We began the second leg of our great loop trip by leaving Oklahoma last Saturday morning. Pat and Cathy, Robyn's aunt and uncle, picked us up in Guthrie. They will be joining us again for this leg of the loop. We stopped in Memphis Saturday night and continued on to New Orleans on Sunday. We found Robyn's Nest to be in fine shape when we arrived at the marina. She had been "abandoned" for two months, and I was worried about her.

Monday, we did the tourist thing in New Orleans (NOLA). We walked around and had shrimp po boys for lunch. After lunch, we boarded a trolley and took a tour of the "Garden District". The Garden District wasn't what I expected. It is an old area of NOLA complete with old houses on live oak-lined streets. It was very nice. At the end of the trolley line, we had to disembark for the trolley to reverse. While we were waiting, we met a girl at the bus stop on her way to work at Cafe De Monde. Her name was Dawn. Her shift was to start at 4:00, so we agreed to meet again at the Cafe for beignets. On our way to Cafe De Monde, Robyn and I stopped for a quick chair massage then the four of us walked down Bourbon Street and on to the Cafe. After our little snack, we walked around Jackson Square, people watching. Our day was coming to an end, so we decided it was time to go back to Robyn's Nest. On our way to the car, we saw a film crew working on the street. We visited with them some, and discovered they were filming NCIS New Orleans. When we got back to the car, and were headed down the street towards the film crew, we were almost overtaken by a police motorcade. Just a little slower, and we would have been in an episode of NCIS New Orleans! (Damn it Pat! The one time you could have driven a little slower!)

Tuesday was a day on the boat doing maintenance. Today should be some more of the same. We're looking at a weather window that has us leaving NOLA for the Rigoletts Friday and on to Biloxi Saturday.