Evacuate!

Didn't wanna sit in traffic tomorrow, so we left this afternoon. We are no longer in New Orleans, but in beautiful downtown Covington, Louisiana and are staying at the lovely Holiday Inn Express just off the interstate.

After we packed our bags to leave New Orleans to the hurricane, we went to The Joint that served THE BEST BARBECUE the four of us have ever eaten. Everything was good. The pulled pork, the ribs, the brisket, the coleslaw, the beans. Mmmmm. Even the sweet tea.

Then we went to the French Market that's next to the levee. saw what they had for sale, mostly sunglasses and alligator heads. You know, the usual. We shopped along Decatur Road until we got to the Cafe Du Monde where we ate more beignets. Well, they are that good.

We detoured and drove around the Garden District, looking at the hundreds of "nouveau riche" mansions. Wonderful. Yes, we were sightseeing during our evacuation, but that's how we roll. We just went over the 26-mile-long Lake Pontchartrain Bridge. When you have a hurricane looming up on you, first place you'll wanna to head to is the world's longest bridge that broke up like it was made out of dominoes during Hurricane Katrina.

We did get gas before we left New Orleans and although there are a few gas stations closed, we decided they closed early to either save gas for after the hurricane or to let the employees get out of town. There was no traffic when we left town at 3:00 p.m. Totally regular flow of traffic. The news channels were LYING. Our hotel in New Orleans refunded our room tonight in addition to the nights when they will be closed (obviously), so that was good. We got into the Holiday Inn and decided to go for a swim. The pool is salt water instead of bromine or chlorine. It's really very pleasant and mild. Fred tells me it has the salinity of tears. The weather is really nice. Sunny and hot. Well, obviously it’s dark now, but the weather is great. Not even windy.

The news and the mayor of New Orleans are both very excited. Way more than all the people there. I believe there are probably areas where people are freaking out for the news vans, but when we left everyone was calm and happy. Actually there was a lot of picketing near the Gay Pride New Orleans guys. But no news vans. They were all busy lining up at the river with their fingers crossed.