8-1/2 hours later I am in NOLA. Between the AirBnB landlady's instructions (Thanks Leslie!) and a borrowed GPS the drive was without surprise. Except for discovering a gallon of gas in Alabama is only $2.17, that was a pleasant surprise.
I wanted to begin my Monday with coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. Alas, a horde of tourists had the same idea and the line to get in the place was beyond my tolerance level. Besides, it was 97 degrees and my feet hurt and I was sweating like a sleazy suspect under a police grilling at HQ (Practicing my purple prose, sorry). I will be back to get souvenir T-shirts and trinkets from the French Market for various friends and editors back home.
With the help of the GPS my next stop was Rouses Market. In The Wedding Fatality Amy and Paul go to Rouse #umpteen on Tchoupitoulas Street to stock up on milk and toilet paper on the eve of Hurricane Olaf's landfall, which also is the eve of them solving the case and parking two 9mm slugs in the worthless scumbag what done the deed (More purple prose. Sorry.) Not only did I want to check the reality of the store against my imagining it, but I also needed some supplies. No matter how carefully you pack, there's always something (deodorant) that you forget,
Rouses is an impressive store. The sales floor is ENORMOUS. This being New Orleans, it has separate sections for beer (Didn't know Amy and Paul's beer of choice, Dixie, doesn't come in cans. Only bottles), wine, and liquor. Staff was friendly. Lunch counter was spectacular, and I loaded up on red beans and rice and extra sausage. Very good, with enough left over for dinner tonight.
Oddly, compared to the farmers' markets I use at home, Rouses' stock was limited. But instead of all the magic ethnic stuff I see on Buford Highway and at the DeKalb market, Rouses has tons of local cajun and French stuff. I will go back to buy a couple of cans of gumbo base, just add rice and seafood. Plus they have some particular brand of liquid coffee concentrate -- Cool Brew -- that my pastor asked me to bring back. I found it, in the dairy section, but I didn't remember Jill's instructions on which size or flavor. To quote the ex-Governor of California, I'll be baaack.
I turned off the GPS and drove up Tchoupitoulas with a vague idea of visiting Amy's house in the Carrollton section. Didn't get that far. For one thing, NOPSI or LDOT or somebody is doing all sorts of road repairs. Speeding is rare when the roads are this bad. Anyway, when I came on Henry Clay Avenue I had to make a right turn and head for St. Charles Avenue and the Metropolitan Community Church. That was the setting for the original fictional pastor's murder in The Wedding Fatality. I didn't realize how big the building is! Or that MCC borrows usage from some mainstream church. There is no front yard, where I staged a demonstration. No bushes along Henry Clay -- the side of the church is right against the sidewalk. And the church doesn't go all the way to Calhoun Avenue. Loyola University is across St. Charles from the MCC, and the campus Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church seems to be much closer than I thought.
I was on the way 'home' when I recognized a building from the same book. In reality it is a large warehouse with big parking lot, in terrible condition. A hot-shot real estate mogul bought the property with plans to build a 12-story luxury high-rise, but the zoning board said "no;" when the mogul appealed the board said "Hell, no." I put the fictitious Community Coalition, a small social services non-profit, in the building because I imagined the rent affordable and the location great, despite the building's condition. Today I saw it covered in "For Sale" signs. The back of the building, visible from the parking lot and in Google Earth, is in worse condition today than when Google took the pictures I used for my research -- the rain gutter, rather than sagging in the middle and part hanging on a nail, now is gone.
'Home' to write notes. I love hot weather but NOLA today is insane.
I wanted to begin my Monday with coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. Alas, a horde of tourists had the same idea and the line to get in the place was beyond my tolerance level. Besides, it was 97 degrees and my feet hurt and I was sweating like a sleazy suspect under a police grilling at HQ (Practicing my purple prose, sorry). I will be back to get souvenir T-shirts and trinkets from the French Market for various friends and editors back home.
With the help of the GPS my next stop was Rouses Market. In The Wedding Fatality Amy and Paul go to Rouse #umpteen on Tchoupitoulas Street to stock up on milk and toilet paper on the eve of Hurricane Olaf's landfall, which also is the eve of them solving the case and parking two 9mm slugs in the worthless scumbag what done the deed (More purple prose. Sorry.) Not only did I want to check the reality of the store against my imagining it, but I also needed some supplies. No matter how carefully you pack, there's always something (deodorant) that you forget,
Rouses is an impressive store. The sales floor is ENORMOUS. This being New Orleans, it has separate sections for beer (Didn't know Amy and Paul's beer of choice, Dixie, doesn't come in cans. Only bottles), wine, and liquor. Staff was friendly. Lunch counter was spectacular, and I loaded up on red beans and rice and extra sausage. Very good, with enough left over for dinner tonight.
Oddly, compared to the farmers' markets I use at home, Rouses' stock was limited. But instead of all the magic ethnic stuff I see on Buford Highway and at the DeKalb market, Rouses has tons of local cajun and French stuff. I will go back to buy a couple of cans of gumbo base, just add rice and seafood. Plus they have some particular brand of liquid coffee concentrate -- Cool Brew -- that my pastor asked me to bring back. I found it, in the dairy section, but I didn't remember Jill's instructions on which size or flavor. To quote the ex-Governor of California, I'll be baaack.
I turned off the GPS and drove up Tchoupitoulas with a vague idea of visiting Amy's house in the Carrollton section. Didn't get that far. For one thing, NOPSI or LDOT or somebody is doing all sorts of road repairs. Speeding is rare when the roads are this bad. Anyway, when I came on Henry Clay Avenue I had to make a right turn and head for St. Charles Avenue and the Metropolitan Community Church. That was the setting for the original fictional pastor's murder in The Wedding Fatality. I didn't realize how big the building is! Or that MCC borrows usage from some mainstream church. There is no front yard, where I staged a demonstration. No bushes along Henry Clay -- the side of the church is right against the sidewalk. And the church doesn't go all the way to Calhoun Avenue. Loyola University is across St. Charles from the MCC, and the campus Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church seems to be much closer than I thought.
I was on the way 'home' when I recognized a building from the same book. In reality it is a large warehouse with big parking lot, in terrible condition. A hot-shot real estate mogul bought the property with plans to build a 12-story luxury high-rise, but the zoning board said "no;" when the mogul appealed the board said "Hell, no." I put the fictitious Community Coalition, a small social services non-profit, in the building because I imagined the rent affordable and the location great, despite the building's condition. Today I saw it covered in "For Sale" signs. The back of the building, visible from the parking lot and in Google Earth, is in worse condition today than when Google took the pictures I used for my research -- the rain gutter, rather than sagging in the middle and part hanging on a nail, now is gone.
'Home' to write notes. I love hot weather but NOLA today is insane.