From the French Quarter to swamplands

As the bus hurtled down the highway bound for New Orleans, I felt a certain amount of anticipation as well as nervousness. I have never been to New Orleans and everyone kept saying, ‘well it’s going to be very different now, you know, and be careful’ yes, I knew that. I knew that. We stopped at a sushi restaurant somewhere in Mississippi, and we filled the restaurant. At one point I took a picture, and every table except one was M4thers. We crossed Lake Pontacharain at about 1am, and soon we could see the city skyline. We were going to be staying at a friend of Keith’s, named DJ Tracheotomy. His house was in a part of town called the lower bywaters. The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the bus was the wall of wet heat and the smell of mildew in the air. The cicadas were going strong, and I knew I was in the Deep South. The area that DJ T. (Jay) lived in was not underwater in Katrina, but the effects of the hurricane were present nonetheless. As all the fuzzy headed band members began to explore the house and property it was soon apparent that we were not going to be able to sleep there… the house was musty and mildewy, paint and siding peeling off the walls. We had about 15 sick people and 15 more barely holding on to their fragile immunity, and one has thrown her back out. We loitered outside the house, trying to figure out what to do… we were hot and sticky and tired and generally uncomfortable, in a pretty sketchy part of town. Keith finally broke down and called his wife’s parents, and they said sure! Come on over. We headed down through the 9th ward towards Chalmette, where they lived. I looked out the widow at all the ravaged houses; still baring the spray paint of the date FEMA checked the house and how many bodies were found inside. Every house had a FEMA trailer next to it, where the residents were living (if they stayed in New Orleans) we arrived at the home of Mark and Sheri, and they had a nice big backyard for us to pitch our tents. Lots of soft thick grass and a bit of shade for the morning. Their house is under construction right now; the downstairs is completely gutted after being under 5 feet of standing water for 2 weeks. They also are living out of a FEMA trailer.
We woke in the morning to thick clouds and the possibility of thunderstorms. We packed up quick and ate the amazing breakfast that Sheri cooked for us. Just as we rolled away the clouds broke and released all that built up humidity. Truth be told it didn’t really feel any different when it was raining than when it wasn’t; hot and wet. We drove from Chalmette through the edge of the 9th ward toward downtown New Orleans. Along this road there was not a single business still open. Most still had their signs up but windows were boarded up and weeds were growing over the front doors. Some buildings looked like they had not been touched for 2 years, roofs half blown off and walls mangled, rebar sticking out every which way. Piles of rubble were built up along the roadside. It was overwhelmingly sorrowful and the bus was unusually quiet on this drive.
We arrived downtown and at this point we decided that those who wanted to would check into to a hotel, and others who were feeling more frugal would sleep on the bus that we parked at Jay’s house. I chose the hotel. Then we were free for a day of sightseeing. Our hotel was just a few blocks from the famed French Quarter so a few of us headed out to see the world. This was particularly exciting for me as I am an avid Anne Rice reader, I have read every one of her books and pretty much all of them take place in the French Quarter and the Garden District. I stopped to have an authentic Cajun meal with Heather, Topher, Scarlett, LaTisha, Faith, and Jen. The lunch was a different kind of authentic, but still good. When we left there we weren’t really satisfied so we went into another place for a gumbo second. I had the best crab cake I think I have ever had in my life. After that I wandered around the quarter, trying to picture what it would have been like 200 years ago, I tried so hard to get into the romantic aspect of it but what I really saw was tourist trap. Sigh. The architecture was beautiful though, and I soaked it in. after awhile I headed back to the hotel to catch a quick nap before going out that night, the Rebirth Brass Band was playing at the Maple Leaf, same place we were playing the next night. We all wanted to catch that as they have been a big inspiration for us. Well I guess I was tired because I woke up from my nap at midnight! I figured I needed the sleep, so I talked to Robin on the phone for a bit and then went right back to sleep for the night.
The next day was another day off until about 8 when we would meet up for dinner and our show. I had a nice breakfast with Jason and then I swapped Jason for Scarlett and we headed out to find the Mississippi River (hard to miss) one great thing about traveling with 30 people is that you run into them all around town! We were having a nice time sitting by the river when Topher came up behind us and pretended to mug us….. Then it started to rain heavily so we meandered back to the quarter and took refuge in a mixed drink machine bar, all the drinks were mixing in what looked like front-loading washing machines and there were about 20 different ones!
That night we all taxied over the Keith friends Richard and Mary's house for a BBQ. We rode the cab down Rue St. Charles through the Garden District, and I was happy I got to see it. So many beautiful mansions straight out of the Mayfair Witch series. I expected to see Uncle Julien sitting on one of the porches, or Lestat and Louie pretending to have a glass of wine at some café.
Keith’s friends were amazingly hospitable, and we had a wonderful dinner of burgers and GREENS—yay! Don’t get too many of those on the road. And best of all, Robin showed up!!! He had just flown in from Portland, long sleeves and all (it was still hot and sticky and raining) thunder and lightning commenced, perhaps from the joy of lovers reuniting after 2 ½ weeks away (?)
Earlier that day Aspen and Uli had met a woman who lives right down the street from the Maple Leaf.. She instantly loved them and told them we could park our bus in front of her house and plug in. It turned out she has a little shop there too; she sells essential oils and such. Her name was Eliza and any of us who wandered in got a free reading and she gave us a blend of oil that was right for us. She seemed to affect us all differently, for me she seemed to look right through me and tell me what was true. She asked if I had a sister (I could tell she already knew the answer) when I nodded she said’ call her’ with a smile on her face. The funny thing is, I had dreamed about Sarah the night before. She said ‘she has good news for you’ then that night I dreamed of Sarah again. I tried calling her the next day but didn’t get through… I’ll try again. Our show at the Maple Leaf was fun. The venue was very small and slippery, but great crowd energy. To me it felt like the band was a little low energy but this will happen from time to time. Right after the show Robin and I grabbed a cab back to the hotel to spend some quality time together ;) our only night alone before it’s back on the bus and then I’m headed out day after tomorrow. The next morning we had to be out of the room by 11 and we had another whole day before our show last night… so it was back to the French Quarter with Robin this time. We spent a bit of time at the edge of the Mississippi ogling over the riverboats, imagining Ravella boarding the boat preparing to gather her spoils. We also went to the VooDoo museum, another little tourist trap but rather enjoyable. We learned all about Marie Levaeu, the VooDoo queen of New Orleans. When we were in there I got a bloody nose! I decided to take my bloody napkins out with me. The afternoon ended sitting outside Café Du Monde with Jason and Robin, enjoying the sunset and tropical rainstorm.
Our gig was starting outside this place called Café Brazil, and we were going to process through the streets to our final destination, the Hi-Ho lounge. When we got to Café Brazil, we already had a crowd waiting for us and we started marching, right down the middle of the street. Earlier we had decided that we were NOT going to go in the street, as you need a permit for that and another marching band had recently been arrested for doing it without. So we started on the sidewalks but it was hard to keep the crowd of people out of the streets and eventually the band took over the street too… I felt extremely anxious the entire march because I generally tend to avoid doing things that can get me arrested.. But it was an amazing march nonetheless, marching through the 9th ward bringing happiness to the streets, people coming out of their houses and smiling with pure joy. I got to really see the people. They were so happy. They said they hadn’t experienced this in a long time. As we marched the 8 blocks to the Hi-Ho, we gathered people like a lint ball. The air was dry but lightning was crashing about every 2 minutes. We brought the people in to the Hi-Ho and merriment commenced. There were a couple of bands ahead of us, one of them called ‘Flaming Fire.’ then we were up-we of course started with ‘9th Ward’ and the crowd went crazy. It was SO HOT and crazy! After I did my hula hoop bit I think I was the hottest and sweatiest I have ever been after performing. But damn, it was worth it! The crowd was riled up beyond belief… I felt like a badass. I immediately ran backstage and poured ice down my costume. Then back out to the raging crowd. I think everyone in the band had an amazing night. At one point we were spraying ice water into the crowd, it got super crazy. It was a perfect end to our stay in New Orleans, and I’m sure we’ll be back. i guess i was a little skeptical about how they would receive us, maybe because New Orleans is renowned for their music and between Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras, i feel like they might have seen it all. Well i guess they haven't seen it ALL because they ate us up. LOVE!!
We then loaded up the bus in the pouring hot rain, no one fretting about getting wet, as we were drenched in sweat already. Tying up the hula hoops on the top of the bus was interesting in the deluge… I thought it would suck to get hit by lightning but the hoops needed to be tied so up I went. We then drove the 1 ½ hours to Baton Rouge where we slept at Chris’s mom’s house. She and her neighbor took us in, provided us with beds and floor space, filled our bellies once again with breakfast and sent us on our way. We are now headed to Houston, TX to do a show tonight. Earlier we passed a giant swampland, something like 30 or 40 miles across. It was eerily beautiful. We just entered Texas; I’ve never been here. I only have a couple of days left on this tour. I will play Houston tonight, Austin tomorrow and tomorrow night, and then hop on an early morning flight back to Ptown to cuddle with GKitty and get caught up on my life. I’m looking forward to seeing my roommates and getting back to work, I feel like I haven’t been there in a million years! And I definitely need an adjustment. And a thousand nights of sleep. Sadly, I will have to part ways with Robin once again, but we will both be back for awhile in a week.