Lake Charles

Yesterday I made a 3.5 hour drive from New Orleans to Lake Charles to visit a few schools that had been hit by Rita. Whoa that was one whopper of a hurricane. 6 hours of 110 mph winds. Blew away the wind meter at the airport. Anyway no flood damage there just lots of wind damage which resulted in blown off roofs which then resulted in lots of water coming in through missing roofs and resulting in water damage. I drove through miles and miles and miles of bayou country. Long and straight drive like the 5 fwy through CA but instead of flat farm land, here you had raised two lane fwy through swamp and bayou country. I did keep my eye on the road (sort of) because we were really zooming along and I was driving, but I got to see lots of egrets, and herons and cormorants and grebes. I was scanning for alligators (or maybe crocodiles- don't know what they have) but didn't see any. So you drive from New Orleans for about half an hour and then hit bayou for about 40 minutes then hit Baton Rouge and then another 45 minutes of bayou ( read this no human civilization ) ( can you just imagine what is going on in the water though???? I so wanted to get in a boat and go exploring) and then Lafayette and then more bayou and then Lake Charles.... now there was a little bit of grazing land from time to time so it wasn't completly bayou, but I really loved the drive. Would have liked to have had a few of my cds with me and really cranked up the music and sung to my little hearts content and done some bird watching. But since I had a brand new friend/colleague with me didn't think I should freak him out with my singing and driving on the same day ( he did say I was an excellent driver- even at 85mph- hard to not keep with the flow of traffic you know?) Didn't take too many pictures on that trip but will be going back Monday to see two more schools so will try to take some pictures...especially the egret island that I say covered with white birds of all sizes, so I imagine cattle egret and regular ones and maybe even some black legged big egrets and yellow legged herons. Remember black=egret, yellow=heron, Anne?