In
2018, I fulfilled a long-held ambition to travel the South-Eastern
portion of the United States, exploring the locations which produced
the origins of the music I have loved throughout my life. I was
riding a Honda Goldwing at that time and the thought that I wouldn't
use it to do the journey seemed ridiculous! It transpired that
taking a Honda Goldwing TO America was an even more ridiculous idea,
but I wasn't to know that until after I had done it...
So,
towards the end of September, 2018, I landed in New Orleans to start
my solo adventure...
I’d heard New Orleans is hot – it is - Suffocatingly hot!
So
my plan had been to get a Streetcar from the centre where the airport
bus terminates. To this end I had installed the NORTA mobile App
(NORTA = N.O. Regional Transport Authority). I had even bought a few
rides at the Senior rate of 40c each. However, arriving in Canal
Street, I found that I had no connectivity on my newly purchased
phone! Having no idea how the Trams worked and whether I could use
cash on them, I just shouldered my luggage and moved at a very slow
pace along Canal Street with the idea that I might find a café with
Wi-Fi and investigate my ticket App. Before I had gone very far, I
realised I had found the legendary Bourbon St and headed in to see
what was there. There is always activity here as all tourists centre
their visits here and most of the street musicians and beggars
follow. I very soon came to an attractive looking café of whose
name I had heard - Café
Beignet - home of the famous New Orleans doughnuts
called, ‘Beignets’. Coincidence?
Having ordered a coffee, I then
asked if they offered Wi-Fi, to be told that they did not. There goes that
plan! Nothing
else for it - having come this far, I trudged on another 10 blocks to
my hotel where it turned out that I had been ‘upgraded’, for reasons
unknown, to a pool-side suite – which compensated for the Streetcar
disappointment.
