Where did the day go?   Rick Olivier, a professional photographer and Airstream owner, whose images will appear in the Summer 2008 Airstream Life magazine, invited us over for lunch.   We meandered over to his house in a quiet mid-city neighborhood and the next thing we knew it was past 5 p.m. and we were still there.

We shouldn’t have been too surprised.   In addition to Rick and his family, we had Jim and Donna Clark (Airstreamers), Rick and Mary Dotson (Airstreamers), and their neighbors.   So the talk was heavily Airstream oriented all afternoon, including a couple of lengthy show-and-tell sessions at Rick’s 1969 Airstream Safari.   He’s renovating it at the moment.

Being an accomplished photographer who has shot a lot of album covers and a book about Zydeco musicians, Rick also had a lot of images to show us.   The day turned out to be a mix of music, Airstreams, photography, and talk about New Orleans — plus a lot of good food.   No wonder we didn’t think to leave for five hours.

I didn’t mention this last night, but we are camped at Bayou Segnette State Park, in Westwego, across the Mississippi from New Orleans.   This campground is one of the most popular in Louisiana, for good reasons.   Not only does it have large open campsites and nice scenery, but swimming pools, a wave pool (not yet open for the season), and a boat launch.

The state park is full of living things, so densely packed that their presence is always noticeable.   On a bike ride this morning we spotted an interesting gray snake which we have not identified yet.   Coming back through the campground we saw brown rabbits everywhere, then in the early evening we spotted an armadillo industriously pawing through the grass for dinner, while Susan and I were playing ukulele music at the picnic table. At night a chorus of chirping and clicking comes out of the swamps that surround us, and continues all night until dawn when the birds start in.

Things are so different from the west.   I still can’t believe the change.   Despite a few dry days, we are starting to notice the humidity building up here.   Upper 80s here today felt like 100 back in Arizona.   The mountains have been replaced by extensive swamps, the javalina have been replaced by alligators, and the cactus are now mulberries.   We are in the East now … or at least, we will officially be there tomorrow when we cross the Mississippi River and head to the Florida panhandle.

Our coordinates: 29 °53’19.43″N 90 ° 9’51.81″W