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The French Quarter is filled with lovely architecture but perhaps a little too tourist-oriented for my taste. I think I managed to eat at the local equivalent of those clam chowder places on Fisherman's Wharf in SF. Not only was the food expensive and mediocre, but the "live music" was a sort of one-man-band who played the worst cover of Sitting on the Dock of the Bay I have ever heard.

The Austin music and bar scene was mostly for the locals. Here, a lot of the scene is tourist-oriented. And though the buildings have mostly been rebuilt, it's dead on a Thursday. Other than the big Harrah's casino, which was jumping.

The town is beautiful and varied and just generally fascinating in a way that, say, the strip-mall-filled Baton Rouge wasn't. New Orleans has history, and knows it.

I'm at least 5 days behind schedule, mostly due to the car repair. I'm driving through LA and FL now, then I need to swing back to get the Beetle once it's done, then head up at an angle past Chattanooga to parts northerly.

Tomorrow: alligators!