December 21. 2001 : : Arrival in New Orleans

This may have been YOUR "shortest day of the year" But not mine!!
New Orleans is FAR from Kansas City!!! My ass feels like it is 3 times bigger from sitting in front of the steering wheel all day. BUT OHGOD...IT WAS WORTH IT!!

i LOVE it here!!!

Left the house by 3am, after appx. 1.5 hour of sleep and still didn't clean the house. It was a good thing we were there 2 hours early, for the girls' flight to Taiwan. Checking in is much different now. My first airport experience since 911. While watching the processes and the people i had to blink back tears often.

Innocence has had it's day in America.
Now we are all potential criminals. i watched stoic families, trying to be accepting and good-natured about the new procedures, required to remove shoes and belts and be scanned in front of the rest of the line. Could they not be considerate enough to make a seat available for elderly travellers to sit and remove shoes?? Random checks and emptying of baggage. The whole aura of the airport was gray...clothing, emotion. Uniformed guardsmen walking, watching...Very sad. But i had to be cool for the girls. It was painful to have to stand outside the check-in area and watch them, but not be able to sit with them and even hug them goodbye. We waved a lot through the glass...

When they were in the air, i left.
It felt strange. This is the first time that i have been so blatant about being gone when they are. Betsy was a little jealous that i was coming to New Orleans without her. She would LOVE it here and i can't wait to bring her. And Margaret. They are very cool travelling buddies. But i am so glad to have my own trip. This feels very important. i am travelling differently this time. My whole mindset is different. i am happy. Even alone.

The drive was very very long, but fine. Plenty of music, coffee, carrots and water! There were times that were frightening in the early morning. i was SO sleepy. But always managed to stop and wake up. i alternated between Interstate driving and smaller, more scenic roads. By the time i was through Arkansas, i realized i was SICK of feeding my eyes on barns...even the decrepit ones i usually love. Ready for some NEW eyecandy! There were some splendid falling-down shacks in lower Arkansas and Mississippi, sitting next to fallow cotton fields. Nice.

Now it is almost midnight and i am STILL up!

i've never driven to N.O. before and i got lost coming into the Vieux Carre at night and ended up on this big spooky bridge to Algiers...there was like moss hanging off it and yellow lights...then i found myself on a wrong highway. Then another wrong highway. Finally got turned around properly, on the right highway and turned off onto Esplanade Ave. And suddenly i felt a huge smile crack over my face...like i am HOME!!! It is so beautiful. All the really really old and funky places, tiny narrow streets, holiday lights, people walking, the carriages, the dim light...i am just enchanted here. From the first time and still. This is like a magical place to me.

i had made arrangements to call the manager of my hotel when i was in front and he would take me to the secret parking place...it IS! The car can stay there until i leave. i walk and ride the cablecar here. And this hotel is SO AWESOME!!! i had seen it before and wanted to stay at one of these little secret courtyard places...it is Olivier House. Now i am settled in my APARTMENT! Not just a ROOM....it is this funky arrangement of a little sitting room downstairs with a window overlooking the courtyard filled with greenery (yes in December!) and banana trees, Then upstairs, a loft with bed and ARTMAKING table and chair!! Totally Perfect!! i can walk out my front door and sit on my tiny balcony. The ceilings are very very high, old wood and beams painted white and the walls are pink! i can't wait to see in daylight! This is exactly where i will live when i am an old spinster....except maybe with a little kitchen. Anyway, i hope the room price she quoted me was right??!! This is wonderful!

As soon as i got in, i checked in with some who were thinking of my safety and then took off. i got my token plastic cup of beer and walked all around Bourbon Street, listening to music, watching visitors, smiling, looking at stuff. It was fun...and SO not like me! To do something like that alone...late at N I G H T !! i kept wandering, came back up Royal Street, went into the cigar store and bought two tiny cigars to smoke on my balcony at sunset (yes i am REALLY going nuts...) i haven't smoked a cigar in a long time and the last one was big and nasty, but the guy showed me all about them and said i would love these, delicate and mild. Just the process of learning and shopping was interesting. Well, next thing i will be sitting in Felix's slurping oysters and Tabasco? And dancing dirty in the blues bar. Yeah. right....heh.

Really. i do love it here. It has always and still feels like a place i belong. i am comfortable. Not afraid (not stupid either) and my eyes are very very happy...and sleepy......Blow out the candles, light some incense. Time to sleep. i am so glad to be here. Out of the claustrophobic center of the country and near an edge...by salt water. Now if just the girls would call and tell me they are safely arrived in Taiwan with Daddy, i will be most content.

Here is front door to my temporary home in New Orleans. And here is the home and courtyard tour.