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Published: January 16th 2011
Saturday January 15th, 2011
Let’s see – we had three days (Jan 10 - 13th) in New Orleans, Louisiana. I (Katy) had a deadly cold virus (Hmmm – wonder who gave me THAT?) ... sneezing, coughing, snuffling, aching all over for a couple of days. Which of course put a bit of a damper on frolicking in “The Big Easy”. Add to that the fact that the temperature was maximum plus 6 degrees Celsius with a chilly wind off the Gulf, and you’ll understand why I was the only woman in the city wearing Stanfield’s longjohns under my jeans. Nonetheless, we managed to eat (gumbo, beignets, blackened fish), drink (cafe-au-lait, bloody marys, “Hurricanes”), and be merry (jazz, the aquarium, St. Charles Street Car, Bourbon Street). Thank you to our friend NURSE KARRIE for the suggestions. We recommend New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park for anyone visiting.
Best things about N’awrlins: 1. Walking around French Quarter, lovely old buildings interesting lively street scene 2. Street musicians playing some GREAT music (and some dreadful stuff too). 3. The beautiful accent. Almost a different language.
Worst things: 1. Feeling sick – not fair when you’re travelling. 2. Tarjei wasn’t sick and
Abilene
Windmill capital of the world I think!although he tried to be sympathetic, kept striding ahead with boundless enthusiasm. 3. There was a beautiful very warm (87 degrees F) outdoor pool in the hotel courtyard, and I was too sick to go swimming. Everyone else in the hotel thought it was too cold outside to even think about going in the water.
KF
This is Tarjei: On the 13th we left New Orleans early and drove north and west. Building highways in Louisiana must have been an engineering and financial challenge. Mile after mile of highway is built as causeways on pillars through swamp land. Had a long driving day and made it to Cisco, Texas. Katy finally stopped wearing her touque.
Then January 14th we arrived in Lubbock, Texas, the birthplace of Buddy Holly, the rock legend who died in that plane crash in 1959 (The “Day the Music Died”). But the reason we were there was to see John McGlone an old connection from grad school days in Illinois. John is a physiologist/ethologist, and very active. Texas Tech University just got an MRI that John will be using for some research — put a pig inside and see what its brain does
New Orleans Jazz National Park
These guys were FANTASTIC. We just wandered in by chance and were amazed. A real highlight. when it’s happy!
Although TTU has about 30,000 students, its Ag College is just a little bit bigger than NSAC and a very similar distribution of students (mostly animal science and pre-vet). Being in cattle country, we had no seafood for supper that day - but some truly excellent steaks.
Today is Saturday the 15th. We drove through archetypical prairie landscape to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. It’s the largest natural cave in this hemishere, and it is amazing. We descended on foot, a mind-boggling 750 ft below the surface, through stalagmites and stalagtites and huge chambres. A long winding trail through the caverns took three hours to complete. Then we took the elevator to the surface (very American). Lighting was electric and cleverly done to emphasize colour and drama.
Tomorrow, we are heading towards Tucson, Arizona, with some hiking along the way.
TT & KF
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Jon & Lynda
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THE SITE IS WORKING!
We just went back in and tried again and the site is working great! Too bad Katy is sick but it looks like you are having a wonderful trip. We are jeleous with our 2ft plus snow and -31 with the windchill brrrrrr enjoy the warm and send some up to us There is a section in the Sunday Reader in the Journal today about dentistry in Mexico. Apparently very safe, very cheep and very good. It is in Los Algodones dubbed Molar City claims to have the highest density of dentists in the world. Hope Katy gets better so she can have an even better time! (and Tarjie does not get sick) Jon says don't forget to pick up the life jacets and rubber raft! They probably have a good deal at wallmart (Waldrmart, the store that must not be names) Ha Ha