Tripometer – 14,879 mi
Gas Gauge – 1170.297 gal
Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA
Lodging – $105
Cans of OFF – 4
At some point in the middle of last night someone open fire with a hand gun no more than a few hundred feet from our trailer firing some 6 or 8 shots. At no point afterward did we hear any police response. If we weren’t done with this city before that, we’re done now.
Waking up this morning still feeling ill, we set off in search of simple food to break our fast. The weather is beautiful! We’ve finally found temperatures above 70 degrees, we’re dressed in shorts and t-shirts and the world seems like a new place. We found a little bagel place North of the Garden District with excellent coffee and better bagels than we’ve had since we left home. Our bellies were duly pleased with that offering quelling any queasiness that was threatening to dampen the day.
We spotted this billboard as we drove towards St. Louis #3 graveyard near City Park. We have seen more lawyer advertising in the New Orleans area than anywhere else in the country. We about fell out of our chairs when we saw this billboard. Neither of us have ever seen a lawyer advertise with such local colloquialism. Hey, whatever it takes to reach your audience, right?
St. Louis #3 is located along the border of the City Park that we visited a couple of days ago. After ensuring there were no pet prohibitions, the three of us ventured in to wander the graveyard on a dreary rainy day. What better weather to tour a graveyard? We found that the vast majority of the graveyard was similar to Lafayette #1 that we visited a few days ago. The crypts are relatively unadorned and they resemble each other making for row upon row of two shelf crypts like the one Kelly and Ranger are standing in front of, above. Towards the front edge of the cemetery, though, there were a few dozen very ornate and frankly huge crypts. In this section of the cemetery there were several dozen beautiful old statues in various states of repair that made for amazing pictures, our favorite being the weeping angel. One of the crypts in this area stood out amongst the rest. The Skelly crypt was fairly new and as ostentatious as they get. When we peered through a window in the Skelly crypt we were delighted to find that the only thing visible inside the crypt were a couple of plastic air fresheners. That seems appropriate.
We had a conversation about these crypts with our tour guide Victor at the Lafayette #1 cemetery early last week. He explained that the top shelf in these two shelf crypts was the only shelf used for newly dead occupants. On Day 366 (one year and one day) after the original burial, newly buried people are removed from the crypt, bundled in a shroud and moved to the back of the lower shelf in the crypt with a ‘10 foot pole’ (he insisted this was the origin of the term though we can find no such reference on Google.) This system of reduction and clearance allows these small two-shelf crypts to hold up to 100 or more bodies.
While doing errands at a nearby Walmart, we received a call from the RV park where we’re staying asking us why we hadn’t moved our trailer. Apparently we were scheduled to check out today. They were happy to extend our stay by one day but then we had to deal with the buyer’s remorse of being done with New Orleans but screwing ourselves into another day at over $100 per night. GAH!
We had planned to take Ranger on a walk around Audubon Park this afternoon and wound him up like a clock teasing him on our way South to Audubon. The rain had other plans. As we were pulling into the park the rain was just starting and a quick look at the radar told us we were in for a fairly big storm, but Ranger would have nothing to do with driving on. We were going to walk whether we wanted to or not. Paul grabbed Ranger as the rain started and ran him under the branches of the largest old oak we have ever seen. The tree, in the Audubon park, is called the ‘Tree of Life’ and is believed to have been planted in the late 1600 to early 1700s. Ranger and Paul walked around and under the tree for about 10 minutes before the rain got too hard and they ran back to the car. Apparently that was enough to quell Ranger’s need for walkies.
Returning to the RV park, we spent the rest of the evening preparing to move the party down the road tomorrow. Good night New Orleans.