.