No, Lee, tell us what you REALLY think...

OCTOBER 17, 2009 10:18PM

In Which I Go to Morgan City So You Don't Have To.

Rate: 15 Flag

OK, Dad, you were right. There ARE things between New Orleans and Morgan City besides the swamps and a bunch of Cajuns. There are also sugarcane fields, trailers, primer-colored vehicles, bingo parlors, abandoned drydocked boats, United Holy Metal Building Churches of God, porno emporiums, Confederate flags, and very narrow, very high, very rusted-out bridges built and last painted during the Great Depression.

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Come on. If you found a recording of Dylan singing "Dixie," you'd find a way to use it.
I remember crossing the Huey P. Long bridge when I was down there. Sorry you had to spend your day off stuck in a car.

Love Dylan singing Dixie. That's on the "Masked and Anonymous" soundtrack which is brilliant. Thanks for taking us along on your trip Lee.
Rated for providing a valuable public service! Enjoyed the Dylan, too.
The music and video equal perfection. Thank you so much. I like the South, to watch movies about and read about mainly, but the only part of the south I have ever lived in or spent a lot of time in is Florida, and I did not like that very much at all.
what you said. i would absolutely do it. this was cool in its own weird way. and the song is fabulous.
++
Love the abandoned drydocked boats. I love abandoned stuff.
lovely,. like Lee...
Looks like a great way to spend four hours on your day off to me. I can see I need to add yet another place to visit in the US if I get the chance to visit again.

I'll be singing that song all day now.
Mjwycha--They're widening the Huey P. now, though it won't be the same without the white-knuckle experience of driving in the far right lane with nothing but a rusted-out railing keeping you from falling 200 feet into the river and a freight train rolling by overhead and shaking the whole thing.

Nelly--The message of this public service anouncement: don't let someone talk you into going to Morgan City, unless it's during their annual Shrimp and Petroleum festival.

latethink--Oh, this is the South all right. I missed getting a number of the "Hell Houses" (haunted houses put on by churches about what hell is like if you don't repent) I saw along the way.

femme forte--I found the song because I had insomnia and was on iTunes trying to find the weirdest shit possible. Another fun find: there is a children's album out there containing the song "Sixty-Minute Man."

Sirenita--There were TONS of them.

Brian--aww....thanks...

Linda--I never got a chance to get out of the car. I was merely accompanying someone on an emergency errand. I didn't want to go but knew that I'd better. It's a long, long story.
You should produce documentaries Leeandra. Well, I guess you just did. The Dylan was perfect! I was scared shitless the first time I crossed that Huey Long. That thing was built when, during the great depression?
There's a lot of rust and rot and swamps and metal churches and Cajuns down there, but damn I still love Louisiana. I still have my friends Louis and Cynthia and there 4 girls over in Bucktown Metairie and Kevin the contractor (localshelpinglocals.com) down off Airline Hwy, but other than that you're my New Orleans connection. Thanks for the tour. It was (as freaky would say) fab!
I have never been to morgan city and don't think that I will ever go. Thanks for this travel post so I can avoid it completely.
Well at last it's not underwater. Frankly, I doubt if Dylan wishes he was in Dixie.
But a fun piece anyway.R
Thanks for this. Write a blog about the friends errand and why you had to go?
Trig--My stepmother kept her eyes closed and held her breath the whole time she was on the Huey P. Long every time she crossed it. The two-lane roadways, which run along the outside of the bridge and below the train tracks, are a grand total of 18 feet wide with no shoulder whatsoever. It opened in 1935. They're widening the roadways to three 11-foot lanes plus an 8-foot shoulder.

Jess--It's worth it for the annual Shrimp and Petroleum festival, complete with the crowing of Miss Shrimp and Petroleum. Otherwise, it's the armpit of Louisiana.

John--Dig about six inches and you'll hit water. Hence all the mud. I doubt Dylan wishes he were in Dixie either.

Deborah--He had to drop off an insurance check and have it signed for in person with witnesses.
I so want to come visit someday!!!!
Brenda Gail--At some point, you must! And though I have a tiny little 2-room apartment, I DO have an air mattress that gets set up in the kitchen whenever guests come by and it all works out well.

Don't go to Morgan City, though...there's no there there.
It doesn't look a whole lot different than a lot of American backwater country. Not so different than around here. There is a whole lot of this country that never shares in the wealth of the nation, or that hits it big time once and from that high point it is all downhill. Sad, really, but there are a lot of really good people in these redneck pockets.

Great song, singer and video.

Monte
Monte--other than being flatter and muddier than where I lived in Southeastern Kentucky, there really was no difference. My friends from Europe come to New York or Los Angeles or Las Vegas first and then go out into the country and they're astounded by the huge swaths of the United States that are so far removed both economically and culturally from the big cities.

Not exactly fun to be stuck in a car at the last minute for a four-hour trip through though.
Very, very cool. Love it.
I realize these wasn't meant to be taken as a scenic tour, but I loved it. Of course, Bob Dylan singing "Dixie" made this so much fun.
I never go anywhere, so I most appreciate seeing other parts of the country. To you, it's ordinary and uneventful, but to me, it was a fascinating glimpse at a part of the country I never see (and can I just say, damn, it's so FLAT there?) LOVE the Dylan song. It fit the images perfectly.
That was great, thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Owl--Thanks!

Suz--Have you heard Dylan's Christmas album?

Lisa--The highest point in New Orleans is Monkey Hill. It's a 15-foot tall pile of dirt inside Audubon Zoo. It was built by the WPA "so the children of New Orleans would know what a hill looks like."

dicea--Thanks!