noelleprice (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} noelleprice) wrote,@ 2007-05-29 18:46:00 |
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Beginning the year at the end of the world...
Holidays are a popular time for volunteers to come lend a hand, so there's not much rest for the wicked among our long-suffering staff. We did, however, get New Year's Day off. I decided a good place to begin the new year would be the end of the world, or at least its local terminus.
It has slowly come to my attention that despite the overabundance of water by which Louisiana is surrounded (and occasionally submerged) there really aren't any beaches. Beaches are the solid line where land meets water. That doesn't really happen here... the land just kind of branches into narrower and narrower fingers and eventually coalesces to river and gulf. 
The closest thing to definition between the elements is accomplished artificially through the use of levees. One of the most interesting places to observe this is at the mouth of the Mississippi. There is a spit of land that traces the western bank of the river farther and farther into the Gulf. As you drive down the highway that runs down the middle of this spit of land, you will notice that off in the distance on each side, there is a levee almost paralleling the road... one to hold back the gulf, the other to hold back the river. I say "almost parallel" because the careful observer will get the distinct impression that they are actually gradually closing in. Eventually, you come to a point where no more than 100 yards separate the two... and here the road ends.
Katrina came right through here, and as you can imagine, the place ain't been the same since. 
Still, it is filled with beauty and wonder... if perhaps mixed with a little bit of the scary kind of awe...
That last picture above is for just in case you've always wondered what a top-quality mosquito farm looks like...
Right: by the river, Left: atop the levee
Holidays are a popular time for volunteers to come lend a hand, so there's not much rest for the wicked among our long-suffering staff. We did, however, get New Year's Day off. I decided a good place to begin the new year would be the end of the world, or at least its local terminus. 
It has slowly come to my attention that despite the overabundance of water by which Louisiana is surrounded (and occasionally submerged) there really aren't any beaches. Beaches are the solid line where land meets water. That doesn't really happen here... the land just kind of branches into narrower and narrower fingers and eventually coalesces to river and gulf. 
The closest thing to definition between the elements is accomplished artificially through the use of levees. One of the most interesting places to observe this is at the mouth of the Mississippi. There is a spit of land that traces the western bank of the river farther and farther into the Gulf. As you drive down the highway that runs down the middle of this spit of land, you will notice that off in the distance on each side, there is a levee almost paralleling the road... one to hold back the gulf, the other to hold back the river. I say "almost parallel" because the careful observer will get the distinct impression that they are actually gradually closing in. Eventually, you come to a point where no more than 100 yards separate the two... and here the road ends.
Katrina came right through here, and as you can imagine, the place ain't been the same since. 
Still, it is filled with beauty and wonder... if perhaps mixed with a little bit of the scary kind of awe...
That last picture above is for just in case you've always wondered what a top-quality mosquito farm looks like...
Right: by the river, Left: atop the levee
