I didn't sleep well last night. Tossed and turned a lot. I didn't have a pillow, so I used my towel, rolled up. I had intended on just buying a towel when I got here, but the Wal Mart that was on the way to Camp Hope was no longer in business. It seems like a lot of business are that way down here.
I got up around 6:00 AM and got dressed then walked down to the cafeteria for some breakfast. I had some French toast, sausage, potatoes and some cream of wheat. It wasn't too bad. After breakfast, I fixed my lunch for the day - a couple ham and cheese sandwiches, a banana and an orange.
I met up with a couple of people who were also going to the Musician's Village construction site, Barbra and Ciella. Musician's Village is about 30 minutes away from camp.
Once at Musician's Village, we signed in and waited for our safety briefing. While I waited, I took some time to look around at the village. It reminded me of easter. :-) All of the houses are various pastel colors in reds, purples, blues, greens, pinks, etc.
We got our assignments and headed to the construction site. Our site supervisor is Richard McBride and his assistant is Sam. I don't know what Sam's last name is. We were supposed to go to our project house on Independence (a house not in the village, but a few blocks away) but it was being blocked by a back hoe that was demolishing the house directly across the street from ours. So we were diverted to N. Roman St. to work on a house that was not as far along.
This house had the foundation and floor done, and the outside and interior walls were up. The exterior walls were covered in plywood and the house was wrapped with Tyvek. But the outside walls were warped lengthwise, so we had to straighten them. While one crew worked on that project, we were sent around the back of the house to work on the roof trusses. Some notches needed to be cut in the two gable end trusses for lookouts.
Problem: The gable end trusses were on the bottom of the stack.
Solution: Get 6 people together and reverse the stack!
After that task was complete, a few of us were given the task to remove some plywood that was put on the top of the rear wall. Once the gable end truss is up, the plywood would overlap the wall by about 18 inches and up the truss. This ties it all together. A different crew had covered the whole back wall, so we removed it. I was told that I would spend 25% of my time here undoing some other volunteer's mistake. I guess he was right.
Then we had to complete some stud work in side the house. Short studs needed to be cut to go over the top of the doorways and windows to the ceiling. This just gives the drywall crew something to nail the drywall to.
We wrapped up for the day around 3:30. It was a good day and we got some stuff accomplished.
After heading back to camp, and after a shower, I had some dinner in the cafeteria. I was a bit bored (even though I was tired) and wanted to do something. I wanted to find some live music - some old fashioned blues. So I headed down to the French Quarter in downtown New Orleans along the river.
I strolled up and down Decatur St. but didn't find much. I ended up walking up a side street and came to Bourbon St. What a difference. A lot more people than I saw on Decatur!
I strolled down and found the Funky Pirate where Big Al Carson and the Blues Masters were playing. No cover charge! Big Al, if he is a pound, he's 500 pounds. The guy was huge, but he could sing the blues. I also found out why most of the bars charge no cover. Beers are almost $7.00 a piece! I think they're cheaper at Indian's Games!
I listened for a while, and kept walking, finding at least 10 other live bands. Some playing blues, some rock-n-roll and some Jazz. Lots to choose from. By this time, ti was pretty late, my cell phone battery has died and I am tired - back to camp.