Deeper south 16th March 2010

Boy, we're really in the rednecks country now.  Decided to get off that huge highway and dawdle through the back roads, passed through towns like Baldwin, Centerville, Franklin, Patterson, Morgan City and finally arrived in New Orleans.  Most of the area is swamp land and has an eerie look to it.  All the trees have Spanish moss (what we call 'old man's beard') hanging off them and look like a scene out of 'The Munsters'.  Never seen so many places with so much junk in their yards.  Would put Hughie to shame any day.  Some of the places they are living in are quite terrible, real shanties.  Then on the other hand you have the absolutely massive plantation homes where all the rich owners live with their boats and planes in the back of the bayou.  There seems to be lot's of sugar grown here as well as cotton.  There are no crops planted at the moment and look like they have been recently harvested so just the stubble, most of it looks like sugar cane and we also saw a few mills.  A funny (or maybe sad) thing we saw as we were driving along were people in black and white striped overalls with inmate written on the back working at the side of the road with a police officer standing over them.  Would love to have taken a picture but wasn't game enough to as might have ended up working on the roads with them.  Our pick of the towns today was Franklin (see pictures below)