The City of New Orleans, Saturday 4/25/15

Waking up on the steamboat for the last time, the realization that our trip was almost over hit us. We had a wonderful breakfast aboard, gathered our belongings into our backpacks, and headed off the boat and walked the mile or so to the Amtrak Depot. Our departure was scheduled for 1:45 pm, so there were a few hours before we really had to be there, but we passed the time reading, talking with newly made friends from the trip and eating lunch at the Subway in the depot. We made ourselves useful by watching other people's things as they left, and were glad when they came back and told us they ate lunch at Mother's, the home of the po-boy sandwich, a great lunch spot we visited on our first trip to New Orleans. We boarded the train and it departed on time in the midst of a severe thunderstorm warning. It wasn't long before we cleared the rain and headed along the banks of Lake Ponchartrain  and I55 toward Memphis. Amtrak is a comfortable way to travel even on these old tracks, but there are drawbacks. We were in the last train car and they announced they would come by and take dinner reservations for the dining car, but they never showed up. When they started announcing the first dinner seating, we got suspicious. We didn't wait any longer to go to the club car and get dinner. A good thing, too, as the second dinner seating came not long after, then the third with nary a word for those of us in this full car. We didn't even see a porter on the whole ride! Times change. But, we got to ride on the City of New Orleans, so that was fun. We arrived in Memphis and took a city bus to the hotel, along with about 100 of our closest new found friends-standing room only on the bus-got our bike and luggage, and headed up to our room and crashed about midnight.
With that, our tour officially ended, but our vacation isn't over yet. We drove to Nashville and got to spend a few great days with Caitlin and Will and celebrate their engagement, meet his parents for the first time, and enjoy some great food and time with them. Continuing our tour of antebellum houses, we toured The Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson. Game night with Caitlin, Will, and Katherine was a blast, even though I got trounced at Ticket to Ride (congrats Will on a great victory). Marge fared a little better.
Lastly, now we are visiting Kris (Marge's sister) and Clay in Bellville, IL on our way home. Today, we went to one of our favorite places, the St. Louis Zoo. It was a beautiful day! Tomorrow, we may be out riding some of the trails, but we will see. It might be nice to be back on our bike again. It has been a wonderful vacation.
Thanks for reading!

New Orleans, Friday 4/24/15

We woke up Friday tied up to the dock behind the Riverwalk Mall in New Orleans. It brought back fun memories of our first visit here when we attended the National Catholic Office for the Deaf Pastoral Week conference near here. We brought our bike down to the truck, then our bags (yes, all three suticases and our two bike panniers) to the trucks to be loaded for depature to Memphis. We elected not to join the short ride this morning in New Orleans for a number of reasons. Suffice it to say, we enjoyed a relaxed end to the bike portion of our tour. After breakfast, we enjoyed watching the ride come back and the dis-assembly and packing of many of the bikes into shipping containers. Watching how people manage travelling with such big bikes, and the creative ways they solve these issues, was very entertaining. At mid-morning, we joined two other couples and took them on a tour of the Frech Quarter. Since we were the only ones in the group who had been here before, we were the "experts." We stopped at Cafe Le Monde for bignets (a must for any tourist here), then walked to Jackson Square and into the cathedral of St. Louis. There our timing was perfect and we were serenaded by a high school choir. We walked behind the cathedral down Pirate's Alley, stopped at our favorite little bookstore here (William Faulkner's old house), and then headed down into the heart of the French Quarter, to the French Market, and then back. We stopped for lunch at Coop's Place, a little Creole/Cajun restaurant/bar, and then over to the Word War II museum. After that, it was back to the boat in the rain. We took as short a route as possible and headed straight to the convention center, where we were somewhat protected and finally got indoors. We walked into and through the Mall and took a door that opened right outside our gangway. Good choice!

Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

Heart of the French Quarter

WWII Museum: Semper Fi!