Day 29 Oaxaca to New Orleans Wednesday 15 April 2015 USA Day 1

We were up at 5:15am this morning to finish packing and get our ride to the airport. We were picked up at 6am by Manuel, our driver, and arrived out at the airport at 6:20. The airport was a bit of a  shambles, the United Airlines computer system was down, so they were having to do everything manually and over the phone!! But all seemed to go smoothly until we said we had a connecting flight out of Houston, this was when they asked where we were staying in New Orleans (I had images of our luggage going in a different direction to us 🙂 ).

Anyway, we left Oaxaca on time at 8:30am and landed in Houston at 11:25. By the time we were through Immigration and Customs, and security (Yep, security to get into the country!) it was 12:15pm. Our flight was due to leave at 12:55 from Terminal C, we landed in Terminal E, and this is one big airport. So we got to a United Check-in Counter, got our boarding passes and bags into the system again. Then hurried down stairs, along moving walkways and down endlessly long corridors to our gate. We got there with about 10 mins to spare, which was a relief. Time to cool down before our 50min flight to New Orleans.

Our flight left at 1:30pm, a bit later than expected, and I thought to myself, ”Houston we have lift-off”, I may have even said it aloud! 🙂   (yes you did!)

The weather in Houston was pretty wet, but just after we took off the Captain informed us that the weather in Houston was clearing and that the bad weather was heading east, right towards New Orleans!!!  Our flight was redirected around the storms and we ended up arriving at around 2.30pm.

It was great as we got off the plane and entered the terminal to see our old friends John and Georgie waiting for us. It’s been a while since we have seen them and we are going to be with them for the next couple of weeks, touring their country with them. 🙂  It made Deb’s day seeing them both.

We got our lift to the B&B/Hotel that we are staying at, Greenobles on Dauphine St New Orleans, one street back from Bourbon St.

We spent a little while talking to our hosts here and working out things we might want to do, then we sat down in our room with John and Georgie, worked out a bit of a plan for our time here and then just spent time relaxing and catching up on things with them.

We went down the road to a restaurant called Deanies for a bit of southern food. The food was good, but we have to remember it’s best sharing a main as they are so big!!

From there we went for a walk down Bourbon St, a Jazz infused version of Hindley St (or Kings Cross in Sydney but on steroids). Lots of bars and live music with strip joints etc thrown in amongst them. Such a colourful street, one place was advertising themselves as the home of the Big Ass Burger and Big Ass Beers.

We then went and queued up outside The Preservation Hall at 7:05 for their 8pm show. The queue was already about 10m long and by the time 8pm came around it was about ½ a block long.  We got in Ok and just managed to get a bench seat in the last row. It’s a Jazz music Mecca for those who love there Jazz traditional. Tonight’s All Star Band was lead by Drummer Shannon Powell, they played for 45mins and I don’t think there was a foot in the house not tapping away for the whole time. Ummm, to call this place a Hall is a bit of a stretch, it’s basically 2 large rooms joined together, but the atmosphere is amazing and the decor is so old time Jazz.

After the performance we walked back to Greenobles via Bourbon St. The place was just starting to really come to life with all the colour and sounds you’d expect. A great way to finish a great day.

Tomorrow we start with a bus tour of “Nawlins” (it’s how you say it if you’re a local!). It’s raining here or trying to so this is a good option for what may be a wet morning, we’ll see what happens from there.

The only thing we know for sure is that we have tickets for the hottest game in town, The New Orleans Pelicans play the San Antonio Spurs for a place in the play-offs.  The Spurs will win the South West Division and 2^nd seed in the Western Division if they win, while the Pelicans will take the last place in the western Division play-offs if they win, so it’s a huge game, so far this season it’s 2 from 3 for the Pelicans against the Spurs.   It’s a sellout so it should be a great night.   We will be thinking of you Dante and wishing you were here with us.  Who will you be supporting?