8hunters Tour the USA: April 20 – New Orleans , LA

On our way into New Orleans I check a couple reference guides that I use. Both warned against driving into downtown New Orleans in an RV - evidently the streets are narrow. So what do we do – we drive there anyway. We rolled into New Orleans in the early evening and found our way to the visitor’s center near the French Quarter. Although it was closed, the French Quarter RV Park was across the street. We lucked out and they had a last minute cancellation so we pulled in and set up camp across the street from the French Quarter and about 4 blocks from Bourbon Street. We geared up for a night on the town and headed out with the kids and dogs in tow. The Navy was in town and things were hopping on Bourbon Street. We scoped things out and asked one of the locals which way we should head to avoid the worst of it. There were quite a few street performers that we all enjoyed including one group of guys that did a dance routine right in the middle of the street. We tried unsuccessfully to steer clear of an almost 7’ tall cross dresser. This individual was obviously pretty confused but he – I think - evidently liked dogs because he sure took a liking to Jett. James let us know later that we didn’t need to worry because he pulled the dog away quickly. Fortunately we were keeping an eye on the sights around and ahead of us. I noticed a guy wearing nothing but underwear with his butt cheeks exposed. I have no idea what he was doing and didn’t care to find out. I quickly redirected the herd to avoid a confrontation. Believe it or not, we managed to avoid most of the weirdness that the French Quarter offers.

While on Bourbon Street we ran into a couple of fellow RVer’s that we met on the road while stopped in Kayenta, AZ. Bruce and Vicki are a retired couple from Australia that left from Vancouver, BC in a rented RV and were following roughly the same route we were taking. We enjoyed catching up with them and sharing stories of our travels. We finally sat down to dinner around 10:30 at night and enjoyed another local treat –Jambalaya. We got back to the RV shortly before midnight.

The French Quarter RV Resort turned out to be the nicest we’ve stayed at. It was only about 5 years old – definitely post Katrina. The hard surfaces were all done in brick pavers and the pool facilities and common areas were all first class. The kids, of course, didn’t care for it as the pavers didn’t provide a smooth surface for their scooters :).