The photo that inspired this Blog entries title...!
Date: Mon 11th February, 2008.
Time: 12.18pm
Location: Room 316, St Louis Hotel, somewhere in the New Orleans French Quarter.
Status: Sober & excited.
Objective: Contact with an Aussie for a 5 week, tactical strike on the US & Argentina.
It has occurred! And what a happy moment it was - pounding on the door, the answering, the disbelief, the realisation, the dumping of gear, the agreement that food & water (alcoholic of course) is of utmost importance & then the fun that ensued.
Yes, myself & Ric have now met up and we are off. A 5 week adventure of travelling together & exploring & further extending our friendship that already exists beyond our blood connection. We firstly did a very brief catch up on the last couple of months & then we hit Bourbon St in search of food & my intense need to introduce Ric to a Hurricane. Which we did… And at this point many of you will be expecting this to be a massive afternoon that commenced from 1300.. Not to be. We had a relaxing lunch & yes a Hurricane or two (literally) were had but then it was time for both of us to revel in the event of catching up with each other & that what we had been planning for around 4-5 months had & was actually happening!!
For me it was also contact with ‘others’. That is said in no disrespect to anyone involved in Tango, it was just that Ric was here & we were going to do something, that as brothers, we had never really done - share new experiences & go exploring together. We’ve both always talked about 1st’s in our lives but we’ve just never been able to get it to a point where we’re both there @ the same time. And from emails, phone conversations & meetings we had prior to & after I left, the excitement was equal on both sides about what was ahead.
After lunch we went off exploring - walked along the Mississippi for a bit & then back along the main drag & came across the local Casino… We didn’t really discuss it for long, if at all, and in we went… We found the craps table & I had played it once at Crown, far too many years ago to remember how it all worked. We watched a few rounds & then decided that we were in. Cindy, one of the table jockey’s, talked us through some of the rules as we went. It was a $15 minimum & between the 2 of us, we came up with $45 and laid our bets on 6 & 9. (Craps
The Trolley Car that is an icon in New Orleans. Can ride for one trip, as long as you want for $1.25.
After a few rounds we were up about $60 & we still had $15 of our original $45 left in our hands. That’s the funny thing with Craps, until someone blows out, your bets stay on the table!! The dice roller did something that we didn’t understand but the dice changed hand but our bets rode over… I was getting the hang of it again & was pointing out something to Ric but hadn’t realised that the dice roller was now throwing from the other end & the dice nearly hit my hands… up popped a 7..! Everyone looses!! Huzzah! Ric & I dipped into our winnings & I was receiving a few evil looks from the players around the table… Next role… 7! It’s OK everyone, it’s just a 7 & the House gets to take your money before it’s won you anything… There were a few colourful words uttered… Bets laid again… Dice rolled…. And the entire table is cleared again! 7.. Sitting there, pretty much right in front of me… Yep! Goodbye, time to take a graceful exit before someone knifes me!! Just call me Captain Lucky..!
Quickly we made our way to the Trolley Car (what us Aussies would call a Tram) and took it all the way down St Charles until we hit the grand old, stereotypical Southern Mansions. They’re pretty cool. You can tell that some have been modelled on ‘the design’ but the original ones stand out & you can feel the history & the heritage seeping off them. We got off the Trolley & found a mansion that had been converted into a pub/hotel where we sat on the veranda sipping beers, watching dark roll in and talked in terrible southern accents about the day, the night ahead and basically everything in general. We were being incredibly funny….!
Ric & myself in shadow form, walking the back streets.
After we wrapped up, we decided to walk through the surrounding back streets, heading back to the Trolley but to see more mansions… as it got darker, it appeared as if we may or may not have been in a ‘rough’ part of town… A few of the venue crew had stated that there was still crime apparent after Katrina & it wasn’t that either of us were scared, it was just one of those feelings where we both felt that we weren’t where we were supposed to be. We still walked for about 20-25mins as we’d been cutting through on a diagonal path and all was well.
From there, we went back to the hotel & then hit Bourbon St. I was determined for Ric to have one (many) Tooters & also ride the Mechanical Bull. Therefore our first stop was Razoo & as the night turned out, it was there we stayed for the entire evening. It took a little convincing for Ric to have his 1st Tooter but after that, there were a few more had over the evening.
Rebecca, from our New Orleans crew, ended up meeting up with us as she knocked off work early but unfortunately Chainsaw went straight home! So there we were, on a Monday night on Bourbon St & it’s pretty quiet…
Myself & Rebecca - note how the glasses match the theme of my T-Shirt...!
Ric, Hayley (our Bouncer appointed "Tooter" to keep an eye on) & myself.
Then this International Corporate Convention of ??? Workers swamp the bar. They’re already pretty messy but it draws all the people Ric & my age to us & before we know it, we kinda end up being the life of the party…! Partly because of our “adorable”, “cute” & “when you say that, it sounds SO funny” accents & also because we weren’t in suits, over 40 with obvious wedding bands & trying to sleeze onto anything that moved!! Even the Tooter waitresses sought us out for solitude & one of the really, big, really mean Bouncers befriended us & asked us too “look after the girls, they been makin’ some complaints about dese guys. ‘ppreciate it.”
Ric & I being "British".... don't ask!!
Well, there’s not that much left to report about our first night out, just that Ric didn't get to ride the mechanical bull as we ended up being quite happy holding court @ Razoo's!! We met a great bunch of people, had an absolute rocking night, got a few Tooters here & there on the House & had an absolute ball - all thanks to an intoxicated, dumb, ignorant, rude & obnoxious bunch of Corporate Highflyers!! Thank you gents, thank you very much!!
Ric & his angels, ??? (LHS), Hayley (top) & Elissa (RHS).
There’s no way on Earth that the hangover we were busily creating could have any effect on our 1030am flight to New York the next day…..
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