new orleans

Au Revoir and Bon Voyage: Weeks 11 & 12

Greetings and Happy Holidays to our loyal readers. Last week, we bid au revoir to New Orleans. And it is au revoir – not adieu. We will be back, even if New Orleans isn’t in our long-term plans. In fact, we’ll be sure to be back just a few months from now, for the wedding of some very good friends. We’ve won the war against The Party, even if it had some victories in battles along the way.

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I Know Where I Got My Shoes: Week 10


Hello again from New Orleans, where we have quickly evolved to deal with the new joys and hazards of our environment.

I can tell how much of a tourist I look like on any given day by the number of guys on the street who ask me some variation of, “hey, I bet you I can tell you where you got your shoes.” The answer is, of course, “on your feet” or “on XYZ street (wherever you’re currently standing.) This is then followed up by a request for money, or in some cases, extended harassment when money isn’t turned over. If I’m carrying my bright blue day pack, or sipping on a novelty drink, I’ll get asked. If I’m walking briskly enough, most people seem to assume I know what I’m doing and where I’m going, and leave me alone. This same phenomenon results in me getting asked for lots of directions, something I’ve given up on doing after realizing I may have sent someone slightly astray. Hope you found that laundromat, sir.

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We’ll Sleep When We’re Dead: Week 9

Greetings from the Big Easy as we enter our second week in this very, very unique place. There are fewer than 20 cities or districts in the United States where drinking on the street is legal. Without planning on it, we visited two in a row, and we’ll see another in January. It’s been quite a two-month stretch since we left D.C., a city I’d lived in so long I didn’t even realize how uptight it was.

But this was a busy week even by our new standards.

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