Tripometer – 14,827 mi
Gas Gauge – 1152.255 gal
Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA
Lodging – $105
Cans of OFF – 4
Happy Thanksgiving!
No one was feeling well this morning, coffee didn’t taste good and spirits were low. At first blush we considered cancelling our reservations for dinner this evening but decided to take the day as it comes and see if we felt better towards evening.
With tender stomachs we went to find a view of the Mississippi via the Riverwalk in the French Quarter. This area is very akin to Harbor Place in Baltimore, to include a tremendous modern mall and a world class aquarium. We had hoped for more of a pastoral walk along the Ole’ Miss but neither of us was up to the task of being a tour guide today… this would have to do. Happily this walk put us in a perfect place and time to sample beignets and chicory coffee at Café Du Monde. Better still, our stomachs didn’t immediately object to the idea. After standing in line for the better part of 30 minutes we retired to a park bench along the river to nibble New Orleans’ most famous treat. We were not too impressed, to be honest. In Paul’s words ‘Chicory coffee was first introduced in New Orleans because there was a shortage of real coffee and they extended the quantity of usable coffee on hand by combining it with chicory. Why in hell would you want to drink the coffee substitute when the real deal has been readily available since the end of naval blockades during the CIVIL WAR!??!’ The Beignets tasted exactly (well, not quite as good as the best we’ve had) like carnival funnel cake. We joked that the Navajo Bread we had sampled while travelling through a reservation in Eastern Arizona was much more tasty and interesting. Not to blast a New Orleans tradition, but in a city so flooded with EXCELLENT food and absolute world class chefs, you’d think they could do better.
Our walk this morning took us by the Natchez steam wheeler docked alongside the river in the French Quarter. After seeing an advertisement for a 3 hour lunch cruise including a calliope concert and a tour of the steam engine room, we decided that needed to be on the to-do list. We sat down immediately and booked a trip for Saturday morning.
We walked a bit through the French Quarter with Ranger stopping at a few shops in areas we hadn’t covered yet. This town seems to have no end of shopping to do. The tremendous variety and sheer number of shops in town is astonishing. We still have not visited a good chunk of the shopping in the French Quarter. Our plan is to revisit the area later in the week when we can systematically canvas the main shopping streets of the quarter.
At this point in the day we were both still feeling ill. We decided to cancel our reservations for Thanksgiving dinner. Who wants to eat a fancy expensive meal when they’re slightly nauseous? Knowing the quality and quantity of excellent eating opportunities in New Orleans, we did not stock the trailer with much food for this portion of the trip. Knowing that we were headed back to an essentially empty trailer, we decided to grab a meal before we retired to the RV park for the evening.
We ate lunch at Pierre Maspero’s Cajun Restaurant, one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans and a suggestion from a local Uber driver a couple of nights ago. It was erected in 1788 and originally known as The Original Pierre Maspero’s Slave Exchange, a coffee house. Historically speaking this building was most noted for being the meeting place for discussions between Andrew Jackson (the soon to be 7th president of the U.S.) and Jean & Pierre Lafitte, notorious Gulf pirates, regarding the defense of New Orleans against the British during the last days of the Revolutionary War. We were not disappointed. It’s always fun to grab a bite to eat in a place that has so much ambiance to investigate with your eyes while you eat. (The food was excellent too!)
Thanksgiving dinner this year was Raman Noodles from a plastic wrapper. Yep, the good old fashioned $0.33 noodles that most of us haven’t seen since our college years. We have kept these in the pantry since the beginning of the trip as a light, cheap emergency meal. It was cheap, quick, delicious, and easy on the stomach. No regrets.