Day 18 - Interview with Oliver Stone

Oliver graciously invites us to view the "W" production office. We get a quick interview with him.

We get back on the road for Austin, TX.

Day 16 - Shreveport, LA

A friend from the night before, Derek, stops by to check on us before going ATV-ing. He tells us that his friend is a mechanic that can probably fix our brake lights. Randy fixes our brake light problem by putting a simple fuse in (from a free kit given to us at the Harrah's Casino in New Orleans).

We make it to Shreveport by 5pm. We meet up with Oliver and go to the "W" wrap party.

Day 15 - Leaving New Orleans for real this time

We go back to the lower 9th ward and speak to volunteers from lowernine.org. We also stop at Cafe Reconcile and speak to the foundation's coordinator and a participant. Cafe Reconcile is a Zagat's rated restaurant in New Orleans, its mission is to give teens the skillset to work within the service industry.

We set off to go to Austin, TX at dusk. At the border of Louisiana and Texas - Lake Charles, Tracy wakes up and finds a voicemail from a friend of LAFCO, director Oliver Stone. He just wrapped his film "W" in Shreveport, LA and invited us to the wrap party the next evening.

We make a detour north. In the town immediately north of Lake Charles, Moss Bluff, we stop for gas. After filling up, the bus won't start. A filling on the air compressor has busted.

There is no 24 hour mechanic in the area. We meet Moss Bluff locals our age and talk until the wee hours of the morning. The next morning, Joe the mechanic comes and fixes the air compressor part. He informs us that we have a transmission leak. And our brake lights are not working. He can't fix either, we deem this not that urgent and set off.

Day 14 - Discoving New Orleans

Tracy and Jennifer go to City Hall to meet with Norris Henderson of SafeStreets. At the meeting, the New Orleans Council passes a controversial and long-awaited proposal that would implement independent police monitoring in New Orleans.

Sasha and Maggie go to the Garden District and meet artists.

Day 13 - Leaving New Orleans

We try to leave New Orleans for Austin, TX. We stop at Walmart to get some supplies. Pulling out of Walmart, the bus loses any acceleration capacity.

We get towed to a shop outside of New Orleans. It's an easy fix, a new distributor is needed.

We plan to stay in New Orleans for at least another day.

Day 12 - NOLA

We tour the 9th Ward to see if there has been any progress.
We meet up with Chloe Cockburn, an attorney for the Vera Institute of Justice (NY), who has been working in New Orleans to help revise their criminal justice system. She is Tao Ruspoli's sister-in-law.