New Orleans ????

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:14:33 -0700, "asadi"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 00:10:57 -0700, "asadi"

wrote:

...Well my sister in law and her husband are visiting from Germany. At
first
he wanted to go to Myrtle Beach, Miami Florida, then travel route 66 and
some of highway 101 in California.....in two weeks.

So after telling him to Mapquest and look a the distances involved he has
calmed down very much.

Now we are thinking of Nashville and a few other country spots...he really
wants to see "small town" America. I am thinking of New Orleans....then
up
north to the Shenandoah Valley .

I know small towns and such but I have never been to New Orleans so if you
guys could give me a tip on a campground close by or some place to go or
some music to hear...I would a appreciate it....



John


How _close_ is "close"? If you mean "anywhere in the vicinity of the NO
metro
area" close, not only do I not know of one, even if I did, I'd not do that
to
you. If you mean, "less than an hour or 2 away" close, yeah, I know
several.
OTOH, it's summer in NO, so hotel rooms are pretty inexpensive...for a
reason -
only the truly hardy want to be (or can be) outside for extended periods -
it's
HOT and HUMID, or, it's squally raining, which cools it off temp-wise, but
jacks
up the immunity. That said, if you are coming and determined to camp, I'd
recommend doing so on the western MS coast, like at Waveland or Bay St.
Louis.
It won't be exactly, um, "cool," but it'll be cooler, and you're only
about an
hour from the FQ/Vieux Carre.

As to doin's, Preservation Hall is about as described by ol' Sarge, and if
you're gonna be down here for a few days doing the tourist thing, it's a
good
choice for an (early) evening. It closes about 10-11, so there's time to
get
back somewhere fairly early, or, go do something else, as the mood
strikes.
Fritzel's is also good for NO music/jazz in the FQ. There's a local
paper,
Gambit Weekly, at www.bestofneworleans.com, that'll give you the same info
many
locals use for such planning. Hey, it's New Orleans - hot or cold, night
or
day, they'll be SOMETHING happening. For example, there's "Tales of the
Cocktail" happening now.

Oh - a by-the-by - I'd recall if you smoke, but a lot of NO is "Non
Smoking,"
and with no rhyme or reason to an outsider - the aforementioned
Preservation
Hall, for example. I put it quotes because there's _NO SMOKING_ and then,
there's "Non Smoking." It's not as Draconian as some places, but keep it
in
mind.

If you need anything, drop me an email, and I'll send you my number. I'm
pretty
much staying out of the city right now (it's been REALLY bad heat-wise,
but it
has calmed a bit in the last coupla days - unfortunately, it's because of
the
rain squalls), but I'll be there Tues and Wed next week if you're in then.
Give
me a little notice, and you can crash at our place in the FQ at least
that/those
night(s) - I don't if I'll stay Wed. night. Otherwise, I'm staying uptown
at my
mother's, but I'd love to meet up if you're down here.

TC,
R

It'd be a pleasure to meet for a drink.

How about the French Quarter RV park? I've got a pop-up with air con and
stuff so that may not be so bad...the map shows it as being only about six
blocks from bourbon St.

..Yeah, I'm pretty used to "no smoking" here in Ohio too...I've kind of got
in the habit of taking a look at my surroundings and just exactly what it is
I'm lighting!

John

My advice would be no on anything in the NO metro area. I've never been to the
FQ RV park, nor have I heard of it. I googled it, and it's not in the FQ, but
up on Claiborne Ave. While the close-up pics look OK, Claiborne is not an area
where a white boy from Ohio (even one such as yourself) and a German tourist of
any color probably want to be at night, esp. traversing on foot from the FQ. And
you'll have to do so if you plan on doing, well, anything. There's nothing in
that area to do at night except, well, get hurt.

If you do stay there, my advice is to be in the park by about 10pm and not leave
until daylight unless in a vehicle - take a cab, because parking is iffy in the
FQ itself. NO is, for the most part, a safe, vibrant city, full of decent
people of all colors, but there are areas where white skin doesn't want to be
during certain times (and there are areas where anything other than white skin
will get a roust). The problem with NO is that the OK areas and the "HOLY
****!" areas are often literally a block apart. The central FQ is about as safe
as anywhere, the uptown/western side, and the CBD (the "central business
district," which is what most would call "downtown") is generally fine, and the
downtown (in NO, the "downtown" side of an area is not "Downtown" as in the CBD,
it's merely a directional cue)/eastern side areas are pretty much OK (west of
the FQ is the Marigny, which is OK in the center, iffy on the edges), the part
on the lakeside/north of the FQ, however, er, not so much. That's where this RV
place is. FWIW, it's one of a couple of areas in NO that ladies, of any color,
hue, or religion tend to avoid day or night unless rapidly traveling through,
and even then... And if this park's "visitor rate" is like the hotels at this
time of the year, you might be all alone (and no, that won't be good). I don't
know much about RVing, and no nothing about RVing in NO, so ???

And from a practical standpoint, it'll be among the hottest areas in the FQ/CBD
area - it's far enough from the river, and blocked by the entire FQ and CBD, to
not get what little air movement there is. Not only that, according to the
website, it's $70.00 a night. Hell, for about that, you can get a hotel in the
FQ (and I'm talking a nice one - in about 2 months, that same room will be
around 200 or so) and for about a $100, you might swing a suite. Trust me, the
hotels will DEAL right now.

Actually, I have an idea - drop me an email with a phone number and I'll call ya
ASAP.

TC,
R

"Actually, I have an idea - drop me an email with a phone number and
I'll call ya ASAP."

Between any two ROFFians, this line is enough to lead to an event that
will be forever enshrined in YouTube lore.
Frank Reid

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:45:56 -0700 (PDT), Frank Reid
wrote:


"Actually, I have an idea - drop me an email with a phone number and
I'll call ya ASAP."

Between any two ROFFians, this line is enough to lead to an event that
will be forever enshrined in YouTube lore.
Frank Reid

Well, yeah, there is that...

TC,
R

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:42:18 -0500, wrote:



eastern side areas are pretty much OK (west of the FQ is the Marigny,
which is OK in the center, iffy on the edges),

Not that it really matters, but I was typing fast and doing a coupla things, too
- the Marigny is not west of the FQ, it is on the eastern/downtown side. And
it's pretty cool, too - there are a number of good clubs there, such as
Charmaine Neville's Snug Harbor, etc. Most are along Frenchman Street in the
"heart" of the Marigny. The central area is OK, but the edges, as I said above,
are a bit iffy, esp. the northern/lakeside edge.

As to the whole uptown, downtown, river side and lake side thing, it's how much
is located in NO - for example, imagine a city block - the side toward Lake
Pontchartrain is, surprise, surprise, the "lake side," the side toward the MS
River, is, you guessed it, the "river side," the side toward the CBD is the
"downtown" side, and the side toward "uptown" is the uptown side. The only
screwy part is that even if the thing in question is on the eastern side of the
CBD, i.e., on the downtown side of "Downtown," the "sides" remain the same.

Also, many of the French names, esp. streets, are pronounced in a "local"
fashion - for example, "Conti" is pronounced "con-TIE," "Burgundy" is pronounced
"bur-GUN-dee," "Chartres" is pronounced "charter," etc. Tchoupitoulas, a street
you'll probably wind up going on (it's not in the FQ, but runs, generally, along
the river from the FQ), is pronounced "chop-a-two-la," but most simply call it
"chop," as in, "to get to Tip's (Tipitina's), you go up Chop to Napoleon
(that's pronounced "nasturtium") and hang a right..." If you mispronounce them,
folks will know what you mean, but it'll give you away as a complete "tourist" -
sometimes in NO, that's good, other times, not so much.

TC,
R

PS - I'm kidding about Napoleon's pronunciation - actually, it's pronounced
"luigi"...