Ordinarily on move days we sleep in, lounge around a little bit, and get moving at our leisure but this time we were racing the weather and had to get up and get moving. The forecast was calling for heavy rains, high winds and potential tornadoes moving across our area and heading right for our park. We had done as much prep work as possible the day before and quickly finished up the rest. We decided to leave most of the cats in the house again except for Pandora, Lilyth, and Mama so we caught them and loaded up the cars and moved out. We usually divide up the animals so John took Lil and Dora and I got Harley and Mama.
The trip started out with a Mama Kitty in her harness, buckled into the front seat. She activated her Houdini powers pretty early in the drive and managed to slip the harness. She spent the ride in the back windshield and would occasionally SCREAM AT ME just to remind me of all of my shortcomings as a human being.
We hit some bad rain as we headed south through Mississippi and it was really slow going for a bit but eventually we drove out of the storms and were pulling into New Orleans in no time. We did get to drive across a REALLY LONG bridge between Slidell and New Orleans – I thought it would never end! We learned later that at that moment we were crossing Lake Pontchartrain and that this bridge was just a baby compared to some of the others in the area – but more on that later.
My first impressions of New Orleans weren’t great. Everything just seemed so dirty and depressing. We were staying at a private RV park on the East side and I was a little scared as we exited the highway and turned onto Chef Menteur Highway. I thought we would eventually drive out of this terrifying part of town and find our nice little RV park but just a few short blocks later we were turning into Jude Travel Park which would be our home for the next two months. I wasn’t really impressed with the “park” at first either – it was just a large gravel lot with barely any grass and no shade. The spaces were so small that there was barely enough room to walk around your rig without running into the camper next to you. My feelings about the park would improve over the next few weeks. My overall opinion of New Orleans would not.
Once we got settled, we decided to venture out for supplies and lunch. We found a well-rated restaurant on Yelp that was just down the road a few miles and was right across the street from a Walmart. Perfect!
Our first meal in New Orleans couldn’t have been better. We ate at Peewee’s Crabcakes where we enjoyed the Crab Cake Deviled Eggs, Seafood Who Dat Pasta (pasta with shrimp, crawfish and crab meat served with fried catfish and a crab cake) and a Crawfish Po’ Boy. Seriously, look at that mountain of crawfish for $15. Neither of us have ever been huge crab cake fans but this was so incredible. We ate so much (and were already so tired from moving) that we barely made it through shopping and had to go home to rest for the remainder of the day.
We had only been in town for a day but it was HOT and HUMID. We were quickly learning that the south was going to be like nothing we had experienced – and it was only January. While John was working, I took the car (for one of my very few solo outings in New Orleans) and went for a haircut. I usually just go to Great Clips but there were none around so I tried an actual salon/boutique, Spa Isbell, for the first time in over a decade. We also found a small barber shop for John in Carrollton, Family Barbershop, for a hair and beard trim.
The area was a really cute little hipster part of town so we decided to take a stroll down Oak Street. We found an adorable bookstore (complete with cat) and had dinner at Jacque-Imo’s. We couldn’t decide what we wanted so we just shared three appetizers. The cornbread had a pool of garlic butter and parsley on top and it was amazing. The appetizers were the Boudin Balls Arancini, the Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake, and the Fried Green Tomatoes (which came with shrimp on top). It wasn’t as good as I was hoping but was still a nice dinner and a fun evening.
Living in the Central Standard Time Zone but working in Eastern Standard Time was definitely a perk we enjoyed while in New Orleans. John would start work around 7am each day, skip lunch, then be off for the evening around 3pm. Because of this, we were able to have a lot of little adventures during the week in the late afternoon and evening.
On January 6, we decided to check out City Park -a huge park in New Orleans similar to Central Park in New York. The park contained several ponds, Swan Boats, an art museum, a sculpture garden, an equestrian center, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, a dog park, cafes and food stands, play areas and so much more.
For our first visit, we visited the Big Lake area and rode the Swan Boats. We spent about an hour pedaling around the pond and watching ducks and other birds go about their lives.
We particularly fell in love with a bird called an Anhinga. We watched it catch fish in the lake then sun itself on the banks.
We also visited the Singing Oak which is a massive tree in the park near Big Lake that is full of enormous windchimes. We sat on the banks of the pond near the tree and listened to its beautiful music for a long while.
When we finally dragged ourselves away from the Singing Oak, we walked around the pond towards the at museum but we got sidetracked when we noticed movement in one of the trees. We discovered that a crow had gotten tangled up in some fishing twine then gotten stuck in a tree. It was pretty high up and we weren’t sure what to do. There aren’t really any park rangers around and we couldn’t find anyone to call. We were determined to help, though. John went to the museum and explained the situation and somehow managed to convince their maintenance team to let him borrow a ladder in exchange for leaving his driver’s license with them. He was also able to borrow some scissors and a long pole from the Swan Boat rental stand. We used some random stuff we had in the car (shoelaces and a dog leash) to lash the scissors to the pole and John climbed the ladder into the tree while I held him steady. I was absolutely convinced that the precariously positioned ladder was going to topple over any minute and John was going to land in the lake but somehow he managed to free the fishing line from the branch. We weren’t able to get ahold of the bird or untangle the line from his body and he was still in the tree when we finally had to leave (it was too dark to see and we honestly couldn’t have done anything more) but he was moving around better when we left and we hope that we at least gave him a chance.
During the whole rescue mission, I also got to see my first nutria – a large beaver-like creature with a rat tail and long, yellow teeth- swim by in the lake. We would learn later that these are a huge nuisance in the area and are one of the leading causes of erosion in the swamp. But for now it was a very novel experience.
On our way out, we also stumbled across a Café Du Monde location! We were fully prepared to go to the main location in the French Quarter and have to stand in line forever to have the famous beignets but this location was much less busy, tucked away in City Park, and we only had one person ahead of us in line when we got up to order. There were tons of empty tables to sit and enjoy our treats and the cool evening air definitely brought back our appetites.
Exhausted from our adventure at the park, we decided to spend our first Saturday at home and try out the hot tub. Despite the bad area, small campsites and everything else, this was one amenity we had not yet experienced and we intended to use it as much as possible during our stay.
For our first Sunday in New Orleans, we woke up early and went out for breakfast at Molly’s Rise and Shine – an 80’s/90’s kid’s paradise. This place was recommended by the lady that cut my hair and when we walked in and saw dinosaurs and Beetlejuice on the walls, I knew it was the right choice. I had the Grand Slam McMuffin (sausage, egg, cheese, grilled onions and a hashbrown on an English muffin) and John had the Fried Chicken Biscuit.
After breakfast, we visited the National World War II Museum. We have both always had a love of WWII history and love opportunities to watch movies, read books, or learn about this time period in any way possible. It was amazing seeing exhibits covering heroes that we recognized from movies and television- Carwood Lipton and Dick Winters (Band of Brothers), Desmond Doss (Hacksaw Ridge), Eugene Sledge and John Basilone (The Pacific), Dorie Miller (Pearl Harbor), Pappy Boyington (Baa Baa Black Sheep). We also got to learn about so many more heroes who we had never heard of but who were also incredible men and women.
The exhibits were set up in a way that really brought history to life by taking you into bunkers, onto battleships, through tropical jungles and snowy forests. You also got to choose a dog tag card and follow your soldier throughout the museum- I got Pappy Boyington (leader of the Black Sheep Squadron) and John got J. V. LeFleur (a chaplain who ultimately gave his life saving others).
We saw so many artifacts and read so many personal accounts from the war. The planes, tanks, and other vehicles were incredible to see and the 4D film that is shown there was incredible and moving.
We had allotted about 6 hours to spend at the museum but we could have easily spent days. We both highly recommend visiting this museum if you are ever in New Orelans. Or, if you are just history nerds like us, make a special trip for it. It’s worth it.
