Went to New Orleans for a convention in the latter '90s.
*Crossed the river on the (free, IIRC) ferry – loved the time-travel movie with Denzel Washington where his character has to prevent a nutbar from blowing up that same ferry.
*Took Amtrak there (from Chicago) but flew home. Should have taken the train both ways. For one thing, a New Orleans-Birmingham-Chicago flight on Southwest became a New Orleans-Birmingham-Louisville-Chicago flight due to storm delays. For one thing. :rolleyes:
I really should should go back to see how the place has/hasn’t recovered since Katrina.
I went for a inter-company technical conference in 2000. We had a nice office on Gravier St. but Hurricane Katrina beat up the building and unfortunately they fled to the northern suburbs ( Covington ) to rebuild.
My family took several trips to New Orleans on the steamboat Delta Queen in the Seventies; I still remember my childhood awe at the cemeteries full of above-ground mausoleums. Then in Jan. 2001 I was in Nawlins for a seminar. I stayed in the French Quarter, had my fortune told in Jackson Square, visited the excellent city museum (which includes the actual courtroom in which Plessy v. Ferguson was tried) and feasted on etouffee at Antoine’s. Good times.
It looks like just about 100 according to the scale on the Google map. Since that “heel” part of AL is the closest I’ve been, 100 miles is what I selected.
I think I live within 500 miles from there–if I count displacement and not distance. (i.e. as the crow flies). I’ve actually been within 150 miles, though. I’ve been to the bottom of Arkansas, but never Louisiana.
For one thing, a New Orleans-Birmingham-Chicago flight on Southwest became a New Orleans-Birmingham-Louisville-Chicago flight due to storm delays. 
For one thing. :rolleyes: