New Orleans (part 2)

After my 3rd "annual" October Vegas trip with Lolo, I was getting kind of burnt out on Vegas. Our last annual trip was October 2001. I used the excuse that my daughter was graduating (May 2002) and that all my money at that point would go toward her college. Kate graduated with about every honor she could get, was 12th in her class, and was awarded the President's Scholarship from Baylor. It paid $7,000 per semester. That left me with about $8,000 per semester. So basically I wasn't lying about not having money for Vegas. But what happened was, Kate did not show up for school after Christmas break (this was January 2003). I will condense like crazy here because I'm saving this whole part for another story. Anyway, I tossed her out on her ear, so now all my money was mine again.

After a couple of months of feeling blue about that whole thing, I called Lolo and offered her a trip to New Orleans for May of 2003. I told her I felt bad that she didn't get to experience N'awlins in style the first time, and that this time we would do it right. I was also going thru a museum phase and wanted to see the New Orleans Museum in City Park. I booked a room at the Ste. Helene in the French quarter and arranged with the lady there to have us a limo for Monday for a tour of cemeteries, the Garden District, and Lake Pontchartrain. The museum was closed on Monday so we had to do that on Sunday. I believe our trip was Friday thru Tuesday, so Saturday was to be a "casual day" of recovery and wandering around. On Sunday we went for lunch before heading out to the museum. As we headed back to the hotel to brush our teeth and stuff before our museum trip we saw a limo out front. I honestly didn't think a thing of it. When we walked in, the desk clerk said, "Here's your limo driver." I said, "No. That's tomorrow. Today is the museum. The museum is closed tomorrow, that's why we are doing the limo tomorrow." Well SHE freaked out and insisted I was wrong. Anyway, I walked the limo guy out, apologized profusely and promised him that he would be well compensated the next day. So she just glared at us the rest of the day. The museum was okay, but nothing compared to the Corcoran in D.C. and the Kimbell here in Fort Worth. And it is HARD to get a cab out of City Park. The next day we are ready and waiting for our Limo driver at 2:00. He was so cool. His name is Peter Batiste and if you've been to Jazzfest you may have seen him with the Batiste Brothers, although he is actually a cousin. The three of us got on so well, and he actually told us he was glad the day was wrong before, because they had had a gig Saturday night and he had been up very late. I also had him run us by The Old World Inn I had stayed in the first time. I got out and went to the door and it was locked. There were some people on the balcony overhead. I said, "Is this the Old World Inn?" They were very rude, I don't even remember what they said. I said, "Oh, this was the first place I stayed in New Orleans years ago and I wanted to show my friend." They said, "We'll let you in for $20." I think I either said "Fuck you assholes!" or "Kiss my ass!" and jumped into the limo and told Peter to drive away quickly. Maybe the flatulent Dutch guys bought it. I also used this trip to take lots of scenic and architectural pictures and have some framed here in the house now. It was a great trip. (The pic is us at Lake Pontchartrain.)

I think I'll save the last trip for later. After being so teary-eyed watching the news lately, it's nice to remember the good times about my favorite city. I wish her a speedy recovery.