I left around one a.m. Traffic was moving at that point. The scariest thing I saw was the miles-long row of fire trucks and ambulances parked on one lane of the elevated freeway--they'd put them there so they wouldn't get flooded. The other strange thing was driving on the contraflow--during an evacuation, all lanes on both sides of the interstate go only one direction: out. When you drive on the wrong side of the interstate, the reflectors that shine white when you travel the usual direction now shine red.
Mississippi has nice rest stops, and I had to stop at every one of them because of Hank. They were crowded with people from Louisiana and their pets. But at that point everything seemed a bit like an adventure, and there was almost a party atmosphere at the rest stops--typical of Louisianans. I tried to get a hotel room north of Jackson, but everything was full. So I slept in a rest stop for about four hours. Here's a picture of Hank checking out the scenery in the morning. I'd tied him to a post while I went to the bathroom:
I spent a couple of days with my friend J in Memphis. His roommate inherited a couple of houses in the ghetto of South Memphis, so that's where I stayed. We watched Jerry Springer Uncensored and went to a casino. Things still had the feel of a spur-of-the-moment road trip. They live a few blocks south of McLemore, where the Stax studio has been rebuilt as a museum. It's cool to see the marquee once again, and the museum is pretty cool, too. They have Isaac Hayes' Cadillac, sky blue with gold trim and white plush interior. Too bad I didn't take a picture of that.
Shortly after visiting Stax was when I heard that the levee in New Orleans had been breached, and the vacation-like aspect of the trip abruptly ended.
I don't have a lot of scenic pictures of New Orleans, but I leave you with my new house, my old apartment building, and me on the streetcar:
Oh, and one more--the porch of the house in the country where Miss P stayed after being rescued:
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