2004: NEW ORLEANS “THE BIG UNEASY”
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DAY 1: NEW ORLEANS DELIVERS
Like a piece of fruit so perfectly ripe that it’s on the verge of going bad, New Orleans seemed like the perfect host for yet another Paloozian adventure. Laissez les bon temps rouler!
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DAY 1: TOBIN JOINS THE FRAY
Paloozian virgin Mark Tobin leafs through the latest issue of "Holy Crap, What Have I Gotten Myself Into?" on the flight over to New Orleans.
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DAY 1: OFF TO THE QUARTER
Shortly after landing, the Paloozians are off and exploring the stunning array of bars, restaurants, and freakish citizens that can be found in The French Quarter.
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DAY 1: FIRST STOP
Before dining on southern delicacies at Olivier’s, the Paloozians wisely decide to get things started and step into Silky’s for some beverages.
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DAY 1: NACHOS ANYONE?
At Silky’s the boys unwisely decide to form a pre-dinner base with a greasy order of Pulled Pork Nachos.
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DAY 1: OLIVIER'S CREOLE RESTAURANT
The first dinner in New Orleans is a doozy—highlighted by Gumbo, Jambalaya and the house specialty, Crawfish Etouffee.
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DAY 1: JEAN LAFITTE'S PLACE
After dinner, it is back to "operation bar crawl" on Bourbon St. The Paloozians start with Old Absinthe House, easily the dustiest bar on earth.
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DAY 1: MEMORABILIA GALORE
Everything from decades old football uniforms and helmets, to century-old ads for Lucky Strike and local politicians long since dead are hanging (and collecting dust) inside this NOLA classic.
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DAY 1: OFF TO PATTY O'S
From there the Paloozians make their way to Pat O’Briens, the most famous bar in New Orleans and home to the world’s first dueling piano bar and the esteemed Hurricane cocktail.
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DAY 1: MILO VS THE HURRICANE
Milo's adversary for the night (and most of the next day) is Patty O’s world-famous "Hurricane", a dangerously sweet mixture of fruit punch and four shots of god-knows-what.
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DAY 1: THE EUROPEAN JAZZ PUB
The Paloozians then take a break from the chaos of Patty O’s to check out some jazz at Fritzel’s and debate when Al will fall asleep and spill his beer everywhere.
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DAY 1: THE HURRICANES KICK IN
Fortunately, Milo is anything but sleepy, which keeps Al interested. Let's just say Milo’s had a few colorful rum drinks at this point as he dons a lamp shade at Fritzel’s.
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DAY 1: THE FRITZEL'S HOUSE BAND
Man, those Europeans sure can fire up some good jazz.
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DAY 1: PALOOZIAN CONCERN
Clearly Mark and Craig are starting to wonder if Milo is going to survive the night’s festivities.
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DAY 1: DOWN GOES FRAZIER!
Needless to say, the Hurricanes eventually win, delivering the knockout blow right about the stroke of midnight. At that point, Cinderella simply has to leave the ball. He goes on to hold this exact position until the morning
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DAY 2: FRENCH BEIGNETS!
The city’s most iconic establishment is Cafe Du Monde, famous for their chicory-flavored cafe au laits and mouth-watering beignets they’ve been serving since the Civil War.
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DAY 2: THE WORLD'S BEST
As far as beignets go, nothing you've ever had comes close to these bad boys. Dense and generously covered in powdered sugar, they’ll be gone in an instant at any Paloozian table.
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DAY 2: JACKSON SQUARE
After loading up on CDM goodies, the Paloozians pass by Jackson Square on their way to ride airboats in the bayou.
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DAY 2: MILO'S STILL SUFFERING
The ride is a painful affair for Milo, as he tries to manage the after-affects of his Hurricane run. Note: this didn’t seem to bother him much as he wolfed down beignets earlier.
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DAY 2: THE BOYS GATHER GATOR TIPS
On the right side of the van, Mark and Al are in deep conversation with the airboat van driver about life in the bayou.
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DAY 2: THAR SHE BLOWS!
And on the left side of the van, Milo appears to be overly fascinated by the unique sea shell composition of the bayou's salty side streets.
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DAY 2: THIS IS AWESOME
The airboat rides are quite amazing and the unique landscape of the Louisiana bayou is even more so.
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DAY 2: HEAVY DUTY HEADPHONES
Here’s Al donning his high-intensity headphones to block out the extremely loud airboat engines, which are as loud as commercial jet engines.
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DAY 2: THE BAYOU SWAMPS
Cruising around though the bayou swamps proves to be an all-time Paloozian experience. Sean will lament his noticeable absence for decades to come.
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DAY 2: GATOR SEARCHING
Due to the lateness of the season, we aren’t sure whether we will see any gators. Luckily a few of these guys make their way to the surface to say hi and see if Milo is feeling better.
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DAY 2: A LITTLE GATOR TRIVIA
Gators are freaky animals to see out in the wild. Besides a serious set of teeth, when you’re up close, you see that hey have is two eyelids--one shuts vertically and the other horizontally. Super creepy.
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DAY 2: COCOA ANYONE?
You know, you fly 1,500 miles to see some man-eating gators, and it turns out they go absolutely nuts for marshmallows.
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DAY 2: THAT'S GONNA LEAVE A MARK
Our airboat guide knew most of the gators by name, but that didn't stop this one from snapping off a bit of his thumb.
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DAY 2: YOU GOT A PERTY MOUTH
Scattered throughout the swamp are these aging Cajun cabins, seemingly floating out in the middle of nowhere. I can’t imagine being in one of those at night with nothing but a banjo.
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DAY 2: A BALD EAGLE
The ultimate irony of our trip occurs when Al spots a Bald Eagle perched atop a cypress tree. Birds of a feather, I guess.
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DAY 2: CRUISING THROUGH ANYTHING
These airboats are pretty ingenious. Because they're powered by a giant fan, they can cruise right over the more dense, marshy surface known as the "flotant". Oh look, Milo’s back!
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DAY 2: MID-CITY ROCK 'N BOWL
Sean finally arrives and the Paloozians head off to perhaps the strangest event in Paloozian history--the now infamous Zydeco Night at Mid-City Bowling.
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DAY 2: OLD-SCHOOL BOWLING
In between watching 60 year old couples square dance to zydeco, the boys bowl a few games and openly admire Mark's well-worn, butt-hugging “khraki's.”
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DAY 2: BACK TO BOURBON ST
After the bowling, the boys head back to Bourbon St to see what’s going down. Sean earns some commemorative Mardi Gras beads by flashing his much sought after tatas.
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DAY 2: THE 544 CLUB
Our first stop is a small club to catch some live blues and get into the flow of things.
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DAY 2: MILO REBOUNDS
With all the remaining hurricanes finally out of his system (and quite literally 60 miles outside of town), Milo is finally able to get back on the Paloozian saddle for Jello shots at Razzoo.
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DAY 2: PATIO AT RAZZOO
Sean chats up a very blurry Al with stories about the last time he was at Razzoo.
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DAY 3: DAY GAMBLING
After securing a decent night’s rest, the lads venture off to Harrah’s Casino on the Mississippi to play some craps.
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DAY 3: OUR FIRST NBA GAME
Early that evening, the boys scrap their original plans (Clemmie would be so proud) and watch the Atlanta Hawks beat the New Orleans Hornets 96-95.
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DAY 3: AL CHECKS OUT
Despite the close game, Al begins a 3-day sporting event doze-fest that defies logic. From that point on, nobody is quite sure whether Al is ever truly awake again on this trip.
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DAY 3: OYSTER TIME
After the game, it was on to Acme Oyster House for some jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp po boys and fresh oysters. All low-fat and high-fiber, of course.
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DAY 3: LATE NIGHT SNACKS
Scattered throughout the French Quarter are these Lucky Dogs stands featuring must-have, late-night hot dogs. Lots of good toppings and a great bun.
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DAY 3: CHEESE PIZZA FOR ALL
The night concludes with some memorable slices of cheese pizza from a frozen cocktail place call Mango Mango.
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DAY 4: ROAD BEIGNETS!
It’s Saturday morning and time to head north to Baton Rouge, so the Paloozians decide to stock up on beignets and extra large cafe au laits for the road.
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DAY 4: CONVEYOR BELT OF THE GODS
This place is pretty much packed 24-7, so the beignets just continually roll into a huge fryer from a conveyor belt. Now that's good eatin'.
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DAY 4: OLD MAN RIVER
Before we venture on to LSU, Mark takes a moment to have a look at the mighty Mississippi as it rolls on by.
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DAY 4: EARLY TAILGATING FAIL
Finally, we arrive in Baton Rouge for the big LSU-Bama game. Sadly, we aren’t yet aware that the fans park remotely but tailgate just outside the stadium. It’s a lonely party at first.
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DAY 4: THIS GOES ON FOR A FEW HOURS
Still unaware of the tailgating nirvana they would soon find near the stadium, the Paloozians amuse themselves by taking apart the Palooza Van and watching Al spray beer on himself.
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DAY 4: TAILGATING LSU STYLE
But once we head to the stadium, things improve dramatically. LSU tailgating is pretty much off the hook. Everyone has tons of good eats and drinks, and are anxious to share with anyone.
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DAY 4: THE OAK GROVE
As you get closer to the stadium, the tailgating gets incredibly dense. It’s just a never-ending stream of amazing parties.
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DAY 4: DANCE CONTEST
The craziest tailgate party we found featured a game of dancing spin-the-bottle. If the bottle points at you, it’s time to get up and dance on top of a cooler.
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DAY 4: SEAN EATS SOME DUST
Smalls snaps this shot just seconds before Sean proceeds to take the stage, do some sort of running man thing, slip and take a beater before the horrified crowd. Utterly spectacular.
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DAY 4: HOLD ON, GUYS--PHOTO OPP!
It only takes a few minutes before Sean restores his much-maligned dignity to the delight of the local LSU fans.
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DAY 4: GAME TIME
After spending a full day tailgating (and power dancing), it's finally time for 5 Paloozians and 102,321 buzzed Cajuns to head into the stadium for the game and begin screaming.
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DAY 4: AL? AL?
So, what would you do in the middle of a frenzied college football stadium during a tightly fought SEC battle on a Saturday night? Why, sleep, of course!!
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DAY 4: AND HE'S OUT
In all my years of shooting Al dozing off during all sorts of fun events, I don't think I've ever seen him actually slump in public...until today. And at LSU vs Alabama of all places.
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DAY 4: LSU WINS BIG
Coached by Nick Saban in his final season at LSU, the Tigers lean on their stout defense to polish off Alabama 26-10.
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DAY 5: MORE FOOTBALL
The next day, we get up early and head back to New Orleans to catch the Saints play the Chiefs at the legendary Superdome.
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DAY 5: OUR MISSING FOUNDER
Dean’s empty seat lies in quiet solitude as a symbol of our first wayward founder. A moment of silence please.
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DAY 5: SAINTS COME MARCHING IN
The Saints represent the city pretty well--good food (for a stadium), live music and beer at every corner. They even shoot confetti on us.
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DAY 5: WANT CONFETTI ON THAT?
Our seats are right above the center of the endzone, so the confetti machine is directly behind us. That's Al with a confetti sandwich.
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DAY 5: GREAT VENUE
The Superdome is a pretty cool place to see a game. A perfect 72 degrees and very spacious seats (the locals are quite big).
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DAY 5: SAINTS 27 - CHIEFS 20
Joe Horn gathers in 167 yards receiving as Deuce McAllister rambles for 127 on the ground to lead the Saints to victory.
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DAY 5: STILL ROCKING IT
The ever-animated Sean and Milo seem to be enjoying the game.
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DAY 5: REALLY, AL?
But Rip Van Allie is back at it again. Will somebody buy this guy a nap an, a dozen Red Bulls please?
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DAY 5: FAREWELL NEW ORLEANS
With another epic Paloozian adventure in the books, exhausted Paloozians Milo and Craig bid you farewell from The Big Uneasy.
Inside Colopalooza: Milo Chavis