Day 1 in New Orleans



New Orleans!
Home of pirates, drunks, and whores!
New Orleans!
Tacky, overpriced, souvenir stores!
If you want to go to hell, you should make that trip,
To the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississipp'!
New Orleans!
Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile!
New Orleans!
Putrid, brackish, maggoty, foul!
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid, and rank!
New Orleans!

 

10 extra-credit points if you can name the origin of that little gem! I am pleased to say that I have safely arrived in New Orleans for my conference. This was quite the feat. Will and the kids drove up to Kansas City to drop me off at the KCI airport (they are planning to spend a few days with Nonnie and Pa in DeSoto). You can see the wonderful second day of spring day below in the image of the Konza Prairie.

 

However....on our trip to KC, it started to snow. And snow. And accumulate ice. None of us were expecting this, and we don't think the road people were, either. We had a very scary moment on 435 when our card slid on a thin layer of black ice, we swerved all of the road and ended up doing a 360 degree spin, and eventually ended up in the ditch in the median.

HOWEVER, all of us were 100% fine (just shaken up) and the van had absolutely no problems. A million gratitudes that Will was driven and not me, and knew how to steer the van to get it under control. And a million other gratitudes that everything was perfectly lined up - there were no cars around us when this happened, we were near a very large grassy median with no guard rails, we didn't slide into oncoming traffic, etc. Thank God that we were all safe and there were amazingly no problems!! Will counted 9 separate wrecks on the drive back, including two cars that had flipped over RIGHT where we had slid off the road.

The rest of my journey was quite uneventful. I made my connection to Charlotte just fine and I really like the Charlotte airport. Not only is it new and modern and spiffy, they have rocking chairs lining the walkway that invite passengers to relax.

The other big excitement in Charlotte was the Davidson vs. Marquette game - people were piled into the hallway trying to catch the action. Alas (or thankfully for my bracket), there was no upset in the end.

I made it to New Orleans just fine! My old advisor and one of my best friends, Donna, waited for me at the airport so that we could ride to the hotel together (we are co-coordinating the conference and will be happy when it is over!). Once I got checked in, I was certain that the hotel had made a mistake. I appear to be staying in a suite.

Complete with a cheese and fruit plate awaiting my arrival. So weird. But delicious.

Donna and I had an absolutely marvelous dinner in the hotel restaurant, where I enjoyed delicacies such as cheesy grits, turnip greens, squash, pecan-encrusted trout, and homemade bread pudding. After dinner we walked around the block - our hotel is RIGHT in the middle of the French Quarter.

This is the view from my hotel window onto the French Quarter below. It doesn't show it, but it is actually VERY LOUD right now - lots of loud, pulsating music, horns blaring, people yelling, girls making out, etc. I am not quite sure how I am going to sleep but maybe it will eventually turn into white noise. :)

The rest of the fam is doing well in DeSoto. Will took the kids by the Moon Marble Factory in Bonner Springs on the way back. The kids' highlight, however, has been telling everyone, "We went flying off the road!!!"