New Orleans

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We were all moving slow this morning. We started our journey to Louisianna. Started getting really warm and remembverd that we still had no ac in the car. We were at the edge of the french quarters. We decided the first day to walk down canal street which is the main street and borders the one side of the french quarters. Not very impressed on our first site. Very poor-very dirty. We didn't really know where we wanted to go so we turned back and headed back up to the Radisson. Didn't look like a street we should be on after dark. GOt back to the hotel and caught a shuttle back down to the french quarters. We couldn't have gotten on the quarter by going left of canal street. Too bad we didn't know that then. There were so many bars and shops and restaurants. Places one would never step into anywhere else seemed to be the normal thing around here. Some of these old row stores went on for what looked like forever. Sometimes they went into open courtyards in the middle of the buildings. Alleys everywhere which was kinda cool, and kinda scary. There was so much spanish and french influences. Me and Jimmer didn't like New Orleans much. We were up in the area where the projects were and it kept us in our hotel a lot of the time. When we were rouring by foot the french quarters up near the end called Rampart Street which was only about a block from our hotel we strolled up to a St. Jude's church. We went to see the cemetary where this big voodoo woman was burried. It just so happened that across the street of rampart was the church cemetary. That's where the projects were. There was no missing it, boarded up buildings and ratty buildings. we were strolling around to see if the side cemetary entrance was open so we could see the projects better. The cemetary's were interesting because they were all about ground. THey said that if the caskets were put underground they would start floating down the mississippi. THe cemetary closed at 3pm and it was around 5 as we were in there, but there were some others doing the same so we figured it was ok. As we walked around the corner toward the front of the cemetary a police car stopped infrot of us. He asked us if we were lost. We knew exactly where we were and could see our hotel from where we weere standing and relied no. He asked us where we were headed and then told us "no, you're lost. If you really knew where you were you wouldn't be here" He told us that the french quarters were safe but at the edge and across the street where we were was "unsafe turf" He said that the project people had no respect for anything or anyone and were known for jumping over the vemetary walls and taking people's money. He said there was this unmarked but very clear line that didn't allow white folks in. That was so sad. Even the police knew but couldn't stop this. There were a lot of gangs, drug runners and dealers who didn't work for a living. Kinda freaked us out for a while about going off the beaten path. None of us wanted to go very far from the hotel after that.
We saw a voodoo shop and it had a shrine around this woman picture-voodoo woman in the cemetary and it was all strung up with signs saying dont touch bad luck...and waht do I do...TOUCH IT...everyone in the store yelled don't touch at me and i freaked out started crying. then we went to the St. Jude Shrine haha There was alot of culty, spiraturl, voodo stuff down here. I got sick with a really bad fever and no energy.

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