We made it back to Houma on 04APR after an uneventful drive from Kinder, LA. After sitting around in the Civic Center parking lot waiting for the closing on Rebecca’s and Raymond’s first house on the 15th, we decided to find an RV park close to New Orleans and do some sightseeing. Turns out the closet RV park just outside NOLA is located on the Naval Support Activity (NSA) in an area known by the locals as the West Bank (aka Algiers) across the mighty Mississippi from NOLA. NSA is a military facility that is unique in that one half the base is on the West Bank in Algiers, and the other half is on the East Bank in NOLA. Getting to the French Quarter of NOLA from this location is very easy since there is a free ferry service for pedestrians from Algiers to the foot of Canal Street on the other side; you can even drive your car on board for one dollar.
https://www.cnic.navy.mil/NewOrleans/index.htm
So on Thursday, 10APR, we drove to the small RV park at NSA New Orleans. Turns out we were in town for two unique events – record high water on the Mississippi, and the French Quarter Festival. The record rains in the central part of the USA and the floods it has caused up north has to go somewhere? And that somewhere is south via the Mississippi! As a result, the river is only a couple of feet from the top of the levees protecting Baton Rouge and all points south (ie New Orleans). In fact the Army Corps of Engineers has taken the unusual step of opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway to divert Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain. The Spillway was built as a result of the floods of 1927 and has only been used seven times since 1937.
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/bcarre/bcarre.htm
The other unique event is that Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the French Quarter Festival! The FQF is a free musical festival started 25 years ago to promote native NOLA music, primarily Jazz and Blues. This year there are 150 acts, on 17 stages, over 3 days!!! The Festival is a non-profit event that covers operating costs by the sale of souvenirs, and food and drink. And we’re not talking philly cheese steaks, corn dogs, Belgian waffles, hot dogs, etc; we’re talking grilled salmon w/jasmine rice, crawfish bread, smoked alligator sausage w/bone suckin’ sauce, jambalaya, etouffee, bread pudding w/bourbon sauce, oysters bonne femme, oyster & artichoke florentine, slow roasted duck poboy, etc, not to mention Who’s to Blame margaritas, Incommunicado iced teas, and Mango Mama Punch on the rocks.
http://www.fqfi.org/frenchquarterfest/
After parking the RV, we drove the Toad over to the ferry terminal in Algiers, parked, and boarded the ferry to the French Quarter. We did a short walkabout in the Quarter to get an idea of where the stages were for the upcoming FQF. We did stop by the HQ for the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve. Not only does this facility cover the history of the Native Americans in the area and the settlement by the French and Spanish, but also has a special focus on the music history of New Orleans; as well as having branch sites in Lafayette, Eunice, Thibodaux, Marrero and Chalmette, Louisiana. On certain mornings they have a walking tour of the French Quarter covering the history and the architecture of the Quarter. Dan got up bright and early Friday for the tour, but the Algiers Ferry was broken. He tried again on Saturday morning, only to be told the tour was cancelled because of the Festival! He’ll just have to try again next year?
http://www.nps.gov/jela/
Also on Friday Rebecca’s husband, Raymond, who is a member of the Louisiana National Guard returned from six weeks of training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. So we (Corrie, Dan & Rebecca) headed to the New Orleans Airport to welcome him home. While waiting at the luggage claim area a small jazz band entertained everyone with traditional second line music, only in New Orleans!
After welcoming Raymond home, Corrie and Dan headed to the FQF to check out the music and the food. We have lived in some of the great cities of the USA (DC, San Fran and NYC), even living in Rotterdam and visiting Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, London, etc; but where else could you have an authentic steam river boat playing music on a steam calliope in the background on the mighty Mississippi, while listening to some of the best music for free, and definitely eating the best food in the world? A lot of negative things were said about New Orleans post Katrina, but in our opinion the USA can not afford to lose this fantastic city!
Knowing that parking would be impossible to find close to the French Quarter, we had parked the Toad at the Harrah’s Casino garage. Parking in the casino garage is “free” if you gamble for one half hour in the casino. We played the games of chance for the required half hour, losing ten dollars. Since the parking lots in the Quarter were charging thirty dollars for all day, we did pretty good. And Corrie got so many points on here Comp Card, that we were given a “free” camp chair with the Harrah’s logo. Dan loves the chair because it has an insulated pouch below the seat that holds six of your favorite beverages! When we returned to the garage to find our Toad, it wasn’t there! We were just getting ready to call the police, when one us remembered that there were two casino garage buildings side by side, and we were in the wrong one!
Saturday and Sunday was spent visiting the Festival, always during the day and sometimes at night. After sampling much of the food, our favorite turned out to be BBQ grilled chicken livers at the Praline Connection Restaurant booth. Saturday night we even hooked up with our good friends Sister Joy Manthey; CG CAPT (ret) Frank Paskewich and wife Leah; and CG CAPT (ret) Ron Branch and fiancé Sarah Hufford. Riding the free ferry back Saturday night was interesting to say the least. Dan likens it to riding the NYC subway after dark, lots of characters!
Lastly the music, it was great!!! Although the Festival was started to preserve and promote Jazz and Blues, it now encompasses everything from classical to rock and roll. Although there are very few “nationally known” acts, the performers are still exceptional and often have performed with national and international artists. And it is not unheard of for national known New Orleanians, like members of the Neville family, Dr John, Harry Connick Jr, etc, to drop by and jam. There was even performers from Europe, in fact one German group paid homage to Ray Charles. Dan said that if you closed your eyes, you would swear Ray himself was on the stage singing “What’d I Say”. The most original band name went to “Old Wine in New Bottles”.
Of all the performers we heard, the ones we felt that truly stood out were Susan Cowsill, and John Boutte’. For those that remember 60s/70s rock groups, Susan was a family member of The Cowsills. Susan joined her mother and four brothers as an eight year old. The Cowsills had many hits, “Hair”, “The Rain, The Park & Other Things”, “Indian Lake”, etc. In fact, the Cowsills were the model for the TV show The Partridge Family. Anyway, after the Cowsills Susan continued as a musical artist in other groups, as a soloist, and most recently as a song writer/performer. She has lived in NOLA for fifteen years and lost everything, including her brother Barry, to Katrina. But like many others, she refuses to leave and works endlessly to revive the New Orlean’s music scene. Susan wrote a beautiful song about a very rare Xmas snowfall in NOLA back in 2004, entitled “Crescent City Snow”. The song became the unofficial anthem for New Orleans post Katrina.
http://www.cowsill.com/home.html
http://www.susancowsill.com/
John Boutte is the quintessential New Orleans musician/vocalist. He comes from a seventh generation Creole family, born and raised in the Treme district. He also lost everything to Katrina, but also refuses to abandon New Orleans. Dan highly recommends the song “The Eternal Now”.
http://www.johnboutte.com/
All in all, it was a fantastic three days; and we will return (maybe Dan will get that Park Service tour?)!
https://www.cnic.navy.mil/NewOrleans/index.htm
So on Thursday, 10APR, we drove to the small RV park at NSA New Orleans. Turns out we were in town for two unique events – record high water on the Mississippi, and the French Quarter Festival. The record rains in the central part of the USA and the floods it has caused up north has to go somewhere? And that somewhere is south via the Mississippi! As a result, the river is only a couple of feet from the top of the levees protecting Baton Rouge and all points south (ie New Orleans). In fact the Army Corps of Engineers has taken the unusual step of opening the Bonnet Carre Spillway to divert Mississippi River water into Lake Pontchartrain. The Spillway was built as a result of the floods of 1927 and has only been used seven times since 1937.
http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/pao/bcarre/bcarre.htm
The other unique event is that Friday, Saturday and Sunday is the French Quarter Festival! The FQF is a free musical festival started 25 years ago to promote native NOLA music, primarily Jazz and Blues. This year there are 150 acts, on 17 stages, over 3 days!!! The Festival is a non-profit event that covers operating costs by the sale of souvenirs, and food and drink. And we’re not talking philly cheese steaks, corn dogs, Belgian waffles, hot dogs, etc; we’re talking grilled salmon w/jasmine rice, crawfish bread, smoked alligator sausage w/bone suckin’ sauce, jambalaya, etouffee, bread pudding w/bourbon sauce, oysters bonne femme, oyster & artichoke florentine, slow roasted duck poboy, etc, not to mention Who’s to Blame margaritas, Incommunicado iced teas, and Mango Mama Punch on the rocks.
http://www.fqfi.org/frenchquarterfest/
After parking the RV, we drove the Toad over to the ferry terminal in Algiers, parked, and boarded the ferry to the French Quarter. We did a short walkabout in the Quarter to get an idea of where the stages were for the upcoming FQF. We did stop by the HQ for the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve. Not only does this facility cover the history of the Native Americans in the area and the settlement by the French and Spanish, but also has a special focus on the music history of New Orleans; as well as having branch sites in Lafayette, Eunice, Thibodaux, Marrero and Chalmette, Louisiana. On certain mornings they have a walking tour of the French Quarter covering the history and the architecture of the Quarter. Dan got up bright and early Friday for the tour, but the Algiers Ferry was broken. He tried again on Saturday morning, only to be told the tour was cancelled because of the Festival! He’ll just have to try again next year?
http://www.nps.gov/jela/
Also on Friday Rebecca’s husband, Raymond, who is a member of the Louisiana National Guard returned from six weeks of training at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. So we (Corrie, Dan & Rebecca) headed to the New Orleans Airport to welcome him home. While waiting at the luggage claim area a small jazz band entertained everyone with traditional second line music, only in New Orleans!
After welcoming Raymond home, Corrie and Dan headed to the FQF to check out the music and the food. We have lived in some of the great cities of the USA (DC, San Fran and NYC), even living in Rotterdam and visiting Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, London, etc; but where else could you have an authentic steam river boat playing music on a steam calliope in the background on the mighty Mississippi, while listening to some of the best music for free, and definitely eating the best food in the world? A lot of negative things were said about New Orleans post Katrina, but in our opinion the USA can not afford to lose this fantastic city!
Knowing that parking would be impossible to find close to the French Quarter, we had parked the Toad at the Harrah’s Casino garage. Parking in the casino garage is “free” if you gamble for one half hour in the casino. We played the games of chance for the required half hour, losing ten dollars. Since the parking lots in the Quarter were charging thirty dollars for all day, we did pretty good. And Corrie got so many points on here Comp Card, that we were given a “free” camp chair with the Harrah’s logo. Dan loves the chair because it has an insulated pouch below the seat that holds six of your favorite beverages! When we returned to the garage to find our Toad, it wasn’t there! We were just getting ready to call the police, when one us remembered that there were two casino garage buildings side by side, and we were in the wrong one!
Saturday and Sunday was spent visiting the Festival, always during the day and sometimes at night. After sampling much of the food, our favorite turned out to be BBQ grilled chicken livers at the Praline Connection Restaurant booth. Saturday night we even hooked up with our good friends Sister Joy Manthey; CG CAPT (ret) Frank Paskewich and wife Leah; and CG CAPT (ret) Ron Branch and fiancé Sarah Hufford. Riding the free ferry back Saturday night was interesting to say the least. Dan likens it to riding the NYC subway after dark, lots of characters!
Lastly the music, it was great!!! Although the Festival was started to preserve and promote Jazz and Blues, it now encompasses everything from classical to rock and roll. Although there are very few “nationally known” acts, the performers are still exceptional and often have performed with national and international artists. And it is not unheard of for national known New Orleanians, like members of the Neville family, Dr John, Harry Connick Jr, etc, to drop by and jam. There was even performers from Europe, in fact one German group paid homage to Ray Charles. Dan said that if you closed your eyes, you would swear Ray himself was on the stage singing “What’d I Say”. The most original band name went to “Old Wine in New Bottles”.
Of all the performers we heard, the ones we felt that truly stood out were Susan Cowsill, and John Boutte’. For those that remember 60s/70s rock groups, Susan was a family member of The Cowsills. Susan joined her mother and four brothers as an eight year old. The Cowsills had many hits, “Hair”, “The Rain, The Park & Other Things”, “Indian Lake”, etc. In fact, the Cowsills were the model for the TV show The Partridge Family. Anyway, after the Cowsills Susan continued as a musical artist in other groups, as a soloist, and most recently as a song writer/performer. She has lived in NOLA for fifteen years and lost everything, including her brother Barry, to Katrina. But like many others, she refuses to leave and works endlessly to revive the New Orlean’s music scene. Susan wrote a beautiful song about a very rare Xmas snowfall in NOLA back in 2004, entitled “Crescent City Snow”. The song became the unofficial anthem for New Orleans post Katrina.
http://www.cowsill.com/home.html
http://www.susancowsill.com/
John Boutte is the quintessential New Orleans musician/vocalist. He comes from a seventh generation Creole family, born and raised in the Treme district. He also lost everything to Katrina, but also refuses to abandon New Orleans. Dan highly recommends the song “The Eternal Now”.
http://www.johnboutte.com/
All in all, it was a fantastic three days; and we will return (maybe Dan will get that Park Service tour?)!
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