Thursday, March 15, 2007

New Orleans, Part 1

I arrived yesterday afternoon about 4 or so...no major issues on the road from Memphis to New Orleans, but that changed upon arrival here in the Big Easy. I did what I normally do when taking a road trip - I print out directions from Mapquest or some such, and 9 times out of 10, that's fine. This was the 10th time out of 10. I was instructed to get off at Exit 234B, which seemed easy enough on paper. The big problem emerged when I found out there is no Exit 234B - at least none that I could see.

So I rolled on past the area where I should have exited, and got off somewhere else...and was immediately lost in New Orleans. Great. But I figure I'm smart enough to find my way around downtown N.O. - I know what streets to look for, and I know roughly where I'm supposed to be, so it shouldn't have been a problem. There was one slight issue, though...probably 25-35 percent of the intersections I saw had no street sign at all. No sign whatsoever. I had to basically drive around and just sort of hope I managed to find the right street. I eventually did.

I was told last night by a couple of locals that people who came down here to help rebuild or do construction work have been helping themselves to authentic, 100% New Orleans, LA street signs! Apparently those street signs are made of gold or something, because the New Orleans city government has not replaced them at all. I wish they would. It would have made my trip a bit easier.

The hotel is nice, and isn't far from the French Quarter. A few of us headed out to Bourbon Street last night and had fun. Oddly enough, I didn't see one single Tiger fan, but I saw two, count 'em, TWO Nevada fans. I assume Tiger Nation hasn't made it down here yet. Most of the fans haven't arrived yet - or, if they have, they weren't on Bourbon. I know they're coming.

I'll be back with more later.

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