TanksPanky: FTJ, Entry 64: The Second Phase of Our Journey Begins

Last Thursday, Joyce and Dave arrived at Heritage Orange Beach RV Resort in Alabama. To us, this event signaled the beginning of our big trip west.

The Butler's site at Orange Beach. Isn't their coach gorgeous?

Note my shadow at the bottom -- should have cropped that out.

We drove out to Gulf Shores together, and lunched open-air with both our dogs, in their carry bags (we have to get a photo of Lucy in here next time!), at a place called Ribs and Reds. "Reds" refers to a particular type of shrimp here in Alabama -- large and delicious, but they are typically served heads-on. Kind of gross, in that you of course have to remove said heads.

A few photos of us at lunch:

Lovebirds forever.

Monkey lips!

On Saturday, we left the beautiful Heritage Orange Beach resort to convoy to our next stop, New Orleans. But not without a bit of drama. First, Mississippi roads are not quite up to Florida and Alabama standards...

...and at one point, on one washboard stretch of highway, Harvey the Marvee RV was thrashing up and down so much that we thought our new bike rack was going to go flying!

The calm before the (bike) storm.

And sadly, we did lose the basket that Buddy rides in on my bike. (Fortunately, no one got hurt from the flying accessory.) Another trip to Walmart is in our future, I suppose....

Fearing a disaster, we slowed down and pulled into a rest stop so Beau could address the thrashing bike issue. (It's always something, every trip!)

Beau managed to secure everything with some rope, but Speed Racer's bike (trike) did get a bit scratched up from the rough ride. Bummer - some of the flames on the fenders lost some paint.

But we weren't the only ones with a problem. While Beau figured out the bicycle rack issue, Dave discovered he had left their new toad (tow car) running -- with the doors locked!

At first he thought they had no other keys, but luckily, Joyce was able to unlock the car with her set. No harm done, just some gas consumed.

Okay, so we resolved these problems, took a deep breath, and continued our trip to New Orleans.

Photo of our companions en route, taken from our coach.

The Big Easy, Baby!

We arrived late afternoon at the French Quarter RV Resort, a lovely RV park in a not so lovely part of New Orleans, right off Interstate 10.

Once we got settled, we set out to do the town. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

We started on smelly ole Bourbon Street...

...where the weirdos reign (the silver guy spilled his drink on my shoe).

After enjoying the show, we had a great dinner at Pere Antoine's on Royal Street. The guys ordered sampler plates. Dave seems to like the red beans and rice; Beau loves jambalaya; and everyone but me ordered gumbo. Because of my acid reflux, I stuck with salmon. Delicious!

We then returned once more to the craziness that is Bourbon Street, for after dinner revelry.

Joyce got into party mode with the city's most powerful drink, the "hand grenade."

And as you can see, it had the desired effect.

Hey, he's just a regular New Orleans guy working for a living.

Liked the sign, so...

...the guys bought two of them!

Then things got a bit wilder.

Here, Joyce gets a shot of Sex on the Beach. You go girl!
(I missed getting the photo of the unique alcohol delivery system, shown below.)

Yeah, baby! I think Dave enjoyed sucking down his Kamikaze, don't you?

I forgot to mention that we also got to see the St. Joseph's Day Parade (I think this town uses any excuse for a party).

The parade Queen and her court.

I am cramming a lot in this blog, so bear with me. Almost done!

The next day (Sunday), we took the streetcar to the Garden District for brunch at the world renowned Commander's Palace. But before we got to the streetcar stop, we saw this oddity:

A metal casket commemorating Hurricane Katrina. Saw another one later in the day.

Anyway, we had a marvelous and decadent meal and enjoyed the jazz trio as well.

The St. Charles Streetcar.

Outside Commander's Palace.

And inside the upstairs dining room, which was beautiful.

The roving jazz entertainers. They played the old Cajun standby "Jambalaya" at Beau's request.

We walked all the way back to our RV park (had to be MILES!), and along the way ogled the beautiful homes in the Garden District. Hopefully, the walk helped burn off a few of the gazillion calories we had just consumed.