From Arrival it was clear that the Big Easy is different… there are bars… set up for arriving guests… not just the common bars where you drink while waiting for your flight… there are people with looking for their bags at the carrousel with a beer in their hand… Even inside at the airport you could feel the heat and the humidity… Clara Patterson called it “Swelterly…”

We reclaim our checked luggage, then wait in line for a cab…

The driver liked to keep the windows down… (he asked if it was ok) It seemed right…

We looked for Katrina damage on the ride in… at first there was little sign… then you see a building with its roof covered in tattered blue tarps… other buildings now abandoned… one nearly collapsing… From the cab trip to the Convention Center and our hotel you might not have noticed it if you didn’t know, but you and everyone else knows. The idea seems kind of ghost like…

We ask the cab driver if he was here for Katrina… he says no, meaning he was living in New Orleans for the storm, but got out early and wasn’t trapped for the aftermath… He had stayed in California for 18 months before returning… his house gone, his business gone… Now he drives a hack…

The Hotel has a doorman, Bruce… He was in Texas for a year plus after the storm…

We checked in… we walked across the street and picked up our badges and stuff (yes, you need a stinking badge) the badge line was unorganized… people were impatient… but the conversations were interesting… we were standing in line with two gentlemen from Gabon and a woman from Pittsburg. With badges in hand we went looking for a snack and ended up at the bar at Mulates… sitting next to Rotarian from Santa Cruz and his wife… Two beers each and a plate of alligator later we headed back to the hotel…

We met friends… cleaned up… then gathered in the lobby and went off to a dinner at the Commander’s Palace… An old time, old line New Orleans restaurant. A dinner with friends… a nice time… a good time…

To home (the Marriott Convention Center) to bed… Up early the next day… Downstairs, Coffee, then off to the New Orleans Mission… for our project… set up a library… We asked for directions along the way… locals seemed concerned we were going there.

The project was good… successful… bridge building… the folks there were thankful… there was a lunch… with Marti-gras gifts… I got a Zulu coconut… the coolest gift in the world… there was a ribbon cutting with the RI president…

Having done good, T and I went back to the hotel, showered (we needed it) then walked to the French Quarter… looked about, found beer and wine.. then returned to Mulates near our hotel for more beer, a rendezvous with Maureen, and eventually dinner… In the bar we met for a second time a New Orleans cop… I had taken his portrait the previous day… Interesting conversations… new friends…

We dined… we talked with friends… T & I danced…

Now home… tired… Blogging… to bed…