New Orleans, LA 8/2-8/4

The Florida panhandle was much longer than we thought, and after driving through little bits of Alabama and Mississippi, we finally arrived in the Crescent City late Monday afternoon. The hostel we had booked was right in the middle of the Treme, an area with very rich heritage that was hit pretty hard by hurricane Katrina. There is also an HBO show called Treme--which Andrew and I love--that was filmed in that area. Joe and Flo's Old Candlelight Hostel is primarily run by a lady named Betty and a few other locals. They were extremely friendly and welcoming, which was just what we needed after a long drive. We quickly freshened up in our air conditioned room (the AC is broken in our car) and then set out to have some dinner upon the recommendations of our new hosts and some friends.

2,000 miles, reached just outside a tunnel while going through Mobile, AL

Almost there!

Jo & Flo's Old Candlelight Hostel (the red building, used to be a brothel)
From right to left: Brent, neighbor, Betty, cute French girl, and other neighbor

Down in the Treme...

Dinner was had at a bar called 13 on Frenchmen St., where we sampled some local beers with dinner. There also happened to be an event called “Wine tasting with wasted angels” that started just as we were finishing dinner. It was a combination wine tasting and art opening with artist Justin Winter. Judging from the crowd that showed up for the opening (it was around 9pm then), we knew that Mondays were no sleepy event on Frenchmen St. After dinner we got some drinks to go (we learned public drinking in NOLA is allowed as long as it is in a plastic container), and went into the first venue we saw with live music playing. We were blown away with the quantity of quality live music to be heard. Everything from New Orleans jazz, to blues, to rock, with musicians swapping in and out to jam. We spent the night hopping from venue to venue taking in as much as we could of the nightlife and wonderful live music. The pinnacle was surely hearing two different renditions of the Treme theme song (its a traditional New Orleans song) played in a row.

We're on Frenchmen Street!

Some authentic New Orleans Blues

Poet for hire, the world needs more of these guys.

Tibbe busting a move

The next morning found us fairly hungover and in need of a mechanic. At our last stop before NOLA the check engine light came on. Luckily Andrew has a diagnostic code reader for the car and we were able to determine that the engine was out of alignment. In the morning we contacted a bunch of mechanics in the area, but they were either very busy or said they didn't do engine re-timings. The best we could find was a place that said they would take a look at it 7:30am the following day. Our original plan included a whole day in NOLA so we decided to go for it.

The remainder of the day was spent socializing with other travelers at the hostel, which included a brother and sister from Nicaragua, and three lovely French girls from Lyon who just finished med school, among others. In the afternoon we explored the French Quarter and found some vegetarian gumbo for dinner at the Gumbo Shop. We also checked out Bourbon Street but were fairly turned off by the very touristy feel it had. Some reflections on the city: places without live music seemed cheap, even though they are the norm in most other cities; the architecture is pretty unique, and it was not uncommon to see ridiculously nice houses next to run-down ones on the same road, we attributed this to some residents not returning after Katrina; city residents are very friendly, and areas that appear to be sketchy aren't really (maybe this was because we look like a bunch of hippies with beards and bandannas). We turned in early that night to get a head start on the car repairs in the morning.

We showed up at the mechanic around 7:45am and while they took a look at it, we had some breakfast and coffee at a diner across the street. At around 9am we got a call from them and they said it would cost $250 for them to re-time it—a bogus price. We went ahead with the repairs as there wasn't much else we could do about it, even though staying in NOLA would have been great. When all was said and done, the mechanics claimed they had re-timed the engine, but the check engine light would not clear, which would indicate a faulty sensor (an expensive part which they would surely mark up 300%). They said it needed to be replaced but we declined. Andrew was certain that it was not the sensor, and that they were simply trying to rip us off. We payed the full bill, including the insane $77 charge to read an error code (this takes 10 seconds on a $50 pocket code reader, and wasn't even necessary since we GAVE them the code beforehand)! When we got the car back it had stopped misfiring and did run better. We cleared the code with our own code reader, and here's the kicker: as of writing this we have now traveled 300+ miles and have yet to have the light come back on. If you ever go to New Orleans and need some auto work done, DO NOT go to Keith's Auto repair on Jefferson Highway, west of the city. 

On a brighter note, we would highly recommend Joe and Flo's hostel on N Robertson Street in the Treme. Wonderful staff, nice rooms, and a friendly welcoming environment.

After the mechanic ordeal, we promptly went back to the hostel and packed up to start our journey to Austin, TX, another city known for incredible live music.