Day 8 – April 16th
Up early(ish) and down to Canal Street for breakfast at IHOP.
I got a message from Johnny Sansone inviting us to dinner/movie tonight at his home. Wow, that is so nice.
Paul Murphy made contact to say that he will now be in New Orleans tomorrow night. He is coming in on Amtrak and will leave again on Wednesday morning. We are making plans to catch up.
Pat has also messaged us with our Texas travel plans and we will meet up tomorrow for lunch. Man, it is all go and so very good to have so many lovely New Orleans friends. Gary Jones was briefly in town yesterday and was at FQF watching Cyril Neville. Today he and his partner are catching a Paddle Wheeler up to Memphis. He will be back in town for Jazz Fest and we have plans to catch up as well.
Seems I am meeting more people I know here in New Orleans than I do back in Melbourne!
Now I am doing the Riverwalk Shuffle (shopping mall) with Wendy. I decided it is best to sit down and have a lemonade while Wendy browses. I sat next to a food concession advertising 500 flavours of popcorn. Including of course some New Orleans favourites – Crawfish, Gumbo, Cajun, King Cake and for my mate Mr Terry Smith Jalapeno Cheddar. I was half listening in on a guy getting angry on a telephone call. He is an Aussie. I made the mistake of striking up a conversation when he hung up. What a mistake, he is a pain in the arse and just wants to talk about himself. Said he was from Adelaide, that figures.
We sat out on the balcony and had a couple of beers with the neighbours. Scott told me such a funny story. A couple of years back while on a cab drive on Magazine Street his Non-English-speaking cab-driver ran into another car. It wasn’t a major accident but still nasty none the less. The driver panicked a bit and Scott said he should call 911. He wound down the window stuck his head out and yelled ‘911, 911’.
I rang an Uber around 6:30 for our dinner date. Just a short ride over to Johnny’s house on Bayou St. John. Johnny was waiting out front a yelled out, ‘come in mate, are you ready to get pissed!’! Another four couples arrived, some musos, some friends and a couple from France who run a Blues Festival that travels through Europe. Johnny has been on the tour. The food was sensational. Wild Duck Boudin and Catfish all shot/caught by one of the guests. Two sensational main dishes and sweets. Restaurant class. The guests went out of their way to talk to us and make us feel welcome. Johnny had set up a white sheet out back and we settled into a home movie night. Popcorn included. The movie called the Buccaneer. Made in 1958 and starring a very young Yul Brynner the movie was a depiction of Jean Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans (English invaders) So very apt and it made for a perfect night.
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