1-29-2011 through 2-1-2011, New Orleans

Our week in New Orleans was full of the normal things: Po' Boys, morning drinks on Bourbon Street, a ferry ride to Algiers, biking along the Mississippi, leaving bars at 4 am because they won't close, etc. The highlight of our stay there was biking to Tipitina's to see Yo La Tengo play with our friend Elise's brother William Tyler. The show was great, and the bike ride to and from was almost as good. That was Saturday night, and was also the end of the good weather. It rained all Sunday, and the temperature dropped as low as the upper 20s at night.

On Sunday, we used the rainy day as an excuse to see The King's Speech, and then to start working on our plumbing system. When we bought the RV, the previous owner told us that he hadn't winterized the year before (clearing all the water out of the tanks and pipes), and had to replace a bunch of burst pipes. We're assuming the repair shop overlooked the drain pipe running from the kitchen sink as it was completely split. We found this out on our first camping trip to VA Beach, and weren't too worried as the pipe seemed to just leak out of the wheel well. However, in Gainesville we noticed that the leak was coming from just under the shower unit, and was soaking the floorboards and the wood around the wheel well. Assessing the situation, we weighed our options: pay Camping World $120/hour, or just remove the shower, the shower pan, repair the pipe, and then put them all back together. It couldn't be that hard, right?

Well, it actually wasn't so hard, and we finished the job within 4 hours. The only thing, those 4 hours spanned two days; we didn't take into account that Lowe's closed at 7 on Sundays, and the most essential piece for the whole project was needed at 7:15. So we stayed at the neighboring Walmart on the Westbank of New Orleans. That night, with our shower taking up most of the living space and the smell of plumbing cement giving us a headache/high, we had our first WRIR Road Trip Update on Can't Stop the Music with P. Swann, the first of what should be a regular appearance.

The next day, we finished up the plumbing and put the shower back together. We're pretty proud of ourselves, and we left NOLA with more plumbing skills than we ever hoped for.

Before leaving New Orleans we trekked back to Mosca's for what by now seemed like it would be the best thing we would eat all trip, if not our entire life. Most people hadn't heard of it, and nobody we talked to had actually been. The one person who knew about it told us that it was the old hangout for the Marcello Family, New Orleans' famed mafia organization that may or may not have had a hand in JFK's assassination. We were sure we were heading toward one of the most authentic of all Italian restaurants in this country. Perhaps it was this build up, or the 5 day wait, or just our timing, but, while the food was very good, we couldn't help but be a little homesick for the Italian restaurants we left behind in Richmond. You know which ones we are talking about, and if you don't, it's not Pizza Hut Bistro or Olive Garden.