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Great American Road Trip: Adieu, New Orleans…for now!

Last Updated on January 12, 2012

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The past three weeks traveling on this NYC2NOLA road trip have been so much fun, and making our ultimate destination New Orleans turned out to be exactly what we needed. As expected when having so much fun, time flew and we found ourselves yesterday with a giant list of places we still wanted to explore so we decided to maximize our last day in the city by renting bikes from The American Bicycle Rental Company.

bike with beads new orleans

Under the clearest blue skies, we sliced through the 90 degree heat and humidity to make our first stop St Louis cemetery, home to the official grave of famous VooDoo queen Marie Laveau which is visited by voodoo fans from all over the world every day who leave offerings such as booze, flowers, but  interestingly most of all lip balm!

voodoo grave marie laveau st louis cemetery new orleans

Then we headed way across town to City Park, and spend time cooling off in the  NOMA’s extensive sculpture park, filled with over 60 sculptures by well-known contemporary artists, before cycling back to town where our next stop was the Woldenberg park which stretches along the shores of the mighty Mississippi River.

cycling along the mississipi in new orleans

No visit to New Orleans is complete without the obligatory beignets, fried dough served covered in powered sugar, which were brought to Louisisana by the Acadians. Cafe du Monde, established in 1862, is one of the oldest cafes in New Orleans, not only famous for its beignets but also for the very unique chicory coffee – the French traditionally added some chicory root to fresh roasted coffee to soften the bitter taste. So of course we had to try both and made our way over to Cafe du Monde. Touristy? Yes. Delicious? Oh yeah!

beignets & cafe au lait new orleans cafe du monde

Newly energized, we went off to explore the colorful Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. Groups of friends and couples sipped Abita and Guinness beers outside of small, local pubs and the houses and streets reminded us more of Bocas del Toro, Panama or Big Corn Island in Nicaragua than other parts of the US, or even other parts of New Orleans.

new orleans colorful houses

We ended the cycling day riding through the Tremé – the oldest black neighborhood in the United States. Today, there are great starter houses mixed in with dilapidated heaps of wood for a distinctly urban feel. Despite the popularity of the HBO series Tremé, we were the only tourists in the neighborhood – a major difference to the easy morning spent in the cemetery at the start of our day out, where we were well on the beaten path.

new orleans neighborhood with classic car

New Orleans is a city that needs weeks to uncover, but to make the most of our short time, renting bikes was just about the best way we could think of to explore all of New Orleans.

Our next plans…

We had such a great time road tripping from New York to New Orleans that we decided to extend our time on the road! The next few days will see us drive up north to Chicago via Memphis, so stay tuned for more road trip stories…

road tripping usa

Thanks again to the New Orleans Visitors Bureau for the assistance in planning our trip and the InterContinental for providing such a comfortable place to stay.

WWR: Feb. 12th « Athena Bike Club

Monday 11th of February 2013

[...] Photo from: globetrottergirls.com [...]

Melee

Thursday 16th of August 2012

Just so you know, that's not Marie Laveau's grave. I thought it was too, when I first moved here. Her grave is more to the front-right of where that tomb is, and I'm not sure who y'all left offerings for. Also, Marie's tomb is newer because it's been rebuilt.

Jess

Friday 17th of August 2012

Hi Melee, thanks for your comment. Can't believe that's not the right grave?! We snuck in on a tour and the guide crowded everyone around the grave! We'll have to check it out next time we're in town!

Don Faust

Wednesday 14th of September 2011

Beignets... mmmm - I wish I had one now.

If you are not on the road yet, you should take Highway 61 from Vicksburg, MS to Memphis. Vicksburg is a huge civil war site, and Highway 61 goes up through Clarkesdale and the delta area, where delta blues got started before the blacks in that area moved up north - most notably, taking the blues to cities like Chicago. Clarksdale has a number of blues juke joints, and some younger players are keeping the delta blues tradition alive. There's not much else there.

Say hi to Elvis for me in Memphis!

jess

Saturday 17th of September 2011

Thanks Don, you've been so helpful with all of your tips throughout the road trip. Elvis says Hi back :-)