Lovin’ NOLA and new friends!

I’ve got a bit of time here before Ken gets back from his meetings, so I thought I’d get a quick entry in.

We’re having an absolute blast, and it’s not even the weekend yet! I joked on Facebook that my liver deserves hazardous duty pay for this week.

We got to the hotel Sunday evening, checked in with no problems, and while Ken went foraging for beer (liquor stores everywhere, so no problem), I checked the channel lineup and was delighted to discover that they get AMC! So I didn’t miss my Dead, and I won’t miss them this coming Sunday, either. Yay! We went out for a bite to eat, and after the Dead, we headed out to Bourbon Street. We finished watching the Colts game in a bar there, then just started walking around.

We saw a couple on the street, and I don’t recall how we started talking, but we found out they were originally from Indiana, a small town where our friend Sam is from. We kind of hit it off and went to Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop for drinks and talk. The guy and Ken exchanged cards, and they actually invited us out to their condo in Idaho to go skiing at Sun Valley. Very nice!

That ended up being kind of a late night, but we still got up at a decent time the next morning and got our workouts in. I’ve been doing really well with that and have done an hour on the bike every morning! Probably a good thing to sweat out the previous night’s toxins, you know! Ha! Then it was back to Bourbon for some food (a muffaletta at Napoleon House...we realized we’d never been to that place before) and music. One of the places we often go is called Krazy Korner, and that’s where we used to see Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers. As we got close, we could hear someone playing the washboard vest, and sure enough, it was Alex from the Hellraisers! Turns out that Alex is no longer with Dwayne and formed his own band called the Daywalkers.

I might even like this band more (although Dwayne can play the hell out of the accordion). They do some zydeco, but also blues and southern rock. We had a blast dancing, and were there until the band stopped playing at 7:30. (There is more to this story, too.) Then it was a place for Cajun music, and this band included a fiddle player! We had more fun there, and the band was chatting us up, asking where we were from, that sort of thing, as well as the nice couple sitting next to us.

The next day we went back to the Krazy Korner, where the Daywalkers were playing again. Jason recognized us right away, and we chatted a bit during one of their breaks. He told me, “Hey, I wanted to invite you and Ken out to hear me play tonight.” He explained where it was, that he was doing an acoustic set, and hoped we’d be there. How nice of him to invite us as well as remember our names! After they finished, we headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes, then on over to his other gig at Kerry’s Irish Pub. It was an open mic night, and he didn’t play the entire time, but that worked out okay because then he came over to chat me up while Ken played pool with some guy he met. Jason is just super nice, and seemed happy that we came out. He was onstage when we got there and said, “Beth and Ken!”

Then I got roped into playing pool with Ken and the guy and his girlfriend, who were also super nice. I kind of held my own, and we ended up winning. Miracles DO happen...I’m a sucky pool player!

There is still more to the Krazy Korner saga! The following day, Ken was golfing with some of his fellow conference goers, so after my workout, I headed on over to Bourbon all by my lonesome to see what kind of trouble I could get into...and you know where I went! Jason raised his eyebrows and grinned, and when they took a break, he came over and gave me a hug and we chatted a bit. He said, “Hey, I can rub on you all I want ‘cause your husband’s not here!” (No worries...he was just being nice and making a joke.) When Alex came around with the tip jar, he said, “Hey sweet baby, welcome back.” When they were getting ready to play again, I motioned Jason over to where I was sitting, and he said, “Hey Boo!” I’m telling you, people, if you show the band some love, they’ll give it right back to you. I asked if they were here the rest of the week, and he said no, they were off Thursday, thank God, but they were at another bar on Bourbon on Friday...so you know where I’ll be!

Since this was the middle of the afternoon, the crowd was somewhat spotty. There would be quite a few people in there, then it would clear out. At one point, I was the only one in there, and I looked around and raised my hands in a “what the hell?” gesture. Jason just shrugged, like “Yeah, it happens sometimes.” So when the song ended, I applauded and gave a “Woooo!” They laughed and the keyboard player said, “Yell louder!” Jason said, “That’s Beth. She’s the only one we need.” Awww!

Anyway, it’s been fun to make friends with people, and Jason has been especially sweet. I look forward to hearing him play again tomorrow! I won’t have to go by myself this time, because our friend George will be with me. He gets in tonight!

Oh, I had to leave before the band was done, because we had a dinner we had to go to for Ken’s conference. When they took a break, I went out to say goodbye, and Jason said, “Where you goin’?” I said, “Ahh, we got a stupid dinner we have to go to.” He said, “Oh, tell Ken to blow it off.” Haha! I said I couldn’t, but I’d see them again on Friday. He seemed okay with that. :) I said, “I just love you guys. You’re a blast and you make me smile.” I don’t recall if it was Jason or Alex who said, “Well, that’s what we’re here for.” See? Show ‘em some love! I am obviously enthusiastic about the music, and I think any musician appreciates that.

The dinner turned out to be quite a bit of fun, and there were some really nice people there that I was meeting for the first time. Usually I’m a somewhat shy person when around people I don’t know, but there’s just something about this city that brings out my social butterfly. Or maybe it’s the good side of the Inner Lizard...I don’t know. But I had no problem talking with people last night. I think this city just has so much fun energy that it rubs off on you. Social situations sometimes exhaust me, but New Orleans gives me so much energy that I don’t feel the usual exhaustion.

So let’s see what kind of trouble I can get into the rest of the time here…!

Bad, Bad Cindy

Did I ever tell you guys about that one time when I was in a hurricane? Like, literally IN one? Yes? You don’t need to continue reading. No? Well, kick back and sit a spell!

This happened back in 2005, and I was reminded of it the other day when we had a “group call” with our friends Kim and Steve. I can’t remember how it came up, but we had a laugh over it.

We met up with them in New Orleans for a week of fun, friendship, fantastic food, and fabulous music (I’m sorry I couldn’t think of a synonym for music that started with an F!). Like most southern coastal cities, New Orleans gets its share of pop-up storms, usually in late afternoon, but then it clears up. It happens to us often when we go to New Smyrna Beach.

Anyway, we had heard that a tropical storm was brewing in the Gulf, and we were trying to keep an eye on that. But we weren’t going to let it spoil our fun, and things didn’t seem to be too bad, so we headed out for some food, then to Fritzel’s European Jazz Club on Bourbon Street, which is always one of our stops. World-class jazz musicians play there, many of whom also play at Preservation Hall. It’s a bit of a different style of jazz, though. At Preservation Hall, they play the kind of jazz that you always think of when it comes to New Orleans. Fritzel’s has a much more European sound to the jazz there—DUH! It’s right there in the name!—and you see a lot of German signs and decor. It makes me think of a German beer hall, if that makes sense. I’m sure music scholars could explain the full differences between the two styles, but I’m not a music scholar, so don’t look at me!

It’s just really fun music, and the talent of the musicians is phenomenal. The bottom line is that if you’re playing on Bourbon Street, you’re GOOD. We enjoy it every time we go. We were having a great time that night with Kim and Steve, too, just diggin’ the music and the talent, talking and laughing. I seem to recall Kim having a Hurricane (the drink), which is kind of funny now that I think about it!

The doors to the clubs in New Orleans usually stay open, and it’s part of the charm of the Quarter. As you walk down Bourbon Street, you can hear the music spilling out into the street, and as you walk along you can go from Cajun/Zydeco to EDM to blues to jazz to straight up rock and roll. It’s a little slice of heaven for any music lover, and it’s part of the reason I fell in love with the city the very first time we went. It can also get pretty hot in these places, so the open doors help bring in the breeze. We were there in July that year, so the cool night air felt wonderful, and it felt even better when the wind picked up a bit.

We continued to enjoy the music and got really caught up in it. At one point, we looked outside and realized it was raining really hard, and that there weren’t a whole lot of people walking around out there, but that’s to be expected when it’s raining hard, right? There were still other people in the club, so we weren’t the only ones hanging out. The music was smokin’, and we were having a blast on Bourbon Street. Yay!

Things eventually wound down, and I can’t recall if we stayed until the band was done, or if we left during one of their breaks. Knowing us, I’m going to say that we probably closed the place down. So we head out to walk back to the hotel—it was only a few blocks, and the blocks in the Quarter are small—and when we got to the doorway, we stopped and went, “Holy shit.” It was just pouring, sheets of rain blowing down Bourbon Street, water running like small rivers in the gutter (since it was Bourbon Street, it wasn’t just water, either, believe me). The street was deserted, and we weren’t going to stand there and wait for a cab to go just a few blocks, so we all looked at each other, said, “Ready?” and we took off at a run.

We were all laughing and saying “oh my god oh my god” and at one point, I’m pretty sure I went “AGGGGHHHHH!” as I ran. I have never been out in such a torrential rain before, the winds were powerful, and we were all soaked to the skin in a matter of seconds. Even our shoes were soaked, and took a couple of days to dry out. We made it back to the hotel safely, if completely waterlogged, and it felt good to get out of our soaked clothes and dry off.

The storm blew through that night, and as we walked around the next day, we were surprised to see so much damage. Some of the glass in the gaslights was broken, trees were downed on cars, and at the Moonwalk, there were downed limbs and debris everywhere. We started realizing then that it was a pretty bad storm. It was Tropical Storm Cindy. We joked about being out in a tropical storm.

We enjoyed the rest of our week, and made it out just in time before they closed the airport because of Hurricane Dennis, which was supposed to make landfall that evening.

It wasn’t until a while after we got back that I was reading that they had upgraded TS Cindy to hurricane status. It was a Category 1, the lowest level, but it still packed a punch.

And that was the night I ran down Bourbon Street in a hurricane.