Back from yet another adventure. Jazz Fest 2005.

We left Tampa on Thursday night after the Weekly Planets summer guide party. LP Goddess, Cracklin’ Rosie, Pirate Prentice, and myself. We headed out across the Howard Franklin bridge, down 275 till it hit 75, and then up to 10. We ended up stopping sometime around 1:30am just outside of Tallahassee. Our hotel was all right. A sweet relief being that at first we thought we were screwed, as the hotel we originally stopped at was full, and there were signs welcoming graduates. Needless to say, we were relieved when the next hotel we stopped at had a room left for us. I suppose we could have driven straight through, but that would have sucked. Not the driving part, but the fact that we were suppose to be seeing a show on Friday night (Sat Morn) at 2:00am. So driving through would be an unneeded gamble in the game of late night shows. The next morning we headed out of Tallahassee around 10:45 am, an hour later we promptly hit the time zone change and Marty Mcflied it back to 10:45…what speed.

Anyway…we ended up in good ol’ New Orleans Louisiana at 6:00pm after a relatively uneventful drive. We managed to get lost only a mile from our hotel, but a quick phone call cleared that up. Our headquarters for the next few days would be the Travel Lodge which we found located on the edge of pretty low income neighborhood. The taxi drivers seemed to think that we were stating on the edge of hell, it really didn’t seem that bad though. LPG and CR decided to nap from the get go. It had been a long car ride after all, and they were going to need their energy for the music seeing extravaganza ahead. Prentice and myself headed out to find a supermarket, and get some much needed supplies. After what seemed like an eternity, we found a store, and grabbed beer and chips. Ahhh. Quickly back to the travel lodge. We wasted some time, drank some beers, and attempted to call a taxi. Finally, around 11:00pm we were headed down to the French Quarter for the first time.

Being that none of us were extremely hungry, we decided to skip any real dinner. After being dropped of by taxi, we headed right over to the house of blues. The Benevento Russo show was going to be in an upstairs room. There were a few people hanging around, and the normal French Quarter ramblings, but no real activity, so we decided to head up to Café Dumonde and get some beignets and coffee. And can I just say how god damn good those fucking beignets were …not to be left out, the coffee was wonderful as well. After being stuffed full of dough and sugar, we headed back to the house of blues around 12:30am; the show was set to begin at 2:00am.

Part II coming soon…

from the private archives of pidibi