Another baking day. We proceeded south from Georgia to Alabama, where a common roadside decoration was peanuts.

Some were golden

and others had various kinds of peanut personality. Headphones:

A flirty wave:

A Newsies outfit.

Eventually we reached Florida, where Mike’s Granny offered us sweet tea and sandwiches, and became acquainted with Pickles.

Near Pensacola, we stopped to walk the dog. And also Godzilla.

There was something truly inspirational about this Blue Angel connected to a highway-side pole and after a few minutes of contemplation

it became obvious that we wanted to fly.

Especially Pickles, who almost immediately, it seemed, launched into the air.

After passing through Alabama

and Mississippi, we finally arrived in Louisiana after dark.

Some time later we arrived in New Orleans to visit Julia. She had just moved to her new place 3 days before.

Julia’s neighborhood… well, we just waved to the drug dealers and they waved back.

In the words of Charles, who sat out front in a wheelchair with other black men drinking day and night:

This neighborhood is mostly safe… as long as you don’t go outside by yourself.

And in the words of another unnamed neighbor:

Welcome to the jungle, baby!

We just unloaded the Jeep

and sat out in the steamy night drinking like everyone else.

For the next day, I had planned a trip to the Garden District to see more historic homes, antique shopping, a Plantation Tour (poorly), and dinner in one of the fancy French Quarter restaurants.