New Orleans, LA - Just Around the Park

We are staying on the East side of New Orleans in a nice little RV park called Jude Travel Park. It is not fancy and the owners are still working on it since they just bought it 4 years ago but it has a locked gate, nice pool and hot tub, level sites, good hook-ups, passable wi-fi as long as everyone isn’t streaming their video, close to the parts of the city we would like to visit, friendly owners who actually live here and know who belongs and who doesn't, and we would definitely stay here again. Before we came someone told me in a stern finger-wagging warning voice: ‘don’t stay on the east side!!!’ Well, some friends of ours stayed here and we’d stay here again. I’ll have to admit that the neighborhood is not so hot - but then it was flooded by Katrina and only parts of it have recovered. It is on Chef Menteur Hwy and we actually walked along it yesterday. Lots of car shops, lots of deserted buildings, lots of trash and the speed limit - well, maybe anything goes. But we were walking to a nice boulevard and, once we got to that, we turned up that, had a nice walk up it and back. Most of these homes look somewhat new but every now and then, we saw one of the X’s that was put on each home in the flooded area.

We had a rare treat today on our walk. Usually when some young man has loud speakers in his car, we can feel the rumble of the bass from blocks away. Today, we were treated to outside speakers - some young man had speakers on the outside of his car so we could all hear his music. Not only could we feel the bass but we could be hear the whole song. What a treat that was. How would he like it if I had the same kind of speakers and played my Peter, Paul and Mary for him?

Spice drops - now there’s a topic of discussion. Well, yes, we could discuss spice drops. Gary likes spice drops and I’ll eat some flavors. But, the problem is that each company makes the same colors but the flavors are different. Brach's makes marvelous orange spice drops, kind of sweet like those orange slices you can buy. I’ll eat those. But, then we bought some Walmart spice drops and the orange are not the same - but I’ll eat the black/purple ones since they have an anise flavor. Then we bought some at the Winn Dixie here in New Orleans - even Gary doesn’t like them - and that’s pretty bad. Luckily I bought only one bag, just testing them.

We’re staying in an RV park on Chef Menteur Hwy - in New Orleans, that must be named after a famous chef, right? That’s what I thought. Wrong. The literal meaning is ‘lying chief’ in French. According to one legend, the Choctaws called one French governor the ‘lying chief’ when the French reneged on a treaty. Or maybe it refers to the meandering of the Mississippi River which obviously is unreliable and can’t be counted on. Or maybe it refers to a Choctaw chief who was fond of stretching the truth and was eventually exiled to a backwater section of Lake Pontchartrain called Chef Menteur or ‘Lying Chief.’

Whatever, it certainly does not refer to a famous chef. On most signs, this hwy is referred to as ‘Chef.’ Much easier to spell and say.

OK, here’s our problem: we are running out of cash. We are customers of Wells Fargo and, since we have always been in areas where Wells Fargo banks are plentiful, getting money has never been a problem. In Louisiana it is: the nearest Wells Fargo is in Gulfport, MS, a long way away. Now what? But, a friend told me her secret: go to Walmart, pay for something with your debit card and ask for cash back. Never done that but we’ll try.

And, everyone who reads this blog is saying: 'Join the real world, Nancy.' Everyone does this.' 

In fact, I just checked the New England states, where we plan to travel and there is no WFC north of Connecticut. We could be in deep sneakers: no WFC in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, NH or Maine, all states we plan to visit. I’d look up our old bank when we lived in MA, RI and NH but there have been so many bank mergers since we lived there, who knows what its name is now. Maybe I’ll go back and see if my credit is good after all these years.