On July 12, 2009, the Summer of Taurus tour arrived in New Orleans for a special blogger dinner.  Co-hosted by local bloggers Chris Schultz and Greta Perry, 12 bloggers came together at Mandina’s Restaurant – a New Orleans institution founded in 1932 and one of the first restaurants in the Mid-City neighborhood to reopen after Hurricane Katrina. Click here to peruse the flickr photostream from the event.

Bloggers enjoyed a delicious meal, were able to take test-drives in the 2010 Ford Taurus and got to speak personally with Noah Mass, Ford Manager of Systems Architecture.  One of the bloggers, Brian Bordainick, became a blogger recently as a means of getting the word out about the 9th Ward Field of Dreams: a project at the school where he serves as athletic director.

After a morning at Lamarque Ford in New Orleans, where Noah Mass took the time to walk people through all of the details of the 2010 Taurus, Brian and Chris met up with Noah to drive out to George Washington Carver High School to see where the 9th Ward Field of Dreams will one day be built.  Brian showed Noah the old condemned school buildings, as well as the current practice fields and trailers being used as classrooms.

Learn more about the 9th Ward Field of Dreams on their Web site, and be sure to check The Ford Story often to follow our stops in other cities as we continue our 100-city summer tour.

You can take a video tour of the 2010 Ford Taurus, hosted by Noah.

You can also come along with Brian to the site of the future 9^th Ward Field of Dreams.