Walking South - Nawlins

The walk here varied a lot over the three years I lived here. Early on, when I first got there and had an apartment on Rampart Street, I was out a lot at night, mostly out of lonesome-ness. I meet a guy one night that was probably bi-polar or some such and he called himself "Walking Man." We walked through the night all over the French Quarter and then across Canal Street into the Business Section of downtown and then back across the Quarter and out into the neighborhood pass Esplanade. He said I was the only person he had ever met that could keep up with him and didn't get worn out. I don't think I ever saw him again after that one night. We watched the sun come up and went our separate ways. I knew he was crazy. I used to walk from Rampart over to the Printing Company near Lee Circle where I worked every day and then back again in the evening. The real walk developed later, after I moved out of the Quarter. I'd take the street car to Canal on a Saturday or Sunday morning and then stroll down Bourbon to Esplanade.

Then turn toward the river and circle back to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and then through Jackson Square to look at the artists' stuff (is there a pattern developing here?) and then over to Royal. Usually Fred was manning the desk at Le Librarie (Cary Beckham's Royal Street Bookstore) and if I was writing I'd go hang out in the courtyard out back and write and then wander toward Canal again. I'd usually hit the other bookstores on Royal as well. And then ride the streetcar home.