Well, I made it back from "Nawlins"..................

[dorminWS]

Can't say I was favorably impressed. Too dang hot. Way too dang humid. Prices of just about everything are shockingly high. We hit several of "THE" Nawlins eating places. Tastes pretty good, but it's so rich that several days of it made me sorta ill. First they spice the devil out of it. Then they fry it. Then they smother it in cream sauce. Like most everything else about the place, it's just way too much of what a little bit of might have been a good thing. T’ain’t cheap, either. At the Commander’s Palace, after I added a decent tip, dinner for two set me back $240. And just about everything there is DIRTY. We went to the famous Café DuMonde for coffee and beignets (a singularly unsatisfying breakfast) one morning, and I’ve been in coal mine bathouses that had less dirt and soot on the windowsills. SWMBO, just after remarking that her Greek Salad at the Market Café was the best looking one she ever saw, was speechless as we watched a big sh!tfly crawl out of the lettuce. We rode one of those bicycle-pedicabs down Bourbon Street. Whole place wasn't too far shy of a drunken orgy. Might have been fun if I'd been single, 20 years old, and protected against social diseases pedestrian and exotic, but these days it holds no charm. SWMBO would say "that woman's almost naked" about every 5 minutes, and cause me to have to really concentrate on not looking too interested. BTW, the sentiment recently expressed here that the people who parade around nekkid or almost nekkid are frequently the last ones you’d want to see that way certainly holds true in the Big Easy. Seemed like a lot of places were catering to a certain attitude of gender ambiguity, too.
The one thing that WAS cool was when we went for a cruise on the Steamboat Natchez, which is really a paddle wheeler powered by a reclaimed old-time steam engine (two of them, actually). They had the engine room fixed so you could go down and stroll through the machinery. THAT I really got a kick out of.
I didn’t make it to any swamp tours (downtown was hot, humid, populated with odd creatures and nasty enough) to check out any Louisiana wildlife, but I did manage to get one picture of a creature that I couldn’t readily identify as to species OR gender.

By golly, it good to be home.

[SHMIV]

Glad you made it home, safely and in one piece.

My best friend and his wife honeymooned down there. Myself, I lost interest in The Big Easy, right around the time that I quit doing drugs and drinking excessively.

My father spent some time in Louisiana after that massive hurricane that GW conjured up, a while back. Like you, he wasn't impressed with N'awlins, but found that he really enjoyed the surrounding region. Every time I ride through Louisiana, he recommends several "locals" joints that he liked. I might try one, if I thought I could get to it without getting my truck stuck in a swamp, and without having to fight off a flock of crocogators.

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[dorminWS]

Glad you made it home, safely and in one piece.

My best friend and his wife honeymooned down there. Myself, I lost interest in The Big Easy, right around the time that I quit doing drugs and drinking excessively.

My father spent some time in Louisiana after that massive hurricane that GW conjured up, a while back. Like you, he wasn't impressed with N'awlins, but found that he really enjoyed the surrounding region. Every time I ride through Louisiana, he recommends several "locals" joints that he liked. I might try one, if I thought I could get to it without getting my truck stuck in a swamp, and without having to fight off a flock of crocogators.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I was told about a deal where they take you out in airboats with a shotgun and you jumpshoot nutria. They are a pest species in LA with a bounty on them, so they just collect the tails and leave them for the gators. I tried to check on that and maybe try it out. But I couldn't find anybody that was doing that. Only dude I got a phone number for didn't call me back until I was on a plane to leave.

[Kreutz]

Welcome back!

[dorminWS]

.................... and without having to fight off a flock of crocogators.

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Heard about them crocogators; and what makes them so MEAN..............

[finnfur]

I totally agree with your assessment.
Been there one when I was in my 30s and it will be my last .
Nasty place .
But whatever floats your boat I guess.

[Swampman]

Was there once sometime back in the late 90's. I agree - nasty place. No desire to go back.