NEW ORLEANS - Jim Colyer

December, 1977 - New Orleans, Houston I flew to New Orleans and took a Greyhound to Houston. New Orleans is different. It is like a little piece of Europe. I saw the Dueling Oaks in City Park. Duels were fought there. It was also in this park that I beheld the Tutankhamen exhibit. These pieces were discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. They are over 3,000 years old but many of them look amazingly contemporary. I met a masseuse from San Francisco. We saw the Tutankhamen stuff together. We sat on the floor like two hippies. We left the park on a city bus. When we got to the stop where I had to get off, I kissed her and jumped off the bus. I felt like I was in a movie. Canal Street is the main thoroughfare in New Orleans. Old street cars run along it. Creoles stroll down the sidewalks. Creoles are a blend of Soanish and French heritage with dark eyes and olive complexions. On the far side of Canal Street lies the Vieux Carre, the French Quarter. Within its confines runs the renowned Bourbon Street. Strip joints abound. Dixieland jazz pours from the barrooms. Tourists and local artists loiter at Jackson Square. The French Quarter makes one feel like he is living in the days of Napoleon. It runs for several blocks. Leaving New Orleans, I crossed Lake Pontchartrain. December, 1976 - Houston Crossed the Mississippi River for the first time at Baton Rouge. Chester and I travelled through Mississippi. The truck broke down outside of Houston, and we flew back to Louisville on New Year's Eve. I sensed the difficulty of Chester's work and what it took to do his job. It is his work ethic and committment I need to draw from in my later years.