We are on the back stretch and reaching for home. Two more blog entries to go. We hit the road this morning at 7:15 and 81 degrees with clear skies and headed for Baton Rouge, the capitol of Louisiana...but you knew that, of course. The drive took us through bayou country with roads raised over the water that go on for miles without relief. Fishermen were in boats below us and who knows who else…maybe my favorite Ax Man, Shelby, looking for sunken logs. (Smile). And so, the word for today is WATER. I began this blog with water in Niagara Falls and I am coming to a conclusion with water in the bayou. Seems fitting.

The trees began to look familiar, southern yellow pine, live oak, cypress and I don't know what else. And palm trees. In Baton rouge we saw palm trees, so we knew we were nearing home. We crossed the Mississippi River just before we arrived in Baton Rouge and it was filled with working docks and big cranes and elevators of all kinds. This river is always the home of flourishing industry of all sorts.

Baton Rouge is a nice little city and the capitol complex is impressive, with well-groomed dark green lawns, circular walkways and a serene lake. And it is right in the middle of the city.

On down the road we decided to take a detour south to the shoreline. We arrived at the beach in Bay St. Louis where a sign that we studied told us that "access and convenience is funded with qualified outer continental shelf oil revenues through the Coastal Impact Assistance Program". We decided that this translates to…BP is paying for the restoration and maintenance of these beautiful beaches. And they truly are beautiful and well groomed. They go on for miles and miles with pristine white sands adorned by dunes with wispy sea oats waving in the gentle breezes that come off of the clear blue waters of the gulf. Interesting to us was the fact that access to the beach in Bay St. Louis was limited, because there was no parking. They built a cement walk just beside the road leaving no shoulder, and reserved the space on the other side to walkers and bikers. So we were not able to park and go to the beach. I guess it must be reserved for the people who live in the houses across the street or anyone who can walk there or ride a bike.

Further on down the road was Pass Christian and I remembered that this was the bull’s eye for Hurricane Katrina and also the home of the family of ABC’s Robin Roberts. She had all the viewers of Good Morning America praying for her aging mother after the hurricane hit. I remember it well. And in Pass Christian there were a few parking spaces in occasional areas, and there was a public beach with a limited sized parking lot and a pier.

 We drove on to Long Beach where there was parking all along the road. And finally we entered Gulf Port where there was a marina and casino which we had seen on a previous trip when we had driven along these beaches from the east through Destin and Panama City.

We turned back to the north at Gulf Port and returned to I-10 for the push to Tallahassee. It was a long day of driving with a time change, getting us to the hotel after 5 PM. Tomorrow we plan to visit the capitol before heading for home.