Driving the I10 West out of New Orleans (accompanied by joyous N-O jazz music on the local radio) is quite amazing, a good part is a raised road/bridge that traverses the stretched out bayou - wide open spaces interspersed alternately with bare swamp cypress trees and thickly wooded areas. I wish I could have explored these areas by boat, learning more about this ecosystem. It looks to me as if many of these cypress trees are dead (though I've been told they are alive):
The further I drive towards Texas, the larger the pickup trucks seem to get. Two more observations: there was very little speeding on the I10 and drivers generally kept to the "Keep Right" road rule. And, I saw no 'stimulus' roadworks on the I10W/I49W between New Orleans and Shreveport at all!
