Run 2:10:00 [3] 28.0 km (4:39 / km)
A nice note to finish the US trip on with a good long run, including an excellent second half. Headed out west again past Audubon Park, then picking up a bike path along the Mississippi River levee, which is paralleled by the unfortunately-named Leake Avenue (although this was the one levee that actually did its job). Got as far as Metairie, a place which had a couple of black marks against it - it was David Duke's electorate (he was the former KKK Grand Wizard who made something of an impact in local politics) and was mentioned in today's paper because of a new law which bans its motels from renting rooms by the hour (just as well I didn't pick that strip for my first night). Didn't see any of that in the riverside parklands. Turned around a bit before the Huey Long Bridge, named for another colourful Louisiana political identity of a somewhat earlier vintage. For a lot of the last quarter was in the floating mode where one becomes increasingly detached from one's surroundings, which can be a dangerous thing in a city. Tired a little in the last few minutes. Again a chilly wind.
A sign early on in the run announced that Governor Edwin Edwards had proclaimed the street a Drug Free Zone. (Former) Governor Edwards has the opportunity now to ask drug dealers whether they take any notice of such signs, in his current capacity as a guest of one of America's many fine federal correctional institutions. (A pre-Katrina New Orleans ritual was that, at 3 p.m. every Wednesday, with a jazz band playing to the assembled onlookers, someone would emerge on the steps of the Louisiana Supreme Court building to announce which politicians or other notable public identities had been indicted that week).
The police may occupy nice buildings but they don't appear to be especially efficient. Yesterday's local paper gave an impressively detailed rundown of all the city's crimes of the day in a page of smallish print, everything from shootings (only one, and they missed) to purse snatchings, but there was only one entry under the 'Solved' heading.
It's been an interesting week here in New Orleans. The city obviously has massive problems still, but it also has a great deal of character and it's not difficult to understand why so many people are determined to stay.
And, to illustrate that we are two countries divided by a common language, I brought a poster along to the conference on behalf of somebody from the Queensland DPI (or whatever it calls itself these days) about wet-season rainfall forecasts for northern Australian graziers. Most people didn't understand what we were talking about - the word "grazier" doesn't exist in American English (over here they're ranchers).