Sep 11 - Onwards to NOLA

 The journey of several thousand miles begins with a ferry ride across to Port Bolivar.

An agonizingly slow drive follows, it’s Sunday morning and nobody is in a hurry. Eventually we reach I10 and keep heading east. We reach Beaumont and Janis Joplin’s birthplace (Port Arthur) beckons. We keep on I10 and cross the notorious Vidor (Google Vidor Klan and read what comes up) and then we are across the state line and in Lake Charles.

He was born in Nacogdoches
That's in East Texas
Not far from the border
But he liked to tell everybody
He was from Lake Charles

sang Lucinda Williams, drawling the word Nacodoches into an entire line. Naturally we had to stop for lunch. Lake Charles sits in faded glory, signs of a prosperous past based on petrochemicals clobbered by hurricanes. We find Buffi’s - a charming restaurant run by two young ladies. People are stopping by on the way from Sunday service.

Then it’s back on the road to Baton Rouge. I call it out as Red Stick, and Neeta looks up the history of the red stick (hint: violence and gore). Some more miles and we are in NOLA.