Massie's Travels

For Jim’s first trip out of the trailer we drove to Venice. Venice is the southern most community in Louisiana accessible by automobile. It’s located 77 miles south of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River. With a population of around 200 it’s a tiny blip on the map of Louisiana. Venice’s nick name "The end of the world" is really appropriate. This is where the ten state, 1,502 miles long Great River Road ends.

Venice was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Venice, like much of southern Louisiana, has seen significant rebuilding, reopening, and reoccupation. Here's one of the schools that was flooded by Katrina.

Venice also faced an environmental disaster when oil from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion began washing ashore in Venice.

On the drive to Venice we passed through several small communities. On the east side of the road is the levee for the Mississippi River. The west side of the road is a huge estuary for the Gulf of Mexico. Because this land is at or below sea level there is water everywhere.

If you fail to notice all the water the houses and commercial buildings will remind you. In southern Louisiana they require houses to be “elevated.” In some locations houses are only elevated 3 or 4 feet (like in New Orleans.) But in this area, buildings are elevated 10 feet. So remember when house hunting - if the realtor casually mentions shatter proof windows, hurricane shutters AND the house is jacked up on pilings that are 10 feet high you can count on hurricanes.

Speaking of water and hurricanes – cemeteries here really suffer from the bad weather. Because the water table is at 5 feet (or less) the dead are “buried” above ground in cement vaults. We saw this old cemetery on our way home. The sign is really sad.

The further south we drove the more the water encroached on the road. When we reached Venice the water actually slapped and splashed the road finally covering it completely. Makes me wonder what will happen to Venice if global warming does cause the poles to melt and the sea to rise 3 or more feet. This would not concern me so much if it weren’t for the oil refineries dotting the road. As it is, to get to the last refinery you have to drive through the flooded road.

I love this photo. It's an attempt to keep the water from eroding the road. These are metal panels pounded 6 feet into the ground. I can't imagine what a battle it must be to keep the road open.

Along the way we stopped so I could do a little birding. The estuary was teeming with birds. We saw Pelicans, Annahinga, Terns, Gulls, Loons, Ducks, Ibis, Herons, Egrets, and Osprey. The estuary was really beautiful with cypress trees providing perfect perches for the birds to dry off and warm up on.