New Orleans Baby!

French Quarter

That is the common term here in New Orleans' French Quarter "how you doin baby!" And apparently if my career as a designer ever goes south I have been offered a job as a dancer at an undisclosed establishment...when asked if I was local and if I danced...I replied NOT LOCAL AND DON'T DANCE!...Oh my....this place needs some out reach!!

We stopped in at a recommended spot and had a great breakfast... Joey was our entertaining host...gold tooth glistening, he served up laughter and smiles! Time for a stroll. The streets were fairly quiet on an early Monday...the broken sidewalks were getting watered down from the weekend festivities so the smell of Lysol, stale booze and urine wafted in the air...mmmm.... just what one needs on a sunny morning to wake the senses! The architecture was quite remarkable, colourful Creole Cottages, American Townhouses, Raised Center-Hall Villas, Shotgun Houses (no shotguns on the walls..it comes from the saying that if one fired a shotgun through the front door the pellets would fly cleanly through the house and out the back door, just long narrow homes. As you are taxed on the width of your home as well as the height, in New Orleans, these type of homes keep the taxes down) and Double-Gallery Houses.

We spent the afternoon in a great coffee shop, Antoine's Annex, catching up on some work. Later in the afternoon we headed out to find some authentic Cajun style cookin'. We met a couple that had spent their honeymoon in New Orleans 40 years ago and come back every year to celebrate...nice people. They recommended that we try The Pralines...a local restaurant just outside of the French Quarter that is more local inhabited than tourists. I had the Jambalaya and greens (first time with the greens...not bad tasted like something my great Nan would boil up) and Mark had the Fried Chicken with Okra and cornbread. All in all pretty good. So ended our day in the Mardi Gras town...not really somewhere that Mark and I would visit again but nice to have experienced.

Anne Rice's Home

Old Paddle Wheeler

John Goodman's Home

Little Miss Sunshine

Now we made it down the road and as the sun was setting we pulled into a TA (a truck stop that you can park overnight at, which also has showers for $12, laundry and restaurants).  Oh and our odometer turned over to 100,000 miles…so we are now back to zero miles and counting… they didn’t make the oometers to go over 100K, I wonder if that seemed like so much back then…like 64 megs of space on a hardrive back in the day seemed a huge amount of space to fill. Well we made a nice cuppa’ tea, played a game of crib and snuggled in for the night. In the morning we filled up Olive and filled up our tummies and headed for the state of Alabama. Along the way we pulled into a rest area….to well…rest etc. and when we got back into Olive she obviously hadn’t rested long enough as again no life. We decided to pull a Little Miss Sunshine (which Jody had mentioned back in Perry). So there I am at the wheel with Mark pushing behind and an absconded volunteer helping out. I pop the clutch and life returns to our bus. Now we know we have to replace the starter which means staying somewhere for a bit until the part comes in. We are on our way to New Orleans if she makes it there! Say a prayer!

The Hero of Perry

Jody and Mark after getting Olive going!

We were making our way to Pensacola Florida…has anybody seen the movie “Contact”…just reminded us of that flick. We stopped at a gas station to fill up and attempted to be on our way… emphasis on the word attempted! Olive was tired and would not start. After going through a few the obvious options as to why she didn’t want to move on…she liked it in Perry, she was tired, it was a sunny day and she wanted to suntan…or the starter had given up…we chose the latter. So here we were in the middle of next to nowhere…you know, that place right next to somewhere. But we didn’t panic we know God has our back in all things! I leaned on the side of the bus and said a prayer that He would send us a good man to help out. I was making my way up towards the gas station doors and looked back and Jody had pulled up and was talking to Mark…thanks God! Now Jody was the kindest, most pleasant man…he has an easy manner about him and warm eyes, that make you feel right at home and at ease. He went back to his shop and got his tools and Jody and Mark proceeded to take out the old starter and give it a clean to see if we could get a bit more life out of it. After working on it for a few hours…amidst the laughter and genuine concern, they popped it back in and Olive came to life. We tried to offer a token of our appreciation to Jody for his time and skills but he wouldn’t have it. His mum popped by on her way to a birthday party…a lovely women who raised a wonderful man…good job! Mark and I thought about it later how things seem to be orchestrated. You see…Jody was down that end of town because his buddy had put diesel gas into his gas tank by mistake and only made it a short way down the road before his car died. After helping his friend Jody noticed Mark up to his elbows in the back of Olive and thought to himself that he better see if these folks needed some help. Lucky for us. Thanks again Jody…you really are our Hero of Perry!!

Swamp Creatures

Wonderful Everglades

When we saw the road signs  “watch for alligators” we knew we were on our way through alligator, mosquitos and panther (?) country. There is a very large panther (or what we call mountain lion) reserve down here. So not only did the signs say watch for alligators also…large cat crossing! The everglades are part tundra and marshy swamp. There is a wide variety of birds… 34 types of Swans, ducks and Geese, 15 types of wadding birds, Swifts and Hummingbirds, Goatsuckers (yes that's right...who knew!), Shore birds, Gulls and Turns,  Kingfishers, Flamingos, Owls, Woodpeckers, and too many Passerine birds to mention...of course we only saw a few of the wadding birds but... amazing to watch. We did actually see a few alligators too, one was sunning itself on the grassy banks and a few others swimming in the clear waters…. Looking for some lunch. Hey Mark step back! There are also a variety of snakes, like the cotton mouth viper…thankfully we didn’t get to see any of those. We did see some houses on the outskirts of the main wildlife reserve and wondered what life on the everglades was like…can't say it would be somewhere I would like to retire. There were a few acres along the way for sale and Mark was wondering as a realtor how you would word the ad… Lovely water edge property, teeming with vegetation and wildlife, great for bird watcher…not for the faint of heart! We made it out of the Everglades and off to Spring Hill and our friends at Wally World (aka Walmart). After a suprising restful night…one of the quietest Walmarts we have been too…except for the one in Drumheller Alberta, We got a knock on our door and it was…hey Zack a Jehova  Witness…nice to know they make bus calls too! After listening to the Gospel of Mark…Zack had a few questions to take back to his elders! But all good, just might be a few more than 144,000 getting into heaven is all. 

Everglade Marshlands

Visions of Tiki Huts

7 mile bridge to Key West

After picking up our bus at Car Safe… a secure car storage place in Miami that is run by Andrew and his lovely wife Victoria. They are a wonderful couple and were very gracious to us…even giving us a refund (which we weren’t expecting) after we returned early from our trip. If you are looking for a great place to keep your vehicle safe while touring the local islands, check them out!....we are off to the Florida Keys.

Ok….hey where are the sandy beaches and Tiki huts? The drive down to through the keys was wonderful, miles of bridges through ocean waters. Pelicans flying along keeping you company. Once we got down to  Key West…with the beach boys song blaring in my head…Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go… no sandy beaches…just rocking shores. Not what we had envisioned. Very much a party town. We hung out for the night and then headed back up. Stopping for lunch in Key Largo…Mark and I decided to try some local fare so bring on the tenderized alligator and dolphin…ok before you freak out…which I was doing when I saw it on the menu in a variety of dishes, our waitress came over to explain the difference between cute little Flipper (which is illegal to catch and holds a 12 year prison sentence) and the Mahi Mahi (as it is called in Hawaii)…not at all the same thing…phew! Ok give me the dolphin…still feeling somewhat apprehensive!...But yum! The Alligator wasn’t bad either…tasted like dark meat turkey…no not chicken!! But close! After a good lunch we headed for the Everglades to see if we could see any live alligators.

Alligator Anyone?

Driving the Keys

The Dolphin that is on the menu : } not Flipper!

On the Road Again

Tranquility

We said goodbye to the turquoise waters of the Turks and our good friends Will and Laura. I know you must be thinking we are crazy for not hanging there for the initially planned 3 months but to be honest, after almost 4 weeks, we were missing Olive and life on the road! Highlights though were the walks along the white sandy beaches, diving into the clear crystal water, saving a puffer fish that had got swept up on shore… that was neat seeing one so close up…and going to church…again being the only “crackers” , as they called us, in the whole church! Also, although the water and beaches are very beautiful, life in the Turks and Caicos is very expensive....Breakfast out was about $70….10$ for a small pot of coffee, $10 for a bottle of mineral water, $30 for a buffet type breakfast! And 21% tax. So you would think that buying groceries would be cheaper but it works out that you are spending about the same. They do not have any natural water source so all of the water is obtained through a de-salinization process, powered by diesel gas. There are only a few items that are grown on the island in hydroponics…such as cucumbers, mint and some lettuce. Otherwise all of the veggies and other food items come from the US. It is mostly dry brush and shrub islands. We are glad we were able to experience life there but are happy to be back in our bus!