We get to Atlanta where I had to change planes. I don’t think they could have booked my flights any further apart. I arrive at Terminal F and had to go to the very last gate at Terminal A. They have the Plane Train so it’s easy to get from one terminal to the other. Beautiful artwork. I didn’t stop to look much as I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take me to get to where I needed to go. I had seen some of it when I was in the Atlanta airport last year going to Quiltcon in Savannah.
An even bigger plane to go to New Orleans and I was even further back in row 33 but still not quite at the end of the plane. Flight was good - it seems that American’s do not like to fly with the windows open??? The landing was a wee bit rough as it seemed that we were flying into a major wind storm (which we were not).
While the temperature back home was on the cool side, when I stepped out of the airport, it is HUMID. Hot and humid. The humidity seems worse than back home if you can believe that. I had to wait a bit for the shuttle to take me to the airport. Next time, I’m taking a cab, but it didn’t matter. I do have to say that EVERYONE here is super friendly and extremely helpful.
Made it to the hotel about 12:30 and my room was ready. Now how civilized is that! Dumped my bags and then I was off to find something to eat. There’s the Creole House right next door - Oh - I should say that I ditched my pants for shorts and got rid of the sweater. I ate at the bar where I watched one of the chefs shuck a ton of oysters. People were eating them raw or cooked. One lady next to me said she would NOT eat raw oysters, but her husband would and did. The chef said that she didn’t know how to eat raw oysters so he convinced her to eat one. He made a cracker sandwich of the oyster with hot sauce and horse radish??? She ate it, but I’m glad it was her that he convinced and not me. I had a spinach/chicken salad and I was good. But I did splurge and had this most decadent bread pudding for dessert. It was very good.
Then I thought I had better do some walking. I found three used books stores in downtown New Orleans and decided to pay each of them a visit. None were more than a few minutes walk from the hotel. On my way to the first one, I crossed Bourbon Street. Oh boy - that’s a place to come back and check out.
The first store wasn’t bad - the aisles were fairly clear and the books were well organized. I don’t have my list with me, but after using it to search at so many other places, I sort of know what I’m missing. I searched and while I didn’t find anything on the list, I did find some that I will be missing in the near future (once I read one that is on my shelf). I was able to check the library online and they don’t have these books. So I got three paperbacks for under $10. I was happy.
Off to the second bookstore where I found nothing. There are a lot of historical and old books, but not a huge amount of current books in these stores. I’m not sure why. This store was huge - three floors. I checked the craft section in all three stores. Teeny if one existed and NOTHNG on quilting - I maybe saw one book. There seems to be way more on afghans and cross stitch. That’s good - I didn’t need to make any decisions.
I walked to the last store and I wasn’t going to go in. It looked very unsavory and there was someone who didn’t look nice searching through boxes right outside the front door. Then I gave my head a shake and said - do it. OH MY GOD - this place was insane. It was small and the books shelves were about 12” (well maybe a bit more) apart. It was like a little maze in this little shop. The owner was standing behind a huge pile of books on the counter just inside the front door. He could barely see over the stack. I couldn’t find the mystery section so I asked. It wasn’t large, but I found one of the books that I was looking for. A signed hardcover no less. Not that I wanted a signed hardcover, but better than not finding it at all. I could just buy all these books online, but this hunting is way more fun than buying online. Where’s the fun in that?
I took some pictures of this shop - it was crazy and there was this tiny little space at the back of the store where the paperback mysteries were. You had to looksideways and stretch on one foot to see all the titles as there were boxes in the way. I don’t know that it would have passed a fire inspection. So for less than $30, I got one of my missing books.
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