Possibly my best moment on the trip

The next day after we arrived in New Orleans we attended the Treme Gumbo Fest in Louis Armstrong Park.  Bands played all day long while the crowds grew every larger.  One of the all brass bands got down off the stage and led the crowd on a traditional New Orleans funeral march.  We followed by the hundreds in a dance (any way you wanted to move your body, feet, arms) called Second Line.  I joined in.  After 30 minutes I didn't want to stop.  I was totally in the moment, right there in every part of my mind and body, and I didn't want it to end.
That's the feeling I want to bring back with me as we leave this wonderful vacation trip behind.  To be more of the time, in the moment, and much less worrying about tomorrow, the local politics, those who like to gossip, and anything else unpleasant--just give out the love.

That said, if all of us dropped out we might be a city more like New Orleans where corruption is taken for granted, but not liked.  Where the pot holes on the side walks don't get fixed, the streets don't get regularly cleaned, the vacant office buildings sit unattended to.  This is an open container city, and there is drinking throughout down town, especially around Bourbon Street.

We thought there would be more jazz, like we had in Nashville and Memphis (country, Dixie, blue-grass), but the best jazz, it seems, begins later than we are out and about, or so it seems.  We did hear some good jazz at Legends park yesterday evening and then strolled down Bourbon Street again.  There was a lot less people traffic Monday night than there was Sunday evening when the party goers were celebrating, in advance, the Saints vs Cowboys football game, so it was easier to maneuver.  We heard more rock, some karaoke, and a bit of Jazz, before we left the district.  I'm afraid our late night party going is over.

Good adventures today as we found the battlefield site, Stu got his National Parks passbook stamped, and we drove toward plantation row about half way to Baton Rouge (formerly the site of about 400 plantations of all styles and conditions, some preserved and open, others not quite meeting the Scarlett O'Hara image).  Long driving day, worth the time out.  We got to see the lower 9th of Hurricane Katrina fame and the 100 or so houses that Brad Pitt has built and donated to citizens in the area.  We also saw some beautiful, higher end suburbs, built of brick, high sloped roof lines.  The suburbs could be small town anywhere, but very green.  I know that we are in for a shock as we head back to the very dry, very brown, South West.