Clouds chased us up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.  They caught up with us at Iberville, a small town across the river from Baton Rouge, where it deluged on us in sheets.  

We started on the Mississippi River Road Scenic Highway but changed our minds 3/4 of the way through.  This is what they don’t tell you.  From Baton Rouge to New Orleans the banks of the river are one long, high, concrete dike.  The only scenes along this supposedly scenic road are one industrial complex after another shooting pipes and smoke into the sky along one side and on the other a steep hill.  The river is on the other side of the hill but is hidden.  I think that’s alright because the barges and industrial sites along the river would have ruined any sense of beauty or majesty.  We got off that road as quickly as possible.  I don’t suggest anyone take it.   

I’m not sure what I thought I would see.  Even during the 1800’s the river was full of transportation of all sizes and shapes from rafts to barges and steamboats.  Maybe I thought we would capture some of that magic along the way, but honestly the Mississippi has become an industrialized water highway with long barges rather than freight trucks.  It was a little sad to see how we have killed the lower waterway for it is one of the deadest bodies of water I have ever seen, (only as we crossed bridges)  till we reached Baton Rouge, where the  concrete banks begin to fade away above town and it begins to look like a regular river again.  Here is my list of dead bodies of water so far: The Salton Sea; Lake Pontchatrain; The lower Mississippi.  Don’t get my cranky environmentalist going here.  You could be reading for a week.  

We stopped at the State Park Historic Site of The Iberville Locks.   Once considered one of the most cutting edge of lock systems, it became too small for the larger barges plowing up and down the Mississippi back in the 70’s.  They closed it and made it a museum.  There are two men running the place which was surprisingly empty.  I’ve never seen anyone so delighted to see us.  One of the men is a volunteer, but the other was once the main engineer for the place.  We got a personal tour, tons of anecdotes and stories about the locks and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I personally recommend people stopping for an afternoon.  It’s quite marvelous.  

When it started to pour down rain again, we moved on across the bridge and into Baton Rouge.  The rain followed us the whole time we were there, but we didn’t mind because we rented one of the sweetest, most comfy VRBO’s in a generously shady, lovely, absolutely terrific suburb. The owner lived right next door and was kind enough to help us move in.  No easy feat as we were bringing the whole kit and caboodle inside for a much needed repack, throw away and ship home effort.  

We loved this house.  It was big and comfy.  My room was on one side and Mary’s was on the other.  If one of us was up early or late we didn’t bother each other.  The kitchen was perfect and sweet.  It’s a good thing we loved this house because several days the end of the world was announced with massive thunder and lightning.  We stayed in and worked on the website and repacked.  It was perfect.  

Baton Rouge was a surprise.  It’s a small town.  It has a small if kind of cute downtown, and some of the absolute best suburbs I have ever seen. Yes the ubiquitous suburban malls are there, but they are chock full of boutiques, interesting stores and locally owned restaurants.  It’s amazing and something I have never seen before.  Usually malls and shopping centers are filled in with giant corporate brands and you rarely see anything local or small, so imagine our surprise to find quite the opposite.  It put a smile on our faces. 

Downtown Baton Rouge has three parts.  There is the waterfront park and walkway, a city center with a library and theater and old capitol and the actual working downtown. 

The waterfront park was a good effort to reclaim the river.  You do have to walk up the dike from the streets but the water has been made available through this park and the water theme is reflected in the numerous fountains, pools, running water, and falls that mimic the Mississippi.  There are sculptures all along the the walkway.  The river at this point is bounded in by concrete.  We never saw a recreational vehicle on the water, only a view of industries up and down the river and barges carrying freight.  So the view was kind of cool, but also, not.  I hope that makes sense to you.  

The second part of town is a rather tiny, but tidy and well designed city center.  A small park with a fountain is faced on all sides by theaters and the main library.  Down the street a tiny bit is the art museum, again tidy, well done, but small.  A block in the other direction brings you to the old Capital Building, a museum now.  So everything you might want to see is near this fountained park center.  

The third part of town is the working downtown, which due to Covid was a ghost town, so I can’t speak to what it might look like in full swing.  It was an amalgamation of nice shady blocks and baking-in-the-sun-concrete and steel canyons and some derelict blocks.  It puzzled us and we never completely figured it out.  

We did not see everything we might have.  We were trapped inside by massive storms for several days following a  massive heat wave which also kept us inside.  We never made it to any of the places outside of town; the parks and small towns.  I would have loved to go back to Iberville the town.  It looked charming.  We would definitely go back, if possible, to the same VRBO.   We both loved that neighborhood and again, felt like we didn’t get a chance to fully explore.  We have put it on our, growing, list of places we would like to go back to!