taz_39 | Entries tagged with state: louisiana

We drove to New Orleans!

We found a random seafood place for dinner. It was delicious and too dark for photos :P After our meal we relaxed at our hotel for a bit. The hotel was right on Canal St. The view was....

Hahaha. So, then we went on a haunted tour of New Orleans!
Our tour guide took us through some less-populated areas and gave us some history about hauntings, murders, deaths, etc. that had taken place in various buildings. The stories may or may not have been true, who knows! But our tour guide was a great storyteller so it didn't much matter. We had a really awesome time!

A creepy building where parts of Interview with a Vampire were supposedly filmed:

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Opening night was great if only because we had a great crowd. People cheered and booed and clapped and screamed, kids danced in the aisles. What great reactions! Thanks New Orleans! After the disheartening turnouts in Mexico, we really needed to be reminded that people DO still enjoy the circus!!!

On one of our one-show days, Jameson and I took a walk over to The Ruby Slipper for a late lunch. He had shrimp and grits, I had "eggs cochon", which is like eggs Benedict but with shredded pork in place of Canadian bacon and a biscuit instead of english muffin.

After that we wandered a bit, visiting Peaches Records and just sort of looking around. It was very humid and rainy, so we soon headed back to the arena for a rest.

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We got off to a late start on Monday morning.

Jameson and I had pork chops and rice at the Pie Car for dinner. Dessert for that evening was my last Mexico Coke. I don't normally drink much soda so it was a special treat :)

We arrived in New Loredo almost on time; it didn't much matter anyway because we stayed there overnight.

On Tuesday we woke up early to do customs once again. Train crew came through first to confiscate any "banned" food items. I find this funny because all of my food at this point is stuff I snuck into Mexico from America at the beginning of the trip. Does that mean I can't take my American food back to America? Lol. So we went to Pie Car to have our passports stamped again, then waited and waited and waited to the point where people with early evening flights were freaking out that they might miss 'em. There was eventually a van to take people to the airport.

We finally started moving around 3:30pm, and stopped short of the border for American customs.

On the other side of the bridge, my phone started working. Aaah, 4G...the sweet, sweet nectar of civilization. I called my parents to let them know I'm alive. Then we sat in the yard until after 9pm while our water tanks were filled, animals were watered/fed/cleaned, and Pie Car was restocked.

Wednesday was an all-day run. I was able to tether my phone several times throughout the day to make plans for a short trip after we reach New Orleans. Otherwise it was a pretty boring day. I did all the things I normally do, and cleaned our donnikers, and didn't take many pictures because it's Texas. Rebecca and I are the only ones on our car this run; everyone else chose to take flights out of Loredo. I don't mind the quiet, but I'll be happy to get to our destination.

On Thursday we were able to make up quite a bit of the time we'd lost getting "side-tracked", and arrived in New Orleans pretty much on time.

Going through a lower income neighborhood, I can't help but think that America's lower classes often have better housing than Mexicans of similar standing.

We crossed the Mississippi River via the Huey P. Long Bridge. Neat!

I was super excited to be anywhere except on the train :P I remember the area and immediately found Big Lots, then Guitar Center for some Slide-o-Mix, then Walmart for everything I could carry (and that turned out to be too much). LJ and some other circus folks were there too, so we snagged a cab back to the train. I was happy to see my fridge full again! The water was hooked up, so I started some laundry and packed for my mini-vacation :)

( vacay )

Wow, there is a LOT to do in New Orleans!

We rolled in around noon on Tuesday, so I spent the first day running errands rather than going into the city. But on Wednesday I caught the 9:30 bus to the Superdome with Eric (he's one of the head train maintenance guys). We started off with a visit to the WWII museum. I don't have pictures of that because I'm a poor photographer and nothing I took came out well :/

The museum is set up so you can walk through it chronologically, beginning with Europe and ending in the Pacific. There were displays showing the weapons, gear and clothing of American, French, German, Russian, and Japanese soldiers. Some of the machinery was very impressive; there was a highly advanced gyroscope used in Japanese missiles, and a complex German coding machine. Also, I never realized how few soldiers America went into the war with as compared to other countries. But our mass production was unrivaled, and that gave us a huge advantage.

One thing that I thought the museum did very well was explain the tactics involved in campaigns throughout the war, including smaller but strategically important battles. It was very interesting to see how like a game of chess it all was, and how even retreats can be preplanned to create an advantage.

The self-guided tour ended with the atomic bomb display, which was dominated by a compiled video of the bombs being dropped and the aftermath, including footage of badly burned women and children. I can't help but feel shame that our country killed thousands of civilians with those bombs.
Anyway, Eric and I left the museum in kind of a dark mood, but I'm glad we went!

We visited the Riverfront Marketplace, which turned out to be a mall on the river...neither of us wanted that, so we found the French Quarter and ate lunch at Chartres House Cafe.

The food was VERY good. He got chicken alfredo and a beer, and I had blackened redfish with jumbalaya and veggies and SeaGlass white wine. Our appetizer was spinach dip, but instead of chips they gave us fried bowtie pasta. Delicious!

Then we went our separate ways. I explored the French Quarter a bit more, and stepped into a voodoo shop to see...well, to see what's in a voodoo shop!

Black salt, monkey paws, shrunken heads, etc. It was interesting!
I got a bit lost trying to find Cafe du Monde, but found this fountain instead: