Following the template

So with the time change we pulled into New Orleans around 4:30 PM, not bad considering we logged 800 plus miles to get there.  The La Quinta we stayed at was right in the heart of the city.  It looked like an old building that they renovated.  They did a nice job, it was very nice inside.  Unfortunately it’s heart of the city location left no parking options that didn’t cost $30 and a valet, oh well.  After taking a quick survey of the pool and fitness center in the hotel, neither of which we used, we headed out onto the streets of New Orleans.

I have driven through New Orleans several times on other western road trips but was never inclined to stop, partly because of having the dogs with and partly because what I saw of the city from the highway looked pretty dirty and rundown.  This was the first time my feet actually hit the streets of NOLA.

We walked a bit and found ourselves going up and down Canal Street.  I didn’t realize New Orleans had trolleys.  They were zipping up and down Canal Street all the time.  We decided we wanted to head down to the French Quarter since that is what everyone talks about.  Street signs seem to be a low priority item in New Orleans.  It seemed most intersections had either poorly visible or non-existent signage.  They did have the intersecting street names embedded into the sidewalk.

Without realizing it we had turned onto Bourbon Street.  It looked as I expected after seeing it in pictures, lots of bars, lots of gentlemans clubs and lots of people.  Cindy and I knew we needed to crack the seal by getting a couple drinks.  As I was sitting there at the bar Cindy could tell I was a bit uneasy.  Cities and large amounts of people do that to me generally.  I also felt like I needed to be on alert at all times as I was unwilling to be a victim of any sort of criminal/shady business.  I had my pocket knife in my shorts just in case, as silly as that sounds.

So I determined the way to mesh into the New Orleans experience was to drink.  I drank two oversized Miller Lights at the bar.  As we were sitting there a brass band suddenly formed right outside the bar.  It consisted of guys playing the drums, trumpet, trombone and tuba.  They were great.  In no time they had a huge crowd gathered around with various people dancing in the streets.  It was quite entertaining to watch, we hung there for awhile just taking it in.

We then decided it was time to grab some dinner.  I had a Po Boy sandwich and another beer.  Cindy had a tasty but very fried seafood platter.  Our waitress was very friendly, as were most of the people we had interactions with.

We headed back out on the street to continue exploring Bourbon Street.  There were a number of street entertainers, all of which were impressive/funny in one way or another.  A number of dollar tips were handed out.

Another New Orleans tradition are of course beads.  We sort of cheated at first as Cindy bought an Eagles bead set.  However while we were out on the street I got a set thrown to me from some women on a balcony after Cindy lifted my shirt.  Cindy got her own set of beads when she flashed her abs/tattoo without having to do a full mardigras style breast reveal.  It was funny.

We stepped into a place with an interesting beer, Huge Ass Beers.  They served beer in this massive 70 ounce plastic bottle with a built in handle.  I was already kind of drunk so it took little convincing for me to plop down $20 (including tip) for one of these mammoth beers.  It was a ridiculous amount of beer.  It also was quite the attention getter as we walked around.  NOLA has no open container laws, you can carry your beer in the middle of the street without worry.

The Huge Ass Beer bar had some pretty scary looking bathrooms.  If the doorway to hell had a bathroom it probably looks like this.

I started working on the beer myself but had to enlist Cindy to help throughout the night.  As we walked around there was just so much going on, the vibe was pure fun.

We even saw a marching band that was leading a wedding party through the streets.  The wedding members were all fully dressed in tuxedos/dresses as they marched by waving white hankies.  It was something I never saw before and will probably never see again.

I was dead tired by the time 9PM local time rolled around.  We had been going since 3:30 AM in our time zone,  Trying to knock down the last of the Huge Ass Beer became a matter of willpower.  The beer no longer tasted good at all and was warm.  However I did not want to take any shortcuts.  As Cindy was taking her shower back at the room I finally sucked down the last few ounces of Miller Lite.

When I woke up this morning I felt like shit as expected.  My head was pounding, I was severely dehydrated and had no motivation to move.  Eventually I drug myself out of bed.  We ate the free continental breakfast and got back out on the road a little later than we hoped since we have another 700 some miles of driving to take down today on the way to Oklahoma City.

The drive so far today has been pretty uneventful although we discovered northern Louisiana is a pretty boring/empty region.  We did grab filet-o-fish meals at perhaps the friendliest McDonalds ever just outside of Shrevesport.  All the employees treated you like you were ordering filet mignon instead of fast food.

Our plans in OKC are pretty minimal since we wont be rolling in until 8PM.  We want to head down to the site of the Oklahoma bombing memorial, eat dinner and call it a night.  We want to not get another sluggish start tomorrow, we have another long leg through Kansas and winding up in Durango, Colorado.

Another 300 miles to go..