Here I am in New Orleans. I'm staying at the Pelham Hotel, just outside of the French Quarter. it sounds very grand; actually I got an amazingly good deal on the room - less than half the going rate everywhere else!
The Pelham could fairly be called a pocket version of the Monteleone, both in architectural style and in its 'feel' of overall classiness.
It's close to the river, to Lee Circle and to the Quarter, so you could do a lot worse than to stay there. My own room is an internal one; that is, no windows, so it's pitch black if the lights are off. This can be a bit disconcerting if you wake up at 7:30am and can't believe it's not the middle of the night
After I'd checked in and unpacked, I decided to follow D's advice and start building my own new memories. Added to which I was interested to see how I'd go walking these streets. I started at the Riverwalk
and Jackson Square
I followed up, somewhat predictably, by walking past the Monteleone and going to Bourbon Street. I stopped at the Tropical Isle for the usual hand grenade. They're actually not that great, unless you like your alcohol served very sweet, but I've always had one when I come to New Orleans, and there was no reason not to have one now. There was a decent band playing country rock crowd pleasers, and I felt pretty good. I had a few more drinks hither and yon and also dinner in the Quarter, and made a few more memories of my own.
I can truly say that I wasn't getting bent out of shape as I wandered around. I love this city, and this place. Joni is, honestly, really neither here nor there. It's up to me to make myself happy, and to be OK inside my own skin. Tying my sense of satisfaction to someone else seems, I guess, self destructive.
Today I really had no plan. I had no yen to go back to Bourbon Street during the day, so I just began walking in what seemed to be the direction to the Superdome. This took me past the World War Two museum. I was interested to note that three things in close proximity in their grounds were parts of Nazi infrastructure from WW2, and a piece of the World Trade Centre from September 11, and I wondered if this was intentionally paralleling the Third Reich and Al-Qaeda.
Some more walking and I found myself back at the Louisiana Civil War Museum. This is certainly worth a few hours to visit. It's a Museum in the old style: the displays, aside from one video, are all static, and there's limited interpretation, although this is more than made up for by the sheer volume of material which is brought together. I got the impression that the displays in the main hall, of restored flags, uniforms, weapons and the like, are more or less permanent. In an annex to the side was what appeared to be the more variable space, which explored subjects like military surgery of the time, how the coloured population of Louisiana reacted to the war, and how Louisiana was involved in the battle at Shiloh. Overall the museum tended to focus very much on the military side of the conflict, without exploring causes at all and tending to sidestep discussions of slavery. I couldn't blame them for this: it seemed to be run largely by volunteers, who one might expect would have little desire to get into fraught interpretive debates on issues that remain contentious today.
I came back to the Hotel after the museum and decided to go for a run, which I've logged here. This run was a real punisher, in the hot damp heat of the afternoon. I managed 4 miles along Ol' Man River but by the end I was pouring sweat and utterly exhausted.
Back here I've had a shower and typed this. I got some groceries yesterday and so breakfast and lunch today have been apples and almonds - good clean food. Still, I feel the need for something a little more substantial now, and I'm thinking it's time to break my po'boy drought.
Big day tomorrow - seeing the girls and Joni in the afternoon. Big smiles at this end, and the faint feeling that everything is going to be alright after all.
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