Well I drove the 2 hours from Lafayette to New Orleans and arrived at the French Quarter RV Resort. I was surprised when I found this resort because I didn’t think you could park this close to the French Quarter. Made my reservation and then looked up where it was. It’s actually right next to St. Louis cemetary #1. Not really considered the safest part of town. During the day it’s not really a problem and at night I always just took a cab or a pedicab back to the gate.
Not really sure how to describe my trip in New Orleans. I ended up seeing so much in the 6 days I was here can’t really put it all in one Blog post. But once I got parked I immediately walked down to Bourbon street and look around. Ended up getting something to eat at Cornet restaurant on Bourbon. Now while the food was good it wasn’t great. But what I did get was a quick tip for a Tuesday night from the bartender.
She told me that I needed to go down to down to the Maple Leaf bar on Oak Street and see the Rebirth Brass Band on their typical Tuesday night gig. So I came back to the Trailer and looked to see when they would start playing. It wasn’t until 11pm.
But I wasn’t tired and feeling good. So around 9:00pm I got a taxi from the RV resort and headed to Oak Street. Taxi fair was about $20 to get there. What I figured out was that Oak Street is where an artist I’ve met online works at Zot’z coffee shop. I stopped by there to see her but she wasn’t there and I have no other way to contact her since her Facebook page had to be deleted since she used it under her alias name of Hyena Hell. Love her work and hoped I would get to see her sometime during this trip. Left a business card. Lets see if I can find a SFW piece of her art to share.
Anyway, got to the Maple Leaf bar and paid the $20 cover to get in. I think this is a good point to mention that my debit card had expired at the end of September and I didn’t have ready access to cash. This little excursion to Oak Street was starting to add up. $20 cab, $20 cover, $5 beer… I have less than $20 to get back to the camp ground. I hoping the cab will take credit cards. But having been to New Orleans several times before I realize this city runs on COLD HARD CASH. I’m not that optimistic.
Anyway, the bar is packed. And once I got to hear the Rebirth Brass Band I understand why. They are amazing.
Probably one of the best traditional Big Easy bands I could have gotten to see. The crowd was pretty low key but high energy. Got to talking to one guy who was there celebrating his anniversary. His wife had wandered up on stage and he had to go corral her. Another gal it was obvious she was there by herself. As such she was getting harassed by a guy who might have been more than a little drunk. I told her that if he was being too obnoxious I could help out. But as it started running past 1am I was finally starting to get tired and decided to head back to the trailer. Not sure what happened with her.
I was watching as the cab meter ticked along as I was heading home. It finally settled on $17.40. The credit card reader wasn’t working. I had $17 in my pocket. Cabbie was OK with that and we escaped for the night. No cash on hand but my sister is arriving tomorrow. (It is now past 2am) I finally get wound down enough to go to sleep by 3am. Or maybe 3:30??? Not sure…
But guess what I did the rest of Wednesday!!! That’s right nothing… Woke up I think around 11am. Well I did find a Whole Foods that was a mile away from the French Quarter so I went and picked up food. But other than that I knew that the next few days with my sister, niece and nephews would be an adventure. Blog post 2 coming soon.