At
the Beginning: The only hard part of this wonderful trip, our first Road
Scholar Adventure, was getting started. We drove down to Detroit Airport
Thursday evening, Mar. 30, in heavy rain. Upon arrival Ann and Shelby met us at the door
to tell us that the Knights Inn where we were to stay 1) wouldn’t accept our
very low, confirmed reservation price that Ann had procured, saying that it
came from the National site and they don’t recognize it, and 2) that they had
given away our rooms because we didn’t arrive by 6:00pm. Luckily (??) they
managed to find rooms at twice the price for us. Since we had to be at DTW at
around 7:30 Friday morning we reluctantly stayed the night there and from then
on things improved. The flight, for which we all had been given TSA pre-check,
was totally uneventful and we arrived in New Orleans before lunchtime, where
our rooms at the Holiday Inn SuperDome on Loyola, right downtown, were not
ready but they would store our bags for us. Sometime in 2016 Ann and I had
invited ourselves to go along with Chuck and Mary when they talked about doing
this Road Scholar Trip that began with three days in New Orleans, followed by a
week on the American Queen, the biggest steam powered paddlewheeler in the
world. We arrived before they did, so we walked down to the French Quarter and
had lunch outdoors at one of the Café Beignets. It was the first of ten
perfect, sunny days and a great beginning to our trip. Despite being just 9
weeks out from surgery for her broken ankle, Ann managed to walk over two miles
with the rest of us before we returned to the Holiday Inn. We got our room (on 17
of 18 floors) but theirs wasn’t ready so we all hung out in our room for a
while so Shelby could get a nap. When Ann and I got antsy we explored the
hotel, including checking out the outdoor pool on the 8th floor, and
then went down to see what was happening with rooms. Though they hadn’t called
to let them know, Ann and Shelby’s room was available so we got their bags and
took them up to our room for her to collect Shelby. She and I met at the pool
while Shelby and Marv continued naps in their respective rooms. Chuck and Mary
arrived and we attended the 4:30 Orientation Meeting, where we got our Whisper
Boxes; met our “wrangler”, Sharon; and got more information for the trip in
general, and our three days in New Orleans, in particular. Following our buffet
dinner in the hotel restaurant we had a Dixieland Jazz Trio of clarinet, bass,
and banjo that entertained us for an hour or so before we all hit the sack to
be ready for our full Saturday.
 |
| Ann and Louie Armstrong pose with John Hesse's Tiger |
 |
| The French Quarter |
 |
| The view from Room 1727 at the Holiday Inn |
No comments:
Post a Comment