From water to land

 When we blogged previously it was to share our adventures on the water, this blog starts our travels on land in our 5^th wheel “Monty”. After 4 months of being snowbirds and traveling in Florida we left April 1^st for a western tour. 

Our first stop after leaving St. Augustine, Florida was a harvest host in DeFuniak, Florida, Chateau Le Coeur. A harvest host is a membership program that invites self-contained RV'ers to have a unique overnight stay at farms, wineries, breweries, golf courses, museums etc. The Chateau Le Coeur is a winery in the making. They currently have a winery in Oregon and have a lot of plans for the 80 acres they have purchased in Florida. It would be interesting to see how their vision has materialized in the next couple of years. We had the pleasure of a wine tasting with fellow RV’ers Melissa & Steve with owner Gwendolyn. Melissa and Steve live in Tulsa, OK and we enjoyed hearing of their travels. We opted for a charcuterie board with our wine tasting. It was a great 1^st harvest host experience with good wine, food and conversation.

We left on April 2^nd for New Orleans. We had been watching the weather…constant wind and rains. We got lucky with partly cloudy skies, no rain, but we did experience some strong wind gusts, thankfully the worst of the weather was north of us. It ended up being near record high temperatures during our stay, high 80’s during the day and high 70’s at night. We traveled from Florida through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, 268 miles. It was neat to see everything from land as we had traveled some of this area by boat when we did the Great Loop.

Several days prior to arriving in NOLA we booked the Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour that included two walking tours. One that explored the French Quarter and the other the Garden District. Thursday, we took a shuttle from the New Orleans RV Resort and Marina to the French Quarter. The bus and walking tour gave us a good lay of the land and information on history and locations we wanted to explore. We spent the majority of the day in the French Quarter, exploring Bourbon, Royal and Decatur Streets. Friday, we did the walking tour of the Garden District. 

Some observations of our stay in NOLA;

Wow, what a difference between a Thursday and a Friday. We thought Thursday was busy, but Friday brought out an amazing amount of street musicians, vendors and people.

We decided the Garden District was more to our liking. Quieter, people more our age and definitely less skunk (pot) smell. When a bouncer in the French Quarter whispers there are a lot of kids in there, that generally means you're not going to like the venue.

People watching in NOLA is very interesting. Our shuttle driver told us, “Public intoxication is scenery”.

An interesting but sad fact was the number of homeless we encountered. Our guides explained it as a "homeless explosion". Just prior to the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras the state stepped in and moved the homeless to a shelter to get them off the streets during these major events. They provided counseling, housing and meals. They had hoped that many of the homeless would use these resources to help them get back on track. After Mardi Gras was over, they closed the temporary shelter and those that didn’t want the help ended up back on the street. The number of homeless we saw was one of the worst we have seen in all of our travels.

Gwendolyn, Theresa, Steve, Melissa, Karen and Mark at the Chateau Le Coeur

Wine tasting and a charcuterie board

                                                               Monty in New Orleans

We enjoyed the food, especially the parmesan grilled oysters

We picked a perfect time to enjoy The Cafe Du Monde beignets Thursday night, we were able to get a seat right away.

We enjoyed the sax player while we ate our beignets

This was the line Friday morning to get into Cafe Du Monde

Crab and corn soup with NOLA Bloody Mary's

Could you even say you were in the French Quarter if you didn't stop on Bourbon St for a beer?

This is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar, built between 1722 and 1732, it is reputed to be the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States.

With a maiden name of O'Brien and a sister Patricia, we couldn't pass up stopping here.

In the early 1940's there was a short supply of distilled spirits because grains and sugars necessary to produce spirits went to troops during WWII. Bar owners were forced to buy large amounts of rum in order to get one case of scotch or whiskey. Pat O'Brien began experimenting and came up with the hurricane. 

Live Oaks lining the streets in the Garden District.

Houses along the residential streets

Antebellum mansion that is now a wedding venue

Homes in the French Quarter

Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

The Cathedral was completed in 1851. It was built over the foundation of a colonial 1727 church. It has been the city's center of worship for over 280 years and is the oldest active cathedral in the US.

New Orleans at its finest

One of many murals throughout the city

Street cars are still used, this one was full

People, bars and restaurants

At the Jackson monument in Jackson Square

If you look closely, you can see the beads on the limbs from Mardi Gras

They use mules instead of horses because mules can handle the hot, humid weather better

After walking over 17,000 steps Thursday, we sat and watched the freighters, tugboats and barges along the Mississippi River. It reminded us of boating on the Mississippi when we did the loop.

In total we walked over 27,000 steps in the two days we visited NOLA.