HAPPY NEW YEARS Y'ALL - Westwego, LA
Westwego, LA
Where I stayed
Bayou Segnette
What I did
The French Quarter
140101-HAPPY NEW YEARS
I am inserting this prior to my last
story of our times in Gulf Shores.
We are here again in New Orleans (NOLA)
for New Years Eve having arrived on the 28th of December, staying at
the Wal-Mart in Marrero and checking into Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego
La. on Sunday. Not much has changed here in the park, excepting that the main
reception building is no longer usable, and is being rebuilt as we speak as the
underlying structure of the building had been totally eaten away by termites.
This being the case, we are now checked in by a girl in a make shift booth on
the entrance side of the park and then we have to swing around to the exit side
and squeeze into the park in the out lanes.
The bathrooms which had been wiped out
by Katrina, as had a majority of the park, were now both totally restored. The
quality of workmanship is not the best, but they are nice and are totally
acceptable for what they are. The laundry is still free but the surprising
thing is, when we were last here in March they had brand new machines in boxes
waiting to be installed into the building upon completion, but the finished
product ended up with what looks like the original machines, and one of the
washers is broken. Wonder what happened to the new ones?
The surrounding area is much the same
and THE SWAMP INN is still going strong, with service from 8:00 am every
morning to whenever every morning. By service I mean alcohol, as that is all
they serve, and there are always cars parked outside the little bar and there
are always the usual locals inside.
Our friends from Corunna Ontario are
also here, having checked in on the Sunday also, they leave on the 2nd
and we venture out on the 3rd. Pete and Chris are stopping along the
way to visit with friends in Angleton TX, just southwest of Houston, while,
weather permitting we will continue on to Galveston and or Magnolia Beach, just
south of Port Lavaca.
The Canal/Algiers Ferry service is not
how we left it, unfortunately. Where as in March and all times previous, the
ferry ran free walk on service from the early morning to around mid-night now
runs its last ferry out of downtown NOLA to Algiers at 6:30 pm. This is a ****
off, as who wants to leave that early in the day and who wants to drive into
downtown NOLA, and pay the hefty parking fees, or have to move your car every
two hours to avoid getting parking tickets. The service has changed, as has the
size of the boat, as it now only carries passengers, not cars, this occurred because
there was a referendum this year regarding the toll booths on Hwy 10 as you
entered into NOLA, collecting a dollar from every car, or a monthly pass, for
the privilege of entering into the city. Well, it was from the proceeds of this
dollar that funded the ferries that went back and forth across the great
Mississippi carrying the people who did not want to drive into the city and
lived in or near Algiers. Win some you lose some. Unfortunately all of the side
effects are not well thought out in these cases, and the silent minority loses
out. I am sure this will greatly affect the poorer people of the Algiers area
should the service be discontinued completely as is being suggested.
We spent 2 nights down in the French
Quarter, the 30th and the 31st of December. The 30th
saw us do some tourist things, like taking the St. Charles Trolley, which I had
in my mind that I wanted to do, and now that I have wished I hadn’t bothered.
The car was packed and we had to stand up for most of it, and then the line was
under construction out past Tulane University so we did not really see much and
it was more of a pain in the ass. We did get to enjoy the lay of the land in
the French Quarter, as the day was not so crowded.
We arrived downtown on New Years Eve at
around 6:00 pm. The day before we had met this girl in a bar, Cindy, who had
said she would let us have her parking pass for use on NYE, that she lived near
the Westin Hotel and to park around it and she would come and meet us and give
us her pass. Never trust an intoxicated woman from NOLA; because when it comes
time to deliver she will be to **** faced to come through with her promises.
Now Cindy did answer her phone a couple of times, but when it came time to
deliver, she didn’t, in the end it didn’t really matter as we found street
parking just off of Canal St., on Dorsiere St. which is just beside the Marriot
on the one corner and Arbys on the other. Easy to find, and not to hard to get
out of as we were heading towards Canal St. which is our exit out of the city.
This again was a big weekend in NOLA.
The Saints had a playoff game on Saturday, which they won, there was New Years
Eve, and on the 2nd was the Sugar bowl with the Alabama Sooners and
the Crimson Tide, **** so much to-do about nothing. I guess you have to assume that
every American has graduated from university, being it this one or that, as all
you here are “Go Tide” “Sooonersss” or when you head north O-H-I-O, etc. from
each state from each city. Man they get more people out to a game between kids
going to school they we get out to see the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the coaches
of these kids are making more money then the coaches of the NFL. It just does
not compute with me, as at home, most university sports teams are lucky to have
5000 attend a game, and I am stretching this by an extra 0, while the college
scene down here has 100,000 attending each game and they all graduate? Anyways
I digress. The FQ was nuts, the bars were packed, the young people are
screaming and yelling and getting **** faced and having a ball, the gays are
strutting their stuff, and are coming out of the closet all up and down the
strip, as Jerry would say “Not that there is anything wrong with that”, and it
is more usual now then unusual and to be quite honest I just accept it for what
it is, and go with the flow.
Anyways I do not see why they have to
be so demonstrative, go live and love and enjoy yourselves, please don’t force
it on me. Anyways everyone is having a ball, and it is the place to be on New
Years Eve.
That is until around 11:00 pm. the
crowd now is pressing. It is compacted, it is right licked and ********d and
the police are everywhere, as are the horses. Don’t screw with the horses, as
they are very aggressive, and will pounce on you even up on the side walk under
the balconies, not even worrying about the big black policeman who has to duck
quickly not to lose his head on the balcony, as he reaches over and grabs the
horses prey by his shirt and halls him in. be very careful out there. Anyway,
we are having and have had a great time up to this point, but to a man decide
we have had enough and at 11:00 head back to the car, and find ourselves
outside the door to The Swamp at around 11:40 pm. but choose not to pay the
$10.00 per head door fee, and head back to the park to watch the ball drop on
Louisiana time, one hour later then New York time, but still happening at
midnight here in Westwego La., at the Bayou Segnette State Park.
We culminated the night with cocktails
inside the bus, and then stepped outside to hear the cacophony of firecrackers permeating
the airwaves from each and every direction, which is wonderus, as south of us
is swampland, and intermittently within the deafening sounds of the fireworks,
you can distinctly pick out the sound of automatic weapons going off. Wap wap
wap wap wap wap wap.
I loved every minute, and so I believe
did Angie Pete and Chris, even though, and I didn’t tell you this till now, it
rained all night long.
Thanks for reading I really appreciate
it.
Its all good!