2022 by the Numbers

 New Orleans, LA

We saw the sign

2022 in Review

2022 has been a great year of travel.  We have seen a lot and also done a lot of relaxing.  Let's look back at the numbers that make up 2022 for us.

Miles Driven Since we hit the road - 14,903

States Visited - 29

Washington D.C.s Visited - 1

Countries Visited - 2 (USA and Costa Rica)

Unique Counties Visited - 361

New Counties Visited - 304

Tiki Bars Visited - 11

New Breweries Visited - 55

State Capitols Visited - 7

We have hosted visitors in all of our stays except for Baton Rouge 

Museums Visited - 42

36 Inch Po'boys Eaten - 1

Pinball Places Visited - 12

Our County Collecting efforts this year in purple

Happy New Year from Francis!

See you in 2023!

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Remembering Katrina

 New Orleans, LA

A leftover FEMA X Mark 

Katrina Inspections and X Codes

After Katrina came ripping through New Orleans recovery crews were on site quickly.  FEMA went through and marked houses with an X and put info in the four quadrants the X makes.  The top is the date it was inspected, The left shows the task force that inspected it, the right shows any special notes.  Special notes could include Gas Off, Pets, F/W for food and water, the NE here stands for No Entry.  The bottom quadrant was reserved for the number of live and dead found in the building.

Stolen from here.

Some of these marks have been removed, some are still there due to the house being abandoned, and some are there as a badge of honor.

This one is actually preserved in the concrete now.

Another left the way while the rest of the house is kept up.  Probably preserved on purpose.

My friend Chris pointed these out to me.  If you aren't looking they kind of blend in with the graffiti.  

That's it for today.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.

Crescent Park and Two Footbridges!

 New Orleans, LA

A Walk in the Park

Today we walked along the levy and crossed the tracks to Crescent Park.  The deep freeze here is over so it was time to go outside and see the sun and other things.  It's a beautiful park along the Mighty Mississippi.  It is cut off by railroad tracks so it could be better IMHO.  

We started our crossing on the West End of the park at the Crescent Park Elevator (and stairs).

Great views of Downtown from the top of the bridge

The obligatory DANGER sign along The Mississippi

Son of Morgh!

The Rust Rainbow crosses the tracks in the middle of the park.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

The levy has a logo.  

It was a nice walk and a great day to be out but that's it for today.  If you missed the last post you can find it here.

The Location of the Louisiana Purchase

 New Orleans, LA

The Cabildo Louisiana State Museum

Today we went to The Cabildo Museum.  The Cabildo is one of a few museums that make up The Louisiana State Museum.  These are a selection of historic buildings with Louisiana history in them.  The Cabildo has art and history installations and is pretty cool.  It's $10 but we were able to use our NARM pass again.  Also fun fact, it was were the Louisiana Purchase ceremony took place in the US after the purchase was finalized in France.  This was the purchase of a large chunk of land from France.

Stolen from Wikipedia

A cast of The Head of Andrew Jackson from the Andrew Jackson Statue after it was found detached from the statue

A menu from an historic Tiki Bar that has since closed

A Jazz collection including the death mask of Oscar "Papa" Celestin

A Seersucker dress from Haspel Clothing of New Orleans, the originator of the Seersucker Suit and Seersucker Dress

Art made of fish scales

Andrew Lamar Hopkins is a local artist getting national attention for his work depicting free people of mostly mixed race from the 19th century.

A reproduction of a page from The Audubon Book

That's it for today.  It was a small museum but had a lot of great info.  We will probably hit another one in the group before we leave.  If you missed yesterday's post you can see it here.

A Trip to NOMA

 New Orleans, LA

The Obligatory Museum Selfie

New Orleans Museum of Art

Today we headed to City Park and went to the New Orleans Museum of Art.  We were able to use our NARM pass so it was free to us.  When we got there we were welcomed as members.  The museum is pretty cool.  I think it is the perfect size.  They have some local art as well as some big named artists.  We spent a couple of hours there and didn't see everything so if you go and want to see everything set aside half a day.

We saw another Soundsuite by Nick Cave and it was front as center.  We have seen work in multiple states now.

One of the temporary exhibits is Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers.

The exhibit showcased one of a kind photos as well as more modern photos all done by Black American Studio Photographers.  This is a great image of Frederick Douglas.

I really liked this one.

And an image of a Black Indian from a New Orleans

The Café

After a bit we stopped by the café for a coffee and snack.  We really love museum cafes.  They offer great coffee in an eclectic space.

They had a wall of cool housewares.  Sadly my camera freaked out at the lighting thus the banding.

That's Some Fine Art

After coffee and a pastry we dove into more art.  I was a little surprised that NOMA had some big names.  I admit I like seeing them as well as the lesser known artists.

My Back Yard - Georgia O'Keeffe

Abstraction - Will Henry Stevens

Composition (White, Black, Blue and Red, on White) - Jackson Pollock

Portrait of a Young Girl - Joan Miro'

Woman in an Armchair - Pablo Picasso

La Somme d'Une Fleur - Matta

The Red Disk - Joan Miro'

Scramble: Ascending Yellow Values, Descending Spectrum - Frank Stella (Donna's Favorite Artist)

Mick Jagger - Andy Warhol

Portrait of Estelle Musson Degas - Edgar Degas

House on the Old Bridge at Vernon - Claude "Money" Monet

In the Garden, Giverny - Frederick C. Frieseke

Louise Bourgeois

The next temporary installment featured Louise Bourgeois.  I was not familiar with her but her work was amazing in my opinion.  I will be looking out for her more as we go to more museums.

Untitled 1946-47

The Frightening Vigil

1932

Meeting the Artist

We wandered through modern local art and Donna got into a conversation with someone.  I didn't think much of it so I continued my journey.  I returned about 5 minutes later and Donna and this man were locked in conversation about a mixed media piece.  He was going into really great detail and then revealed that he was the artists and it was his first piece in the museum.  It was really cool to see how happy he was to share with us.  It seemed like he was just quietly waiting for an ear to bend and Donna was there to be the person.  

He explained that Maman Brigette or Mother Brigette is a Voodoo Death Loa.  He went into great detail about the process of making it.

Maman Brigitte Maman's Day - John Lister, III

I love this photo and was so glad I was there to capture it.

I also took a few photos of the space in general.  It is a great museum with great views around every corner.  

That's it for today.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.