NOLA & Florida Arrival

NOLA Part 2, etcetera

Pretty sedate for the last several days in the New Orleans area. Four nights in the city was enough for this guy, with the nights ending about 10:30 latest to avoid craziness.  I raised one of my four drinks - beer, water, black coffee and a shot of Jameson's - to a friend who passed away about 4+ years ago, John Donovan, the original 'multi-beverage' boy.

Spent some time fixing up the trailer.  Hung the cast wind chime from Paolo Soleri's workshop. It has a quick disconnect I can use prior to travel at highway speed. Gotta remember though.  Added caulk on the roof to insure watertight performance, and washed the whole thing down.  I position my golden waving-arm welcome-cat from San Francisco's Chinatown in the 'yard', along with my still-living plant. First saw these cats in Bangkok, Thailand and thought they were great!  They still are.

Watched Games 1 and 2 of the Cleveland/Chicago World Series outside with a awkward cable extension. Watching TV outside in a camp chair makes me feel like a real RVer. Cool! :) The guy in the pic is from Alabama.  Good guy but I had to lay down some ground rules relating to his totally racist opinions.  After that it was an enjoyable evening with a friend. He's only the second solo camper I've run across. The first guy was Louie from France, whom I met in San Antonio.

                             

I went to the fantastic, not-to-be-missed New Orleans World War II Museum. Walked through for 2.5 hours and needed 3.5. Additionally, there was a 4D movie narrated by Tom Hanks that was great.

Pictures inside the WWII Museum can't begin to show how powerful all the presentations were. You could pick one of 6 soldiers or sailors and hear their remarks about being there on an earphone throughout the museum.

A setting for the war in the Pacific.

Then I got George. I checked out a couple of pet shops but eventually found him at the SPCA. Species and age unknown. But he may be around two years old. It appears he is big and has floppy ears so that's probably a good indicator that he's of the big floppy-eared species. I know animals!

  

George has 3 cages: an outdoor fence that he has learned to jump out of, his nighttime cage in the trailer, and a travel cage.  Totally first class rabbit environments.

George sleeps in the top bunk. I sleep in the bottom. Importantly there is a water-tight pan under his cage.

His outdoor cage now has a makeshift lid.

His car cage lets him ride shotgun.  He did really well on his 45 minute test run, then again on the 4.5 hour trip into Florida. Just hunkers down and stays calm. No barking, biting, bonkers or barfing. Doesn't talk much though.

I am now at Destin, Florida in the Miramar Beach area.  It's nice. 

I added this pic for my grandson Luke, a first class RV Park bathroom and shower rater. I believe he would give this one a check-plus. The only nicer showers have been in Indio, CA.  Since my camper shower is the size of a mailbox, it is an important feature.

Added Alabama and Florida this morning.  So far I've hit 24 states on this trip. A full half of the lower 48. I'll have been through 27 states upon completion.

Miramar Beach looking out at the Gulf.

Miramar Beach bum

That's all I have for now.  I'll be in St. Petersburg on November 1. Tanner.

Take care all. Thanks for checking this out!

DDP

NOLA !!!

Hi again! This is a Part post 1 of my time in New Orleans.

The last post had me in Slidell on October 19th, a community on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and visiting Gulfport from there on the 20th. After that Thursday, I've been back and forth to New Orleans for the last 4 days and will continue for 5 more days (until Oct 29th).

As everyone knows, New Orleans is such a gumbo of contrasting people, cultures, and economies. Hurricane rebuilding, crumbling infrastructure, homeless living under bridges, streets teeming with tourists. You name it! And music in the clubs, music on the street, music everywhere! 

All funk at the Blue Nile

I got a video of the two trombone players below right for my trombone playing 10 year old grandson Quinn.  Gotta figure out how to send it his way.

Met a couple from St. John in the Virgin Isles, who recommended Meschiya (me' sha) Lake and The Little Big Horn playing at a tiny club Chickie Waa Waa in the Garden District.  A really nice experience last night, grooving with a group of seriously accomplished musicians playing songs from the forties and beyond. 

Wish I could include the video of this street drummer!

And Haloween celebrations!

The Krewe of Boo Parade happened Saturday night.  What a hoot!! Below are some of the 12 monster sized floats lining up.

I stood next to a young German couple whom I told were the best Parade Watchers I've ever met. Enthusiastic is an understatement!

                                

Tons of organized dancing groups, really getting down. Perhaps the jello shooter vendors on the street were partly responsible.

                                

While wandering Bourbon Street I found a bar that had Game 6 of the Cubs/Dodgers championship playing. I was talking to the bar manager and he said "You know, the game is playing upstairs to a room full of Cubs fans." That's who I was rooting for, so as the ninth inning was starting, I trekked up there, sat for a spell, then caught pure pandemonium as the Cubs advanced to the World Series. Their last appearance in the Series was 71 years ago in 1945! Yeehah!! The pic below is pre-pandemonium.

Cora, my favorite NOLA born and raised bartender. Today I will be asking her to witness my completion of an absentee ballot for this twisted election.  

As a side note, I write down where I park in my phone.  Auto correct changed 'Marigny' Street (a name I've yet to remember) to the totally wrong 'Margin' Street.  I bought two jello shooters from a green haired vendor girl to coax her to figure it out with me.  I, her, and the young couple to whom I gave the shooters benefited on the path back to my car. (I've been cautious for the half an hour drive home each night.)

Food? Oh yes. Being by myself, with a reasonably pedestrian palate, my culinary experience has been all low country, Cajun and Creole. The sauces on the crawfish etouffee, shrimp and grits, and blackened alligator bits is amazing! I'll be checking out some gumbo today.

Today I'll post this, visit the NOLA WWII Museum that I hear is fantastic, and check my trailer roof caulking with a borrowed ladder.  And I might get that rabbit buddy I've been thinking about.

More later.  If you're reading this today, happy Monday!

DDP 

San Antonio and AFRH Gulfport

Some pretty and important things to see in the last 8 days!  After leaving El Paso, I made my way to San Antonio, Houston, and Gulfport MS.  I'm parked in an RV park a half hour east of New Orleans and an hour west of Gulfport for 10 days.  Haven't made the Big Easy yet.  That will start tonight.  Let me begin with San Antonio. Everyone knows about the Riverwalk and the Alamo, but I'll add a small synopsis.

The River Walk is much more than I imagined! The foresight and financial investment it took to create this picturesque promenade, fully integrated into the fabric of downtown San Antonio is amazing. It started largely as flood control in the 1920's but burgeoned into the current concept around 1936 with groundbreaking in 1939. Wish my photos were a little better!

The Riverwalk

The Alamo

The Alamo is located a city block from the Riverwalk. On March 6, 1836 the Alamo fell to Mexico's Santa Anna. It framed the battle call for Santa Anna's defeat at the hands of Sam Houston shortly thereafter, with the Republic of Texas established in 1836 and annexation into the Union in 1845.

A plethora of horse drawn carriages in downtown San Antonio. I took the bus in and Uber'd back.

Went downtown on Saturday night to principally see dueling pianos at Howl At The Moon piano bar.

In atonement, I made Mass at Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo Sunday morning.  Restored in the 1930's, it is the largest mission, known as 'Queen of the Missions'. 

 

Leaving San Antonio for the outskirts of Houston, my trailer tire blew out.  Fortunately, I was close to an exit for the tire change.  I found a ranshackeled tire shop within a few miles to replace the blown tire and the opposite tire that sported a huge bubble.  But it took all of the next day to get a replacement rim and everything back to roadworthy status. The trailer handled surprisingly well when the tire blew.

The road system in Houston is daunting.

 

 

Other than tire repair, I didn't do much in Houston.  Headed out for Slidell, Louisiana east of New Orleans. Below is the 5 mile bridge across Lake Pontchartrain.

My RV Park in Slidell

I picked Slidell because it was close to both NO and Gulfport, LS.  SFCS, along with the A/E firm URS was the Architect for the Armed Forces Retirement Community in Gulfport.  It is a 5 acre, $250 million building on a 50 acre campus completed in 2010 for 500 veterans.  Hurricane Katrina wiped out the original tower and all of the buildings on the campus.  We were working on an addition to the existing building before the hurricane.  While we did so, we stayed at the adjacent Grand Hotel, connected by skybridge to the floating Grand Casino on the Gulf.  Katrina lifted the Grand Casino and floated it 200 yards down Gulf Shore Boulevard until it butted into a motel.

AFRH Gulfport

Sun angle and ineptitude forced this pic quality. Sorry.

                                     

I was fortunate to have a wonderful tour guide to walk through the building. Becki was with the Owner's Rep Jacobs Engineering during the project and now works at AFRH. She knows everyone who lives and works there and exemplifies those who provide the incredible love, care and attention for our Veterans.

Photos of Veterans who have recently passed away, located in the Hall of Honor above.

Rotunda at the main entry.  There are three towers built over two broad connecting levels, the lowest for parking and the one above for community services, dining, admin, clinic, etc.

An indoor Bocce court, and an ancient architect/veteran.

A Marine resident's immaculately kept apartment.

One of the bricks from the original building.

A replacement bridge from the Campus to the Gulf.

The artistry of many of the residents was in evidence throughout the building.  Woodworker P.J., known as the Sawdust Man, makes Toys for Tots and many other wood models. This link chain was made without any breaks from one piece of wood.

 This Ham Radio operator still monitors weather in his equipment room, radio connected globally to emergency services.

I was fortunate to work on this project and to be part of SFCS Inc's ongoing commitment to high quality Senior Care design.

That will be about it for now.  Please stay tuned for the next post, likely to be sooner than my average delay. Thank you for checking it out.  It's been a blast so far, with more to come!

DDP