New Orleans - Free Stuff & Favorite Band

Saturday, November 11th

We were so excited to be leaving Florida and heading to New Orleans! Originally I had hoped to get there in time to see how NOLA does Halloween, but we decided that would be moving too quickly. We drove two hours and then made a pit stop in Mobile, Alabama where we got out for a walk and explored the little downtown area. We happened upon a bike race that was sponsoring their local bike rescue, and some other little events going on. We made it into New Orleans in time for dinner and to see the craziness of a Saturday night in the French Quarter. Bourbon street was already picking up – little kids were coming out into the streets to play the drums on buckets extremely well, and clubs were getting more and more rowdy. We walked around and popped into some cool galleries and a vampire museum on Royal street before we found a spot to eat dinner just outside of the French quarter called Marginy that had some good local eats and live jazz.

Me enjoying some wine..in desperate need of a shower. :) 

Sunday, November 12th

We woke up and spent the morning at Starbucks catching up on things. From there, we drove to the Bywater district to something called Cajun Brunch, a Sunday brunch event with community dancing and live music. We ate and danced a little bit in the very crowded room and then headed to a nearby bar to meet our host, Danny!

The bar was playing the Saints football game and had a pack of folks passionately cheering for their home team that was well in the lead. They were also serving free spaghetti! Score.

I found Danny on HelpX which is the same site that I used to find some volunteer projects in Thailand. Danny had also traveled extensively with HelpX - including to New Orleans which lead her to move there - and now used it for help with projects on her house. 

We got settled in at Danny's house and talked about our NOLA plans and the projects she would have us work on. She was happy to have Erik look over her new truck to make sure everything looked good, and for me to weed the yard. Piece o' cake!

Danny's cute 'shotgun' style duplex. Our room was in the front, shared kitchen/bathroom in between, with hers in the back with her own door. All you need! 

Danny's kitchen with lots of funky found objects. 

Danny and her friend Alex recommended the free dinner at a local Hare Krishna church that was held every Sunday. We were a little bit hesitant...Erik was extremely hesitant.. but Danny had been dozens of times just for fun so we headed over to the Hare Krishna temple for dinner. 

We felt super comforted by the grouping of very average people, and youngsters who looked like college students. On top of that the space was gorgeous and the people were incredibly welcoming and happy to host everyone who came. They dished out generous portions of vegetarian Indian foods of all kinds and everything was delicious. This was definitely one of the best meals of the trip thus far. 

Monday, November 13th

In the morning we got to working on the projects with Danny. She and I weeded around the house and she trimmed down her massive banana trees that had begun to form a natural roof over her gravel driveway, and Erik looked her truck out for a spin and made sure things were looking good under the hood before reattaching a section of the front bumper, and getting to work repairing some small sections of rust. 

Danny left us an event listing for the area and I took a peak at Facebook to see what would be going on while we were there. Turns out, there was free yoga at a brewery later that evening, and also one of our favorite bands, ∆ Alt-J, would be playing in NOLA later that night! We picked up two balcony seats - super lucky that it hadn't already sold out.

Around 4pm we hopped on our bikes and rolled back into the Bywater district for free yoga at Brieux Carre Brewery. The instructor was awesome and it felt amazing to do yoga for the first time on the trip!! It loosened our limbs up and got us ready for dancing at the show!

The concert was incredible. Their lights and special effects compliment the music so well and it felt pretty intimate for being such a large venue..and for barely being able to see their faces for most of the show.

Tuesday, November 14th

Since we had a solid home base and a couple different modes of transportation we decided to split up for a few hours - the first time apart on the trip so far! Erik took his bike over to a bike shop and Lowes to pick up some stuff for the project on Danny's truck, and I took the van and drove to a new part of town near Tulane University and Magazine Street. 

That section of town was much more upper-class with lots of nice neighborhoods and pretty parks. Surprisingly, the roads in these neighborhoods were just as pothole-ridden as they were in the lower/middle-class areas of the Bywater. I took a stroll around Magazine street and popped into a few consignment shops and galleries.

After meeting back up we jumped on our bikes and rode to the restaurant that Danny works at called 1000 Figs, an adorable little falafel restaurant, for their happy hour! The atmosphere and the food were awesome and the waitress had heard all about us from Danny.

That night Danny took us dumpster diving around town. I have benefitted from my friends dumpster diving before and had been wanting to give it a go, but was nervous to try it. Thankfully, Danny was super experienced! We went to two places and filled the back of her pick-up truck with food (cheese galore, organic eggs, tortellinis, marinara sauce, packaged bakery items, and some produce) that we would divvy and and she would share with her friends and neighbors. Erik scored a coat that still had the tag on it in a quick peruse of the dumpster at Goodwill. It fit perfectly and it is now known as his dumpster coat.

Side note for anyone who is feeling worried: Dumpster diving is pretty common amongst resourceful youngsters, not just bums. Grocery stores have to throw away *tons* of food that is still very edible. So anyone that is gutsy enough to go back there is diverting some of that wasted product. For us it is more of a fun (and rewarding) adventure than a practice. :) 

Wednesday, November 15th

Per Danny's recommendation Erik and I went to the morning screening of Dr. Strangelove at the Prytania Theater, a family owned very classic 50s independent theater in Uptown NOLA. We picked up bakery items from a quaint french bakery on Magazine Street and brought them into the theater. Neither Erik or I had ever seen this movie and we thoroughly enjoyed it along with a room full of mostly seniors. We're feeling kindred with retired folks these days.

Afterwards we strolled around some parks and colleges, and took a trolley ride.

Obligatory trolley ride!

Headed back to the house to begin planning our route out of New Orleans.

Erik putting the finishing touches on the rust fix-up on Danny's truck.

He had fun with this project. 

We got on our bikes and took one more stroll around the French Quarter.. and got beignets one more time.

Thursday, November 16th

We got ready to go and Danny whipped up some lunch for us with the dumpster dive finds. Grabbed some photos with Danny and thanked her for letting us stay for almost a week!

And that's a wrap! Thanks for reading as we roll. Next stop, Houston!

I'm posting this from Albuquerque, NM. Hehe.