New orleans - jan 1-4, 2005
As 2004 came to a close, our beloved Virginia Tech football team finished off an unexpected championship in their inaugural ACC season. Their reward? A trip to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. And wouldn't know you it, I conveniently found my way down to Bayou country. Although this trip wasn't the all-expenses paid free-for-all like previous trips when I was in the VT marching band, this trip had no shortage of fun.
New Year's Eve celebrations in Charlotte were cut short due to a 4:30am departure time the following morning. My fiancee McLean and my friend Malvin piled into his SUV and headed south for a fun boring, interesting long trek through the southland. I'd never been in Alabama or Mississippi before and now I know I wasn't missing much. We arrived in Louisiana by nightfall and after picking up Malvin's friend Erin from the airport, checked into our hotel and headed immediately for . . . .
Mother's. Now I don't know what it is about this place. It looks like a hole-in-the-wall kitchen. But the food is darn good and the lines are always out the door. Between bites of gumbo, po' boys and jumbalaya, the four of us discussed our chances in the upcoming big game.
After dinner, we headed to New Orleans' most famous street, Tchoupitoulas. Or was it Bourbon? Well anyway, McLean, Malvin and Erin hadn't before witnessed the craziness that is New Orleans, but in their first stroll down the block, I think they got the idea. Let's just say, it does seem weird to be writing this text on Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and got to meet up with other Hokie-crazed friends that evening before returning to the hotel for much needed sleep.
The next day went by pretty fast, but McLean and I spent time wandering through various shops and exploring the Mississippi River waterfront. We hit up an interesting IMAX movie about Coral Reefs, an ironic precursor to time spent later at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. After the IMAX, we headed down the river to the pep rally, an hour-long celebration of everything Virginia Tech. Cheerleaders, the band, VT President Steger, Virginia's Governor Warner, head coach Frank Beamer, and of course the football team all made appearances. It was nothing unlike past bowl game pep rallies, but McLean got to see for the first time that I am not the only who lives and dies Virginia Tech. There are at least 20,000 others!
Following dinner, McLean and I met up with an old high school buddy and the three of us stumbled across an outdoor jazz stage. As a dense fog settled upon the river and neighboring Decatur St, the three of sat back and enjoyed the sounds of a mellow saxophone sounding jazz favorites. Ahh, New Orleans at its finest. When we'd had enough jazz, we continued on to the aforementioned Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, concluding the night with more acoustic guitar entertainment.
It is at this point that I should note New Orleans' vast number of haunting and ghost stories. Walking through the dense fog past Jackson Square en route to the hotel, I couldn't help but think that was an ideal evening for a ghost tour. But alas, the time was late and tomorrow was game day. Besides, I can barely sit through Scream.
We awoke on game day with several hours to further explore the city before heading to the Superdome. McLean and I took a fascinating steamboat river tour aboard the Creole Queen. We traveled about 30 minutes down the river and were let off to explore the Chalmette Battlefield before returning back upriver. After a couple more hours exploring French Quarter shops, we returned to the hotel for gametime preparations.
The game didn't go as we hoped. Virginia Tech was competitive but in the end Auburn took home the trophy &#$^#@&#*$&^!! I realized later that evening that our hotel was situated on Perdido St (translation from Spanish: lost). An overlooked omen, I suppose.
In the end, there's still something special about the Hokie nation congregating in a city far from home and cheering on the team. McLean experienced her first of many bowl games and we all had fun exploring New Orleans in our short time there. As for driving there next time? Nope.
