My First Visit to New Orleans

I was fortunate to be able to visit the city of New Orleans over the past weekend. I was invited down to dj a wedding for a friend, and while that was the main reason for traveling to New Orleans I was also able to take in a bit of what the city has to offer and to see. Here are some random thoughts on my first visit to New Orleans, Louisianna.

• Traveling to Louisianna through Mississippi from Tennessee is a very long and steady decline. I knew that parts of New Orleans is actually below sea level, but traveling on the roads and experiencing the steady decline was a eye opening experience.
• The landscape is very flat and very wet. Swamps are just for the TV shows, they have alot of swamp area, and weltands
• Shell oil company has quite a few oil pipelines running along the shore lines of the southern tip of Louisianna. We all think about the oil we get from the middle east, but we pump alot of oil from the gulf of Mexico.
• You would think with the Shell oil pipelines that gas would be a bit cheaper than in other parts of the country, however the opposite is true. Gas for the most part was consistently the same price through out the entire road trip, with Tennesse having the cheapest gas that I purchased. Shell gas stations all seemed to actually be HIGHER in price than most other gas stations. On one corner I observed that a Shell station was selling gas for 16 cents MORE than the Exxon station right across the street.
• People build their houses along the coast with some major stilts. But then again some don't. I was wondering why some would and others would not, how would that make sense?
• We as Americans may be in a recession, but you would never know it when you pass by the shops in New Orleans and walk Burboun street at night. People everywhere spending money.
• Katrina still has marks on the city. Most of the "affluent" areas have been rebuilt and they all look new and pretty, but the "inner city" is still quite devasted. We even saw a childs play set still lodged in a tree top (it's been over 7 years).
• The highways that we're taken out are new and rebuilt, so for the most part New Orleans has some very nice road ways.
• The road over Lake Pontchartrain is quite an engineering miracle. How they do that I will never understand.
• Beads are everywhere. People decorate their porches with them, place them on tombs in the cemetaries, and even decorate the trees with them.
• It's amazing that there are stores that just sell beads.
• A tour guide informed us, that beads have no spiritual or historical relevance, that they are used for what we all know as Mardi Gras, or for placing in random places as decorations, and they are mostly made in China is sweat shops..........................
• So these folks in China make beads in sweat shops so we can get drunk and throw them at people............................
• Alcohol is everywhere, it's got to be one of the biggest economical currencies because it is everywhere. It's even legal to walk the streets with a drink in your hand as long as it's in a plastic container. You can take your drinks from bar to bar, this is very strange to someone that grew up in Michigan where alcohol is controlled like it's some big government gift to the people.
• The cemetaries are very interesting. They bury their dead in above ground tombs. The dead are there for 366 days and then the next dead person is placed in the tomb. The 366 days is so that your remains are not disturbed on the day that you died. I was told that the tombs become like an oven in the Louisianna heat, bascially making for a long slow cremation. When the tombs are opened after the 366 days the only remains are typically that of dust and dirt. This causes one to remember that we start out as nothing, and when we are gone we become nothing but dust. One more reason to take care of the spirit inside of us all, our bodies are just dirt walking.
• The reason for being buried in tombs are twofold. Some say it's because of the water tablet in the area and "flooding". If the graves all flooded there would be bodies everywhere. The other reason given is that it was brought over by the Irish and French. In doing some quick research I found that both reasons are fully supported, so the real reason is probaby a combination of both.
• Voodoo looms large in the area. The voodoo priestess Marie Laveau is supposedly buried in a tomb in cemetary #1. People leave her beads, rocks, coins, and Jameson bottles ( I assume she was Irish). People also put three (xxx) x'es on her tomb in hopes that she will grant them a wish. It's crazy to me that people have no problem believing this but question God.
• The Superdome seems (ie looks) smaller than the Silverdome, but I was told it's not. .
• New Orleans was quite clean considering how many people there are, and that visit. Cops we're very noticeable so you felt safe. Not many beggars in the french quarter (I'm sure that's on purpose).
• Cab drivers are quick. They don't like to go to the south bank of the river, but they will if you tip well. Crossing the Mississippi river on a ferry is much more fun than in the back of a cab.
• I was a bit dissapointed that there wasnt more street music, and only two bars (that I found) playing the New Orleans style of music. We mostly heard classic rock cover bands, while I was hoping for some Louie Armstrong and Fats Domino. But then we weren't there during Mardi Gras and we we're told that you see more of it during that time.
• The ride home saw us taking a ride along the gulf coast. I had never seen the gulf before, so this was a ride with a purpose. I was able to walk on the white sand beaches and stick my finger in the water. Gathered a few sea shells and took lots of pictures. The only surprsing thing to me during this portion of the trip was the amount of casino's in Mississippi along the gulf coast. I mean I'm talking like a casino every 3 or 4 miles. It's like Vegas on the water. Weird, neat, and interesting we're the words that kept coming to mind. I also wondered why I don't hear more about this, like we do Vegas.

I enjoyed my time in NOLA (as it's abbreviated). I am glad that I got to scratch it off my bucket list. If your ever going, take alot of money, and plan to walk alot to fully take it all in. It's a party town that is for sure, but there is also a ton of history there and that was the most enjoyable part of my visit for me.