No car? No problem!

Back when I drove cab in NJ, I couldn't imagine not having a car. The thought frightened me. It seemed so emascilating to rely on public transportation. Well, shortly after my Ford Escort got me down here to New Orleans the transmission crapped out and I found myself on foot. You know, it wasn't so bad. Now that I live in the French Quarter, everything I could possibly need is with in a 10 minute or less walk from my apartment. I no longer have the burdens of car payments, gas, maintenance, parking, insurance and all of the aggravations that go with car ownership. Especially here in the Quarter with alternate side of the street parking. Getting towed and fined if you should forget what day it is, which inevitably happens. Not to mention trying to find the rare parking spot, vandalism and break ins.

Since I moved into the Quarter, I have had no real reasons to travel out of it, or desire. I had a small job to do with my friend Robert who picked me up to take me to the Marigny (the next neighborhood over) and it was like an adventure to cross over Rampart.  I don't want to leave the Quarter, it's my neighborhood and home.

I don't miss driving at all. Most of my life I had driving jobs. I drove delivery trucks from upstate New York to Baltimore, I drove commuter bus into lower Manhattan for a year, drove crane trucks and taxi cabs all over the state of New Jersey. Now when I use public transportation I look at the driver and think "Thank God I'm not you." I probably clocked well over a million miles in my life, and with it the frustration of traffic jams, idiots, tickets, tolls, break downs and near fatal wrecks.

Yea, things are a little more expensive in the French Quarter. I do my shopping at Rouses Market where I pay a few bucks more. I could jump on the Tchoupitoulas bus to go to Walmart. That would mean walking to the bus stop, waiting, riding, and paying for the damn bus. Standing in a longer check out line behind god knows what kind of human punch line. Returning on the bus with only as much as I could carry, and spending two hours of my life to save maybe ten dollars. Sorry, I'm getting up there in years and two hours of my remaining life is more valuable than ten bucks. 

Or I can walk two blocks, listen to live music performed on Royal Street,  stop and talk to friends passing by, be greeted by clerks who now know me, get what I need and be home in 15 minutes. 

A car? Oh yea those ugly things that get in my way when I walk, no thanks.