Huge Billboard, French Quarter--New Orleans Jan 19, 2012

Hello from New Orleans. We arrived at 8pm last night after a tough drive from San Antonio as traffic was bad. The park we are in now is 3 blocks from The French Quarter and is quite nice but in a very bad part of town. Our site overlooks a graveyard and has a huge sign board directly above Roadrunner and The Love Boat. Here is a picture of the sign board.

I wonder what the Powerball drawing is tonight.  We are about 1/2 inch from Interstate 10 and an emergency vehicle with sirens comes through every 4 minutes (24 hours a day). I am not kidding, every 4 minutes.  Surrounding the park is a tall masonry fence with spikes at the top to keep out stuff that is afraid of spikes. Somewhere along the line New Orleans stopped being fun for me. I think it was about 50 years before I was born.  My days doing disaster relief here left some images in my head that are hard  to shake. I feel every so often God intentionally gives me reassurance that all isn't as bad as I thought and today was one of those occasions.

Let me make this clear that I came here during this trip strictly so Melissa could see New Orleans. I have given this place the widest berth that I could simply because Deb and I spent time here with the church doing disaster relief  after Hurricane Katrina.  I did not want to ever return again. Today we walked around in The French Quarter, and I saw drunks galore which bothered me immensely due to the very recent death of someone dear to me who allowed alcoholism to consume him. Images of pain and suffering haunted me most of the day. But the tide changed suddenly today when we walked into a church that sits prominently in the French Quarter. The church was beautiful and reassured me that life goes on regardless of the pain and suffering that profoundly happens around us. Tonight Walter and Melissa went into the French Quarter for dinner, but Deb and I went to the warehouse district instead. We ventured  upon a restaurant that some say is the oldest building in New Orleans. The restaurant was superb  and the evening was beautiful. I am glad we came here again. But, I now will have visions of Powerball dancing in my head for years.

Melissa said something worth mentioning a few days ago. Walter  was kidding her about her having to learn to use the toilet in The Love Boat. Because a toilet dumps into large tank on a motorhome, flush toilets are replaced with boat style toilets that have a valve that you push a lever and the waste is briefly washed into the tank with very little water. Believe me when I say that RV toilets take getting used to (yes I end the stupid sentence with a preposition).  Anyway, Walter was teasing Melissa about using the toilet and stinking up the tanks. Melissa corrected him with, "My pooh doesn't stink as bad as your pooh".  That was too much information for me.  This has been a tough trip.

The Roadrunner is doing okay. We may have most of the stuff fixed on it by the time we get home on Sunday. Walter and I fixed the water heater today so showers will be normal henceforth. Deb is happy about that fact. Both motorhomes are filthy from light rain that we encountered while driving. We have been gone almost 2 months with most of that time spent in the desert where rain is very uncommon. I have not seen rain in 2 months.

Dude, the blog is becoming a letter home from camp again. I have a bunch of photos to post but will need to wait until we get home.Tomorrow we leave for someplace between New Orleans and Greenville, SC. We are stopping in Greenville, SC to have dinner Saturday night with the folks from that area that have animated Christmas displays. I am looking forward to that dinner and to getting home.  The Puppies are gypsies now and will love getting home too.

Geez, my sense of humor has throttled back since getting Roadrunner. I promise I will share with you some fun stuff later.
Al