Blogs from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, North America - page 5

We’ve hit New Orleans, or Nawlans as the locals say. That’s what the guide said on our tour of the city. If Savannah was hot this is even hotter. We’re staying in the French Quarter right in the middle of all the action. Bourbon St, where all the music and real action happens at night is only two blocks away. Bars have their own bands playing recognisable (to us) songs ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, patrons, and music spilling out onto the narrow street. With coloured lights and signs flashing it’s a real party atmosphere. You can tell the tourists. They just look bewildered. Except ones much younger than us drinking out of flat sided large jars with straws, fishbowls they are called, $10 and a refill for $7. Every morning the clean up brigade is out ... read more

The final leg of my westward expansion from Pensacola to New Orleans was dry but very HOT. The temp when I started out at 11:00 was 91 degrees and ended up being the low for the day- the high was 96. Thanks to the non-free states of Alabama- Mississippi- and Louisiana, I had to wear helmet #1 (mandatory helmet laws). Those of you that have been following my blogs for the last 10 years have heard my reviews of New Orleans before. Besides stopping in the Big Easy on the Cajun-Parrot Run in 2013 and the Last Corner Ride in 2014, New Orleans is my favorite and one of my most frequented cities in U.S.. If you haven't made it to NO you need to put it on your list. However, I've found that most people ... read more

Google Maps says the drive from Live Oak Ridge Park in Belton TX to French Quarter RV Resort in New Orleans LA is 522 miles and would take 8 hours 9 minutes, but that doesn’t compensate for food and fuel stops nor for my “less-than-the-limit-while-pulling” speed; sooo, I planned a one-night stop at Twelve Oaks RV Park in Lake Charles LA. That gave me a final leg of just over three “Google Maps” hours and 200 miles which would place my arrival time in the heart of New Orleans between the morning and evening rush hours. Informational Irene (my GPS) again performed flawlessly, and both trips were uneventful save some major road construction that caused a couple of major delays between Belton and Lake Charles. I was glad I hadn’t tried to make the entire trip ... read more

So Monday started in a fairly relaxed fashion. There were only two parades tody, Opheus and Proteus, and they didn’t start until 5.15 (according to the schedule) So we had a day to explore the city. We decided to get a streetcar, AKA a tram, and just see where the road went. Five minutes on the tram and I suggested we find Lafayette cemetery. I really need a destination. We got off at St Charles avenue thinking we could catch the tram down to Lafayette. Now St Charles Avenue is one of the streets the parades come down. Soo the trams weren’t running, 6 hours before the parade and they had already been cancelled. It wasn’t just us that got caught. There was a local man who was quite upset that he couldn’t catch the streetcar ... read more

So this is just the precurser to get me warmed up into writing again. Hopefully I will finish the works on the whole trip this time. So the basics. Flights were long. 23 hour to land in New Orleans. The first leg into LA was the longest, 14 hours into LAX, with turbulance the whole way. Made sleeping a near on impossible task. I'd just nod off and the plane would shake around again and again....and again. By the end I was almost ready to cry, for God's sake can't you stop the plane from moving around! Because pilots can control that kind of thing right? I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep toward the end. Poor Mis Jo only managed half an hour. She made up for it on the three hour ... read more