Day 13 - Panama City Beach - New Orleans

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After leaving Panama City Beach, we headed for New Orleans, and in doing so, passed through the 3 states of Florida, Alabama and Louisiana.
Sadly after the burns from the previous day, blisters had already formed on my shoulders and upper arms, so I started applying plenty of Aloe Vera in an effort to combat it.
On the journey in, we stopped at Honey Island Swamp Tours on the outskirts of New Orleans, where Captain Charlie took us through the swamps. Just as we set off, the rains began, making the humid weather a little more humid.
Almost straight away we saw one of the younger gators, whom Charlie fed marshmallows – reasons for this vary – as well as sausages on a stick to get him right up to the boat and to get him to even jump out of the water, right in front of us. I was a little apprehensive about this, and ended up leaning back as much as I could as the gator came closer.
We then see a smaller gator, before meeting the Alpha male of the swamp – Wombo. He's a 15 foot gator and is between 75-80 years old. Thankfully he’d become accustomed to humans so came up real close only for a treat. Fortunately he appeared on the other side of the boat from me, so I was a little more relaxed at seeing him up close. Don’t ever think about messing with him though, he’s one mean mudsucker! Sadly my camera stayed in the van, so I missed out on some great pictures. Even P King stayed behind. I think the sight of a small furry animal could have prompted a gator to attack!
We headed further along the swamp, before turning back, and then heading in the other direction from the base site of the tours. This is where, the throttle was put down on the boats as we are allowed to speed along the section of river for about a mile or so. We were shown many 'holiday homes' along the river and shackes that were used for weekends away fishing. Sadly the further along we went, the more run down the shacks were - so we turned back!

We then headed back on the day for Nawlins, where we would be staying in a house converted into a hotel in the French Quarter of the city. This wasn’t any normal house though. It’s quite big and open, with plenty of rooms. It may be one of the best, if not the best, hotel I’ve stayed in. We had to clear all our stuff out of the van and trailer as we wouldn’t be using it for the next couple of days though, so I struggled to carry all my gear to my room in one trip.
The rooms were sorted out just like the tents, so I ended up having a room all to myself - two big comfortable beds, and a ceiling fan. All very nice!
After we had settled in to our rooms, we met up with Todd and then headed out for the night. What happened from that point onwards will go down as perhaps my best night of the whole tour! Thankfully I can still remember everything about it, with a little help!

First Todd took us on a brief tour around the French Quarter, where we walked across Bourbon Street, and then up to overlook the might Mississippi, and even a couple of streetcars.
At Jackson Square we had dinner, and I introduced the rest of the group to alligator. Mark, G, Scott, Todd and I had sampled it back in Panama City Beach. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and the general census is that it tastes just like chicken.
As we were in New Orleans, I felt I had to sample some of the shrimp, so I ordered BBQ shrimp, but was surprised to see the heads still attached, which I thought was a little off putting. See, my only other experience of shrimp was a vendor stall on the Fremlin Walk back in Maidstone, where Karl and I bought a batch of juicy, succulent shrimp – with no heads.
The fact this meal was still fully bodied and the shell was still hard didn't make it as enjoyable as I hoped. I’d still eaten the majority of it, apart from the head, but Sumi proceeded to tell me it’s customary in Japan to eat the head, brains and all. Sumi even went as far as to break one of the shrimp’s head open to get to the brains.
Then the peer pressure from everyone else began, and I had no choice but to eat one of the heads. So I did. The crunching sound as I chewed was disgusting and the fact that some antennae was sticking out of my mouth seemed wrong, but either way, I can now say I have eaten the head of a shrimp!
As soon as I downed some of my drink to clear the taste, it seemed for a moment that Sumi had just suckered me into eating a shrimp’s head, but she said she was telling the truth! My heart skipped a beat though.

Then we moved on to the rest of the night. We headed to the famous Pat O’Briens bar to try a local cocktail known as a Hurricane. Sadly Sarah and Jess were too young to be allowed in, so they went with Sumi to another bar where they could get in.
Todd, Scott, Kylie, Zoe, Graham, Neal, Mark and I then ordered the 3 gallon, 64 shot equivalent of the Hurricane. It costs 100 bucks and a 75 buck deposit which we would get back if the glass wasn’t damaged.
We would later discover the glass is actually plastic so can’t break. I think it’s a way of stopping people from walking off with it if they had completed it.
When the drink turns up, all the other drinkers turn and look on at 8 crazy people about to attempt to drink it.
All we were giving were straws, so drinking from them will not make it easy. We took it in turns taking big sips, but sometimes the sips were too big that it all went to our heads, especially in my case. But after just over an hour we had completed it all, and we let the other drinkers know about it. We were now all smashed, but we didn’t care, we'd just completed a mammoth task.
So we headed through the bar, but saw that the 7th and final game of the Finals was currently on, so we stayed and watched. We managed to get a spot right by the front by the projector screen, and what happened next was a great moment for me.
I soon started leading the cheers for the Celtics, ‘Let’s Go Celtics!’. For those who don’t know about sports chants like these, the opposition are then suppose to reply ‘Let’s Go Lakers!’, but that didn’t happen. As I was completely hammered, I continue with my chants, which Kylie and Zoe seem to join in, but no one else. Worse still, I seemed to be getting louder as I tried in vain to get more people joining in the chant. It never really took off, but I enjoyed it all. Graham even introduced two football chants as well – ‘The referee’s a wanker!’ and ‘Kobe (Bryant) is a wanker!’ – both of which Todd loved. Sadly the Laker’s won the game and the series, but it was all an experience.

We finally left Pat O’Briens and headed for another bar, where we basically had a toilet break – and Kylie and Zoe ended up modelling some washboard attire for the band – before we hit Bourbon Street. We find another bar that was selling another big local cocktail – a Hand Grenade – so we insisted on trying it out.
By this point, and by my own admission, Todd and I really were gone (even if Todd kept denying it) and before long I ended up sitting on the kerb opposite the new bar. My first and only Hand Grenade was quickly replaced with water, which I started to drink to keep hydrated, but after losing my shirt to cool down, I started pouring it over my head and shoulders.
I've always maintain that this was for my burns, but everyone thought I was too drunk that I was just pouring it over my head.
Soon afterwards I could just about understand that people are calling my name and I looked up to see Mark and some others on the second floor of the building of the bar on its balcony aiming a camera at me. Not my best moment, but I just end up yelling something inaudible and raise my hands up for the camera.
Graham later did a couple of montages of some pictures and videos, and that video was on there. It still brings a great big smile to my face every time I see it.
Kylie and Zoe soon decided I had had enough and they escorted me back to the hotel, but after one block, I had to stop to throw up by the side of the kerb in to a roadside parking space. What make it better was that as soon as I finish throwing up, a car came and parallel parked into that exact spot. Luckily American cars are left hand drive; otherwise the driver would have stepped out of the car into the pile of sick.

When we reached my room, Kylie opened the door, and the two of them did something by the door. I walked into the room, emptied my pockets of all my stuff, undid my zip and belt, dropped my shorts, and wearing just my boxers, collapsed face first onto my bed, all in one constant movement. By the time Kylie and Zoe looked up again, they saw me collapse. Kylie tucked me in, and Zoe rubbed some Aloe Vera into my shoulders. They both begged me not to make the noises I made as she did it.
They then left me, and what seemed like a couple of minutes or so later was actually about half an hour when Kylie poked her head into my room to check on me, having just walked everyone else back with Zoe.
I didn’t care though; I had just had the best night of my life, if not one of the top nights ever

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