By the numbers:
- 50 miles, around New Orleans – 3970 total miles for the trip.
- highest temp: 93 – “Real Feel” = 105 or more.
- 3 National Park Sites today: These were the hardest ones to find yet. In downtown New Orleans just a block off Bourbon Street you can find almost anything you can imagine (and some things you wish you couldn’t) except any signs or directions to where the little hole in the wall NPS sites were. We found
- Chalmette Battlefield – and Chalmette National Cemetery
- New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park.
- Jean Lafitte National Historic Park office in the French Quarter. For any other travelers to this area it is next to Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Although I am not sure my mother ever said this to me, I am sure some mother somewhere has: “If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.” Good advice. I am sure many people love visiting New Orleans and find many wonderful things to enjoy here. Having visited here twice so far, all I can say is I am not one of them.
Outside of town we visited the Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery. The cemetery is a veterans cemetery created in 1864 for Civil War soldiers and with veterans buried there from every war since. At the battlefield we learned about the battle here in 1814 as part of the war of 1812. We watched a video with scenes from historical reenactments of the battle. That history is pretty well summarized by the Song – “The Battle of New Orleans” – Written by Jimmie Driftwood, a high school history teacher and released in 1959. Lyrics below – click on album for YouTube of the song
Battle of New Orleans
In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.
[Chorus:]
We fired our guns and the British kept a’comin.
There wasn’t nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin’ on
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
We looked down the river and we see’d the British come.
And there must have been a hundred of’em beatin’ on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn’t say a thing.
[Chorus]
Old Hickory said we could take ’em by surprise
If we didn’t fire our muskets ’til we looked ’em in the eye
We held our fire ’til we see’d their faces well.
Then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave ’em … well
[Chorus]
Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn’t go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn’t catch ’em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.**
We fired our cannon ’til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls, and powdered his behind
And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.
[Chorus]
Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn’t go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn’t catch ’em
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.**
Almost exactly what we learned at the museum.