In our original website, I stated we'd be out of Tennessee and heading off on a driving trip to Mexico by the end of June 2006. We planned to then return to Vancouver by car in mid September, stay a few weeks, sell the car, and then fly back to Mexico to resume cruising and head to Central America. As you can see, we're not there. Long story short,
Ralph's company hung the $$ carrot, and we bit! This is our living room in Atlanta. Nice digs, but the furniture was incredibly uncomfortable!
This is the kitchen of our apartment. When we finally head back cruising, I WILL miss the dishwasher, clothes washer and dryer, and the fridge...not really sure in which order??!!
This is Stone Mountain park in Atlanta. It is a lovely park and we spend a lot of time here.
They have a little "village-like" area with shops and restaurants. These fellows play outside one restaurant and they are incredible!
Kim and Linda, from Endeavour, came to visit us while we were in Atlanta. Sadly, my Dad passed away 4 days after they arrived, so I had to rush back to Canada.
This is Ralph on the top of Stone Mountain. He loves to hike...me...not so much!
On the anniversary of Katrina (not planned) we travelled to New Orleans. What an interesting place! This is the mighty
Mississip and a riverboat.
This is an artist's dream town. So many interesting buildings and people!
As well as hitting New Orleans on Katrina's anniversary, it was also "Southern Decadence" weekend...who knew what that was? No advance warning but every gay within thousands of miles was there! No, this is not one of the gays!! Just to show you we actually were there...and on Bourbon Street!
How gorgeous is this place?
This shot was taken by the town square. She was such an interesting looking Tarot card reader and I couldn't take my eyes off her!
We picked up one of the horses and buggies and off we went for a mini tour of the French Quarter. Katrina did no damage here, at all, since this is one of the few areas in New Orleans that is above sea level. Some areas are 16 feet below.
They had a gay pride parade. Every gay from God knows where was there, in full regalia!! I've never seen Ralph quite so clingy!! He never ventured out alone and always held tightly to my hand! This is one of the better looking 'women'. Some were hard to identify as gay...not that there's anything wrong with that!!
There were some in the parade that, if you just saw them on the street any other time...you'd never think of asking, "Are you, by chance, gay?"
For instance, you wouldn't want to mess with this guy!!!
I'd kill for the body on the left!!...well, maybe a little more on top!
There were street entertainers everywhere! Just loved this old guy and his Hispanic buddy!
Great music and what a photo-op!
I couldn't stop taking photos of all the neat buildings and doors!
During the parade, and in the evenings, people would throw beads down to others in the street. This was my collection.
Driving from New Orleans to
Biloxi was an eye opener. Here hurricane Katrina and the surge from the ocean hit hard. There were many boats, many large, like this one, far inland...high and dry. We were here almost exactly one year after Katrina.
Wanna buy a fridge...cheap!! Shows you how high and powerful the water was! They feel that over 500,000 people left New Orleans for Georgia, Tennessee, Texas...and the dumb ones went to Florida (the other most likely place for a hurricane to hit)!! Why would you want to start over in a city that will likely get hit again...especially if you were wiped out and had to start fresh.
Another inland boat. Right now, New Orleans is so short of labour, they're paying over $20 per hour just for workers for Wendy's! Lots of unhappy people there...T-shirts say
FEMA...FIX EVERYTHING MY ASS!
One of the beautiful mansions along Beach Drive into
Biloxi. The surge was 9 metres and went 6 miles inland. All but the strongest just washed inland. This one was gutted.
A building in one of the little outlying villages near Atlanta. It really is small town USA!
Fall in the Atlanta area is truly beautiful. There are none of the really red maples, that we have in BC, but the abundance of deciduous trees with an unbelievable number of various yellows, oranges, and reds, makes Fall here something to be seen!
You feel like you're inside one of those hard to solve jigsaw puzzles!
A scenic all day drive offered more photos than you could count!
It is almost Christmas in Atlanta. We are going to Vancouver for the holidays. We found these all lit up in Stone
Mtn. park. Absolutely spectacular!
They were kind of magical with all the lights. Hard to believe that a mere truck could cast that spell.
