From the Gulf to the Canadian border

I've crossed the continent. I went down to the Gulfcoast and drove through the South, into the Midwest, into Canada, and then across the Adirondacks to New England. Right now, I'm resting in Natick, Mass. I've been working on a post about my visit to New Orleans, but until it's done, here are some more photos.

Interstate 10 from Houston to New Orleans passed through 20 miles of the Henderson swamp. A year ago, this highway was the evacuation route from the Gulfcoast for those headed towards Texas.

 I-10 is dotted with chemical plants and refineries. This part of the country has made so much wealth for the oil and chemical industries, but the region has some of the lowest standards in education, health, housing, etc.

 I'll post more pictures from New Orleans later, but here's a Katrina/flood destroyed house from there.

I took a walk around Audubon Park, uptown in New Orleans. It's one of my favorite places in the city. Some trees were damaged by the storm, but the park remains lovely.

From New Orleans I drove to Atlanta, Georgia, crossing the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In that city, a friend took me to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial.

A row of houses across from where M.L. King, Jr. used to live.

Gandhi's statue at the King Center.

Approaching Cincinnati from across the Ohio River in Kentucky. 

In Cincinnati, I visited the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Inside the Freedom Center, there is a reconstructed slave pen. Slaves were chained and held inside such pens while being marched from one place to another. It felt sad and strange stepping inside the structure. The wood is so polished I wondered if it wouldn't have been better to have kept it rougher, as it must have been back then.

 On America's highways, religious symbols abound. This one's a huge Jesus with raised hands, just north of Cincinnati.

But Sin too is right along the highways. Casinos probably compete closest with God, but then, there's ez-access porn emporiums. This one's from Louisiana. 

Art amidst the rocks along the Detroit River on Belle Isle Park. This is a beautiful park in Detroit, in the middle of the river, with the U.S. on one side, Canada on the other.  

Also, from Belle Isle.

That's Canada on the other side. I'll post more photos from Detroit later.