Hello Everyone! I’ve had a great week soaking up the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of New Orleans, sharing laughs with old friends and just enjoying a few days in my favorite city. I went to some of the first parades of the Mardi Gras season, ate plenty of crawfish and king cake, heard some great music and generally just wandered around the city I called home for longer than most other places in my life. The weather has been warm and sunny and it’s been a pleasant week all around. I have also taken care of some things this week which needed to get done before I moved forward with my journey like getting new tires for Shadow Catcher and finishing my taxes. All in all, it’s been a great week and I’ve had a great time, and while it was tempting to stay in New Orleans for the rest of Mardi Gras, I hit the road today and ended up at a beautiful little café here in Lafayette to write this week’s This Week. We’re supposed to get storms here tomorrow, so I’ll be laying low while they pass through and hope to press on west in the afternoon. I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and celebrated the beauty of love, whether with someone or alone, and that you’re all safe and warm wherever you are.
After I finished this post last week, I did in fact make a beeline for New Orleans. There were plenty of places I would have loved to stop along the way, and people I really wanted to stop and see, but my compass pointed me south and I went for it. Had I left 2-3 weeks earlier as originally planned, it would have been a slower drive south but I really need to get moving if I want to see New Mexico and Arizona before heading to California for work this summer. I arrived in New Orleans at about 9:30 pm and had a nice, quiet walk around the French Quarter, parked just a few blocks from my old apartment there. I always feel a little lighter when I’m walking the streets of New Orleans, like the weight of the world is pressing down somewhere else and we’re all just going to suspend our disbelief a little bit and forget about what’s going on “out there”. The history of the city, its Spanish colonial architecture and creole culture really hit me in the heart and soul and I can spend hours just wandering around and looking at the buildings, as I did often during the two years that I lived there. It never seems to get old. There are even smells that will hit my nose which aren’t necessarily pleasant ones but which link to sense memories of all of the wonderful times that I’ve had there. Sadly, the city is in a low place in its omnipresent cycle of ups and downs which stretches back to the very founding of New Orleans. Crime is as high as it’s been in years and the pandemic and most recent hurricane have definitely had an effect on the infrastructure, population and morale of the city. Having lived there during another low point after Hurricane Katrina, I know it will bounce back again, but I was sad to hear so many of my friends, even those born and raised there, talking about leaving. I know it is different living there and I empathize with everything they told me, but it didn’t stop me from having an amazing week in the Big Easy. Later in the evening I wandered into one of the neighborhood bars I frequented while I lived there and it was nice to be greeted by my name 13 years after I moved away and see a friendly and familiar face (thanks Robert).
Thursday I woke early and wandered down to the river, stopping for coffee and beignets and a little street jazz at Café du Monde. I headed down to the French Market to see what the local artists were selling and then all the way down Royal Street to Canal, enjoying the buskers and architecture along the way. The sun was shining and there was music in the air it felt really good to be there. After a nice, long morning walk, I headed out to the gym and then across the street for some boiled crawfish and king cake at Rouse’s Supermarket. I had a wonderful personal tailgate in the parking lot with some good music, cold beer and a whole pile of mudbugs. When I was nice and full I headed over to my good friend Walker’s house which is where I stayed for most of my visit. I met Walker when I first moved to the city in 2007. He lived down the street from me and we hung out often, exploring the bars in the French Quarter and trying to help each other through that first year of classroom teaching. Walker grew up in New Orleans, so always seemed to have the inside track on what was going on around town and I was happy to tag along. While I stopped teaching many years ago now, Walker has been in the classroom since, but is taking a little sabbatical this year to clear his head and make a plan for the future. It’s been great to hang out with him and his lovely girlfriend Megan and her daughter. We spent Thursday night catching up and walking their dogs and having a couple of cold beers in their charming home.
Friday was incredibly low-key and I spent the day hanging out with Walker and Megan, running errands and relaxing around their place uptown. It was great to spend the day with them and I enjoyed their company. I had a small mountain of paperwork to fill out for my new job, and I was grateful for their internet to get this done. We spent the evening eating pizza, watching Netflix and chatting about their lives and plans.
On Saturday I headed back to the French Quarter for a shrimp po’boy sandwich from Johnny’s which I enjoyed by the river while the steam calliope on the Steamboat Natchez played as it has for as long as I can remember. I enjoyed a couple of beers at some of my favorite old haunts in the Quarter and then met up with my friends Mike and Kristy who I normally spend my Mardi Gras mornings with when I’m here for the big day. We watched the Krewe du Vieux parade that evening which runs through the French Quarter as opposed to along the main parade route which goes down St. Charles. When I lived in New Orleans I used to have a party for Krewe du Vieux since it ran just a couple of blocks from my house and I enjoyed hosting my friends and then wandering down to watch. It’s a small parade, but a fun one and we enjoyed the floats and the music. After the parade we took a nice long stroll around the Quarter hitting up a few bars as we went. It was nice to get a little slice of Mardi Gras while I was here and I do hope to be back next year for the main event.
I got a bit of a late start on Sunday, but was happy to catch up with my good friend Luke and his family during the day. Luke’s son Oscar has grown from a 12 year-old kid into a tall 14 year-old young man since I saw him last, and his younger son Teddy, who was not yet born when I was here in 2020, is now 1½. It definitely put the pandemic timeframe into some perspective. It was great to see them and to catch up on what they’ve been up to in the interim. In the evening, I went with Walker and Megan to his parents’ friends’ house for the Super Bowl. There was plenty of good food and drink, and a funny old man who kept me laughing with his shenanigans all night. I’m not sure why he latched onto me to share his hilarious pearls of wisdom, but I’m glad he did. I was hoping Cincinnati could pull it out, but I wasn’t really bothered either way. One really cool thing about the evening was that one of Walker’s friends had created one of the commercials that ran during the Super Bowl so it was something different altogether to cheer about.
I definitely didn’t want to be a third wheel on anyone’s Valentine’s Day, so I spent much of Monday on my own. I did have a nice breakfast with my friend, Katie, who I dated while I lived in New Orleans. We weren’t a great couple, but we shared a wonderful friendship and it was nice to be able to spend some time with her and catch up on her news and what she and her family have been up to. At one point in my life she knew me better than almost anyone, so we could have an easy conversation about personal experiences and feelings which was really nice. In the afternoon, I finished up my taxes and then headed out for some delicious oysters at Frankie and Johnny’s down off of Tchoupitoulas – one of those street names you probably can’t pronounce unless you’ve spent some time in New Orleans. After dinner I wandered into a little dive bar off of St. Charles St. and one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous, was on. I ended up watching it until the end and then headed not too far away for a few beers at Brothers Three and Ms. Mae’s before calling it a night. It was a pretty great Valentine’s Day, to be honest, and I was happy to see all the couples enjoying their romantic nights together.
Tuesday morning I got my new tires at the Firestone in the Central Business District. I was happy I could get the exact same tires which have carried me from the very beginning of this project in 2017 and served me so well along the way. The people there were nice and got me back on the road before noon. I took myself to a nice lunch at Dooky Chase’s, one of New Orleans’ best restaurants and one that everyone should visit while they are there. Leah Chase was one of the best chefs the city has ever known and was a legend both locally and around the world. She served presidents, congressmen and civil rights leaders as well as hundreds of thousands of locals and tourists since they opened in 1941. While Leah passed away a few years ago, the food, service and ambiance are still top notch. I spent the rest of the day wandering the Quarter and taking photos which is always an enjoyable experience for me. In the evening, I joined my friend Luke for trivia night at the Bayou Beer Garden and finished the night at one of the country’s best dive bars – Snake and Jake’s Christmas Tree Lounge. It was great to chat with the bartender and knock back a few Schlitz beers, knowing I was parked for the night right across the street.
I had a nice, quiet morning today and then had a wonderful lunch with my friends Estilla and Joby who had visited me just a few weeks ago when I was at home in D.C. We had some great burritos and conversation and it was a nice way to end my stay in New Orleans. I drove all the way out Magazine Street and then hit the highway, pulling into Lafayette just after dark. I found my way to the lovely Carpe Diem café, which is a wonderful little nook to tuck into and finish this post. I’m hoping to head over to the Blue Moon Saloon for some Cajun music when I’m finished here which is always a good time.
If the weather clears at a reasonable time tomorrow, I plan to head to one of my favorite little beaches in far western Louisiana for a couple of nights. The beach itself isn’t so nice and I don’t think I’d go deeper into the water than about knee deep, but it is westward facing and there are nice sunsets. I like it because I can park for free right there on the beach and stay as long as I want to. I want to get some work done on my podcast and clean and organize my van before taking off into Texas this weekend. It’s going to be a bit of a whirlwind through Texas, as I hope to see a handful of places and still be in New Mexico by March 1st. I’m looking forward to it and hope to be somewhere near Austin by this time next week. I have to finish up now before the café closes, but I appreciate you spending a few minutes with me and I hope you have a wonderful week out there. I’ll see you right back here, same time next week.
-Mike