RailPass update: I have booked the segments home to Portland, Seattle to Chicago, and Chicago to New Orleans. My Jazzfest wristband and shuttle pass are supposed to be mailed to me "in early April", presumably early enough to get to me before I leave. Mostly plan to be at the fairgrounds all day every day, we'll see if I am amped up and ready to go out in the evenings or more in a collapse at the hotel kind of state, game time decision. I do want to spend some time walking around my old neighborhood - Google Street view is telling me my, um, fourth place in the LGD is not even there any more! Just an empty lot, maybe even a park? And the building on the corner that was being renovated the whole time we were there is now a Buddhist center. So I want to see what that looks like.

Anyway, if I keep to my regular sleep schedule or some approximation thereof I will have time to leisurely sample breakfast possibilities before catching the shuttle. I am going to try to get out to the Parkway for a po-boy Thursday before heading into the fairgrounds because I don't think I've ever actually been there (we used to be in that neighborhood regularly when Whole Foods was out there but the lines at Parkway were always too long when we thought about going) and I should fix that. And one of my high school friends highly recommended a specific dish at Dooky Chase so I might make a reservation for that for Friday night. And I am very excited that my old favorite Lebanon's out on Carrollton is still there, so I will try to get there at some point.

I went slightly vacation mad and booked another night in town at a Holiday Inn Express so instead of hopping on the Crescent Monday morning I will take the Mardi Gras out to Mobile and back because why the hell not? When am I going to have a better opportunity for that? A few hours in Mobile is probably fun, right? And they serve muffalettas in the cafe car. So. It's only $24 each way so kind of a waste of the pass, but I can just pay for the tickets or cash in points and save the segments for something else.

So Tuesday 4/28 is when I will hop on the Crescent heading northeast.

This is where I might just stop planning and start winging it? I could just ride the Crescent all the way to DC, layover for a couple of hours and catch an Acela (Next Gen even) and be in Boston the evening of 4/29. Which seems very fast and exciting! And would put me about as far from home as I expect to get with six segments and over two weeks left for getting back. Which should allow for some directionless, wandering, right? I can get home from, for example, DC in three segments/five days if I really push it, so that's some significant slack to work with