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Month: January 2013
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
Miles MPG Avg. Speed 1326.8 42.1 60
Priceline* Hotel* $ Savings % Savings New Orleans Downtown Marriott At The Convention Center (4-star) $73.46 ($61) $178.08 ($159) $104.62 59% * New hotel data format. Priceline amount includes all taxes and fees paid while hotel amount includes the hotel’s web rate plus an average 12% room tax. In parentheses is the hotel’s base-rate from their website and my Priceline winning bid, respectively.
Friday – Arrival
Within minutes of arriving in New Orleans I learned a Cardinal Rule:
Thou Shalt Learn the Parade Schedule and Keep It Holy
As I blithely followed the directions given by my GPS app toward my hotel, I discovered that someone had dumped a big ol’ party in the way.
Worse, it wasn’t just one parade, it was two – following much the same routes but with staggered start times. The GPS offered the suggestion of cutting through the French Quarter … via Bourbon Street … on a Friday night … during (albeit oddly scheduled due to the Super Bowl) Mardi Gras. Yeah … that would end well.
So I backed and filled my way down the city looking for a way through and, eventually, made my way around the crowds at the starting point of the parade and got to the river. Once there I had a clear shot to my hotel, but the traffic and crowds had turned the ten-hour drive from Orlando into something closer to twelve.
My plan had been to drop my things at the room and then park at the Harrah’s garage down the street, since they offer 24-hours of parking with thirty-minutes of gambling. Since I was going to gamble over the weekend anyway, this was a much better deal than the $31/day the hotel wanted. But with the drive and stress of getting past the parades I decided to call it a night.
So I got a mediocre shrimp po’ boy from room service and called it a night.
Saturday
I started Saturday early by walking into the French Quarter and having First Breakfast at Café Dumonde – beignets and black chicory coffee. Then I spent some time walking around the Quarter early enough to be out before the day’s bread deliveries were brought in.
The GPS turned itself off early that day, so no track, but I walked down through the French Market to the Old Mint, then farther up into the Quarter before heading back through it to Canal and then took a stroll down Bourbon Street.
Bourbon Street was empty, but those who were out … including these guys and their eight friends who passed me … were already hitting the Bud Light at 9:30 AM.
After browsing through some galleries and shops, it was time for Second Breakfast, which was a bacon, egg, and cheese po’ boy at Johnny’s, followed by more wandering through the Quarter.
Apparently New Orleans turns me into a Hobbit, because it was soon time to combine Elevenses and Lunch with another stop at Johnny’s – this time for a shrimp po’ boy that was significantly better (bigger shrimp and not as powerfully seasoned) than the one I got at the hotel the night before.
I caught the streetcar to the cemetery district and spent a peaceful afternoon touring the tombs.
On the way back from the cemeteries, I got a second lesson in learning the parade schedule when the street car stopped and it was announced that the rest of the line was closed and we all got to walk from there.
If you look closely, way far in the distance, past the last, tiniest palm tree, you can see Harrah’s, my destination.
So I went back to my room, showered, and moved my car to the Harrah’s parking garage to avoid further parking fees, then spent the evening at the tables.
After gambling I wandered around the Quarter for a bit, but the average blood-alcohol level was too high for my taste, so I headed back to the room for the night, stopping at Mulate’s near the hotel for dinner.
The BBQ shrimp were average, with more heat than flavor, but the fried crawfish tails were wonderful.
Sunday
The GPS worked Sunday and I wish it had been working Saturday, because I know I covered more ground Saturday and I’d like to know how much more than seven miles it was.
The morning started the same, with First Breakfast at Café Dumonde and then a stroll through the Quarter. Sunday’s Second Breakfast was at Stanley near Jackson Square where I got an Eggs Benedict po’ boy.
Such a simple change to replace the english muffin with french bread, but it made a very tasty difference.
Full of food, I headed for the National WWII Museum.
WWII Medal of Honor Recipients Wall
Monday
Up at 6:00 AM to get out of the hotel and retrieve my car from Harrah’s, then into the Quarter for breakfast – driving this time. Parking was difficult even this early, because much of the parking lots were covered with equipment for the Super Bowl the next weekend.
All of that enclosed by the temporary wall and cones should have been open parking spaces. Even Jackson Square was mostly closed to the public while they built the CBS event spaces for the game.
I finally found parking near the French Market before walking back for beignets, coffee, and a final eggs benedict po’ boy to tide me over for the drive home.
New Orleans Parking
Anyone who’s traveled to a city knows the state of hotel parking. $60/day in downtown San Francisco, $50/day in D.C., more in New York. So when I went to New Orleans recently I was unsurprised that parking was $31/day at the Marriott Convention Center.
Considering that I only paid $61/night for the hotel room, it won’t be that long, I think, before we’re spending more to park the car than for the room.
But there are ways around these fees, depending on the city.
In New Orleans, the hotel I was staying at was near Harrah’s and Harrah’s offers 24-hours of free parking with thirty minutes of gambling. Since I planned on doing some gambling anyway this was a good deal.
So if you want to take advantage of this, here’s how:
First drop your things at your hotel and drive your car to the Harrah’s parking garage – self-park, not valet.
After you park, go to the casino and, if you don’t already have one, sign up for the Total Rewards card. This is the card Harrah’s uses to track your play, so it’s fairly important.
Once you have the card, just spend more than 30-minutes gambling. There’s no rule about the game or wager, so you can pick a low-limit slot machine or a busy blackjack table.
If you choose a table game, put the card on the table when you sit down and the dealer will take care of getting you entered into the system. For slot machines, you’ll see a slot for the card on the machine. The card has to stay in the machine while you play, so don’t forget to take it when you leave.
Once you’ve played 30-minutes, you’re set on parking for 24-hours. Just return the next day and repeat each day you need parking.
When it’s time to leave New Orleans, or when you want your car to drive somewhere, just hand your parking ticket and Total Rewards card to the parking attendant.
Obviously this isn’t for everyone. If you’re not a gambler or not familiar with the games, then you could wind up spending a lot more than $30 in that thirty minutes. If you are a gambler, then you’ll spend more than thirty minutes a day gaming anyway, so it’s a great deal.
They Shoot, They Score
January 11, 2013 – 1900 miles – no mileage data
Priceline* Hotel* $ Savings % Savings Hyatt Place Greenville/Haywood
(3-star)$55.95 ($46) $99.68 ($89) $43.73 44% Crowne Plaza Hotel Dulles Airport
(3.5-star)$61.77 ($49) $151.20($135) $89.43 60% Wyndham Virginia Crossings Hotel
(4-star)$71.05 ($56) $100.80 ($90) $29.75 30% * New hotel data format. Priceline amount includes all taxes and fees paid while hotel amount includes the hotel’s web rate plus an average 12% room tax. In parentheses is the hotel’s base-rate from their website and my Priceline winning bid, respectively.
This trip started as a weekend of following the Orlando Solar Bears to two games against the Greenville Road Warriors. Yay, hockey!
But since I was halfway there already, I extended the trip with a run up Skyline Drive in Shenandoah and a day in DC.
Friday – Greenville, SC
The drive from Orlando to Greenville was mostly uneventful, although I did pick up a hitchhiker at the Georgia-Florida border and had an interesting chat before he fell asleep. He was traveling to the truckstop at the Savannah exit in search of work.
I got to Greenville with about three hours to spare before the game, so I had time to check-in to the hotel and rest after the drive. Then I headed into downtown Greenville for dinner before the game.
It was raining steadily, so I didn’t have a chance to see much of downtown. What I saw was pretty nice, with a lot of shops and restaurants. I had an adequate dinner at a regional BBQ chain, nothing spectacular, then headed for the Bi-Lo Center for the game.
I’d given myself time to look around downtown, but the rain nixed those plans and I wound up at the arena pretty early and mostly had it to myself.
The crowd, after it showed up, was still pretty small. I’d gotten my tickets online the week before and chose the small upper-bowl, on the rail, behind the goal the Solar Bears would attack twice. This is my favorite place to sit for hockey – being able to see the attacking plays develop with no one in front of me and with a little height to give perspective.
If I’d known my section would look like this even mid-game, I’d have waited until I arrived and gotten tickets at the box office to save the Ticket Bastards service charges – which doubled the cost of the $10 tickets.
Sadly, the Bears got trounced pretty bad in the first game of the set and it was still raining when the game let out, so it was time to call it a night.
Saturday – Greenville, SC
I slept in Saturday and then headed out of town to spend the day at Table Rock State Park hiking.
I spent a few hours hiking and then headed back to get ready for the game. Greenville does something pretty cool when they have the Mites play between periods – they let the kids who are going to play on the ice with the teams for the National Anthem.
The Bears lost again, making the hockey portion of this trip a bust.
Sunday – Shenandoah
Up early and on the road to make it to DC. I called the Shenandoah National Park hotline to find out if Skyline Drive was open. The northern 3/4s of the drive were open, but the southern part was still closed from a snowstorm the week before. Once I got on the drive, it looked a lot different than the picture the National Parks Service had tweeted the prior week.
So a nice drive and some hiking took up most of the day before arriving at the hotel.
Monday – Washington, DC
I had trouble with my phone, so no pictures. The hotel was outside DC, near Dulles. I drove to the metro station in Fairfax, VA and parked there to take the train into the city. This is a lot cheaper ($5 to park) than trying to get a hotel in the city and paying the hotel’s parking fee ($30 and up). Plus the hotels are cheaper. From Fairfax, it’s about a forty minute ride on the train into the city.
I had a late lunch at Ping Pong Dim Sum after a morning at the National Zoo and Smithsonian, then took the train back to my car and getting back on the road. I had planned for a two or three hour drive after leaving DC to cut down on the final drive home Tuesday.
That put me near Richmond and I wound up staying at a 4-star Wyndham property.
The photo’s not mine, but it’s what the place looks like and it was a really gorgeous place with nice rooms and lots of hiking around, so I think I’ll keep it in mind for a future trip that involves more than an overnight stay.