Well, I burnt some dough & shifted hotels to get a bit closer to everything. Turns out this is Navy Week, and there are several warships in port, and I note that Britain, France & Canada are represented, as well as sailing ships from Ecuador & Indonesia. The latter two countries probably sent their entire navies, but I don't think we even have one, do we? The Indonesians of all countries shouldn't be here, they should be patrolling the Timor Sea to round up boat people heading for Australia! How come the alleged refugees have no trouble getting into Indonesia anyway? But I digress. There are several American ships in port, & as usual, they let people crawl all over them & play with guns & other neat stuff. The USN aerobatics team, the Blue Angels, stage regular shows above the city, and with 6 x F/18's you do get "spectacular", no problem! I've only ever seen one F18 at a time at home, we cant afford to buy replacements if they run into one another. Makes the Roulettes with their trainers look a bit tame. Mind you, the security in the harbour is fairly high profile
There are several inflatable hulled Coast Guard patrol boats buzzing around the place, armed with a machine gun on the front. They not only escort ships coming in & going out, they park in front of the Navy ships as well. No doubt to deter would be suicide bombers etc. No more USS Cole incidents around here, and fair enough too. (just flying bullets). I guess if the bad guys get in the first few shots, the inflatables zip around like balloons & then sink.
I am surprised at the size of the ships that can use the Mississippi, at least this part of it, bloody great big ones! Then there are the barges, unbelievably long multiple flat barges connected together, carrying bulk commodities like coal or sand or whatever. It appears these are pushed, rather than towed. It would be like backing a giant trailer, quite tricky I imagine.
The bridge, by the way, I'm pretty sure is the one that Peter Fonda & Dennis Hopper rode across in Easy Rider. I'm still searching for some of the other iconic landmarks in said film, but I'm not allowed to go anywhere near any knock shops these days, so that makes it tough.
No, you'd be 100% wrong, that particular establishment was actually a restaurant.
OK, down to business. Last night I took a cruise on a paddlewheeler that looked just like this one below.
It was supposed to be an evening jazz/dinner cruise, and it was, sort of. Well, it was evening, & there was jazz, and it did go up the river, eventually, after spending the first hour of the two hour cruise still tied up at the wharf while they fed everybody. By that time it was dark & you could only see twinkling lights & not much else. Having had a look around in the afternoon, that was just as well. Its a working port, & not a pretty place. The dinner bit was pretty woeful, I thought. Nursing home food for people who are dentally challenged. Various spoonfuls of unidentified grey slop masquerading as food, with a cupcake on the top, weird stuff indeed. If it was served in a prison, there would have been a riot for sure. Tell you about the nightlife next segment.
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