An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

Going to JazzFest in New Orleans has been a "bucket list" item for me. I had plans to go in 2020 which were thwarted by the pandemic. Then they scheduled and cancelled twice in 2021. When they announced that the Fest was back for 2022, I made plans right away. Wednesday Let me start with the surprising observation that there’s a Jazzfest style. Most of the music festivals I’ve attended have been largely int the jam band genre, featuring bands like Dead & Co., Tedeschi Trucks, and Greensky Bluegrass. Attendees of such events have a generally hippie-ish vibe. You’ll see plenty of  tie-dye, peasant skirts and other hippie-signaling garb, both among the greying Boomers and the younger “ wooks ”. Also, these festivals have a somewhat counter-culture flavor which means there’ll always be a good supply of freaky people – from the Bluegrass Chicken Man to folks in outrageous multi-colored garb. JazzFest is different. There are fewer eccentric dressers, and very little tie-dy...

 I awoke bright and early Sunday morning, having slept surprisingly well in yet another whatever-is-lower-than-one-star Brooklyn AirBnB experiences. My accommodations were a couple of nearly windowless basement rooms with bare bulbs for illumination, a semi-finished bathroom and a kitchen area with a countertop supported by raw 2x4’s, but it was clean and the bed wasn’t bad – except for the lack of a top sheet. Brooklyn AirBnBs are always an adventure. But it didn't matter - after last year's last-minute cancellation (due to weather, not COVID), the Five Borough Bike Tour was on and I was raring to go! After a quick breakfast and final decisions about layering for the day’s weather I struggled out the door with my bike and gear – to get the bike out I had to open the apartment door and wheel the bike into the barely-large enough-for-a-bike vestibule, close and lock the apartment door behind me, go up a very steep and narrow stairway to open the outside door, come back down, c...