Cafe Du Monde Has Wi Fi

Well we circled Florida. We managed to waddle into our car very very full of all sorts of food from all our wonderful hosts in Florida. We left Miami after a massive Cuban breakfast and drove up to the Pirate town St Augustine. We planned on camping at State Park and we stocked up on hotdogs and cereal and milk in our cooler for a wee campfire dinner. Turned out we couldn't find a camp so we kept driving and stopped to sleep at a Rest Area. ( "rest stops have the best showers" one of the great lines in the movie "Due Date")

We were heading back to New Orleans and the next day we stayed again with our friend Gardenia in Pensacola. We pulled into New Orleans yesterday at noon and the city was still recovering from Mardi Gras. Beads and bleachers and attackers were up and down the parade routes. Actually there are bead necklaces everywhere, it's a riot.

We checked into our Guest House and unpacked then back at the car we got out our cart and filled it with paintings and walked to the French Quarter to busk. It was almost dusk so we only had an hour before the weather was too chilly but I sold a painting in the first half hour we set up. Whoo hoo! It was kind of exciting because it's the perfect place to busk. Often people look at you weird, often with pity heh heh. Yes, there are a lot of people who think muskets and street performers or artists showing their work on the street are losers. But in New Orleans people EXPECT to see artists in the French Quarter. It felt like HOME.

A goth chick bought a painting of a pink face. Awesome! Our peeps!

We packed up soon after because it was cold put and getting dark. Besides... I could see Cafe Du Monde across the park from where we were busking and the temptation grew too big. We warmed up with some cafe au lait and two orders of beignets. If there is a heaven they will be serving beignets 24/7. The first time I was here in New Orleans was in 1987 and these beignets always haunt me. We thought about ordering another round after we gobbled them but then we decided to walk around a bit. I wanted to see if one of my favorite bars still existed. It did! It's a gay bar called the Bourbon Street Pub and they blare pop tunes. We forced Mister Anchovy and Tuffy P to go for a drink there a couple years ago. Mister Anchovy made us die laughing while sitting at the bar and declaring "I can't believe I'm listening to this music in New Orleans!" he was a good sport to tolerate my love of dance music.

Our Guest House is wonderful. I got up this morning and worked on a couple of paintings and handmade postcards. We've got a huge room perfect for making art and hanging out in.

When we were busking in Miami one day a couple of so-called boosters were walking by. They has on all the right clothes and with matching distain on their faces. One guy says to the other " I know two artists who live here all they do is make art. Not like these losers." I was just laughing because some of the most judgmental people about putting art outside where the public can see it are other artists. And Hoosiers. They seem to really buy into the idea that art should be in galleries and myself and expensive. And anything else is shit. The secret awesome thing is that being outside with art and watching people walk by, talking to all sorts of people and hoping someone will take art HOME with them is an incredibly rewarding past time and activity. Don't tell anybody: art is fun and art is for people!