New Orleans

Nov 19th

New Orleans was one of the bucket list destinations for both Kathy and I, and it didn’t disappoint. Mia was very anxious to get going, she wanted beignets. We waited until after 10am to start walking into the city. I didn’t think anything would be open yet. The walk was less than a half of a mile, and most places were still closed. This is a night town. The architecture and the feel of the French Quarter is so unique. We have been to many tourist towns/attractions on our journey, but this one is different. It doesn’t feel fake or manufactured for tourists. This is a real community that just happens to attract people. We walked down several streets just admiring the buildings. We even walked down Bourbon Street, which was very quiet at this time of day. Time for some food. Café Du Monde is world famous for their beignets, but when we arrive there was a line that went half way down the block. It was being worked like an assembly line. Once you reached the counter, tell them how many beignets you wanted, pay for them, they would put them in a bag, and you were out the door. We didn’t want to wait in line, and we wanted to sit down in a café and enjoy them. Just two blocks away we found Café Beignet, and it had very good ratings. I walked in ordered three beignets and café au lait. They had outdoor seating and Oreo was welcome to sit with us. Our order arrived, and they were fantastic. There was powdered sugar on everything when we were done eating, the table, our faces, our clothes, and poor Oreo, who was sitting under the table. Mia wanted to order more, but we told her that we needed to pace ourselves, because there would be a lot of food today. We walked around taking in all of the sites, Jackson Square, The Mississippi River with riverboats, cemeteries and St Louis Cathedral. Mia and I went into the cathedral, when I came back out to switch with Kathy, Oreo was in full panic mode. A street performer had showed up in the square in front of the cathedral. Even though it was supposed to be a “quiet zone”, he was blowing a whistle and cracking a whip, all with extremely loud music playing out of a speaker. It all terrified the dog. I walked him a block away just to try and calm him down. Now for a quick side note before you come to New Orleans. Everybody that approaches you or tries to talk to you, wants money. There are standard panhandlers, but then there are the buskers, street performers, and “the helpful folks” who are either being helpful for a tip, or trying to get you into their restaurant, bar or tour. Just know that if you engage them, they expect money. Mia was fascinated by the magic and Voodoo shops, and we had to go into several of them. While they did sell tourist trinkets, they were also real Voodoo stores. We got several recommendations for lunch, but when we arrived at these restaurants, they were very posh and expensive, and didn’t have seating for dogs. We found an open-air bar, the Royal House Oyster Bar, and the waiter told us that they were very dog friendly. I had the shrimp Po-boy, Kathy had the roast beef Po-boy, Mia had chicken strips, and we got a cup of gumbo to share. Everything was delicious. Mia ate half of the gumbo by herself. Several horse carriages and big trucks drove by as we were eating, and Oreo was not enjoying himself. The final tipping point for Oreo was the freight train. We were sitting next to the Mississippi River watching ships go by, when a freight train slowly rumbled through blowing his horn constantly. We couldn’t even walk Oreo away from it, because the train had cut off all escape routes. We had to wait for the train to pass to get anywhere. Oreo was so upset, that he climbed into Kathy’s lap. Even after the train had gone by, Oreo did not want to get down. Mia and I walked down the street and bought some more beignets and brought them back to where Kathy and Oreo were sitting. After eating and relaxing for a while, Oreo was calmed enough to walk again. We decided to take him back to the trailer. It was 4pm by this time, and the streets had started to come alive. Mia and Oreo stayed at the trailer tonight while Kathy and I had a “date night” in town. We prepare a frozen pizza for Mia, and she has picked several movies to watch while we are gone. We gave her one of our cell phones, and she locked the door behind us. The French Quarter is different at night. Bourbon Street was just a massive party, with loud music pumping out of every bar, and drunk people everywhere. This wasn’t our scene. We ended up eating at Café Pontalba, after wandering for an hour. Kathy had the shrimp etouffee and a Hurricane(local drink specialty), and I had the crawfish sampler (crawfish Caesar, crawfish pie and crawfish etouffee). In the middle of dinner, we heard a band marching down the street. We ran outside. It was a wedding. The bride and groom were leading the procession, followed by the second-line (a marching jazz combo), then all of the quests waving their napkins over their heads. We finished our dinner and the waiter asked if we would like a drink to-go. ??? Yes, you are allowed to drink in public and all of the bars offer to-go drinks. The waiter even told us that there are drive-thru daquiri bars. That doesn’t sound safe. We asked him where the good jazz clubs were. He told us that they aren’t on Bourbon St anymore, they are Frenchman St. When we left the restaurant, we stood outside deciding where to go, a man came up to us out of nowhere and started talking to us. Then he sprayed goo all over my hiking shoes and told me not to worry, he was just shining them. He wiped it all off and then wanted me to pay him. We started walking toward Frenchman, and we passed a homeless man lying on the sidewalk. He held a cardboard scrap with “Bad Advice $1” written on it. I couldn’t resist. I pulled out a one-dollar bill and asked for some bad advice. His girlfriend appeared out of nowhere, and said “Oh, he’s good at that”. He sits up and smiles and says, “When you want to lose weight next year for bathing suit season, start shooting up with crystal-meth.” “You won’t need to exercise, and you won’t want to eat. You can stick the needle in between your toes so no one sees your track marks”, he continued. Ok, I think I got my money’s worth on that one. Kathy and I continued on our way. We came across an art gallery that was completely different from all of the sterile high-galleries we had been seeing. There were paint splatters all over the floor, and different styles of art scattered randomly throughout the storefront. We were drawn in by a black and white painting that was in progress, and we had to see more. We talked to the young couple working there for quite a while. The gallery owner hangs her own art, but all of the employees are artists too, and they get to show their art. On top of that, they use the space as their studio. It was a very cool concept. We reached Frenchman St, and found a club with a jazz band. It was fairly full, so we got a seat at the back bar, but we could still see the band pretty well. We started talking to the bartender, who looked and talked like John Travolta from ‘Welcome Back Cotter’. He told us that there was going to be a comedy drag show upstairs in an hour and we should go check it out. I went to use the restroom, and there was what looked like a homeless guy slouched in the corner. I went about my business, and when I tried to wash my hands, he stood up and offered soap to me. A bathroom attendant? Sure enough, he offered me a towel, then mint and cologne, and I tipped him. I still wasn’t sure if he worked for the club or not. Then Kathy returned from the bathroom, she told me she had an attendant too. A little while later Kathy leans over and says, “That homeless guy in the corner is giving me the creeps”. I looked over, then told her that he was the men’s bathroom attendant. We went upstairs to get seats for the drag show. We met another couple and started talking to them. I don’t remember their names, but they had both been drinking a lot, and one woman was very boisterous. Once the show started, we were supposed to tip the performers during the show if we liked them. I gave all of my $1 bills to Kathy, and the couple we met, started egging her on to tip them. Between the men(who really looked like women) dancing around and lip-syncing, and Kathy looking bewildered on what to do, it was very entertaining. Once the show ended, we walked back outside and started heading home. About a block up on Frenchman, the street was closed, because a TV show was being filmed. As we approached we noticed all of the cameras were being put away. Then someone in a police uniform asked us to get out of the way, because they were dealing with an unruly individual. Right on cue, the man comes around the corner being followed by three officers pointing tasers at him. He’s belligerent and refusing everything the cops ask. Now a crowd has gathered to watch what happens. The man punches one of the officers, and the other two then restrained him. It was like watching a live version of “Cops.” We continued our walk home, and as we walked by one of the clubs, Kathy started singing to the music. That was an invitation, for another person to approach us.

“Where are you from?”

“These streets can be dangerous”

“You should carry your wallet in your front pocket”

“I don’t want nothing from you, I’m just giving friendly advice”

“Be careful”

“I grew up around here. Not everyone is as friendly as I am”

“I got three daughters, and it’s been hard since COVID. I got laid off from the hotel. It was a good gig, but I got three daughters.”

I gave him some money, and Kathy said that he had to walk us back to the RV park. He reluctantly agreed. We talked as we walked a few blocks, then we told him he didn’t need to come with us. He seemed relieved. We made it the rest of the way home without any more incidents. I had managed to keep Kathy out until after 11:30pm. Shocking right? Mia was still awake when we got back. She had watched three movies. I think we got the most out of our day in New Orleans. Of course, for more details about our night, just ask us the next time we talk, because I’m not writing “everything” in the blog.

Nov 20th

We all slept in this morning. As we learned from yesterday, the French Quarter doesn’t come alive until after noon. We left Oreo at home today. He seemed happy with that. We walked around the French Quarter and showed Mia all of the spots we visited the night before. Kathy had discovered a used book store and we took Mia there to get some books. The owner had once run a book store in the Bay Area, so he knew Copperfield’s Books. We stopped at Frank’s Italian Restaurant, for lunch, because they make muffulettas, another New Orleans sandwich. We got to sit on the balcony overlooking Decatur St. Mia loved looking down at all of the traffic. After lunch, we walked along the river front, and Mia asked if we could take a ride on one of the river boats. We walked over to the dock, and after some inquiring, we booked a dinner/jazz cruise for tonight. We went back to the trailer and took a nap. At 5pm we headed back into town for our dinner cruise. It was already getting dark. We walked past Bourbon St. and it was packed. Mia was amazed at how different it was at night. She also wanted to go into one of the Voodoo shops at night, because she thought it would be spookier. We boarded the river boat at 6pm, and were seated for dinner at 6:30. While we were eating, the boat was unmoored, and we started cruising up the Mississippi River. Dinner was good, but we ate so much we had to walk around the decks several times before we could eat dessert. It was a very relaxing evening, and the jazz band was good. Mia loved watching the massive paddle propelling us. The boat brought us back to the pier at 9pm. Decatur St was blocked off by police. We walked up to see what was going on. It was another wedding, and we were just in time to see the bride, groom and second-line band start marching down the street, followed by all of the wedding guests. The rest of our walk back was uneventful. The streets were very busy, but having Mia with us, deterred people from approaching us for money. They seem to leave families alone.

Nov 21st

It was sad leaving New Orleans, but I feel we made the best of our two days. I would definitely come back here again. Most of our day was spent driving. We made it into Texas tonight. We are staying at a county park near Vidor, Tx. It cost us an entire dollar to stay here for the night, and we have the whole 869-acre park to ourselves. Oreo is so much happier. Once the park closed this evening, we took him off the leash and let him run. The only problem is that he can’t go near the water. Yes, we are still in alligator territory.