Laissez les bons temps rouler

I've been doing a lot of whining about connectivity.  Well in New Orleans, connectivity was not an issue.  The issue for delayed updates?  New Orleans itself - those who have gone know.

New Orleans is such a wonderful city and for those who never leave Bourbon street - you are missing so much!  A block in any direction will lead you to some of the coolest architecture, bars, people, music, etc... Here is my New Orleans advice:  If you like music, leave the French Quarter and East to the Marigny district.  It's walking distance and worth the walk.

Rather then post up a ton of pictures, I will select from the highlights:

Here is Little Freddie King.  He's not related to the real Freddie King, but he did put on an excellent show and did play Hide Away:

New Orleans and Voodoo go hand in hand; part of this is because of Marie Laveau.  Apparently she really liked her porn (I don't know if that's true or not - the "XXX" are from worshippers):

There is a surprisingly sparse police presence in New Orleans, and the only cops present (at least noticeable) are on horseback.  Now let's think about this:

• People drink on Bourbon Street.
• People walk on Bourbon Street.
• People walk drunk on Bourbon Street.
• Horses are used when patrolling Bourbon street.
• Horses poop a lot.
• Horses poop a lot, on Bourbon street.
• Drunk people walk on Bourbon street where horses just pooped on Bourbon Street.
• Erin is a person... holding a beer... and a cup of Hurricane... next to a horse.

Everybody knows I can be a little competitive so when I heard there was a tooth contest:

And a "Jazz Hands" contest (these guys were awesome - very, very good!):

On a more serious note about New Orleans - I really wanted to see the damage that still remained from Katrina and subsequent levee breaks and floods.  It is absolutely amazing to think what happened, what didn't happen and how many people were effected by the flooding.  It's even more amazing to see how much damage remains.  The 9th Ward (where most of the damage occurred) is not a good neighborhood, so I had to rush my picture taking.  Two key items of note are that the "X" on the building was used by search and rescue crews and holes in roofs are a result of people cutting through their roofs to escape the flooding within the house (part of their hurricane readiness is to keep an ax in the attic).

There was house after house, block after block like these.  It was absolutely surreal, thought provoking, and very sad.

Galveston for the night and then a final stop in Rockport prior to returning to NM.