Monday, May 28, 2007

Memorial Day

I am always so grateful to our men and women who serve our country in our armed forces. When we honor them on Memorial Day or any other day, I am always so humbled by the laying of their lives on the line for my country and my family. To those in the military, I'd like to say thank you, but those words seems so trite and so small as compared to the enormity of the sacrifice.
Today, while others were barbecuing, I drove about an hour away and helped a friend move (basically) from south of Lake Pontchartrain to north of Lake Pontchartrain! As I was driving along the interstate, I took some pictures (yes, while driving at a high rate of speed, I was photographing scenery for YOU - okay, so it came out very crooked and many shots blurry because I wasn't actually LOOKING into the camera, simply holding it up, pointing, and clicking). A few posts back, I responded to a challenge about your home state. These pictures would definitely perpetuate the myths of life in Louisiana.


Little house on the bayou. Notice there are NO ROADS into this place. Yup, the only way in or out is by boat. Or on the back of a 'gator! :^)

This is a little community, unlike the isolated cabin above. Some of these places are "camps," but many of them are primary residences. Again, no roads, but if you look closely you will notice electric poles. Hmm...live electric wires surrounded by water. That's a recipe for disaster if ever I saw one!


A neat little swampy area. If I could have gotten closer, there were probably alligators sunning themselves somewhere on the bank. Notice the little white boat in the bottom right corner. I tried to get pictures of the larger shrimp and crawfish boats, but none of those came out. This was kind of like photography without using your eyes. :^)


Another little "community." Again, no roads, definitely electricity, though. But these little places were so tumble-down. "Papa, the roof's caving in!" "Cher, do you want a roof or TV?" Priorities, you know. Some of these places looked completely uninhabitable, almost third-worldly. But there were obvious signs of habitation.

5 comments:

Shari said...

Thanks for the great pictures. I have not had the pleasure of traveling much in my lifetime, so I love to see the pictures of different states, even if you are perpetuating a stigma of Louisiana!

Cynthia said...

LOL! I've done the picture-taking while driving thing, too... I don't take my eyes off the road either! I just point the camera in the general direction and hope something comes out good (LOL).

I remember driving across that bridge that comes from Gulfport to NO and I think that Lake P was the one we crossed, right? We drove into downtown NO to have coffee at Cafe Dumonde. If we ever get back there I'll be sure to look you up!

Unknown said...

Cynthia, this is I-55 before getting to I-10 on the way to New Orleans. These pictures were probably taken outside of Manchac. Lake Pontchartrain is pretty big and you may have gone across the Causeway into New Orleans. You wouldn't have reached I-55 until past Hammond.

DEFINITELY look me up!

Debbie said...

Great pictures, Ginger! What lovely country.

I also have done the driving while taking pictures thing. In NY there is a no using handheld cellphones law, wonder if they will start a no picture taking while driving law! :-)

Anonymous said...

HEY - you got my house on there...but you mised my two pet gators that keep me company in the back yard :-D Kidding - as you know...but I'm sure that was close to my old house.
Elen