Sno-Balls are a tasty treat. Like a sno-cone but different. We had a couple during the trip. I think C-Bus needs a sno-ball stand. Jen and I discussed this possible business venture.

What a great trip! We packed a lot into a short amount of time.

I want to thank P and N for their hospitality. Tirelessly driving us all over the city, explaining things to us, explaining us and our behavior to the locals. They’ve become fast friends.

I’m already looking forward to next year!

Sunday was great. It’s worth mentioning again, (in addition to the comic) that the Katrina exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art put the other pieces to shame. It was made up of photos contributed by the people of New Orleans, not professional photographers, and every piece submitted was used. The imagery best demonstrated the attitude of the city, one of sadness and pride.

We shopped around and eventually ended up at an outside festival called “Back to the Beach.” We enjoyed the musical stylings of the Bucktown Allstars, but we were hot, swampy and our seats could not find purchase, so we bolted early. Sorry Allstars. I’ll catch you next time. Ride, Sally, ride.

Our Sunday night dinner included some worth-the-wait burgers at a little place near Patrick and Nicole’s called Times. We had tasty beverages and watched Something About Mary. (We found out that the extended version isn’t better!)

I’ll have one more post tomorrow to wrap this up. Stop by!

New Orleans is still in rough shape, but they’re rebuilding. Folks there have lots of love for and pride in their city. So don’t tell them to leave and rebuild someplace dryer. Their hearts are where their home is.

We saw a lot on our Destruction Tour. Cars on top of houses on top of trees. Fema trailers everywhere. Sobering spray-painted codes on abandoned houses. Signs for rip-off lawyers, mold-remediators, roofers and more line the remaining telephone poles. There’s also a movement to “hold the corps accountable” and those signs are everywhere.

The French Quarter wasn’t badly damaged by the storm. It was quieter, though. I could actually hear what people were shouting.

Soon the fat lady sang on our day in New Orleans, and with bellies full of Raising Cane’s chicken fingers, we returned to Covington.

But our trip wasn’t over yet! Sunday would turn out to be our most action-packed day!

Be here tomorrow for the fifth installment, also known as

You Call That Art?

or

Piddlers on the Roof

We ate at a great little seafood restaurant where Jen had Shrimp and Crab Bisque - chunky and delightful. Nicole and Patrick showed us how to pick apart a Crawfish (I’ll post a video.)

We couldn’t find the Alligator Farm, and we missed out on the Abita Tour, but our car trip was happy and successful otherwise.

Eventually it was time to take the long drive across the bridge, 24 miles long, and see New Orleans. Was it still there? Was it still dirty, hip and fun?

Tune in tomorrow for these answers and more in a little comic that could only be called …

Fresh and Francey-Free in the French Quarter

or

We (Re)Built this City on Rock n’ Beignets

Patrick and Nicole have a perfectly-sized house. Not too big to clean, but plenty of space to move around for Ultimate Fighting Championship practice or to sit and watch the giant TV.Friday night, Nicole made a scrumptious meal of shrimp fettuccine alfredo. I won’t give away the secret ingredient, but love was on the menu and cheese was our bumper crop.

Baby Lauren is cute, and was so tolerant of having a few corn-fed Midwesterners in her house.

I appreciated our pace for Saturday morning. Patrick showed me a movie from his personal collection of favorite movies. “Revenge of the Red Baron” starred Mickey Rooney, who incidentally was the box-office’s biggest draw in 1939 and was also named America’s single best actor by “Clash of the Titan’s” Sir Lawrence Olivier. It also starred “Spider-Man’s” Toby Maguire.

This movie featured a Grandpa - Mother - Son trio trying to survive against the terror of a doll in a model airplane.

I was exposed to “Family Guy” too. Pretty funny - especially the sexual harassment episode and another one that had a raccoon repeatedly attacking Peter, attaching itself to his face.

We set out to conquer the North Shore. Hey, here’s a map to the around Lake Pontchartrain.

But that’s a story for tomorrow’s comic. Be here for:

Munching on Mudbugs

or

The Tell-Tail Heart

Jen and I flew down to Louisiana last weekend to see Patrick and Nicole’s baby. They live in Covington, LA, a nice town just across the causeway of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans.

My thoughts in general: New Orleans is a great city, but the city’s sights and sounds take second place for “Most Enjoyable Part of the Trip. The real fun was just hanging out with Patrick, Nicole and Torri. I got to laughing all sorts of laughs - nose-laughs, brain-laughs, guffaws and shrill outbursts. Funny guys.

Oh, the food we ate takes second place. Yum. More later.

Oh, at the Memphis airport, I learned about the advantage of checking your suitcase, even if it’s small: You can’t leave it behind.

Each day this week I’ll post a new page from a travel comic I like to call:

Down in Loozy-Anne

or

That Voodoo We Do

Well, it just wasn’t meant to be this year. The regular season looked great for the Detroit Pistons, winning 64 games. They just lost the desire to win in the post-season. The Cavs wanted it, and the Heat really wanted it! I’m looking forward to watching the Heat win, hopefully. Alonzo needs a ring.

Oh, and Joe D. said that Flip is sticking around.

So, no more Pistons this year, but we’ll always have the Monster Munch Heard Around the World.*

* Ben blocked Shaq. Jen called it a munch. Sweet.