Touring by car in New Orleans

May 12, 2010
New Orleans, LA

Today, we got a slow start (what else is new?) but did get out to see various parts of New Orleans.

As with many places, I've been to New Orleans on business but "that doesn't count". We also stopped near here, in Slidell, when we did a three-week-long mad dash across the country and back in our first motorhome, "The LearningMobile". We're not staying very long this time, either, but at least we're more centrally-located, just outside the French Quarter.

We headed out late in the morning, and our first task was verifying how we'll get back on I-10 when we leave Friday morning. When you're parked in the middle of a city full of narrow one-way streets with a vehicle combination that's 66 feet long, it's always a good idea to do some reconnaissance in advance. Fortunately, we can make a quick left out of the park, take the first right, and get right on the Interstate about 4 blocks away. Check.

Next, we headed toward the river and the French Quarter, checking out Jackson Square and scoping out places to park the car tomorrow when we do the walking part of the tour. From there, we went southwest into the warehouse district, spying tomorrow night's dinner destination (Emeril's - hey, we have to be touristy at some point!) along the way. We threaded our way along Tchoupitoulas Street, curving with the river, even though it's not visible from surface streets, toward the Uptown District. "Oh, hey, there's a Whole Foods"! Although we specifically needed olives, they had some other things we can't live without.

Supplied and sated (pizza slices), we headed back toward home, weaving our way to and through the Garden District following St Charles Avenue and the famous streetcar line (we'll save the $4 and see it from the car as opposed to the open-air, bench-seat trolley, thanks). St Charles Avenue is a major parade route, and the closer we got to the French Quarter, the more beads there were hanging from all the trees and power lines.

There's still a lot of construction and renovation going on. Uptown and the Garden District are obviously getting a lot of upscale investment, while neighborhoods in between sport a mixture of rebuilt and decaying buildings. We didn't tour the Lower Ninth, which is north and east of the French Quarter (the opposite direction from today's route), but I did note that at least one "cutting edge" tour company does a walking tour there. Not this time, thanks...

Tonight, we'll relax a bit and call it an early night so we can hit the ground running (well, at least walking) in the morning. It should be a busy day...