Cruising  ~ The Cat's Meow Style ~ October 2013
Cruisin' TCM Style in New Orleans


We headed south and east out of Cottonwood, with N'Orleans our goal. We knew this would be a long, long drive, and it was. We stopped in El Paso and in San Antionio, Texas. We had a chance to get down to the  Riverfront area in San Antonio ~ what a delight! We relaxed, had some good Tex-Mex food, and then we walked around, and ended up at the Alamo. THE Alamo. Somehow, we both thought it would be larger, but it was interesting to see it.

THE Alamo
It would take way too many pages to describe all of the fun we had while in N'Orleans (NOLA), so we will just try to give you a taste of what we did and what we saw. WOW. These guys know how to have funnnn!!

Music. Music is everywhere in NOLA. We had the chance to listen to blues, zydeco, rock, jazz, dixieland....and it was all good. We heard the Preservation Band. We saw pick-up groups on the corners of some streets. We went to bars, to a dinner show, and to festivals and heard great musicians of all ages.
Blues in the square
Blues in the street
These guys rocked at the Maisson bar
Zydeco and Cajun music at the Blue Bayou Club
And Martin got to play the washboard along with the band at the Blue Bayou!!  Twice!!!
There is at least one, usually more, festival going on any weekend and often during the week, at least in the month of October. You couldn't throw a rock without hitting something going on somewhere. We attended a few...the Seafood Festival was a two-day affair held in a very large park which accomodated thousands of people. All manner of seafood ~ crab, shrimp, fish, and things we had never heard of ~ was prepared in too many ways to remember. And an array of bands played on the stage, throughout. What a blast!
The Seafood Fest
Music at the Fest
The Crescent BBQ Fest with even more good food
The French Quarter is the "hot spot" for tourism in N'Orleans, but there is a lot more to do and see. We ventured out to enjoy more activities. One afternoon we took a "swamp tour", which turns out to actually be a ride through some bayous. While most of the crocodiles were hibernating (we didn't even know they hibernate!), we did manage to see some purrrty good sized guys.

Another day we went to the Jean Lafitte Preserve, where we walked on a boardwalk just a few inches above the swamp waters. That was really cool! While we didn't see any crocodiles on this walk, we did see some other critters.
Spanish moss, egrits, and critters with big teeth in the bayou
Cypress & "cypress knees" in the swamp at Jean Lafitte Preserve
An Orb spider in the swamp
We had good times, good food, good music, and we had a great time seeing good friends Anita & Ron, former cruisers. They drove in from their small town in Mississippi to spend a couple of afternoons with us, showing us around town and enjoying some of the sights.
Enjoying more good food with Anita & Ron on Magazine Street
Last but not least, we stayed in New O'rleans through Hallowe'en night. With all of the crazies walking around Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, we thought this would be a grand night to watch people! Alas....the entire evening was dampened, literally, by rain. A lot of rain. So......we had our masks and beads on, but we called it a night purrrrty early, since the crowd was no more weird than the usual.
But, this did not dampen our feelings and our memories of NOLA....no no no. We had a GREAT time, ………Cruising ~ The Cat's Meow Style in N'Awlins!
Happy Hallowe'en from Robin!