Episode LXXII: Giving Thanks in the Big Easy

In keeping with my newly-established tradition, this Thanksgiving I went on a seat-of-the-pants road trip. In keeping with last year’s tradition, I went with Rafael. On this particular occasion, our main goal was to get to New Orleans, but on the way we wound up hitting numerous cities, in eight states, in just about five days. Here are a few snapshots.

As you may know, I am fascinated by American history, including the Civil War, which made a trip south to Vicksburg, Mississippi quite fascinating, as it was the site of one of the most strategically important battles of the war. You can see that we took our tourism duties just as seriously.

One of the things I liked most about The South was its food. Both the fried-chicken/grits/okra side of things and the seafood/gumbo/jambalaya/crawfish side of things were very pleasing to my palate, and I availed myself of them quite substantially.

Even more spectacular to me was the music scene in New Orleans. Say what you will about New Orleans and the French Quarter (past or present), it must be the most happening jazz & blues scene in the world! The variety and quantity of music in such a small area was astounding. Of course the range of quality was also remarkable. For instance, we went to the Preservation Hall Jazz Ensemble show, where a six-piece band played very traditional New Orleans jazz to a small, jam-packed hardwood-floored room. After the show we hadn’t even walked half a block before we passed a club blaring lousy hip-hop karaoke music, speakers in the windows pointed out toward the street.

[In this photo, I join in the musical festivities:]

We took an additional trip down to the Gulf of Mexico, because- hey, why not? Sure it was windy and cold, and it may have been “against the rules” to jump over the protective sandbags, but you only live once, right?

We did eat a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday night. It just happened to be a Fancy Thanksgiving meal, with, for instance: duck-sausage-stuffed turkey, Creole mashed potatoes and a delicious caramel bread pudding.

Finally, no trip to The South would be complete without a visit to a plantation, no? These particular folks owned about two hundred slaves up until the Civil War!

Oh, and one last thing on the music. This was my favorite part. Here on the corner of a really noisy street, a bunch of kids- all teenagers, I think- got together on the sidewalk and played some really rocking New Orleans jazz. Band members, dancers and spectators came and went as they pleased, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it went on for six or seven hours both of the nights that we were down there. Good times…