Amy Goes to New Orleans

Amy goes to New Orleans

This article is written but most of it isn't typed. We had a WONDERFUL time in New Orleans. Here are some samples:

I spent the flight from Salt Lake City reading up on stuff to do. Boy, there's a lot of stuff to do. "I want to see the cemeteries and go to the voodoo shops and see the swamps!" said Amy. Me too. "I want to get Cajun food and eat shrimps and gumbo and those big sandwich thingies." Me too! "I want to go to Six Flags New Orleans!" I don't.

I want to eat muffulettas at the Central Grocery Company. And go to the Mardi Gras museum and go on the River Road plantation tour and go to the alligator farm. "I want to go to the alligator farm!" said Amy. "And the midnight vampire tour." We gots two days to do all that in. I wonder how much we will be able to get done? Or will we just spend that time at our hotel watching HBO?

11:30 pm: At the Louis Armstrong International Airport, the shuttles all cost $13 apiece so we asked the cleaning crew (that was about all who was left there at that time of night) where to catch the bus. It cost $1.10 and came with a very entertaining bus driver. If everyone in New Orleans is this friendly and this crazy, we have found our new home!

The bus driver told me where to transfer. "I can't remember all that. Please tell it to my daughter Amy."
"Amy! Get up here!" Everyone in the bus laughed. He explained it. Amy took notes. We were off. You could smell the Gulf sea air. We were here!

Nathan called for the report on how we were doing. We told him all about Salt Lake City and poor sweet Ashley trying to go to the bathroom in the airplane at 31,000 feet in the middle of a thunder storm. "Have you ever tried to pee in the middle of major turbulence?" Nathan admitted that he had not.

On the road to New Orleans, I noticed that gasoline was selling for only $2.00 a gallon. It was $3.25 when we left Berkeley.

"Where should we go, what should we see," I asked the bus driver.

"Just buy a three-day bus pass for $12 and you can see everything and go anywhere. And you can't get lost either."

"Oh, you don't know my mother," Amy volunteered. "She can get lost anywhere."
"Nope. Even she can't get lost. All the buses eventually end up back at Canal Street."
Everyone on the bus is saying "Y'all" and All y'all." We are definitely in The South! We drove past the Bubba Cafe. I was suddenly very hungry. Then we passed the Red Neck Saloon. I swear to God we did.

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We got our palms read in Jackson Square by someone who called himself "The Master Palmist of New Orleans". He told Amy, "Your intelligence line is really really long. You had a troubled childhood but you are fine now. You will live to age 81 at least and accomplish your life goals by age 65. And you hate bigots and hypocrites." He went on to say that he was a 21st century high-tech palmist and based his readings on finding from a DNA study done by Duke University. Apparently, Amy has primo DNA.

As for me, "You have a strong will and a strong sense of justice." He got that one right. After getting our palms read, we walked over to Bourbon Street and listened to street bands play jazz in the warm evening air.