Woke up around 0800, cus I went to bed early! Worked on the blog a bit, watched TV, had room service breakfast. It was nice not to have to get on the bike and drive 400 miles. This hotel has a very sensible noon checkout so there was no rush.

Around 1100 I started to change hotels, it was a 3 block move. I briefly toyed with the idea of walking all my ***** over, or sending it in a cab but then, what the heck, only takes 5 minutes to pack the bike, although I didn't leather up. In fact I was wearing my Jules & Vincent shorts!

I got to The Hyatt French Quarter about 1215 and expected to store my luggage and park my bike as I would be too early to check in. I discussed my situation with the valet and she pushed some buttons and magically my room was available. I had booked the room through Expedia so I knew I wouldn't get the Honeymoon Suite overlooking the Garden, Expedia rooms are usually the 3rd floor overlooking the HVAC stack, and that was what my room was, but at least it was ready.



Next step was parking, as it was a multi night stay my street parking trick wasn't gonna work. Again the valet staff were most helpful as he literally walked me into the parkade, to a special spot allocated to motorcycles. There were already half a dozen Hogs there.

Since I was showered and dressed correctly I immediately headed out to do the touristy thing. I had noticed a HoHo (hop on hop off) tour bus when I was walking about yesterday and had used these types of buses before, most notably in San Francisco 2 years ago. I found a HoHo stop sign and sat down to wait for it. It was about a 20 minute wait, the time passed quickly talking to a Frenchman visiting, naturally, from France.

When I went to board the bus there was a Deltayeller lady (see KeyWest blog), essentially an African American lady who is exceptionally rude, speaks very loudly and uses the word Sir at the end of each sentence ostensibly to sound respectful. She ax'ed me for my ticket and I asked if I could purchase on board, as I had done in SF. She replied in her DY voice that it doesn't work like that and I am stupid for even asking. I have to go to a ticket office first. OK, where is a ticket office? Deltayeller lady doesn't know. Frustrating!

I go back to the HoHo sign on the street and phone the 1 800 number listed there but the phone just rings and rings, clicking every 10 rings or so as it bounces back and forth amongst phones forwarded to each other. Frustrating!

I start walking and in about 5 minutes I find lady sitting behind a desk filled with flyers and pamphlets. I ask her if she knows where a HoHo ticket office is and lo and behold, she is one. Nice, or so I think! I ask for a single day pass, but the lady starts extolling the virtues of the $40 3 day pass. I say I don't need a 3 day pass, I only want a one day pass, maybe $15 bucks? It doesn't appear to be an option. Frustrating!

Exasperated, I capitulate and take the $40 three day unlimited use pass, but I only hafta pay $10 up front and then the $30 balance on-board. I go back to the sign and wait for the next bus. It arrives about 20 minutes later and I have my 30 bucks ready to go, but when I board the bus the Deltayeller lady ax'es me for my ticket which I show her, she glances at it ever so briefly, and then summarily dismisses me. I am still waiting for someone to ax me for my $30 bucks, but I am not going to lead with it.



I go up to the second deck and sit right up front. The tour guide has a headset mic on that squeals with feedback every 30 seconds because he is standing right in front of the speaker. C'mon, that is basic AV, stand behind the speakers! He is a typical tour guide, handlebar moustache, pony tail, floppy hat, rainbow suspenders; trying hard to fulfill every cliche in the book! The beauty of the HoHo, for him at least, is the rapid turnover of guests means he can keep rehashing his full roster of 3 stupid jokes over and over again.

I am on for the full loop, about 2 hours, so I get to hear them maybe 20 times. It is a great tour though, I shot a ton of video, but I will need to post it when I get home. We toured the French Quarter, French Market, some older neighborhoods featuring 'Shotgun houses'. These are homes from the 30's where there was a hallway from the front of the house to the back (that you could fire a shotgun through) with all of the rooms on one side. They often join 2 of these house together (double barrel shotgun) and infrequently on top of one another (over/under). The houses were affordable for newly weds as well, the unions often a result of 'shotgun' weddings. The gun metaphors write themselves here!





We tour the vast warehouse area that supports Mardi Gras parade floats, well we drive by it anyway. There is also an abandoned power plant on the complex property that is kept, and maintained in all of its post apocalyptic glory as a movie set.





We drove through a number of famous neighborhoods and also by the World War II museum that is supposed to be quite amazing. I was a little confused as to the relevancy of having the museum in NOLA but it was because that is where the Higgins boat was invented and manufactured. The Higgins boat is a shallow draft personnel & equipment carrier that made beach landings possible.



Eisenhower is famously quoted as saying that without the Higgins boat, D-Day would not have been possible. There is a very interesting article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCVP_%28U nited_States%29

We drove past a famous cemetery, don't recall the name, where somebody famous is buried, don't recall the name! Great tour guide, eh? The interesting thing about NOLA cemeteries is the dead are buried above ground because most of NOLA is below sea level. If you dig a hole for a grave, it just fills with water. So everybody and every body gets a Sarcophagus or is it Carsopagus?





We then stopped at a curio stand for a break to stretch our legs, but really it was just an excuse to get the tourists to buy some trinkets from the natives. $5 bottle of water? I think not! I was waiting around outside when I noticed a couple of rooftops I recognized, things were starting to click into place, I realized I was only a few blocks from my hotel. Since I was going there directly from the last stop anyway, I decided to walk. There is a hop off in HoHo, right?

It ended up being a little bit further than I thought, and I did have to consult Siri at one one point when I thought I was off course. I wasn't. I found my way back to The Hyatt and decided to reward my efforts with a Daq.



It wasn't until I pulled out my wallet to pay for the beverage that I saw the 3 ten dollar bills I had prepped for the HoHo ticket. Dang! I certainly didn't set out to steal from them, but the Delta Yeller lady never did actually ax me for the money. I did pay $10, which really, in my opinion, was the value of the 2 hour tour. When you consider I purchased 72 hours but only used 2, I think it ended up being fair. I wrestled ever so briefly with my moral compass and then moved on with my life.

I went back to my hotel for a nap in the AC and was up by 6 PM. I am going to Felix's Oyster Bar tonight, a famous restaurant that usually lines up, sometimes around the block. Its a Sunday so I am not sure what to expect from the crowds. It turns out the place is pretty dead, as are the streets.





After dinner I spend a little time on the streets, have a Daq or 2, spend a little time in the hotel bar and retire early, perhaps with a little sunstroke.

Day 11
New Orleans, LA
Non Riding Day