The Big Easy

It seems somehow unreal that I can drive to New Orleans in little over 12 hours but that’s exactly what I did on Wednesday. Spending a couple of days in the Big Easy to attend the Sugar Bowl caused me to reflect on several things.

First, in 12 hours of driving you can go from freezing winter weather to near spring like weather. The drive was through a pouring rain but by Thursday, the weather had cleared and the sun was out. Seeing everyone out in the sunshine made realize the impact of long, dark winters have on our psyche. Having sunlight even in winter may be one of the reasons why some many people in New Orleans are so damn friendly.

I’ve been to New Orleans at least a half dozen times since I first visited there in 1978. The Crescent City still shows scares from Hurricane Katrina but it also shows a certain kind of resilience. I never grow tired of visiting there.

If you have not been to New Orleans before, Mardi Gras may be the biggest part for New Orleans but it certainly isn’t the only one. You can walk all over the city with open containers of alcohol. Fill your glass (usually a plastic tumbler though) with your preferred drink (hurricanes, hand-grenades, daiquiris, or plain old beer) from your favorite establishment and have yourself a stroll.

As someone who teaches safety and security, this seems to be a recipe for trouble. The Big Easy manages it with a certain aplomb allowing visitors to enjoy themselves without hassle. Looks are deceiving though as let any of the crowds start a fight and the protagonists will be quickly and efficiently whisked right into jail.

New Year’s Eve 2009 on Bourbon St, never have I seen so many UC fans! It seemed like most of Cincinnati had decided to wear black and red to celebrate the holiday down in New Orleans. I strolled Bourbon Street for pretty much all of the day and evening and only saw perhaps one altercation. The NOPD swept in and removed the participants before most of the crowd even realized there was an argument.

The Bearcat fans represented their team well. Literally everywhere you went on Thursday and Friday, you saw people wearing black and red. For some reason, the Florida fans were not as visible. You would see the occasional group of fans in orange and blue but it seemed the Bearcat fans always outnumbered them.

On the way to meets some friends to tailgate, I was again reminded of how different New Orleans is from the rest of the world. Where else but in the Big Easy are you hustled by street side vendors selling bottles of booze?! The tailgate was a surprisingly small gathering. A few Gator fans were there and are some of the coolest fans I’ve hung out with. An official came by the tailgate offering free tickets, it seems the Florida allotment did not sell out. It seems impossible but yes, a bowl game only six hours away (in New Orleans no less!) and it still didn’t sell out.

The sports experts – both real and imagined – will speculate on the X’s and O’s of the game. The bottom line; the Bearcats suffered their first lost of the season. This after losing their head coach and having a one-time interim to coach them in the biggest game of the school’s history! This is what the Bearcats took with them before facing Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. The outcome was inevitable but I feel the Bearcats did get to show their best game. Regardless, all of the fans were just as proud of their team as any Gator fan (maybe even a little more).