Getting to New Orleans, Where We Stayed and What we did

We made arrangements for one of our young friends to watch the house, and she was nice enough to take us to the airport. We flew out of Greensboro, NC to Atlanta and then to New Orleans on Delta. We like Greensboro because the lines for the TSA checkpoint are never very long. We were TSA pre-check for the outbound flight which makes the process even easier. With the wheelchair, they had to swipe it to check for explosives. Since my wife has numerous metal parts, she always sets off the alarm, and it only took a few seconds for the manual pat down and then we were off to the gate. One thing I forgot to do was to notify the airline that we needed assistance. Cheryl just walked the wheelchair down the ramp, and that worked without issue.

The flights went off without a hitch, and we were into New Orleans a little before noon on Wednesday. We caught a taxi to the hotel, and I think the driver ripped us off slightly. The fare on the meter was $36.00, and that was supposed to be the flat rate from the hotel to the French Quarter. When we got to the hotel, he told me it was $40.00 because of the wheelchair. We were at the hotel by noon and checked in requesting a handicap room.

Loading the luggage in New Orleans

One thing funny about our handicap room was that it had grab bars but had a bathtub which I found funny. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express near the French Quarter. The hotel was fine, though the hallways weren’t vacuumed well when we came in, and they looked the same when we checked out. The only other issue we noticed was a smell of mold or mildew that was noticeable. I stopped noticing it after a few minutes.

We then set out to explore some of New Orleans. One thing I will say is that New Orleans is not particularly wheelchair friendly. The sidewalks in many areas are cobblestone and missing stones in a lot of areas. To get from our hotel to Canal Street, we had to pass in front of the Roosevelt hotel, and I thought it was a poor reflection on the property and on Hilton as a chain that the sidewalk existed both sides of a driveway leading into their building, and there was no ramp for a wheelchair. I was forced to let the chair with my wife in it down and back up the other side.

We walked down Canal Street to the Mississippi and then went into the outlet mall right by the cruise terminal. We shopped for a while, buying some Crocs for myself and they had a Lindt chocolate outlet, and we wound up buying a supply for the cruise and the next six months at home.

After the mall, we wanted to go to the French Market area, and we found that there was a streetcar route that went along the waterfront to the French Market. These streetcars were truly accessible, and they have a platform that they use to load and unload wheelchairs and scooters. The street car ride was quite scenic as it went along the river and was worth the price of admission, which was $2.00 and they take cash only.

From the Street Car

We were hungry and decided to eat in the French Market area, but didn’t realize that most of the restaurants don’t service until 5:00 PM on weeknights. The only place we found open was an eclectic hotdog restaurant and bar. They had good hotdogs and sausages with a Cajun flair and happy hour on drinks and hot dogs from 2:00 – 5:00. I had a couple of hot dogs, and my wife had a fish sandwich that was huge. The food was good.

Getting to New Orleans and the stay there

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