Day 90 - N.O.L.A. No-la
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
92
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
New Orleans,
Louisiana,
United States
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The KOA operate a free shuttle service into the city and so we had booked ourselves onto the minibus which left the site at 9am this morning. It was quite a grey morning so we packed our waterproof jackets and were actually quite grateful that we wouldn't have to be walking around in the baking heat and applying sun cream every half hour. The camp site is actually further out of the city than we thought and the journey took around 45 minutes, although we did take a scenic route in past a lot of the old colonial houses, some of them pre-dating the Civil War. The bus dropped us off at the riverfront right by the French Quarter and arranged to collect us again at 5.45 unless we decided to stay in the city for the evening and make our own way back.
After consulting our map and getting our bearings we headed first for the French Market passing the Café Du Monde along the way, where people were queuing out of the door for tables
The Founding Of New Orleans
. The shuttle bus driver had recommended to everyone to take coffee and beignets there but fried bread covered in copious amounts of icing sugar wasn't actually doing it for us. The French Market turned out to be very disappointing, just a load of overpriced old tat and all the same stuff on every stall. Not exactly the Sunday market in Puerto de Mazarron! After wandering around quite a few of the old streets and not finding anywhere that took our fancy for a spot of breakfast, we headed out onto Canal Street and found McDonalds where we both tucked into two cheeseburgers each. Hangover, what hangover?
Canal Street was at one time the widest street in the US. It gets its width and name from a proposed, but never constructed canal. As we wandered along Canal Street the sky grew darker and darker and the wind got stronger. The cars switched on their headlights and the street lights came on and it was really quite eerie. It made us think of what must have gone through people's minds 3 years ago as Hurricane Katrina approached, but then you realise that that must have been many, many times more threatening than this storm that was moving in on us now.
As the rain drops began to fall we went into Walgreen's and after having a wander around and picking up a couple of things we found ourselves unable to leave as the rain was now torrential outside
The French Quarter © MFox 2008
. So we stood in the doorway with a dozen other people and watched others getting wet waiting for the storm to pass. It was only midday but the sky was so dark you could have thought it was early evening. Just when we thought it was passing over and we were about to make a dash for it, it would get heavier again. And so we stood there for about 15 minutes before finally making a move. Although it wasn't raining so hard it was still raining and so we dashed from shop to shop, mainly shoe shops as Neil wanted some new flip-flops. In the end it was Mel who got new shoes as she was only wearing flip-flops and they weren't really very practical with all the surface water that was around. When the rain eventually stopped we walked back up Canal street towards where the bus had dropped us off, stopping off at a few souvenir shops along the way, to find them all selling the same stuff, most of which was made in China! From Canal Street we wandered along the riverside to take a closer look at the Steamboat Natchez, a paddle steamer on the Mississippi which does tours up the river and dinner cruises and such like. Apparently they're operating a revised schedule at the moment as just recently there was an oil spill into the Mississippi, 500,000 gallons! We actually saw some of the clean up operation going on just a little way past the Natchez. Then we went in search of lunch. We had both been really looking forward to sampling some real southern cuisine, Mel in particular fancied trying alligator which we had heard was a specialty in the area
More French Quarter
. Unfortunately, people were either queuing around the block to get into places, or they were so empty you had to wonder why, or else they were just doing the usual burgers and stuff that you can get anywhere. So back to McDonalds and another two cheeseburgers each! And fries! And ice cream! After lunch we took another walk through the French Quarter, this time down the famous Bourbon Street. We were quite disappointed to find that instead of being full of nice little bars with the sound of Jazz filling the street, it's full of garish bars blasting out loud raucous music, drunken people staggering around and strip clubs. In fact it makes Las Vegas seem positively family friendly.
The bus driver had mentioned that the best place to hear Jazz was actually away from Bourbon Street on Frenchmen Street and so we took a walk in that direction. Frenchmen Street is actually home to many of the oldest Jazz clubs in NOLA. As we walked past one of them, The Spotted Cat, there was a four piece band playing and so we decided to go in and sample some real NOLA Jazz. We spent just over an hour in there while they did a couple of sets before taking a steady walk back to catch the shuttle bus. Whilst waiting for the bus to arrive, we sat by the river and watched one of the crewmen of the Natchez play tunes on a steam organ on top of the boat, using steam from the engine room
Hanging Gardens © MFox 2008
. It was just like watching "Steamboat Willy"! We considered staying in town for the evening but in the end decided against it. Although we are always on our guard and wary of our surroundings, especially in big cities, our time in NOLA was the first time that we have felt uneasy. And if we felt like that during the day then what would it be like at night? Also as there hasn't been much jazz around for us to sample during the day, you wonder how good that will be as well. And by the time you have paid for entrance to a club, dinner, drinks and the $30 taxi back to the camp-site it could turn out to be a very expensive disappointing experience.
The journey back on the bus was very interesting. Firstly we drove through an area right next to where we had walked today and the driver announced "This is an area we tell folks to avoid, it's not good around here"! Maybe it would have been better to have told us that on the way in?! We then passed through areas that had been affected by Katrina and the subsequent flooding. There was a deserted "Kwik-Fit" type outfit that was just completely mangled, both on the outside and the equipment on the inside too. The driver pointed out several new fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and explained that they just cleared away the few remains of the old one and built a new one, the damage was so great
Canal Street © MFox 2008
. We also passed through residential areas and he pointed out the dark lines on the sides of the houses where the flood water had stained them, 3 ft high in places. And wouldn't you know it, the camera batteries died right at the beginning of the journey! It really was quite staggering and very saddening to see and hear about the effects of Katrina, especially as a lot of it could have been avoided. For example some of the levees might not have been breached if the mayor hadn't ordered the evacuation of the pump-house staff! That said, it was a very powerful storm. Even the weatherproof lining on the roof of the Superdome which was designed to withstand 200mph winds was ripped off!
Miles travelled: 0
Total miles travelled: 8796
Days on road: 70
States visited: 15
National Parks visited: 11
