Day 23/24: New Orleans

Day 23/24: June 22/23, New Orleans. This was to be a full day at the office at 6000 feet. I departed Kendall/Tamiami at about 11:30am. I had filed an IFR flight plan, so I was flying the prescribed route north towards the Lakeland area then up into the Tallahassee area, landing at Quincy Municipal (2J9) where the fuel was priced at a reasonable $3.46/gallon. For the most part, I was comfortable during this flight at 6000 feet. Still, it was 80 degrees at altitude. As I descended into Quincy, I watched the thermometer steadily rise, until it reached an even 100 degrees when I got on the ground. Fueling up at 100 degrees on a hot airport tarmac is something I hadn't really thought about when I originally planned this trip, but with sweat dripping down my face, I got the plane tanked up. I also noticed something on this leg of the trip that was a bit disturbing. It had taken me just shy of four and a half hours to reach Quincy, which should have left me a comfortable 1+ hour fuel reserve, had my fuel burn estimates been accurate. I was expecting a fuel burn of 8.5 gallons per hour, but for some reason, I am burning 9.8 gallons per hour, even with the engine leaned out properly. This is 15% more than expected, and for this leg of the trip, I was only left with 5 gallons, or 1/2 hr of fuel. Clearly, I will be using the much more conservative estimate of 10 gallons per hour when making fuel calculations. At least I didn't have to figure it out the hard way! I will speak with my mechanic about why this may be happening. I know that flying on my old engine, I did a 5 hour leg once with fuel to spare.

From Quincy, I departed in the 100 degree heat, keeping in mind the density altitude, and continued on to New Orleans. I passed cities with familiar names: Pensacola, FL; Mobile, AL; Biloxi, MS; Gulfport, MS; and then finally pulled into New Orleans along Lake Ponchatrain. It is an enormous lake, and I can only imagine the swells from Katrina that put the city of New Orleans under water. I lined up on runway 18R from over the lake so that I could test my newly repaired VOR/Localizer receiver. Interestingly enough, the tower at the Lakefront airport closes early, so I was on my own. As I lined up with the Instrument Landing System (ILS), I noticed that the localizer needle for the repaired radio 1 was off by several degrees, while the needle was lined up perfectly for radio 2. I contacted the avionics shop back in Lakeland and they assured me that they had tested this on the ground and that it lined up properly. I will have to look into this further.

There are several FBOs on the field, but I had contacted Flightline First while still in the air. Their self-serve fuel pump had the cheapest fuel on the field: $3.99/gallon. After taxiing in, a lineman who was anticipating my arrival marshaled me over to the fuel pump. After fueling, I had considered whether I wanted to ride my bike into town, but abandoned that idea since it was hot, I was exhausted from 8 hours of flying, and I might have to bike through some bad sections of town. The FBO called me a cab.

The cabdriver brought me to my lodging, the India House. This was a youth hostel, and I always look for places like this when I'm alone and don't want to drop $100 / night on a hotel room. It's communal living: you get a bunk bed in a dormitory style room, there's a communal kitchen, shared bathroom facilities, etc. I was there to experience the nightlife of New Orleans, not the grandeur of an expensive hotel room. Besides costing only $20/night, which is quite amazing, I love meeting folks who come to stay at a place like this. For this particular hostel, they generally tended towards the hippie side of life. Usually, you run into international travelers from all over the world. I usually meet a lot of interesting people from the UK, Russia, Australia, and elsewhere. They are typically in their 20's or early 30's, but you also meet people who are my age and older.

To get into town and experience the nightlife, you simply hop on the Canal St. Trolley. For $1.25, the trolley brings you right to Bourbon St. where all the action is. For the first night, I walked Bourbon Street and tried to remember some of the places that Ed Haddad and I had been to several years before. There's the Bourbon Cowboy, complete with a mechanical bull, the Tropical Isle, the Cat's Meow karaoke bar, and a handful of strip joints. My all time favorite place to visit is the Funky Pirate. Ed & I were turned on the Funky Pirate over 7 years ago when we visited New Orleans. Our cab driver told us that we needed to go see Big Al Carson who puts on the best show on Bourbon Street. I've been up and down Bourbon Street and it is the truth, so on my first night there, I checked in at the Funky Pirate. Unfortunately, it was a Monday night and Big Al plays from Tuesday through Saturday. An employee there gave me a great recommendation for food, he said, walk a block off Bourbon Street and have some gumbo at the Grapevine Wine Bar and Bistro. I took him up on this recommendation, and it made for a fantastic and inexpensive meal. I told him that I would be back the next day to see Big Al perform at 8:30pm.

I spent Tuesday in the air conditioned comfort of the India House watching TV and working on my computer. I didn't dare venture out in the 100+ degree weather. The proprietor told me of a great Louisiana swamp tour where you would see alligators and the like, but I couldn't imagine sweltering on a boat out in the bayou in this heat. I waited for things to cool down, took the trolley to Bourbon Street, and headed straight to the Funky Pirate to see Big Al. Not only is Big Al an amazing singer, he is truly a performer. He loves to interact with the audience and especially loves to embarrass the ladies by turning on his charm, much to the chagrin of their boyfriends. You really have to see it to believe it, but it is both hilarious and charming to watch this 500 pound behemoth of man come on to the ladies. He's got it down to a science. Pictured here is little me and Big Al. I am dwarfed by comparison. I enjoyed his show thoroughly, but had to head back since I would be taking off for Austin and Dallas the next morning. A quick trolley ride back to the India House and I was off to bed by midnight, which is considered very early by New Orleans standards. There was only 1 other person in the dorm room at that time, but it would fill up later in the morning as people came back from a night of partying. Everyone here was very respectful and did their best not to wake anybody up!

The next day would be another scorcher, so I would need to get up early and begin my trip into Texas. I have never been to Texas before, so this would be a first for me!