A few years back, "the boss" and I planned to visit New Orleans. Katrina beat us to it and delayed our visit to this year. Now, the Gulf Oil spill hit...and it has affected towns all along the coast. I was in a seafood bar today for oysters and shrimp. Their hand written notice said "$1 surcharge on all seafood items due to Gulf Oil Spill." When I asked for an explanation, I was told 'to cover the additional expense of long distance transportation for the shrimp, oysters, and crawfish which now must be transported from Atlantic coasted states like South Carolina." Well, the bad luck of New Orleans has now rubbed on me. Today, my netbook crapped out on me. I hadn't done anything different than any other time except travelled to Biloxi, closer to New Orleans. Trying to boot up in the hotel ended in failure with the computer demanding the Windows setup disk which is at home. Best Buy could not assist easily or fast, so, really bad news now, I may have to try a Best Buy in NEW ORLEANS and the young technician fears that all the data on the puter may be lost.
Think that's enough....nooo way !
I have my Garmin Zumo, which is motorcycle adapted, repaired before departure. Today, it crapped out also. It will not recognize any state or province requested. This means that no city anywhere can be searched, no address, no location. I am totally screwed as I depend on the GPS unreservedly. The cities I have been travelling have a spaghetti network of streets entering and leaving them...trying to get around using maps would be absolutely impossible. I am in a quandry as to what to do about this but I fear that I may have to purchase another unit. My preliminary inquiries resulted in that no such unit can be located handily in the New Orleans area. It can be ordered but not delivered at an early enough date for me.
I am beginning to think this New Orleans jinx is expanding.
Lastly, I was very lucky in Dahlonega to meet up with the owner of the Smith House, Chris Welch. And when I mentioned that I had not seen the gold mine shaft which is in the hotel, he gladly took me to see it. Of course, the photos "may" be on the camera still but this trip, I have done something new. After backing up the photo to my netbook, I would erase from the camera card. Let's hope I have not been as efficient as I can be. My apologies to the Smith House as it is quite exciting to see the way they have set up the viewing area of this gold mine shaft so tourists, visitors can enjoy a little bit of gold mining history and nostalgia. There are artifacts found in the shaft, the shaft itself, a number of historic photos and an award winning DVD video about the gold mining saga of Dahlonega. Chris Welch beams with pride in explaining about the historic site for you is a descendent of original miners/settlers of the town and this site.
Now, when I reach New Orleans tomorrow, I will have to go look for a voodoo magic practitioner and see if I can get some sort of protective cloak to defend me against the black magic surrounding and connected with New Orleans.
Visit back again !
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