01-28FEB10 - Houma, LA (geaux saints!!!)

Soon after returning to our daughter’s, Rebecca, and husband’s, Raymond, driveway Dan had to leave for a short job on the behalf of NCBRT in Riverside, CA. Unfortunately he had to leave on Super Bowl Sunday! Luckily he was able to arrive in California in time to watch the game on TV. The build up to the game throughout Louisiana and even Southern Mississippi was unbelievable to say the least. It seemed like everyone was wearing black & gold, or some type of Saints paraphernalia.
Unfortunately the NFL (which stands for No Fun League) decided that they wanted even more money than they were collecting for authorized Saints merchandise. The NFL decided that the black & gold Fleur de Lis, and the term “Who Dat?” were NFL items and start sending out cease & desist letters to various manufacturers. Louisianans found this very amusing since the Fleur de Lis has been associated with New Orleans since its founding by the French; and the term “Who Dat?” comes from a Neville Brothers song about the Saints from the early 80s which the NFL had no rights to. After Louisiana’s Congressional delegation threatened to “look into” the matter, and the state Attorney General started talking about legal action against the NFL, the NFL came to its senses and admitted that the NFL had no rights to either “item”.

If you watched the game or just saw clips about it on the news, you know how the Saint’s fans celebrated before and after the game, continuing on for almost a week after the game. But here are a few items that you may have missed. First, the hotel occupancy rate for New Orleans for Super Bowl Sunday quickly rose to 99% after the NFC championship game when many displaced Saints fans decided to travel to New Orleans for the super bowl game and the French Quarter party that would follow. The traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold, & green were replaced by black & gold for all of Mardi Gras; and Mardi Gras immediately became Lombardi Gras. Finally, a Saints parade was scheduled, win or lose, for the Tuesday after the Super Bowl and 800K people showed up, making it the largest Mardi Gras parade ever (and one local TV station showed the parade from start to finish for weeks after)!

Meanwhile while New Orleans celebrated the Saints Super Bowl victory, Dan endured four fun filled days in Riverside, CA. As usual he found a couple of unique dining establishments. One was Tio’s Tacos, an excellent Mexican restaurant that served fresh seafood, fresh fruit juice drinks, and much more. Although the food was excellent, the distinctive thing was the courtyard filled with the owner’s unique artwork, including a beer bottle chapel. Another establishment was the Duane’s Prime Steak & Seafood within the Mission Inn. Frank Miller opened the first wing of the Mission Inn in 1903. The Mission wing was built in Mission-Revival style architecture and sought to incorporate different structural elements of the 21 California Missions. Mr. Miller went onto add three more wings to his hotel: the Cloister, Spanish and completed it with the Rotunda wing in 1931. In the main lobby was a very big chair (and we mean BIG) especially made for President Taft (Taft weighed over 300 pounds).

http://www.myspace.com/tiostacos

http://www.missioninn.com/

Dan’s return was just in time for the last weekend of Mardi Gras, so we attended a couple of day parades at our good friends at Remax Reality. For more on Mardi Gras at Remax, see our BLOG entry:

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/01/14jan-09-houma-la-via-biloxi-ms.html

During this time we (ie Corrie) finished Rebecca & Raymond’s bathroom hallway. As usual, everyone who had seen the before and after, raved about Corrie’s decorator skills. Several times during the month our son, Joe, came over for dinner. One day the five of us (Dan, Corrie, Rebecca, Raymond, & Joe) decided to go bowling. It was funny to see Raymond & Joe try harder and harder, after Dan won the first game and Rebecca won the second. A couple of evenings the four of us (ie not Joe) played “Pictionary”, which is a game that depends on your drawing skills. Funny thing is that the best artist of us all, Corrie, sometimes had the hardest time sketching the clue.

To top off our month, someone in a Chevy Tahoe rear-ended Corrie after she had parked our Toad in the Walgreens parking lot. Corrie was clearly centered between the yellow lines, and luckily was still near the car when the accident happened. We are not sure, but Corrie thinks the lady would have left if Corrie had not walked up immediately after the mishap. Although the other party involved tried to down play it and say it was just a scrape; it ended up costing $1500 and taking three days to repair. Thankfully everything was covered by their insurance.