USA

During the weekend I consulted regularly the UPS website, no evolution, the parcel was always in Louisville, KY. On Monday I went to Truckworx around 8:30 to meet Nathan Shirah. He consulted the UPS website and told me to come back around 10:30 perhaps the parcel will be delivered. I made shopping at Lowe's for the second time because the fan did not work again any more, I was to refund and I took another one. Then I went to Walmart in preparation for a prolonged stay in Mobile. Back to Truckworx, there was no parcel of course. After nearly half and a hour of telephone calls, Nathan told me that there was a problem with customs document that UPS France was to regulate with the shipper. But it was too late to telephone due to the time lag. Back to the camp-site I sent an e-mail to MAN-Bresse, and again waiting for…

On Tuesday 10th a message from MAN-Bresse told me that the parcel will be delivered by UPS around noon, local time. Indeed it was on time. The afternoon was devoted to mechanical work concerning the installation of the SHURflo Accumulator which was not the same model and for which it was necessary to find a brass cap for the opening not used. I made a drop in the pressure at 20 psi as the old one whose pressure was zero without relation with the crack of the base plate. It is thus necessary to control this pressure with a pressure gauge for tires. The difficulty was to find joints, after several hours of research downtown, Dave was solved to cut one in rubber. The installation of the air metal hose posed also problems because it did not have the same configuration that damaged one, its drawing did not correspond to the contour of the front face of the engine. But with some tricks Dave reached that point. I left Truckworx around 18:30 the truck in functioning order, The air pressure was at 12 bars in the bottles and the water leak had been clogged.

The morning of the following day was devoted to clean the truck after mechanical works, then to make administrative one and finally to have rest physically and psychologically. Of course I controlled the sealing of the joints of the SHURflo Accumulator and the air pressure in the bottles. All was Ok.

SHURflo Accumulator

Crack of the air hose

New Orleans, Louisiana

After a departure in the morning I arrived in New Orleans around 13:30 to station my truck at Algiers Ferry Carpark for three nights. The guard informed me that the ferry was free to cross the Mississippi River with a bicycle. Of course my first visit was at the Visitor Center in Jackson Square where I met the New Orleans Welcome Center Supervisor, Lucien, French from Lyon installed in the USA since 54 years. I collected a lot of information to visit the city and the Cajun area. He in particular advised me to avoid bars and performances in Bourbon St, too tourist, but of going in Frenchmen Street at Snug Harbor, jazz bar, or at The Spotted Cat. Then I strolled by bicycle in the city rebuilt after Katrina Hurricane. I had visited it in a former life in 1980 and remained one month at Tulane University in 1986. The spectacle is as much as in the street, jazz band at corners of the streets, American tourists in all their states and of course the house Hispanic architecture of the in Bourbon St and in Royal St. The city is strewn with interpretive signs concerning the festivities of July 14th, French national holiday. In end of the day I sacrificed to the rite to have a dring at Pat O'Brien's, in remembering a remote past I choose a Mint Julep. I returned to my truck around 20:00 under a small drizzle.

Skyscraper Line	St Louis Cathedral

On Friday 13th in the morning I went to the consulate of France to try & obtain, without illusion, an invitation at the Bastille Day festivities, I noted that I was not a V.I.P. Then according to my practice I traversed Walking Tour by Lonely Planet, by bicycle, while stopping in particular to visit museums, Cabildo, lodged in the Old City Halland on other side of the cathedral, Presbytère. In the first I discovered one of the four death masks of Napoleon took by Doctor Antommarchi and deposited by him in New Orleans in 1834. The second exhibits clothes of Mardi Gras in New Orleans as well as photographs of Katrina Hurricane. The trip was the occasion to discover that two famous authors remained in the city where they wrote one of their most important novels.

Bee hives!	Wanted

Fats Domino's piano after Katrina hurricane	Hurricane 1965

Faulkner House, he wrote "Soldiers Pay"

Tenessee William House, he wrote "A Streetcar named désire"

I returned to my truck around 3 pm to avoid the rain in the afternoon to went again around 6 pm. I strolled in Frenchmen St where I attended remarkable scenes of street, typically of New Orleans. This street is far from the unpleasant aspects of the tourist hordes which I then faced in Royal and Bourbon St. Finally at 9 pm I contemplated the Bastille Day fireworks on the Mississippi River, offered either by the city or by the consulate. I returned around 11 pm. to see that a van of a French couple was parked beside my truck. I made also another discovery, the fridge breakdown, I did not finish anymore with the evil.

Frenchmen St, streetscape

Frenchmen ST

The day of July 14th, Bastille Day, was particularly glaucous, no sun ray, scattered drops of rain, moisture and wind, Louisiana in summer. The morning I remained a long time at the Visitor Center with Lucien to look at the website of the manufacturer of the refrigerator, Kissmann, then a RV Repair & Service at Lafayette. With much of kindness, he telephoned the repairer if he were able to make a diagnosis to make a decision. I left Lucien around midday to visit Garden District where are eighteen of the most beautiful antebellum residences. Then between the drops of rain I went to Amstrong Park to see the statue of “Satchmo”, alas at contrejour and without luminosity. At the beginning of afternoon I lunched of Seafood Gumbo before returning around 4 p.m. to my truck before the rain of end of the afternoon.

My truck in front of Algiers Court House

Lafayette Cemetery N°1

Jefferson Davis died in this house

Charles "Buddy" Bolden, cornet player	Louis "Satchmo" Amstrong

Woodoo

I had modified my road plan to head directly to Lafayette in order to make the fridge breakdown diagnosed. Then if necessary to make the visits while waiting for the spare parts. On the way I made a detour to see two of the  antebellum principal residences of plantations along the Mississippi River, Laura: a Creole Plantation and Oak Alley Plantation. I visited only the first with a French speaking guide. I bivouacked in Franklin at Millet Point Boat Launch.

Bridge over Mississippi River

Laura Plantation

M. & Mrs Duparc, First owner of Laura ¨Plantation

Price of slaves

Oak Alley Plantation

Franklin, Millet Point Boat Launch