Our second planned adventure in 2024 was five days in New Orleans. For Carolyn, it was the first time there, for Bob it was his fourth — but by far his best trip ever in NOLA. What made it the best is that we joined two other fun couples from Sun Lakes; Steve and Susie Ficker and Ray and Jackie Texiera. Ray was our guide, having lived there for a number of years. He planned a detailed itinerary full of both popular and not-well-known places and activities. We had a pre-trip planning dinner at the Texiera’s, with enough details to heighten our anticipation and food to tingle our taste buds,
On our first night, we checked out Bourbon Street and found a great place for fresh oysters with black beans and rice. The Monday night crowds were smaller than usual but the restaurants that were open were full. We dressed in layers for the very chilly, windy walk but some young women seemed comfortable with bare midriffs and skinny pants.
A month earlier, we might have been part of the Bourbon Street scene shown below celebrating Mardi Gras with a lot of bead tossing. So, we did the next best thing.
On Tuesday, we headed for the French Quarter, for shopping, good food, great jazz and a tour of Mardi Gras World.
Mardi Gras World is a tourist attraction located in the warehouse district in New Orleans. Guests tour the 300,000 square foot display warehouse, where floats are made for Mardi Gras and numerous other parades in New Orleans and elsewhere. Mardi Gras World is located along the Mississippi River, next to the New Orleans Convention Center. Besides this large display warehouse, Mardi Gras World has 17 other warehouses across New Orleans where staff are continuously working on floats for parades that occur all across the world and, of course, in New Orleans.
A marathon of parades and super-krewes (organizations with over 1,000 dues paying members that have at least 500 riders for a parade in each each carnival) roll every single night during the 12 nights of the Mardi Gras season which occurs just before the start of Lent. Prior to the week proceeding Lent, various smaller parades roll in neighborhoods across the city on weekends.
While super-krews represent the members of large organizations that celebrate the season through parades and/or events, smaller groups are simply called krewes. Each has its own history and traditions. Some are men only, some are women only, and some are open to all! They often have a captain who leads the organization, which is a big honor. Krewes often have courts which are made up of a king, queen, maids, and dukes. The court usually changes each year. They are chartered as non-profit entities and financed by dues and fundraising to buy or rent their float.
Masking is a tradition during Mardi Gras. Masks were first worn by the elite to wear at events they attended so they were not recognized and could escape the constraints of society and class and mingle with the masses. Today, float-riders are required to wear masks by law to keep with long-held Marti Gras tradition and to maintain the mystery of who is in which krewe. Th add to the mystery, float-riders wear a costume that matches their mask and the float’s theme.
On Wednesday, our third day, we took a riverboat cruise on the Creole Queen traveling about an hour down the Mississippi River to tour the Battle of New Orleans National Park. This is the site of General Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British army, as they were attempting to conquer the central part of the U.S.
“In 1814 we took a little trip. Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip'. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans. And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.” Opening lyrics to the song Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton. Below is a music video of this iconic song.
During our hour-long ride on the Creole Queen to the national park, we heard a wonderful narrative of the battle of New Orleans that continued at the actual site of the battle by our guide, Charles Chestnut. Charles is a retired attorney, from a long line of New Orleans residents. He has an audio recording of his entertaining, informative narration regarding the battle.
Being at the site of the battle made our guide’s narration come to life.
Charles Chestnut’s blog called Storied History told the miraculous true story of how the Americans, who outnumbered the British by 10 to 1, narrowly won the battle. However, Andrew Jackson was a talented commander so his troops won the battle with American ingenuity and sheer trickery. You can hear for yourself athttp://StoriedHistory.com
This is the remains of the ditch that was dug out by the American soldiers under the command of General Andrew Jackson to provide a 6-foot high mud barrier and a 12-foot wide, 4-foot deep ditch that caused the British soldiers’ gun powder to get wet when they crossed it — making their guns unable to fire so were easy targets for the Americans who enlisted the help of a local group of pirates and their stolen cannons.
On the return trip up the river, our guide described the events following Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans 19 years ago. Over 32 of the levees and flood walls that protect the city from flooding were breached in the aftermath. Many poor decisions by officials during the floods and poor repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 50s contributed to the devastation. With 80% of the city submerged and 1,390 deaths, this was the deadliest hurricane in New Orleans’ history.
Holy Cross high school shown above was almost completely covered by water and has been abandoned since the flood.
Most of New Orleans is below sea level, so bodies are entombed in above-ground graves housing multiple family members. To make room, after interment of a year and one month, men were employed to remove the bones of deceased bodies and crushed the skeletons to make more room for arrivals. This is not one of the bone crushers.
While I did not find a Leneway burial site, we did find Robert’s tomb. Bob’s mother’s maiden name was Roberts. So here is where some of my relatives might possibly reside!
The Irish Catholics do not believe in being buried above ground. They bury their dead below ground but the problem in New Orleans is with the very low ground water table. The caskets containing the dead keep rising up when it rains. According to old legends, the appearance of slowly rising caskets seems to be the origin of the concept of zombies. Here you see where a zombie might be rising out of the ground.
Lessons Learned
1. Temperature does not always feel the same. A mild 51 degrees in Phoenix is a chilly 51 degrees in humid, windy New Orleans.
2. Avoid New Orleans during Mardi Gras season unless you are into wild parties.
3. If you are playing poker with the British who have a King and Queen showing, be prepared to bluff, as Andrew Jackson did when he won the battle of New Orleans
4. Zombie could be real, as they seem to be rising out New Orleans cemeteries.
5. Do not wear dark clothing when eating beignets
On to our next adventure, the city of lights - Paris.