3) Getting to Our Hotel
At one point in our trip we
saw 3 riders from our Motorcycle Club having a break in a parking spot, on the
side of the road. Naturally we stopped and asked if they needed help but all
was ok, they were just stretching their legs. They needed no help, just needed
a break. We do this, too… just stop and get off the bike and walk around a
little. Carol and I are not racers; we are sedate riders.
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| Not So Sedate Riding On the Track a Few Years Ago |
We are not the only people
that do not like large group riding. Those 3 fellows knew each other well, they
like to ride together. And if you ask them they would agree, more than 4 riders
becomes a crowd. Getting to New Orleans to me is not how fast can I get there,
or who is going to be in New Orleans first, but to me it is much more important
to get there. To get to New Orleans in one piece, without any incident or
trouble is my foremost goal. I learned it does not matter one bit if I get
anyplace a bit later. I am retired, I have the time.
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| Lots of Traffic in the French Quarter |
We rode our daily mileage and
used the hotels on the road to ride to NOLA but once we entered good old NOLA (New Orleans, LA) and had to
find the Old City, the French Quarter, we were no longer interested in riding a
motorcycle. It was time to just park the bikes.
NOLA is a big modern city
with lots of highways and different sections within and around it. Here in LA, (Louisiana), they call the counties
‘Parishes’. Remember, NOLA used to be French which is very Catholic. The Ideas
of the Roman Catholic Church and some of the words got stuck here. All of this
is still a left over from the time when LA was French.
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| Jackson Square |
Even the legal system in
Louisiana is still based on the Code Napoléon.
Compare that to the
Commonwealth Law of Massachusetts, MA… very different.
New Orleans, especially the
French Quarter, is a walking city. It is not really suitable for cars, bikes or
any motorized traffic. Sure the locals ride through the French Quarter but they
KNOW this city. For us, the outsiders, it is best to park our bikes and leave
them there.
Ah, here lies the crux, where
do you park in the old part of New Orleans?
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| Changing in the Parking Lot With a Little Help From a Friend |
Jack and/or Ken had it
arranged so what we could park our bikes within the walls or parking lot of the
hotel. This was a perfect solution; or
so it seemed to us when we booked it.
The hotel, Hotel Provincial,
a historic site in New Orleans, had trouble accommodating the entire number of
bikes but it was in the end the perfect choice. The Hotel used to be a
convent and/or a hospital.
We doubled up, stacked our
bikes as best we could to save space. Still it was a tight fit for all those
bikes.
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| Jean and Wayne With Doubled Up Parking |
No, Jean and Wayne were not
our parking attendees but you can see how crowded the place was. There were
actually many more bikes than in this picture, but you get the idea.
The Hotel was just one block
over from the famous Decatur Street, where most of the shops were. We were just
a few blocks away, more or less, from the mighty Mississippi River.
