Out on the Road. Take 63,781. Or, Something Like That.

Well, well, well…

Remember when I got sort of turned around and went the wrong way? You’ll also remember that I wasn’t lost. I just got turned around. Guys, dudes, men, even boys never get lost. We always know where we are. Of course we do. We are generally on the planet. We think. Beyond that…

At least I found my way to my original destination by taking the longest possible route to it. I just followed the river. And, the road. The river is shaped like a crescent. That’s why one of New Orleans’ nicknames is “The Crescent City.” Following the river is not traveling the shortest distance between two points. But, it’s interesting.

It wasn’t so bad. I was able to make these pictures. I really wasn’t expecting this. This is the classic example of pictures finding me. Yes. They are made from the diver’s seat. I was trying to get somewhere on time. Remember? The driver’s seat did provide a nice hook for these three pictures. The yellow line. The broken yellow line. And, me drifting across the yellow line, hoping not to get killed while I took the picture.

The thing about New Orleans that many people don’t realize is that we and the surrounding parishes are really industrial-based. Or, at least we were. Today, our biggest industry is tourism. So… Y’all come on down, ya hear. We need your cash.

Seriously, when work runs out, the economy of the surrounding cities dries up. Those big cranes? They are located at a ship building site in a little town called Avondale. The company last built two very modern United States Navy ships, moved the rest of their operations to their other site in Mississippi and closed this one. There were rumors that this site was going to be sold to a Korean shipbuilder. Rumors. It’s been well over a year. So far nothing has happened. Despite the fact that Avondale is really only 15 minutes from the heart of New Orleans, it’s a different world. Need a house? I can find you a nice fairly modern 3 or 4 bedroom house in good shape for about US $30,000 or less. Meanwhile, in New Orleans that same house might cost US $300,000 or more.

One more thing about those two ships. Both of them broke down on their shakedown cruises to San Diego. Big internal motor parts failed. One ship broke in the Panama Canal. Apparently, Panamanians don’t like that. They both had to be towed to San Diego. Maybe people from Louisiana aren’t good at building boats. I don’t know. Just saying’.

The pictures. All made around dusk. All made from the driver’s seat. Very little help in post production except to add a little dusky glow.  I really like the crane picture. From this angle it looks like some old Martian invasion movie. Maybe, they all came from Planet Claire. Let’s just see if anybody catches that line.