Katrina

We are staying in tents at what used to be a KOA. They have a nice pond, which they call a lake (I am sure Jo mentioned this; as well as the locness monster, which I did also see), great showers, a small kitchen area, and a pool. We also, for a fee, have wireless access. We are about 20 miles north of New Orleans and on our way here we drove through Gulf Port. I was startled by the mess left by Katrina. Stupidly startled. Because the world is strange and while the news often gives us blurbs on how the Katrina area is still a mess its like we don't register it or something. Or at least I don't/didn't. I wasn't in the states during Katrina, but I did hear about it and saw coverage and am still hearing the gripes about it in regards to the Bush administration and their stand up job of running the country. But to really see it... wow. And I didn't even see the worst of it. What we did see was like a ghost town. I was so not thinking that I was concerned we might have been in a not so good neighborhood. It was all so deserted and run down. But then I started to see the heaps of rubble and the still standing buildings with electrical wires hanging down like cobwebs and the debris along the shore and realized we were in Katrina territory.
Back to our campsite... the day we checked in the woman at the desk told us that all the rv's were Katrina related... still and this far away from New Orleans (it is about a 40 minute drive). Yesterday, a different woman told me that only two of the rvs belong to families devasted by Katrina and she said those families are not going back. I wonder where they will go. She said the rest of the rvs belong to insurance claims people and the like, maybe ppl working to build back NO. She said a lot of people left, which would explain why every retailer, restaurant, and fast food place is hiring I guess.
Speaking of which, we worked today through a temp agency. We worked at a bottled water factory. They spent the last 6 months putting in a new line and hired temps to clean. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Jody and I worked in two different areas and both of our "supervisors" discussed hiring on as full time employees. I didn't really enjoy the cleaning, but I loved watching the machinery of the place... it was the most automated plant I have ever been in and I am quite sure I would enjoy the line much more than the cleaning. I think Jo agrees. We go back Thursday for more sweeping and mopping; strange to think someone would want to hire a person to run their equipment based on how well a person sweeps and mops... huh.

Jody and I are blogging together on myspace. If you are on myspace, please add us and subscribe to our blog (I just copied this one from there and I probably always will but you may want to read what he so eloquently has to say). The addy to the blog is http://blog.myspace.com/travelusa