Yesterday we drove from Dallas to New Orleans and it was quite a little trip. Luckily, I think it was only 8 hours so it went by pretty fast, so I wasn't getting cabin fever being in the car like I am sure I'll have today!
We didn't see much on our drive. Louisiana is VERY southern, I don't think we did see a metropolitan city until we arrived in New Orleans. At one point when we were fairly close to NO, I pointed out to my husband all these trailers on this huge empty lot. I am mad now that I didn't stop and take a picture because it was unbelievable how many there were. There were at least 1,000 Fleetwood trailers, one after another, the same one over and over and they were used and parked so close together, and I couldn't figure out what the heck they were. I finally realized halfway through passing them that they were the FEMA trailers from Hurricane Katrina! There were SO many of them and they were tiny. I cannot believe people lived in these trailers. So I started googling the area we were in to confirm it, and we were right. It was basically a FEMA trailer boneyard. I also found a ton of articles from 2011 stating that even 5 years after Katrina, people were still living in them! I couldn't believe it! I also found that the government sold off some of the used trailers when people moved out of them, after seeing the condition they were in, I wouldn't have one of those trailers if they were given to me. I stayed in a trailer while camping for 4 days with 5 people, and it was hard to keep that thing clean, I can't imagine living in one for 5 years!!!!
We were eager to get to New Orleans because neither of us had ever been and I kept thinking it was going to be like Vegas since they don't have an open container law on the streets. To me, it was like the gas lamp of San Diego mixed with the homeless and street performers of Hollywood and the alcohol of Vegas. I don't know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't anywhere close to anything I had in my mind. It was worse.
We arrived at about 5ish, and immediately we checked into our hotel, the Saint Marie, and got changed and left for Bourbon Street. Our hotel was about 1 block from BS, because I had read reviews that said that you don't want to actually stay on BS if you want to sleep! And I NEEDED sleep at this point in our trip. So we headed for BS to see what was going on, and I was shocked!!!! This was nothing like Vegas since it's so condensed, there was alcohol everywhere! I've never seen so much alcohol in my life, and they have tons of promoters trying to get everyone in their bars or more likely, their strip clubs. They have all these young girls standing out in the streets in their thongs and bras shouting at guys to come in. It was crazy for me to see, especially since I was with my husband, I didn't think they'd be yelling at him to come in, but they sure were! They were even talking shit on my body type to get him to come in, and see "real women." I didn't say anything, which is huge for me because I am a crazy loud mouth, but I just knew you don't mouth off to people down there. I just kept on walking...I can't help it I'm a petite person, but at least I don't have the clap! Crazy bitches!
We were getting a little hungry, so we went and got some beignets at Cafe Beignet. They were pretty good, for some reason I thought they would have a filling in them, but they didn't, they tasted like a funnel cake! Seriously, just like a funnel cake, and I love funnel cake!
We started just walking up and down Bourbon Street because there was so much to see. All the hotels, bars, clubs, strip joints, everything! We walked past some street performers that were neat and we stopped to watch these four teenaged kids tap dance. They were so young and Guido even mentioned that it was awfully late for them to be out on a Monday night, because I think they looked maybe 14/15? So, we are watching them tap dance and so were a few people because they were good! All the sudden, these five people grab these kids and throw them up against the wall. I saw this huge guy hold this poor kid down, and I started shouting for my husband because I thought they were getting robbed or something! I didn't know what was going on. Then these people started shouting "Undercover police!" and pulled their badges out of their shirts. We stood their shocked as they arrested these three kids (one took off running) and we were appalled. Don't get me wrong, if they were being investigated by undercover officers, I'm sure they did something wrong, it just really made me sad because they were so young. I'm sure they're out performing for money because they're families are poor. It just broke my heart to see their faces when they were getting arrested. It was like they just knew they'd were screwed.
When we saw those kids get arrested,, it really upset me. I felt horrible, but I was glad to stumble into a shop and find a ghost tour! I'll blog about that in the next post!
Enjoy the pictures! I don't know why when I blog on my phone I can't arrange the pictures in the order I want them too, so I apologize for that!
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