Nola

New Orleans, Louisiana

According to me, we saw two levels of tragedy:

1. Hurricane devastation. The lingering damage ...

2. Bourbon Street. This street was very interesting to see, but it reminded me of Madison's horrible Halloween extravaganza. I don't care for drunken debauchery, because it always makes me sad. Allow me to explain...

Yesterday, my Dad and I rented a car, drove to New Orleans and spent the day galavanting around the French Quarter. We drank coffee, ate the famous and sugary beignets, ate muffaleta sandwiches, ate bread pudding, ate pecan pie, etc. For our New Orleans accommodations, we found Bill Laine through the warmshowers website. He lives in a huge home in beautiful uptown New Orleans. Upon our arrival, he said, "I'm afraid I'm like the airlines; I've double booked my home." To our surprise (and delight), two German cyclists also spent the night at his house. In addition to exhausting my full German vocabulary (which includes a song about ducks swimming in the water), we compared stories and enjoyed the company of other crazies.

That evening, Mattias and Neele joined us when we headed back into town to see the Preservation Hall jazz performance. It was authentic, acoustic and wonderful. Anyone who knows my Dad even a little bit knows that there are musical notes swimming in his blood. He is a music person and he loved the scene.

We hadn't eaten dinner (gasp!) so we walked down Bourbon street, past some of the plentiful bars and clubs, and found a little pizza place. We ordered our slices and sat in the shop's two chairs while the pizza finished cooking. While waiting, a girl slathered in make-up walked in wearing thong-revealing tight jeans and a bra. The pizza guy knew her and they started talking about her evening's work at Rick's Cabaret. She lamented that she still had to tell her boss that she was five weeks pregnant. Sad. I highly doubt Rick's Cabaret is sympathetic to a dancer who requests a maternity leave. I can't help but think, what kind of life will her baby have?


New Orleans was bustling, colorful, entertainng, humid and has a culture all to itself. Sorry, no one will get Mardi Gras beads as souvenirs. The Germans agreed, beads are way too heavy for our journey.



Tonight, we took our rental car back, and returned to the Panella's home in Mississippi. For dinner they prepared fried catfish, collared greens, corn, cornbread and lemon cake with ice cream. Delicious. I am so thankful for their hospitality.

Bill Laine also deserves some props because he shared his home-roasted coffee with us this morning. Our coffee drinking experience seemed oddly appropriate because Bill lived in Seattle for over 20 years and the rain was pouring, pouring, pouring down.

I have one apology. A few hours ago when I was packing up our belongings, I noticed that one of their dogs "marked" Dale's tent. Don't worry Dale, we cleaned it up. Eek.

Weather permitting (thunderstorms are predicted), we will be back on the bike tomorrow.

Even though it's the least populated state in the nation, I miss everyone in Wyoming.