Day 45- Poplarville MS- Rest Day

 Today was our first day of rest after 12 days of riding, so of course I woke up at 1:30 AM. I was absolutely sure it was 6:30 AM and I was ready for the day. I love all these perks of getting older. As luck would have it, there was a lunar eclipse starting right around this time.  I was, of course, wide awake for it. I peeked out of the tent, took a look at the moon,  read for a while, peeked at the moon again, and decided I was hungry. I snuck out to my bike to grab a bar, there being no milk and cookies readily available like there are when this happens at home. I finally called it a night again around three.

630 finally came around for real and I was ready. The Snowflake Donut and Taco store. Beckoned and a bunch of us that off for coffee. The tacos looked pretty good but I held out for brunch back at the campground.

After brunch, most of us loaded into the van and headed into New Orleans. We parked in the French quarter and headed right to café Dumond, will became immediately apparent that we would be waiting all afternoon for a simple coffee, so we moved on.

I opted for a historic walking tour which was more focused on architecture than I would’ve liked. A lot of it was disconnected from the stop before so it made it hard to remember. But here goes with help from Google:

We spent a lot of time in Jackson Square. A lot of the row houses in that area were designed by Michela Alomester Pontalba, a wealthy woman in a terrible marriage to a much older man. Her in-laws were only interested in her fortune and Her father-in-law actually shot her at  point blank range to get rid of her. She lost her breast and several fingers. She legally separated from her husband and this is when her life started to really develop. She got into real estate and architecture, developing brick row houses with elaborate balconies and ironwork. Her influence is seen throughout the French quarter.

We spent some time on the moonwalk, a Riverwalk named for governor Moon Landrieu. There was a giant barge on the Mississippi and we learned that 60% of the grain in the US comes through the port of New Orleans.

We also saw the homes of Faulkner and Tennessee Williams. Williams wrote the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” while living in New Orleans. Each year, there is a contest to see who can do the most realistic reenactment of the scene in the play where Marlon Brando yelled for his wife Stella.

After the tour I went directly to Bourbon Street where I saw just about every flavor of human on the planet. And life music. And drinking on the street, hurricane specifically. I don’t know how I’d like it at night, but at four in the afternoon it was fabulous. I stayed a while and soaked it in.

I met our group at the Desire Oyster Bar. There is nothing wrong with a charbroiled oysters. Or blackened catfish. And collard greens are OK too.

Things I learned today:

• Grits are somewhere between cream of wheat and mashed potatoes.
• Some peoples priorities are way off from mine. I think a bathroom door should have a lock before the toilet paper holder.