Strike Force Tour: Week 1, Part 1- Norcross, GA to New Orleans, LA

After landing in Atlanta, I met Juan at baggage claim and we took the Marta to Norcross. Juan was the Tour Manager for the East Coast version of the tour I was on, so it was good to catch up with him and swap stories from both our time spent on the road.

Dougie soon scooped us from the Marta Station and we immediately went over to IMG Live to begin advancing our tour (ie booking hotel rooms, calling balloon locations etc). Juan and I pretty much couldn't stop laughing and joking around, which I've rarely been able to find in another person on the road, so I enjoyed it, eventually though we did get our work done for the day and checked into our hotel rooms that evening.

Friday was somewhat of the same. Juan went out to get us some food and one point and change the oil to the car, but aside from that we just stuffed balloons and prepped shipping them for Strike Force team 1 and 2.

Saturday we left for the road. Juan had never been to New Orleans so we decided to make a pit stop there for the evening. We got there around 4 in the afternoon, but had to walk around a bit until our rooms were ready. We started at Pat O'Briens (where else?) and got some hurricanes, then we slowly made our way down Bourbon street. Juan loved it. He said it reminded him of some part of Florida...I can't remember which though. We eventually stopped at the Gumbo Shop to get some dinner, it was okay, not the best cajun cuisine i'd had, but decent.

Our hotel room ended up being ready after dinner so we checked in. I was pretty beat from that day, and since there was a Gay Festival going on, which meant, alot more crazy people having lots of fun then i was willing to deal with, I opted out of returning to the streets past 10pm. Juan however went out and had a good time, which I'm happy about. I'm always glad when I break people in to New Orleans, makes me feel like I've done my duty as a local citizen :)

The next morning we were set to leave around 1ish. I got up early so I could have time to walk around Jackson Square and meet my friend, Kevin, for breakfast. I quickly took a stroll over to Cafe Du Monde to grab some Beignets and coffee, then power walked down to Poydras where Mother's is located to have some food.

It was good to see Kevin again, we basically caught up and he was telling me all about life in NOLA and how he'd got another job working for a TV Production company. He also told me that Dr. Dog had moved on to Epitaph which I thought was a little sad, but hey, suppose it had to happen, and that the Peekers were breaking up. I was really bummed out by this. They're such a great band, but when you problems that can't be fixed, I suppose that's how it goes...

After saying goodbye to Kevin, I headed on back to the hotel and met up with Juan. We said goodbye to the lovely Big Easy, and started to make our way north to Dallas, TX for another night to stop and say hello to friends before hitting out final destination in Paris, TX.

I'll report on Dallas a little later, now it's time to take a nap!