A Brain, A book, and A Ballpoint Day Three, "The Long Walk Home"

The merch girl disappeared with some guy from the show. When we all woke up they had received a voice mail from a friend in Austin about their merch girl, wondering why she had called them to let them know she was lost in Nawlins. Turns out the guy had talked her into staying with him there and the house filled with stress trying to cope with the new developments. She finally came around with the guy and could tell how she was persuaded for she was on know sleep and who know what kind of additives. They convinced her to stay with the band as they were responsible for her and didn’t want her slipping into her old habits.

They carried out to the van after she had fallen asleep on the couch and dropped me off at the trolley. I rode downtown while talking to my sister on the cell phone. When I had left her a message from the B3 summit it had been the first my family had heard of my trip. I neglected to inform them of my trip. It was more or less in my fashion of waiting to the last minute to even decide if I was going. The trolley engineer was talking to a few of his regulars and talking local gossip. An old lady gets off saying,

"They don’t drive them like you anymore, thank you."

When the trolley ended I walked from the quarter all the way to City Park. This is not a short trip. It took a few hours of walking and two hitchhiking attempts to get there. The first driver was a man who admired those of the beat generation and had always wanted to be a hitchhiker, but could not get out of his comfortable construction worker life with his girlfriend. The second was an older woman who was a traveler herself, telling me about her last trip and why her car was so cluttered because of it. The first dropped me off by the art museum.

City Park is adjacent to the Jazzfest grounds. Inside City Park there is an Island by the name of Scout. There I was to volunteer in exchange for a campsite at the Fat City Soirée, a small first time festival after the Jazzfest grounds close. Derek Trucks and Deep Banana Blackout will be performing.

There was a cop directing traffic next to the Art Museum as the NO philharmonic was playing in front. I asked him how to get to Scout Island. He had no idea so I mad my way through the park. After getting lost again I found an old man who had observed me being lost. He gave directions and I was on my way. Stopping more and more frequently now due to my heavy ass pack I found the second kind soul who gave me a ride the final stretch.

When I waltzed in they were testing the lights and I found Dave, the guy running the whole thing. He told me I could set up camp and gave me a ticket for Susan (the woman who gave me a ride). After walking all that way I set up camp played some guitar and crashed out.