| We left Kemah in Texas heading north towards the I10. Quite large
ships are in this bay en route to ports near Houston. This requires the
bridges to be tall which leads to some imaginative and artistic
constructions. |  |
 | You can't get
far from evidence of the oil industry around here. Some of the sites are
vast. It is a good job that space is not the problem here that it is in
England. |
| It is certainly a good place for chemical engineers. There are
just dozens of plants along the main highways. |  |
 | Once past
Beaumont we crossed the border into Louisiana. This is the Sabino river
which forms the boundary with Texas.. |
| Of course crossing a political boundary doesn't change the
underlying geological structure. So we continue to see the evidence of the
oil and chemical industries. |  |
 | Chemical
manufacture from oils requires lots of power so this power switch station is
no big surprise. |
| A bit further on is the town of Lake Charles which again is on a
bay which opens to the Gulf. This is the area which was most heavily hit by
hurricane Rita. We did see a number of buildings which were missing bits of
roof and blue tarpaulins were common. Oddly, churches seemed to be
particularly at risk. |  |
 | We camped at
Lafayette but took the RV out to tour the area to the northwest. (see next
page) This large farm and barn were at Grand Coteau just to the north of
Lafayette. |
| I thought that the cemeteries round here were unusual because all
the graves are marked by fresh-looking flowers. Then Jan pointed out they
are artificial. I still found it unusual that they all seemed so well tended. |  |
 | Half the
campsite was full of these plain white trailers, all just the same. We think
they were FEMA supplied trailers. What was odd was that there was no sign of
people living in them in the three days we were on that site. |
| Travelling south through New Iberia there is obvious evidence of
the sugar cane industry. This is young sugar cane. |  |
 |
When the cane is harvested it is collected in these carts for transport to
the factory. |
| This is the sugar cane factory. It seems to be the quiet season.
Later in the year this will be a twentyfour hour operation.. |  |
 | More bridges
across more rivers. We are coming up to Morgan City where we stopped over
before heading into New Orleans. |
| The railway has to cross the river as well but they are less able
to climb up and over the ships. So they use lifting bridges to lift a
section of rail so the ships can go underneath. |  |
|