After the paddleboat cruise, I headed up to the French Quarter, which I had reconnoitred earlier in the day. It was going off well and truly, Bourbon St was absolutely jam packed but I think I got there too late. About 30 years too late!! It is first class sleaze, with hundreds of noisy bars, full of people getting (or already) pissed out of their brains, strip joints for people of all persuasions, and weirdos on every corner. Just like the Boaties Tent at the Aussie Surf Lifesaving Titles, really. Didn't go much on the pervading stench of overflowing garbage bins & vomit though, but I'm sure I saw a couple of the Village People in one joint. Nevertheless, in the seventies I would probably have been in there with my ears back, & I probably would have started at breakfast time. (I still dare not show my face in Pamplona after the fiasco of the Running of the Bulls in 1977, & thats all I'm saying). But at my current stage of life, active participation would have been just pathetic, so I went back to the hotel, kind of cheesed off at the whole place. Or cheesed off at being 60, probably.
I decided that the following day would be much more enlightened, so I turned to more
cultural pursuits. I took a bus ride out to two old plantations, one of which was the
magnificent Oak Alley, a fairly typical southern mansion, but with the added bonus of a stand of exquisite 300 year old oak trees lining the approach. It has been used to shoot scenes in lots of movies, apparently. Look familiar? Fletch 2 was my guess. I was surprised to find they didn't grow cotton in this latitude because it is too humid, here they grow sugar cane. Remember that, it may come in handy.
Of course, everyone knows the slaves got a raw deal, so there's no point me going over all that. Suffice to say the living conditions out the back in the staff quarters were pretty rough, yet somehow still better than some of the septic tanks Chris Phillips & I stayed at in the west of Pakistan, or the room I had in Peru last year with no glass in the windows.
Later in the day, I took a stroll around the so called Garden District of New Orleans, where some of the well- to- do built their town houses. I think its fair to say the parts I saw had seen better days. Nice houses, but most are built of high maintenance timber, and with 150 years of tropical humidity, the damage level was high. Also because the whole city is built on a swamp, there are subsidence problems galore, and there is evidently a huge problem with termites here as well, with the conditions being ideal. OK, no more free building advice, I'm retired, but here's one of the better ones.
I was also able to revisit the French Quarter, and this time I discovered a whole world of culture away from Bourbon St itself. There are many exquisite buildings in the other streets comprising the French Quarter, with lots of antique shops, art galleries, cafes, hotels and residences. It has a very relaxed feel, & maybe because it was a Sunday, there were lots of buskers around, and some impromptu bands playing all kinds of neat stuff, mainly trad jazz, but other stuff too, and most of it was high quality.
OK, good stuff, glad I've seen it, but now its time time to move on. I flew up to Charlotte, North Carolina today, & I have just settled into yet another hotel. A noticeable drop in temperature of about 15 deg C was immediate as soon as I stepped out of the airport. I will do a bit of sightseeing, this actually looks like a very nice city so far, and a bit of shopping for more camping equipment while I wait for the bike to arrive later this week. Yippee, I don't have to carry that bloody big bag around any more, I will soon be able to actually wear most of its contents & stack the rest on the bike. I look forward to giving the bag to a homeless person to live in, and getting ON THE ROAD...... AGAIN. Blue Ridge Parkway, here I come. There is a chance I may rendezvous somewhere in this area with fellow Ulyssians Brian, Val, Bjorn & Sigrid in the next week or so, if they can get out of the snowstorm that just hit New Jersey & the north east of the country. The weather really is all over the place, unseasonal & very variable. Currently 40 deg in Phoenix, with snow in Yellowstone, and rain around this area. That's adventure riding!
Of course, everyone knows the slaves got a raw deal, so there's no point me going over all that. Suffice to say the living conditions out the back in the staff quarters were pretty rough, yet somehow still better than some of the septic tanks Chris Phillips & I stayed at in the west of Pakistan, or the room I had in Peru last year with no glass in the windows.
Later in the day, I took a stroll around the so called Garden District of New Orleans, where some of the well- to- do built their town houses. I think its fair to say the parts I saw had seen better days. Nice houses, but most are built of high maintenance timber, and with 150 years of tropical humidity, the damage level was high. Also because the whole city is built on a swamp, there are subsidence problems galore, and there is evidently a huge problem with termites here as well, with the conditions being ideal. OK, no more free building advice, I'm retired, but here's one of the better ones.
I was also able to revisit the French Quarter, and this time I discovered a whole world of culture away from Bourbon St itself. There are many exquisite buildings in the other streets comprising the French Quarter, with lots of antique shops, art galleries, cafes, hotels and residences. It has a very relaxed feel, & maybe because it was a Sunday, there were lots of buskers around, and some impromptu bands playing all kinds of neat stuff, mainly trad jazz, but other stuff too, and most of it was high quality.
OK, good stuff, glad I've seen it, but now its time time to move on. I flew up to Charlotte, North Carolina today, & I have just settled into yet another hotel. A noticeable drop in temperature of about 15 deg C was immediate as soon as I stepped out of the airport. I will do a bit of sightseeing, this actually looks like a very nice city so far, and a bit of shopping for more camping equipment while I wait for the bike to arrive later this week. Yippee, I don't have to carry that bloody big bag around any more, I will soon be able to actually wear most of its contents & stack the rest on the bike. I look forward to giving the bag to a homeless person to live in, and getting ON THE ROAD...... AGAIN. Blue Ridge Parkway, here I come. There is a chance I may rendezvous somewhere in this area with fellow Ulyssians Brian, Val, Bjorn & Sigrid in the next week or so, if they can get out of the snowstorm that just hit New Jersey & the north east of the country. The weather really is all over the place, unseasonal & very variable. Currently 40 deg in Phoenix, with snow in Yellowstone, and rain around this area. That's adventure riding!
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