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July 24, 2004
Riding Around America: a Hot Day in New Orleans
I walked out onto the street for my first day of sightseeing in New Orleans this morning at 8:45 and started sweating almost immediately. I knew it was going to be hot but this weather is hotter than anything I've experienced since I lived in Virginia. Luckily, I've been carrying a big bottle of water with me all day.
I started out with a 90-minute walking tour led by Jim, a Park Ranger from Iowa. He lead a group of about 25 visitors around the French Quarter and gave a nice overview of some of the important events and the critical social makeup of early New Orleans. Basically, there aren't many ethnic groups that this city doesn't have. Of course it has Native Americans, African-Americans, French and Spanish but there are also a surprising number of Germans, Irish and even Dutch who have immigrated to this city in it's nearly 300 year history. Jim also made sure to tell us all the integral vocabulary that we'd need to survive in New Orleans:
- Go Cup - the plastic cups of alcohol that are legal to carry around the city.
- Devils Pitchfork - Sharp metal spikes on the poles that support balconies and galleries of the houses in the city. The 18th century way of protecting your house from burglary.
- Dixie - Now synonymous with the South (or the Confederacy), the word originally came from "dix" the French word for ten which was printed on money.
- Gumbo - comes from the West African word for Okra, the main ingredient of the thick soup.
- Neutral Ground - a grassy area between streets, otherwise known as a median. This term comes from Canal Street, which divides the French Quarter from the Central Business District.
After the tour I walked to Jackson Square and took a look at the first equestrian statue ever made. It's a funny sculpture of Andrew Jackson, victor of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, waving his hat theatrically. The inscription on the base of the statue reads, "The Union must be preserved". General Benjamin Butler, a Union general had this carved into the statue after he captured the city of New Orleans shortly after the start of the Civil War. Butler also ordered that any female Southern sympathizers in the city be treated as prostitutes. It's no wonder they called him "Beast" Butler.
St. Louis Cathedral adjoins the square and I stepped inside it next. It claims to be the oldest cathedral in America. It's sparsely decorated for a Catholic cathedral but it's quite beautiful inside.
I walked around for another hour or so on the streets around the cathedral, at one point encountering a street performer. He had a toy guitar in his hand and I don't know what his gig was, but I wanted to get a picture of his donation bucket which read "Gots to make money for my honey". So I took the picture and had just barely started to turn around when the guy starts yelling at me to give him some money. I started laughing then turned around and put a dollar in his bucket. After all, I don't want him to go home with no money for his honey.
Next I purchased my ticket for tomorrow's trip down the Mississippi on the paddlewheeler Creole Queen, then took the riverfront streetcar down to the French Market. I wandered through the flea market and the farmer's market and then saw what I knew I had eat: alligator on a stick. For $1.50 I couldn't pass it up and I'm glad I didn't. It was mixed with some pork to make a sort of alligator hot dog and had a nice kick to it. Very tasty. The alligator, combined with the multitude of people carrying their "go cups" of beer around with them everywhere, was making me thirsty so I stopped at an outdoor cafe for a local amber beer, a cup of gumbo, and some live music from a band made up of old black guys with growly voices and gray stubble beards.
I'm back at the hotel now but just to cool off. The heat index is 110 degrees which is hotter than anything I've experienced for quite a while. It should be a little cooler now so I'm going to go back out and walk around some more and take some photos. Tomorrow I'm taking the paddleboat downriver to Chalmette, site of the Battle of New Orleans. then hitting a WWII museum and a Civil War Museum.
Photos were promised today but the connection in my hotel is not very good and there's no way I'll be able to upload all the files. I'm checking into other methods but there might not be any photos for a couple of days.
Posted on July 24, 2004 at 8:42 PM
Comments
My friend Laura points out, correctly, that the Andrew Jackson statue in New Orleans is not the first equestrian statue. It is a copy of a Jackson statue thats in Washington DC. Thanks Laura!
Posted by: fliphed at July 29, 2004 12:36 AM