Beers, Tears and Beignets

Our day in New Orleans began last night when we rolled into town after our LSU show. You will be happy to know that the French Quarter is alive and well and half of the Stop Global Warming team headed straight for it and (allegedly) didn't get back to the hotel until 5am.

The morning began with a tour of the 9th Ward. Neither of us had been here since Hurricane Katrina hit and what we saw was completely devastating. The impact of seeing widespread destruction in person far surpasses any image you might see on the evening news. It was chilling to see the X's still spray painted on the outside of homes -- almost 2 years later. (For those of you who haven't been down here, X's were spray painted by rescue crews and the numbers represent the numbers of bodies and animals found.) When we got down to the lower 9th Ward, there was very little human activity until we saw a gathering of high school spring breakers volunteering their time to work with the organization Common Ground Collective. We're pretty confidant the last thing they expected when they showed up for work was to see Sheryl Crow coming over to meet them.

Seeing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina makes us anxious about what is being predicted for this hurricane season. And as we all now know, warmer waters cause fiercer storms. And we just came through the warmest winter worldwide on record.

The bus tour is an emotional roller coaster and we are definitely feeling it today. After the show, beignets on the bus for everyone!

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