More Thoughts On New Orleans

I had a couple of other things to say about New Orleans that I didn't mention a couple of days ago:

• I had an odd experience that made me think about how we are moving into an economic depression. When I was coming back to the hotel from a restaurant carrying a styrofoam container with my leftovers, I had THREE people ask me if they could have them. I'd never heard of such a thing and it made me think about how things might get if our economic problems go into full meltdown.

• I had two people approach me on the moonwalk, look at my Nike sneakers, and told me they could tell me what store, city, and state where I bought them. When the first guy started talking to me, I thought he was going to snatch my camera and use the sneaker ploy to get close and distract me. Then another guy did the same thing. I pretty much ignored them so I don't know what the game was but they must be right if they are so bold. Anybody know about this?

• When I mentioned Harrah's Casino, I didn't really say that it is a full-blown casino like in Vegas so that might be a draw if you are a gambler. Some casinos, like Indian gaming in California, don't have table games (craps, roulette, etc.) but focus on slots and video poker. I'm a craps man myself but I don't have the luxury of money to fritter away at this point in my life so I had to be content to watch.

• I mentioned in the comments of my last post, but want to reiterate it here, that I found no evidence of Hurricane Katrina in the French Quarter. There weren't any crowds, which may be a factor of Katrina or just that October is traditionally slow, and the hotel rates are cheap! You can find downtown hotels for ~$60/night. We paid $550 for 4 nights right in the center of everything.

Read my initial thoughts on New Orleans here.