The Goat Pen

I have been in New Orleans for 30 minutes and already have a buzz. I fucking love this town

Try the fentynel burger

got back from vacation last night

if any of you have any desire to take a driving vacation down from say Memphis to New Orleans along the Mississippi river, I would suggest you do not.

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I thought there would be a smattering of smallish town with their own riverboat charm. Outside of Vicksburg and Vidalia/Natchez that doesn't exist, instead its mile after mile of fertile farmland devoid of civilization beyond the occasional gas station with Hunt Brothers pizza and tractor dealerships.

Perhaps the worst city we went thru was Ferriday , Louisiana. I'd say Ferriday, at least on the main strip, is about 60/40 occupied versus abandoned buildings, with struggling business residing in close to condemned structures with hand painted signs on boarded up windows.

Also Covid has some pretty serious effects on business in New Orleans - Acme Oyster house is closed 2 days a week. Pat O' Briens is at least closed on Tuesdays, and a while you don't see shuttered business in the quarter, the French Market is about 30% smaller than I remember. I'm sure it will be gangbusters this weekend with the final four but they had some noticeable staffing issues. Prices are also high but that's everywhere. $17 novelty drinks at bourbon st bars was a bit of a wallet hit, food portions are also smaller than I remember. Jax Brewery building has a few stores but its like every other mall - has a food court with no restaurants in it - and they were setting up the final four "party" area right next to it

I really like New Orleans but at my age I'm not about the night life so I was in my room by 10pm every night. The problem is New Orleans doesn't get going until about 11:00am the next day so if you are up at 7:00am , you get beignets and then you wander around aimlessly waiting for the city to wake up. I was waiting for the bar to open up at 10:30 to get my walking around Bloody Mary. I'll wait a couple of years and go back. The city still has the best vibe of any city I've ever been to.

I just looked up if Ferriday is known for anything and its the hometown of Mickey Gilley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart. There is also apparently a Delta Music museum there which I don't associate any of those 3 with. If I lived there I would spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to leave.

Try doing that with this place.

All three of those guys are cousins.

"I'm not sure what I was expecting but I thought there would be a smattering of smallish town with their own riverboat charm. Outside of Vicksburg and Vidalia/Natchez that doesn't exist, instead its mile after mile of fertile farmland devoid of civilization beyond the occasional gas station with Hunt Brothers pizza and tractor dealerships."

Kinda took you back to your childhood days in Kentucky, eh?

"so if you are up at 7:00am , you get beignets and then you wander around aimlessly waiting for the city to wake up."

I'd love to see a video of you wandering around aimlessly waiting for the city to wake up...

you can never go home again

I have a vivid image of eCat's confused and disappointed face as he's driving down the Mississippi and wondering "where's the riverboat charm??"

Spent the day on Hilton Head yesterday. That's when I realized I finally made it come true. Life is good.

I think this guy nails it

There are two things I hate about Ohio - 1 is the weather. I'm going to move out of this state because the weather is just garbage. I know that people up north have worse weather, but I don't care about them. The weather here sucks. and the thing, which he didn't mention is that essentially everyone in Ohio goes somewhere else to vacation This state is devoid of anything worth vacationing to. My goal is not die in this state.

Hello?

I like how that video began with the guy saying "Things are changing in Ohio, and it's no all bad anymore"...

He listed the Akron Zips as one of the pros of Ohio. I'm sure Zippy, a.k.a., mimnitz, would be delighted...

Wait, he listed the fact that drugs, esp. opiates, are plentiful as a negative??

Please don't make me go back and watch it. I'm happy now.

Hilton Head is great 9 out of 12 months. Which is probably better than most places.

I hate going there in the summer. You can’t take two steps without sweat pouring out of you

Oh yeah. It's been great since January but I'm no fool about summers down here.