ok... on to new orleans and mardi gras...

what is there to say about new orleans that hasn't already been said. well.. for one thing, good luck finding your way around! the driving for someone from out of town is terribly difficult. your tax dollars at work indeed. road construction is all over town. streets change names withour rhyme nor reason. you can't turn left at intersections. there is no plan to the traffic patterns. streets go willy-nilly here and there and then are closed to traffic. to complicate matters during mardi gras week there are parades all over the place that close off streets to traffic. then added to all of that there is the mardi gras traffic... it is a jam all over the city. all in all it is nearly impossible to get around during this week. we took a shuttle provided by the campground to the french quarter to see the festivities, what a zoo. as near as i can figure mardi gras is drunken crowds and parades showering the onlokers with beads. we caught about thirty pounds of beads and only saw three minor parades. we could have caught much more but we wern't very motivated, but it was fun to see. burbon street was pretty outlandish. women going topless, street musicians on every corner, the "naked cowboy" was down from new york's time square to take part in the mayhem with his helper, elvis. we went into burbon street shops and saw voodoo merchandice and lots of smutty tee shirts. women hustling drinks in the crowd on the street closed to vehicular traffic. what a party. it goes on for 24 hours a day for about a week. to top it all off of course was the super bowl victory for the city. the "who dat" saint cheer was ringing down the streets every few minutes. even in bars it was shouted out every few minutes.

all of the people we met there were kind and helpful. from our first encounter with locals in a home depot store we went into searching for a space heater our meetings with locals was delightful. they are all very friendly and helpful in any way they can be. purely delightful is the way i would describe the local population. as difficult as it was to be there during this week it was made easier by the helpfulness of those who live there. my hat is off to the friendly citizens of new orleans. now... if only you could clean up the traffic problems! but i guess it has to be expected when there are 500,000 visitors there to PARTY!!!