Day 40, Friday 10/25, Tropical Storm Olga hits New Orleans

   During the drive from San Antonio to New Orleans, tropical storm Olga formed in the Gulf coast and brought heavy rain to southeast Louisiana during the day.  Overnight, high winds, thunder storms and heavy rains flooded roads and low-lying coastal areas, numerous streets are closed Saturday morning with fallen trees and limbs.  Linda and I choose to ride out the storm in the camper parked in the water front site at the Pontchartrain Landing, yup. Conditions were mild with light rain at bed time, the intensity occurred mostly around 3:00-5:00 AM.  You could not sleep through the high wind gusts and driving rain the pummeling of the camper. Plan B was activated, to pull in the slide to make the camper a smaller wind target, and prevent damage to the slide topper (awning).  The storm subsided and we were able to sleep during the early morning hours.

   The storm followed an extended driving day where the 9 hour plan became 11.5 hours due to 5 extended traffic delays. Set up in the dark and rain was frustrating.  We were able to unwind at the Lighthouse restaurant on the grounds of the campground and watch game 4 of the World Series, where you have to root for the Astros, who are down 3 games to 0.   

   Three days later, hundreds of homes are still without power in the area due to storm damage. 

Day 41, Saturday 10/26, New Orleans

  A first visit to NOLA, New Orleans, Louisiana, met expectations; busy, crowded, revelers, tourists, history, architecture, famous food and music. On a first visit to any city, you venture into some unknowns, navigation for both driving and walking, parking, access to your destinations, construction, accidents and road closures, human hazards, eating and bathrooms. Many older cities have strange street layouts, and plenty of one-way streets, GPS navigation is something we now take for granted. The French quarter architecture was great to see and photograph, a nice mix of building colors and great variety of iron scroll work on the balconies.  It turns out, the architecture in the old French quarter is generally not French, but Spanish with French appointments. The original French buildings were virtually all burned down in the elate 1700’s. The helpful woman at the visitor’s center described most of Bourbon street like a sewer, well, it is certainly the loudest and rowdiest, and has the most number of walkers with drinks to go.  I can just imagine how it gets at night. Be careful, so many are there to get your money one way or another.  (I did pay a colorful man $1 so I could take his picture)

   The people watching in New Orleans is top notch. You get to see people in all sizes and shapes, from all back-grounds ethnicities and orientations, at their best, or their worst.  And to make it better, New Orleans has started while we are here, celebrating The Day of the Dead, a Halloween time Mexican celebration and recognition that N.O. is the most haunted city in the US. This visit was on a Saturday, and the street vendors are fully out displaying their arts all around Jackson Square. While most of the vendors are artists, some are selling fortunes, palm reading, and braiding hair, and some are frozen as live mannequins.  One has a typewriter and a stool, and will type a poem just for you. A couple have trained birds to share, or tamed snakes. Another will tell you a joke for 50 cents.  Street performers abound as well. Linda loved the street dancers whose performance includes hand stands walking up stairs and bouncing back down on their hands.

 The number of restaurants is a bit over whelming, we enjoyed a late lunch at Pere Antoine, the Gumbo was perfect.  In mid-afternoon, the Café du Monde still had lines, but the Beignet’s (French donuts) were hearty and coffee just right. Two times in the afternoon, a parade formed and passed by us. In both cases, city police motorcycles escorted the jazz band parade. In one case, a just married wedding party was led by the parade.

   On the way out of the city, I intentionally drive close to the site of the famous Hard Rock Café which collapsed last week while under construction.  Many looked in awe.

• 2019 Fall