44 MOTORCYCLE MOJO JULY 2019city is largely below sea level) and
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to the surface – not exactly the hoped-
for resurrection. A stroll through the
cemetery was like wandering narrow
streets between tiny stone apartment
buildings.
Following River Road north, I
for its antebellum-style houses with
white columns and iron railings on
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The cemetery is an old one, but the
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in the Big Easy is that loved ones are
“buried” in crypts aboveground. This
is due to the very high water table (the
crossed straight canals that were
dredged and named like city streets
leading out into the swamps, and I
passed an airboat or two docked on
the banks. The sight of Oak Alley
Plantation stopped me in my tracks.
Twenty-eight massive Virginia live
oaks in two columns stretched from
the mansion to the Mississippi River.
Established as a sugar cane plantation
in 1830, Oak Alley once enslaved more
than 220 African-Americans. A tour of
the Big House, followed by the slave
quarters, gave a glimpse into the injus-
tices that occurred on these grounds.
Beyond the towns of New Roads and
False River, I rode through thousands
of hectares of sugar cane, giving way
gradually to corn and soybeans. Often
the road ran along the top of the
12-metre-high levee, so that on my left
I had an overview of the crops growing
in the rich delta soil and, on my right
the mighty Mississippi heavy with
laden barges.
A Deep South History Lesson
Crossing the state line (and the river)
into Mississippi, I was about to deepen
TRAVEL NEW ORLEANS TO NASHVILLE
THE DEFINING
FEATURE OF MOST
CEMETERIES IN THE BIG
EASY IS THAT LOVED ONES
ARE “BURIED” IN
CRYPTS ABOVEGROUND
Because New Orleans is below sea level, loved ones are often buried in crypts above ground. (top)The oaks at Oak Alley Plantation were planted by a French settler around 1710 – long before the presenthouse was built – so these oak trees are now around 300 years old.