The Easy Way to the Big Easy
By admin | April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24
Houston to New Orleans by train
3.3 miles by bike
Candy and Bill and Bill Jr. all got up at 3am to get me to the train station at four am. They are the most wonderful ever! Now I know the drill for boxing up my bike, so that was easy. They even had a used bike box at the station that I could use. More green and I saved $15!
This train ride was less eventful than my last. I really didn’t talk to anyone. I tried to sleep, but mostly just rested with my eyes closed. We were supposed to arrive just before three in the afternoon, but pulled in to New Orleans at 1:30.
I put my bike back together and called my host, Louis. He was surprised to hear the train was early, but said, in that case, I was in time to catch a parade!
A station attendant warned me about New Orleans drivers. He said they don’t respect bikes. He sounded more like he was from Brooklyn than from the south, which is what Candy told me most people don’t realize about New Orleans accents. Forewarned, I headed into the streets, only to find an eerily deserted downtown. Then I realized it was Easter Sunday, so everyone was home with their families. Great day for biking!
Louis owns a house with two shotgun apartments near City Park, which is as big as Central Park. He said that, during Katrina, the water rose to three and a half feet on his street. Luckily, his house is four feet off the ground! He happened to be visiting family in Florida during the hurricane, and wasn’t able to return for a month.
I took a shower to both clean up and stay awake, and we headed to the French Quarter for the Gay Easter Parade!
It wasn’t Mardi Gras, but there were still balconies and beads!
And brass bands!
And buggies!
Bonnets!
Beauty queens!
And of course, bunnies.
This bunny’s shirt says, “Zombies hate me because I am so awesome.”
After the parade, I already felt like I had done New Orleans. We walked around the French Quarter more, down to Jackson Square and the Big Muddy.
Here I am at the river with the beads I caught at the parade. See the riverboat in the background!
Louis is a really well-informed New Orleans tour guide, though he is not a native. He told me tons of interesting things, like the Italian word for okra is “gombo,” awfully similar to “gumbo.” We went out for po’ boys and gumbo and bread pudding for dinner. Yum!
Even though I only had a short time to visit, I was too tired from traveling to try to go out for music. Fortunately, the season premiere of Treme, HBO’s show set in New Orleans, was on, which features music prominently!
It’s hard to get to know a city like New Orleans in a day and a half, but I was already off to a running start!
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