On the drive right down to the Sugar Bowl, I checked my Worldometer App for the newest COVID stats.
Amazingly, on the someday we’re headed right down to an enormous public get together in the French Quarter, the Louisiana COVID stats rocket as much as a brand new one-day all-time excessive. Isn’t that identical to COVID? As they are saying in the vernacular, “This stuff is getting old.”
Our journey was with family and friends, which was actually cool. It’s so wonderful that my youngsters are grown sufficient to trip with Ginny and me and our mates as co-adults. We had a blast. All received alongside. The era gaps appeared non-existent.
Through our kids, we related with a fair wider group of mates and their dad and mom. It was only a nice cross-generational enjoyable time.
Part of this journey was to rejoice the birthdays of my spouse Ginny and pricey pal Kemal Sanli, each of whom have Christmastime birthdays. They all the time get brief shifted consequently. This journey was to make amends, significantly since Ginny had an enormous birthday this 12 months, her thirty ninth.
We rented a three-bedroom apartment in the Marigny space, adjoining and northeast of the French Quarter. It’s an up-and-coming, gentrifying space with an actual bohemian, creative really feel. We liked it. It was like being in the Quarter however quieter and extra mellow. Great eating places and road cafes throughout.
From Marigny, it may be a 20-minute hike into the Quarter, however this was made simple by the brand new Blue Bike stands all through the realm.
Unlike many cities similar to Austin and Atlanta, New Orleans banned electrical scooter leases. I can perceive why, given how a lot pedestrian site visitors there’s in the Quarter. People have been being run down by novice scooter riders.
But Blue Bikes are “power assist” electrical bikes that journey on the streets with the automobiles. Pedaling them is way simpler than a conventional bike. Once you obtain the app and enter a bank card, you simply goal your digital camera on the QR code mounted on the handlebars. The bike unlocks and off you go.
When you get to the place you’re going, you lock the bike up at a close-by Blue Bike station and off you go. It actually made getting across the French Quarter a lot simpler and sooner.
Ginny and I additionally used our Blue Bikes to journey over the complete Marigny space. This would have been not possible on foot and it gave us an actual perception into this up-and-coming a part of New Orleans.
I used to be a bit shocked that no one on Blue Bikes wore helmets, nor was this required. I ponder how lengthy that may final. It’s only a matter of time earlier than somebody cracks their head.
The Blue Bike app was only one instance of how smartphone know-how made our journey a snap. We used apps to lease our apartment, to verify in, to search out eating places, to name Ubers, to journey bikes, to purchase tickets, to trace down mates, to navigate and a dozen extra issues. We discuss so much in regards to the negatives of smartphones, however there are way more positives.
With daughter Ruth a freshman at Ole Miss, Ginny and I’ve gotten again into school soccer and made 5 journeys to the Grove this 12 months. So, going to the Sugar Bowl made sense.
I assumed I purchased eight good tickets. I imply, my bank card was debited, solely to get an e-mail two weeks later from the Ole Miss athletics division that as a result of I didn’t donate sufficient, I might solely get two much-worse tickets and they’d refund my cash. Man was I sizzling! This is a really unhealthy follow.
As it seems, there was an equal quantity of enthusiasm for going to a cool sports activities bar in the Quarter and watching the sport on TV.
We weren’t dissatisfied. The pub meals was scrumptious. The screens have been huge and quite a few, together with on the balcony the place you would sit on a snug couch and watch the sport with a terrific view of the French Quarter crowd and New Orleans skyline.
The disappointment quickly got here when Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral received harm. What a crew chief. What a hero. What a category act. No doubt this younger man was the guts and soul of the crew. When he fell, the crew collapsed. Yet one other chapter in the e book of Ole Miss Tragedy Football.
After the sport, we partook in the limitless fountain of nice music and crowd power that makes New Orleans the third hottest vacationer vacation spot in the United States.
For Mississippians, New Orleans is sort of a second dwelling, a part of our lives. Although I dwell in Jackson, I’ve been to New Orleans so many times, it’s simply a part of who I’m. As I assumed again over numerous recollections and numerous nice times, I actually felt a love for this Big Easy.
My favourite story of all was once I was in my early twenties. My girlfriend was engaged on the Mississippi Queen riverboat and dwelling in an enormous rambling dwelling in the Garden District with a bunch of mates.
We began our Mardi Gras night time early, monitoring down the Wild Tchoupitoulas — a convention of African Americans who gown up as Indians and go from honky tonk to honky tonk singing and chanting.
We adopted the Wild Tchoupitoulas all night time lengthy and emerged with them from a honky tonk into the intense gentle of morning. The road was roped off and tons of of vacationers lined up behind the ropes to take pictures of this distinctive American cultural phenomenon. And there we have been. Right in the center of it.
That’s only one reminiscence. There are dozens.
On Sunday, we had a implausible brunch with the entire crew at Paladar 511 in Marigny. It was implausible. Then we headed to the Superdome to observe the Saints preserve their playoff hopes alive. There have been over 20 of us all sitting collectively hooting and hollering “Who dat says dey gonna beat them Saints.”
Anyway, what a terrific weekend. It appeared to final endlessly. Friends, household, good times. Most importantly, Ginny stated it was the perfect thirty ninth birthday celebration she might have imagined, and I’ve 200 pictures to show it.
So, take that, COVID.
Wyatt Emmerich is the editor and writer of The Northside Sun, a weekly newspaper in Jackson. He might be reached by e-mail at [email protected]