Much over-rated donuts, but quite good coffee
That 9500 mile 'bus trip was indeed a great adventure. It had its wonderful days, and others which were trying.
I look back with gratitude to the people who opened their homes to us, in Tulsa, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Bellingham, Calgary, Toronto, Marblehead and Washington DC. Comfortable beds, good food, hot showers and the like were a gift to be treasured in the light of many overnight 'bus rides and fast food meals.
Here are a few of my memories, culled from the Journal I kept that September.
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*Entranced by Manhattan. We stayed at the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary (Chelsea area) with my friend Paul G who had studied there and who knew the Island well. He was our tour guide and driver.
NYC, especially Manhattan Island, attracts tourists from all over the world. Ann and I were the 1975 tourists who were energised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Cloisters, and a Ferry Ride to and back from Staten Island (an inexpensive way to view Lady Liberty!).
* Having a rest break in Lynchburg VA en route from NYC to Atlanta. In those days 'Bus Stations often had a little Cafe. We had time for breakfast. Now that I was in "The South" I had to have grits.
I was back in Lynchburg for a wedding a few years ago. Grits and Lynchburg are an acquired taste!
* To my/our shame feeling more than a little uneasy in the presence of many African American young men outside the 'bus station in Atlanta (Why oh why?) So much so that we caught an earlier 'bus to New Orleans.
* Karma caught us. It was a slow 'bus which wandered through the small towns and cities of Alabama (blast furnaces still working in Birmingham), and Mississippi. (Lunch break in a very sleepy Jackson, MI. Almost missed the connection to New Orleans).
* Relaxing 51/2 hour cruise on the S.S. "Mark Twain".
* Taking the St. Charles Ave Street Car, just because we could.
Spotted the Episcopal Cathedral on the return journey so we decided to visit it.
* So we visited the Episcopalian Cathedral.
We viewed the tomb of the first Bishop of Louisiana Leonidas Polk.
Polk resigned as Bishop to serve as a General in the Confederate Army. He was killed in battle. His remains, and those of his wife we re-interned in the New Orleans Cathedral as late as 1945. The docent told us that the Bishop's Chair in the Cathedral had been made by his slaves.
When we visited the Cathedral another tomb was being prepared. It was for their most recent Bishop. See this: The Rt. Rev. Iveson Batchelor Noland, Bishop of Louisiana, was among more than 100 persons killed when an Eastern non-stop jet from New Orleans crashed while trying to land during a thunderstorm at Kennedy terminal on June 24. Bishop Noland was en route to a meeting of Provincial Presidents with Presiding Bishop John M. Allin. Bishop Noland was President of the Fourth Province, a group of eighteen southeastern United States dioceses.
Ann and I got a fair bit of Episcopal Church history in that brief visit to Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans.
* Of course we visited the world famous (?) Cafe du Monde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_du_Monde
There we ate beignets and drank coffee
And here is what makes me laugh out loud forty three years on. Of the Cafe du Monde I wrote in my journal
" much over rated donuts, but quite good coffee".
Of course. This Englishman, back in 1975, was quite the expert on beignets and coffee!
Tomorrow on to Memphis and Tulsa
I look back with gratitude to the people who opened their homes to us, in Tulsa, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Bellingham, Calgary, Toronto, Marblehead and Washington DC. Comfortable beds, good food, hot showers and the like were a gift to be treasured in the light of many overnight 'bus rides and fast food meals.
Here are a few of my memories, culled from the Journal I kept that September.
-------------------------------------------------------------
*Entranced by Manhattan. We stayed at the Episcopal Church's General Theological Seminary (Chelsea area) with my friend Paul G who had studied there and who knew the Island well. He was our tour guide and driver.
NYC, especially Manhattan Island, attracts tourists from all over the world. Ann and I were the 1975 tourists who were energised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Cloisters, and a Ferry Ride to and back from Staten Island (an inexpensive way to view Lady Liberty!).
* Having a rest break in Lynchburg VA en route from NYC to Atlanta. In those days 'Bus Stations often had a little Cafe. We had time for breakfast. Now that I was in "The South" I had to have grits.
I was back in Lynchburg for a wedding a few years ago. Grits and Lynchburg are an acquired taste!
* To my/our shame feeling more than a little uneasy in the presence of many African American young men outside the 'bus station in Atlanta (Why oh why?) So much so that we caught an earlier 'bus to New Orleans.
* Karma caught us. It was a slow 'bus which wandered through the small towns and cities of Alabama (blast furnaces still working in Birmingham), and Mississippi. (Lunch break in a very sleepy Jackson, MI. Almost missed the connection to New Orleans).
* Relaxing 51/2 hour cruise on the S.S. "Mark Twain".
* Taking the St. Charles Ave Street Car, just because we could.
Spotted the Episcopal Cathedral on the return journey so we decided to visit it.
 |
| Stock photo', not mine. |
* So we visited the Episcopalian Cathedral.
We viewed the tomb of the first Bishop of Louisiana Leonidas Polk.
Polk resigned as Bishop to serve as a General in the Confederate Army. He was killed in battle. His remains, and those of his wife we re-interned in the New Orleans Cathedral as late as 1945. The docent told us that the Bishop's Chair in the Cathedral had been made by his slaves.
When we visited the Cathedral another tomb was being prepared. It was for their most recent Bishop. See this: The Rt. Rev. Iveson Batchelor Noland, Bishop of Louisiana, was among more than 100 persons killed when an Eastern non-stop jet from New Orleans crashed while trying to land during a thunderstorm at Kennedy terminal on June 24. Bishop Noland was en route to a meeting of Provincial Presidents with Presiding Bishop John M. Allin. Bishop Noland was President of the Fourth Province, a group of eighteen southeastern United States dioceses.
Ann and I got a fair bit of Episcopal Church history in that brief visit to Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans.
* Of course we visited the world famous (?) Cafe du Monde.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_du_Monde
There we ate beignets and drank coffee
And here is what makes me laugh out loud forty three years on. Of the Cafe du Monde I wrote in my journal
" much over rated donuts, but quite good coffee".
Of course. This Englishman, back in 1975, was quite the expert on beignets and coffee!
Tomorrow on to Memphis and Tulsa
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