Two 10k Walks Today in Louisiana, Part 2 - Thursday, January 13, 2022

Continued from Part 1...

After lunch at Covington's Rusty Pelican restaurant, we drove approximately ten minutes to the start location for our Mandeville, Louisiana, 10k walk. We only had to travel four miles on I-10 east through a construction zone. 

I was driving in the slow lane when I heard an explosion. I've heard that sound before; someone's tire blew out on the freeway. I slowed down and looked ahead, saw smoke, and saw a trailer fishtailing ahead of us. Then we started seeing pieces of a vehicle in the road, but thankfully they were small enough that we could drive over them without damage. 

It is so fortunate that the guy driving the pickup controlled his vehicle enough that it did not hit anyone else, AND just after it happened, there was a turnout on the fast-lane-side of the freeway that was big enough for him to pull his truck and trailer over and stop. We could see how shredded his tire was as we drove by, and the blowout had damaged the rear panel on his pickup. We were all lucky.

Our walk in Mandeville started at the Tammany Trace Trailhead on Girod St. We didn't actually go on the trail here, but turned onto Girod St. heading for Lake Pontchartrain.

Tammany Trace Trailhead - part
of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

The blue circles in the foreground are
part of an interactive fountain.

 Tammany Trace Trail Mandeville Trailhead. 

From the start of this walk, I was charmed by the cute houses, many of them decorated for Mardi Gras. There were businesses along Girod Street, including another Rusty Pelican restaurant a couple of blocks from the trailhead. This is the location where the group is going for dinner tonight, not Covington.

Blue Heron Bed & Breakfast.

The Rusty Pelican's flag.

In front of The 
Rusty Pelican restaurant.

The Rusty Pelican in Mandeville.

A cute house on Girod St. decorated
for Mardi Gras.

An antique store on Girod St.

Interesting-looking barbershop.

I love this house, it looks so warm 
and inviting with the butter-yellow paint.

As we continued toward Lake Pontchartrain, I felt like I had been transported into the Wizard of Oz. Check out the shed below. It looks like it was picked up by a tornado and dropped on part of the fence. 

How did this happen? Tornado?

We still had a couple of blocks to go to get to the lake. 

Tallulah's Vintage Market.

Just a few blocks to the lake.

The weather today was gorgeous. It was 65 degrees with a 9 mph breeze coming off the lake. It was a little chilly, but once we headed away from the lake, out of the wind, we took our coats off. 

There are a lot of pictures in the blog, but they really tell the story of this lovely town. We were impressed. And the lake played a big part in it.

Susan Medlin at Lake 
Pontchartrain.

Susan Medlin along the path.

Gorgeous homes lined the road along 
the lake.

There are still blue tarps around
from Hurricane Ida (August 2021).

More homes along the Lake
Pontchartrain waterfront.

Mardi Gras decor.

A small beach at Mandeville
Lakefront Splash Park.

Bayou Castine at Pontchartrain
Yacht Club.

The yacht club.

Mandeville Boat Lauch

A year or so ago, when we stayed at Fontainebleau State Park, Bob rode his bike for miles on the Tammany Trace Bike Path. Now, I'm taking a photo here for Bob to show him I've been here, too! (You will note the spelling of the state park on the sign is different from the way I spelled it. I took the spelling directly from the state park website.)

Tammany Trace Rails-to-Trails
bike path.

Mandeville Cemetery.

A map of the bike path and Mandeville.

The mileage chart of Tammany Trace
and website if you want to know more.

From here, we headed back to Lake Pontchartrain.

First Free Mission Baptist Church.

The Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Hall was built in 1895 and hosted many jazz greats. Its name was later changed to the Dew Drop Jazz and Social Club. It is currently not in operation. (I am amazed it has survived through hurricanes all these years!)

Dew Drop Social and
Benevolent Hall (1895).

Historical marker for the hall above.

You never know what you're going to find on a walk. I like to find cats. I pet them and talk to them. I've had cats all my life since I was a little girl. So today we were walking past a house and a calico came out to talk to me. She was darling and loved being talked to and petted. I think her people were at work and she was lonely (or hungry, cats are pretty predictable). Anyway, she meowed and meowed, and when I said "Bye," she went back onto her property. 

Here she is. She looks scary, but I guess she's not very photogenic. She was just meowing at me. 

Anyway, later on in the walk, I called Bob to chat as Susan Medlin and I walked along Lake Pontchartrain. He told me I had "butt-dialed" him earlier. He was with a client. He put the speaker on so his client could hear me. I was talking to the cat, telling it how cute it was, etc., etc. They thought it was hilarious. I cracked up, too. Busted!

Gorgeous home with a huge oak
in the front yard.

Susan and I loved these Mardi 
Gras decorations on the front door.

The house below has fancy under-the-eaves decorations: spandrels, corbels, beaded rail, repeated cornice brackets, and running trim.

I thought this house was
particularly cute.

If I were to go to Mandeville looking for lodging other than an RV park, I think I would choose the Old Mandeville Library Inn. It looks eclectic and fun. Interesting people probably run it.

Old Mandeville Library Inn.

Old Mandeville Library Inn.

When we returned to walk along another section of Lake Pontchartrain, the young man below was playing beautiful music on a synthesizer or an organ. I loved listening to him as we walked by!

Below is a video of the whitecaps on Lake Pontchartrain. You can also see part of The Causeway linking Mandeville, LA, to Metairie, LA, (a suburb of New Orleans) if you look closely. 

We had a bit of a breeze going this afternoon. You can see how large the lake is. Lake Pontchartrain is technically an estuary that connects to the Gulf of Mexico. At its deepest point, the estuary is 65'. 

Lake Pontchartrain began forming about 5,000 years ago when North American glacier melts caused the Mississippi River to swell and shift to the east. The river began depositing sediments into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a broad delta that would eventually become the Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes.

The city of Mandeville has quite a history. Bob and I learned a lot about it when we camped at Fontainebleau State Park a few years ago. The city was developed in 1834 by Bernard Xavier de Marigny de Mandeville, who came from a prominent and wealthy family. Even though he resided in New Orleans, he maintained a large and profitable sugar plantation located on the present site of Fontainebleau State Park. Mandeville was developed early on as a lakeside summer retreat for the wealthy citizens of the Crescent City (New Orleans). That is why there are many beautiful and unique homes along the lakeshore.

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (AKA The Causeway) is 23.83 miles long. The opening of the causeway brought the North Shore communities into the New Orleans Metropolitan Area! Since 1969 it was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world. In 2011, with the opening of the longer Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China, the Guinness Book of World Records created a new category for bridges over water. The Causeway then became the longest bridge over water (continuous), and the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge, the longest bridge over water (aggregate). 

Since this was our second 10k walk of the day (which I am not used to doing), I got whiny near the end of the walk. My legs were feeling heavy. So Susan had to listen to me complain about why did we keep heading back to the lake when our finish point was away from the lake? Her answer was usually the same: we're not to 10k yet. Sigh.

Snoopy as the Red Baron
mailbox. Cute one.

We finally got back to the car. I was so thrilled. We then high-tailed it back to our hotel room. I took a shower and stayed in my room for the rest of the evening. It took me all evening to edit my photos and write this blog, but now I'm finally done. Yay!

We do it all again, tomorrow, only in different places. Goodnight, y'all.