Tulane and a harrowing ride back to Canal Street

So, because we heard the trolley driver say that the stop that we got

out on was Tulane, but we realized that Loyola was there, we figured that he just got mixed up.  The next stop down the line according to the map on the wall was Tulane, so we start following the trolley line uptown from the park.  What we don’t realize is that Tulane is behind Loyola at the same 

 stop.  The two universities are literally on top of one another, I couldn’t really tell where one began and the other ended when we finally circled all the way back around in our perambulations to return to Tulane’s campus.  But it’s getting time now to return to

the conference so that John can check in and we stand at the stop for ages (20 minutes in real time, but “ages” in Jo’s world) and realize that there are 20 people at the stop in front of us (the real Tulane stop) and 20 people at our stop.  This is not going to go well for us we’re 

 thinking, but we’re going to push onto this trolley.  When the trolley stops, there is standing room only, but we push in there and figure we’ll just stand in the little area where the stroller is going, which works out well because at least we’re on.  This trolley

  is so full that 4 students that were waiting with us at the stop decided not to get on, but the driver is determined to get everyone who wants on, on at every stop we make from then on.  She refuses to move at one point unless everyone standing in the aisle pushes back to let everyone on.  At this point, we’re all getting very intimate with each other a little old lady

actually offers her seat to me because I’m holding Oscar.  I told her that I would be happy to take it when she left the trolley and I popped in there as soon as she did.  Good thing too because it just kept getting more and more crowded. It’s hot, crowded and all Oscar knows is that there are tons of people around him and he can’t do anything on this bus, so he cries some and I can’t blame him, I felt like crying at some point too.  And while I can understand the sentiment, I’m still cringing every time he cries out because if there is anything that can make a crowded, hot public transport worse, it’s a screaming baby… At this point, John is pretty much going to be late for registration, but he still has to eat, so as we all get off at the last stop for the trolley down near Canal street, we go into a Brothers’ chicken that is in a convenience store and I get the biggest, juiciest thigh I’ve ever seen and the only thing that could have made this chicken perfect, was honey, but they didn’t have any (sacrilege in Louisiana, I thought), grabbed a couple of sodas and went to the Marriot to eat in the lobby while the Bean crawled, toddled and pushed his stroller around walking with it to make up for lost time.  We are eating and thinking that we’re in good shape because the conference is at this hotel, but no, nothing is ever that simple.  We’re in the JW Marriot and the conference is at the Marriot which is across Canal Street so, while daddy hurries off to go to the whole reason for coming on this trip, I load a screaming Oscar who wants to do anything but be confined again into the stroller to go back to our hotel.