Day 5 New Orleans

I arrive to my beautiful hotel about 8:15pm. Valet parking only. He doesn’t know how to drive a stick. As I’m leaving the parking garage towards the lobby, I can hear him trying to figure it out. Oh poor jeep. The lobby attendant explains that due to COVID, nothing in the French quarter is really open until the weekend. She mentioned a few that stay open all week. I get up this morning and a wonderful, beautiful thunder storm is happening. I want to walk to the cafe she said was open and get a coffee. As I walk through the hotel, It’s so historical. Me being the only person wandering around I almost feel like I’m strolling the Titanic. I see the grand ballroom and a stair case with a chandelier. I wonder what elegant Clark Gable type parties were thrown here. It’s surreal. My only friend…the lobby attendant gives me her umbrella. It’s warm so I’m wearing shorts and a tank top and sandals. When I go outside and see the empty streets, so different from the party pictures and videos we’ve all seen, I get to notice the architecture, the flickering “candle” lights that adorn the buildings. I smile as the rain is pouring so hard the streets are flooded, up past my ankles in water. I step off the sidewalk to cross a street and I slip on my sandal and it breaks. So I spend the rest of my walk with one shoe on and one shoe off. I see a few people running to their cars and they look at me like I’m crazy. I just smile and enjoy the rain and LOUD thunder. Trying to keep my phone dry while it guides me to the cafe, my hand kept resetting where I was going. After I’d walked in circles several times I decided to give up. Came back to the hotel, got my instant coffee and asked my best friend for some hot water. Now I sit in this grand lobby listening to the storm and enjoying my coffee. Rylee will be here at 1:40 at which time the weather says Sunny and 85!