A sprinkling of ideas for spreading love & light! Written by a gypsy soul who has been long fascinated by both earthy and spiritual things – rocks, Reiki, shamanism, yoga, nature, healing and more. Here, you'll find lots of stories, adventures, pictures, cures, recipes, travel tips, resources and other tidbits Enjoy!
A real Mardi Gras adventure!
A fellow Couch Surfer (couchsurfing.org), Ray, recently shared this story and has been kind enough to allow me to publish it. Thanks Ray!
Enjoy.
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I mentioned to my wife that I wanted to go (again) to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Lousiana, USA, in February 2012. She reminded me that it is a drunken brawl; hey, sounds like fun to me!
I'm a married, 62 year old guy, who's done 21 years in Army Reserves, and 2005-07 U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, Africa. So, I'm always ready for an (additional) adventure; and, find myself running out of life to do it.
Found a young man on the Couch Surfing Road Trips forum. Though he was in Amherst, MA, we met up in Columbus, OH. We travelled 2,700 miles in 5 days. Nidhin suggested we go "through" Pensacola, Fl, on our way to New Orleans. He and I shared the driving, and gas costs. Only spent about an additional 100$. On our way back, we went through the Smokey Mountains.
We saw and did so much - bike riding; the trolley and ferry in New Orleans; visited a few parks;enjoyed Mardi Gras with drinking and parades. We hit it off immediately, and I look forward to, someday, taking another trip with the guy! We talked about everything; and, Nidhin got me to eat peanut butter
& jelly - which I didn't think I liked. Surprising what you can do with the "right" travel companion, under ideal conditions!
When I let him out in Cincinnati, OH, on our way back, it was like saying good-bye to one of my sons!
Surprisingly, when I tell people about our trip, they usually reply "Well, you were very lucky". Hell, what did they think would/could happen!
Ray