7. Getting Home

7) Getting Home

The ride back to Toronto was all highways.

While the Club had set up a meeting place in Wellsboro, PA to meet some other Club members who could not make the NOLA trip, Carol and I had to get back to Toronto. We only had 6 days to get home, repack and then fly to Frankfurt, Germany.

Yes, we had made arrangements to be in Heidelberg, Germany for Stefan Knopf’s wedding…

I will write about that on my next blog…

What a wedding that was…. HOLY SMOKE!

When we left via the motorcycle in the AM on May 14 I heard someone yell…

                              Ya’ll come back, ya hear …!

And I thought…. Ok, we will!

6. So What Did We Do in NOLA?

6) So What Did We Do in NOLA?

He Talks To Everybody

Mainly we ate!  I told you, this is a paradise for foodies. We walked around and looked at the Two Sisters Restaurant but did not go there. We found some smaller, not so famous places right near the hotel, a bakery with fresh croissants, every morning. A place for lunch the locals told us about that is not in any tour guide book. Ask the bums on the street, they know. Just talk to anybody; all of them are very friendly. 

Checking Out the Bead Work

Mardi Gras Beads on Her Bike

I chatted with young girls who crochet their bicycle with Mardi Gras beads; they loved to tell me how they did it. 

Homeless But Happy. Have They Seen the Weed Truck?

I spoke to hoboes and they stopped smoking, happy to show me, tell me where to go. Think of life as a party, just dance.

Some people of our group went on a tour to see the old mansion and plantations; Oak Alley being one of their favorites. 

But we have been to Oak Alley so we took a ride on the Mississippi with the Delta Queen, a paddle steamer. It was just an up and down the river kind of ride, but we saw NOLA from the water side. 

Creole Queen

We saw the old sugar processing factories where still millions of pounds of sugar are produced. The River has a history, even older than NOLA.

I cannot list each activity but NOLA was not boring, even at night.

Instead of going to the infamous Bourbon Street, we went to the newer section on Frenchmen Street. Again, locals told us to go there for the latest great Jazz. And it was good. 

Night Market With a Resting Place For Weary Shoppers

Most of the people of the club joined us to see Frenchmen Street. We had a hoot. Not only were the orchestras inside the bars, no, young men and some young women were having a ball just doing their thing right in the street, right on the corner. And… those folks were good… and the music was ‘new’ not what you hear on TV or radio. 

I felt alive walking around NOLA. During the day as a tourist, at night as a visitor and never did I feel any kind of danger. NOLA is a town which celebrates.

Even death, as you can see in the photo is celebrated here.

Oh when the Saints go marching in….

Gone But Not Forgotten

We spent 3 full days in the city, doing what tourists do. Doing what older people do, because we did not stay in the bars until the early morning light.

Gathering In the Courtyard of Our Hotel

I liked NOLA. The weather was in our favor; it did not rain but it was hot. We had a great get together of the Motorcycle Club people in the court yard of the Hotel a few times a day but especially at night.

Naturally, we went to the Supermarket or a Liquor Store to buy our own beer or spirits. So we did not spend huge amounts of money having a grand old time.

An Evening In the Party Room

Ken and Rita booked a hotel room to stay with us even though they could have gone home. But being the social folks that they are……it was better that way; they could have a drink and not worry about driving after. Very responsible, don’t you think?

More Party People

Well, thank you for bearing with all of us while in NOLA, Ken!

We should do this more often, visit you and Rita and listen to your stories.  We all had a great time.

5. History and Culture

5) History and Culture

300 years of New Orleans!!!  

That is a very long time for any U.S. City. 

Remember, the U.S. has only existed since 1776. The U.S. is ‘only’ 242 years old.

So NOLA was started way before there was an USA.  And as every child in America knows, Louisiana was purchased from the French when President Thomas Jefferson bought it in 1803.

It was called a folly then; today it is called a genius Purchase.

Ah, the history of NOLA is a subject that covers libraries full of books. 

The Shirt Says "This Girl Can Do Anything". She Has a Pink Ribbon and a Pink and Black Net Tutu

New Orleans is different because of her people. Even this 3-year-old girl is so beautiful. 

Typical New Orleans Architecture

Sure there is a different architecture here, very much influenced by the early French and Spanish occupation but it’s the people in NOLA who are the icing on the cake. It’s the mix of nations, of ethnic backgrounds, of beliefs, of cultures, of points of view, of differences that makes this city so exiting. This city, NOLA, is not within the ‘box’. 

NOLA is outside the ‘box’. Music and food, Parties, good times, leisure and art are all part of what makes New Orleans so different. And what different art it is, too.

Wedding Procession Complete With 8-Piece (?) Jazz Band

Sure they have ‘normal’ streets, highways, cars, jobs, telephones, etc. but that is just ‘stuff’. 

New Orleans has a spirit, a ‘joie de vivre’ that is like no other place on Earth. Just look at the wedding procession that we saw from our Hotel window, where in the world do you find a celebration of life like this?

We came to visit, to experience those different feelings, to encounter the diversity in how one was raised. 

"Weed" Truck With "Space Cakes", "Tippy Treats" and "Weed World Candies"

Changing one’s feelings, being different than the program written into our psyche during our youth, is not easy. To live differently from how we were raised is not as easy as it sounds. 

New Yorkers have a tougher attitude.  New Orleans people, they have a different attitude again. 

Well, all these are good qualities to have depending on where you live, but what about charm, is this charm a Southern thing?  Were Southerner’s trained to live with charm?  

Music Is Everywhere Here

People in Canada are taught to be polite, it shows.

People in New Orleans live a different lifestyle; they do not see the world like I do. To me the way people live here is intriguing. I could not live with just music in my life. They can! I could not live with just the clothes on my back. They can! They do not worry too much about tomorrow, I do! 

 Ah, it’s a mix in NOLA, there are some people like me here, but the people here are also very much different from me. I guess the folks in NOLA were raised differently from you and me.

Great Sunglasses

I hear you… you think, thank God there are other people who are not like me.

Good, exactly, NOLA is different, go to New Orleans, immerse yourself in their lifestyle, in their point of view and you will ‘grow’ a little bit inside.

In NOLA it’s more about a feeling; a feeling of how to live ‘better’. 

Enjoy the music, enjoy your food, and enjoy life…. Be happy! Embrace the arts.

It took NOLA 300 years to get this far, and the people here like it the way it is.

Street Art

Fun Art

No Hurricane can shoo them away, they love it here and they will stay.

It’s a potpourri of lifestyles, of people in NOLA

We rode across the U.S. to just see this lifestyle, to just experience it, this feeling of difference.

 (OK, OK, we came to see you too Ken!)