Walking around, stomping through rain puddles and weird police guy

I lucked out, according to the locals, who said that it was cooler than usual. If that was cooler, I am glad I wasn’t there for normal. Sometimes I walked a few miles between places to see things. Mostly the humidity was different – something I had never experienced on that level. The heat on a few days was just about the hottest I would have wanted it to be. It’s interesting to be in a place where August is its slow period for tourists and travelers. But it makes sense now.









The pictures above I took while walking around New Orleans: A palm leaf, mardi gras beads on a tree and a tree with many knots and one that looked like a face, with a leaf as the mouth

On one day, we got the outer part of a storm that was headed for Texas. I was attempting to take a train to a grocery story 5 blocks away. The trolleys weren’t coming very often, so I pretty much got soaked in the downpour. At which point a police officer driving by stopped and asked if I was ok. ‘Yes, just waiting for the bus.” “Are you sure?” He asked. “I’m from Seattle,” I replied, “Where this is normal. He then offered to give me a ride to the grocery story, which creeped me out, especially, since he was just driving up and down about a four-block area, blaring his siren and not really doing anything.

I’m not sure if he was concerned about my safety or not because certain areas are considered not safe to be in and the India House was outside the main downtown. I didn’t go out after dark, but I was pretty much really tired from doing everything during the day anyway. (I didn’t get to go out to jazz clubs at night but instead listened to bands that played in the market place along the Mississippi.)

After waiting 20 minutes and realizing everything on me was dripping wet, I headed for a convenience story two blocks away; well, I ran actually. I had my Tivas on, so I ran and splashed in the puddles that had quickly formed on the tilted and cracked sidewalks. It was fun. And there was Vietnamese deli there! They really wanted me to try their Vietnamese menu, which I figured they didn’t have much luck doing. There were many Southern choices. So, I had chicken vermicelli, which was good. I bought convenience store priced groceries and headed quickly back to my Hostel since it was getting late. By that time, the down pour had ended and it was 80 and humid again.