More from Slidell

On our trip from Atlanta to New Orleans this week, we met with a total of 15 businesses ranging from a solo mental health provider with a few contract workers to a few companies with about 100 employees. We saw people making fire hose, we saw pets getting treated, and we saw a lot of people buying a lot of fish. We also visited four states and drove a lot of miles.Trip ended with a drive over the Lake Pontchartrain causeway to the New Orleans airport. If you look in the lower right corner of this shot, you can see the Superdome which was going to get a lot more crowded over the next few days after we saw it.

Slidell, Louisiana had a lot of interesting things to see (“local color” as they say.) The Slidell Museum (which is quite a deal at the low price of free) is set in the old jail in town. Here’s Mike trying it out.

And here’s the Civil War reenactor who was taking care of the place when we visited.

On the more serious, work-focused side of things, I’ve been reflecting back on the trip. We had a lot of great visits. Like children, you never want to play favorites. But one of the visits from this trip that sticks out in my mind is the company that buys old catalytic converters, breaks them down, and sells the various remains (including some precious metals) into scrap. There are so many people involved in getting the converter to this company and then reusing the metal once they salvage it. It’s a great example of Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” where thousands of self-motivated people each play a tiny part in a system that leads to the efficient allocation of scarce resources. It’s an economist’s dream.

It was a great trip but I’m also glad to be home where my dog (you may remember her from the picture the other day) loves me for who I am instead of yelling at me when she makes a wrong turn because she isn’t thinking on her own…