funnystrange.com

I'm in New Orleans! The drive was equally uneventful as yesterday's. The only blip on the day was my failed attempt to stop somewhere and get cleaning supplies for the car. All I need is a plastic basin, a sponge and some kind of soap. Every time I saw a Wal-mart, Bed Bath & Beyond or supermarket, I was in the far left lane and there was too much traffic for me to get over to the off-ramp in time. Oh well, tomorrow I'll stop in Beaufort TX.

It took about 7 hours to get here. I left GA at 8 am, but due to the magic of time zones I arrived just after 2! Unfortunately I had to change rooms because they had put me at the farthest end of the farthest hall, and I was just out of range of the wireless internet. If I took my computer into the hall I could get it, but as I walked into the room it disappeared. They were very nice about moving me, let me take my computer into other empty rooms and make sure I had a signal before they switched me in the computer. The new room is more charming and has a street view, but I think the street view may turn out to be a negative considering we're only half a block from Bourbon St. I can hear the horrible country rock blaring from the bar on the corner. Note to self: pick up earplugs at Walgreens this evening.

I spent the afternoon first and most importantly, wolfing down beignets at Cafe du Monde. I don't care if it's a tourist cliche, I love those beignets. I meant to take a picture but I forgot all about it until I was licking my fingers and staring at an empty plate. I did end up taking pictures of the people at two other tables (at their request and using their cameras).

After finishing my critically important carbo-loading, I walked around the French Quarter checking out the hours and locations of restaurants I had made note of. I'm really glad I did that because a couple of places I want to try -- a breakfast place called Croissant D'Or and Central Grocery, which supposedly has good muffalettas -- will both be closed when I come through again on the way back home. I didn't take my big camera with me because I didn't want to lug it around. So of course I saw about two dozen things I wanted to take pictures of, for which the phone cam would just not do. Like a couple sharing a single-person bicycle, loaded down with packages, riding down a picturesque little alley. Oh well, I'm not a very good photographer so the photo probably wouldn't have lived up to the reality anyway. This way I can remember it as the perfect "one that got away."

On a less cheerful note, I have to say that I was shocked by the state of post-Katrina renovations. I made a decision beforehand that I was not going to do any "disaster tourism," not going to take any photos of the damage or rebuilding efforts. I'm not a journalist, I'm a tourist, and it would seem really ugly to get my voyeuristic thrills from other people's misery.

That said, I got an eyeful just driving into the city on I-10. It looks like a hurricane hit three weeks ago rather than eight months ago. Whole neighborhoods without a single intact roof. Row after row of houses that look like empty shells. A few with trailers out front but mostly abandoned. The one thing that really upset me was an apartment building with a partially collapsed roof and the message "HELP" written on the roof in six foot high letters. With the people long since rescued (I hope!) now the message seeems to apply to the building itself.

Granted, the neighborhoods right off an interstate are often not the best. It's possible that things are going much better in other parts of the city. I don't know. But what I did see was frankly sobering. I'd like to think that in America we would have our shit together enough, and rebuilding a major city would be important enough, to have made more progress than what I saw.