If I bought them something at every stop on my trip I would be overweight coming home.
I toured the Jack Hays House. John Coffin Hays was one of the first Texas Rangers. They had his badge on display. The house was a normal house of the day, nothing special. That badge spoke of grit and bravery. I thought the story of the one-eyed Texas Ranger might make another great movie. I could see John Wayne in both of them. I would have to talk to him about them.
That evening I ate at the Little Rhein Steakhouse, another landmark of the area.
The next morning, after a lengthy phone call with Sharon Wallace about what happened in San Antonio, I was ready to continue on, next stop New Orleans. Sharon would revise the event in New Orleans from the lessons learned at this event.
Chapter 8
It was only a two-hour flight from San Antonio to New Orleans with no need for an intermediate fuel stop. This gave Sharon two days to change the event plan for New Orleans.
She was thrilled with the way things were working out. The word on the street was that my movie was an absolute must-see. Some people had already been to two and even three showings.
As far as the event in San Antonio she told me I was an absolute genius. I didn’t see it that way; I just used the lessons learned in New York. That event was absolutely a genius recovery by me because I had let people know where I was staying, so maybe she had something.
I was met at the plane by US Deputy Marshal David Hennessy. He was a very quiet person. He did keep a close eye on everything going on around us. It was almost as if it were all new to him.
He dropped me off at the Hotel Monteleone. It was an old mainstay of the French Quarter. It had been redone recently and was very classy. There was a wonderful old grandfather clock in the lobby. It must have been having a problem as there was an old guy working on it.
I commented on that at the check-in desk. They gave me a funny look. I looked around but the guy was gone. He must have gone on break.
My suite was as nice as most of them I had stayed at. I wondered if I was getting spoiled. I hung up my clothes and went for a walk around the French Quarter. It was still early afternoon but there were drunken tourists all over the place.
Being staggering drunk was one thing, throwing up on the street corner another. I left the foul-smelling area and cut over to Canal Street. Here instead of dives and strip joints were fancy shops. I spent the afternoon browsing. The only thing I bought was for me.
It was a page from an old Atlas. It had the States of Maryland and Delaware. Being printed in 1850 it had the census of Washington DC. It listed white people, slaves, and freemen of color. It was cool.
Another feature of the map was it showed that the State of Delaware was laid out by Mason & Dixon they had surveyed all sides of the state. So Delaware was south of, north of, east of, and west of the Mason Dixon line. Stick that in your ear US History Bellefontaine.
I then walked on down to Jackson Square and toured St. Louis Cathedral. It rivaled many of those I had seen in Europe. I paid my respects to Andy Jackson rearing back on his horse. The horse he rode at the Battle of New Orleans was named Duke but the horse used as the model for the statue was actually Olympus.
This was a horse owned by the artist who cast the statue. Funny I can remember the horse’s names but not the guy who did the statue.
After that, I played a game of chess with one of several guys set up around the square. All three charged a dollar a game. It didn’t take me long to be roundly defeated. I thought I was fairly good but this guy was a professional.
I quizzed him about it. It turned out that he belonged to the United States Chess Federation and was rated a Grand Master. He played in the tournaments that led to the world championship.
He thought that I would rate Expert level if I played often. This was one step below Master so I didn’t feel too bad. One of the other guys on the square was a rated International Grand Master.
He not only would have beaten me, but the defeat would also have been pitiful. He had been known to play ten people at once blindfolded, winning all ten games.
I returned to the hotel and had an early dinner in the Hunt Room. The hotel had ambiance. In one corner of the lobby, there were two guys singing jazz music a capella. I listened to their rendition of ‘Summer Time.’ It was fabulous.
I told the maître d’ that they should be the main show somewhere. He snorted and told me they had been trying to get them to be headliners for a long time, but they were very shy.
After dinner, I went up to my room on the fourteenth floor. I noticed that there was no thirteen so I really was on that floor. It seemed strange that people could be that superstitious.
I almost tripped over a little kid when the elevator door opened. He tore down the hall like he was being chased. I wondered where
