Bike Trip #4 - New Orleans & The Winslows

Joan's View

The beginning of this adventure actually started yesterday. We left Sidney last night for Indianapolis after my day of babysitting our fun grandsons, Luke & Todd. I also dropped off our dog, Luna, at Ann & Dean Morrow's before leaving Sidney so that they could do their much talked about doggie pampering on her while we are gone. Seriously though, thanks Ann & Dean!

We stopped by Cara & Nick's to pick up some suggested medication for Tony since he is recovering from a stomach bug. En route we got a text that Wade picked up the same bug, so when we arrived, we presented him with our care package. He was only sort of thrilled because he just wanted to go to bed. Our plans changed slightly because with Wade out of commission, we took an Uber instead to the airport early this morning. So glad that our bags fit into the Uber Toyota Prius that transported us.

Lovin the food here

Cindy ready to enjoy her shrimp

Arriving in New Orleans, we flagged down the Winslows after one drive by at the airport pickup zone. All of our cases and theirs amazingly fit into their Mazda, after a little reorganization. The first stop was at a yummy New Orleans local eatery, Liuzza's, that Cindy found on a quick Google search. We went with the servers recommendations and had po'boys, shrimp and crawfish etouffee. Super yummy food!

World's Best Sherpa at Work

Next stop was a local market for some breakfast foods, and then on to our air bnb. Our Sherpa for the trip, Cindy, jumped into action styling her new tshirt. Note her husband, Tom, in his support role.

After Sherpa Cindy got all the bags moved in, Tony started assembling the tandem. It took about 3 hours, and it also gave us some time to catch up with Tom & Cindy.

We found Bourbon St

Give me a Hurricane

The bar area at Pat O'Brien's

We decided to head to Bourbon Street for some food & fun. We ate at the famous Pat O'Brien's and had a few of their famous Hurricanes. More yummy New Orleans food again.

Today was a great start to the trip. We are going to enjoy 2 more days in New Orleans before we start to ride.

Quaint alley-like eating at Pat O'Briens

Checking out Bourbon St

Tony's Extras

Record time getting the bicycle together today. Yea!. The only real hang-up was the cables. It is like a puzzle and I tried a new marking system to help it go quicker. Well, that failed and I took off all the masking tape labeling after I got completely confused, and went back to the old way of just sitting back and figuring it out. Now thinking of a new marking system for next time. I still have a couple of things to fix, like the front bag holder is upside down (dang it) and the typical minor tweaks with the brakes and gearing. Need to work on not putting things on upside down. For all you system view fans out there in Choice One and Aileron land, I think a system view could get me down to 2 1/2 hours (need to do a PDSA on that), nah,skip PDSA and put into action, that's better. I will have that written down before next time.

When we left the AirBnb apartment, the front screen door feel off the top two hinges, so it wouldn't close. Tom and I found another way to use New Orleans beads. As you see in the picture, you can use them to hold the screen door shut by locking them to the mailbox. Ingenious don't you think! 
The food is great here and it is definitely a fun culture. Bourbon Street reminded me of Nashville quite a lot. The beer prices were very reasonable, I got a 24 ounce local craft beer for $5 and walked with it down the street. I was tired, so I went to bed and shared my extras the next morning. A look into bicycling future-Friday is the first day of riding and the wind is switching from a tail wind on Thursday to a headwind on Friday at 21 mph from the North and temperature dropping 25 degrees. Uh-oh!