Upon Arrival in the Crescent City

Day One (Sunday, April 12)

I arrived in New Orleans after driving all day on Easter Sunday, wondering who was winning The Masters tournament and missing my wife and animals. It was overcast and windy through Mississippi and into Louisiana. My car was fully packed and I had my bike mounted to the bike rack on top of the car. I called my friends Karen and Dave Curry to let them know I was minutes away. I would be staying with them for one night and would move into my apartment the next day.

It's interesting when I hear that a city is known for crime. Isn't almost every "city" known for crime here in 2009? I can understand very small towns where there has not been a murder in 15 years. But a city? Let's just pick one. A non-descript, somewhat bland one at that. How about Orlando? (Stay cool Orlando. It's just a point of reference.) There were 123 murders in Orlando in 2008. Maybe I'm a wimp, but that's a lot of dead people. Anyway, I called my friend with my car loaded down and here's how the conversation went:

Jason: Hey, I'm almost there. I have my bike on top of the car and I think it's going to rain so can we bring it inside?

Karen: Oh, we'll be bringing your bike inside. But not because of the rain.

I knew exactly what she meant and said a quiet "doh!" to myself for already being the naive, new guy. Not only did we bring my bike inside. We also drove my fully loaded car to the Curry family's company warehouse and locked it inside for the night. No kidding. I was advised not to leave my packed car on the street for one, single night. Granted, a stolen bike is not a murder but for crime to be so top-of-mind was interesting, if not a little eerie.

I was glad to be taken care of by people who care and can not imagine arriving to a city where I knew nobody. If it was my first night in Pittsburgh, it would have been me watching A&E inside the Best Western while two dudes in the parking lot argued over who got to keep my freshly stolen bike.

Since it was Easter, most restaurants were closed. We went to a smoky sports bar called Cooter Brown's and I had my first Po Boy as a resident, along with several raw oysters and an Abita.

That's it for Day One. Thanks for reading. I will start adding photos soon.