Louisiana y’all

February 6 – 9: Wished Clara a happy birthday when we got up (in the rain, again!) and discussed going to visit. Are we crazy enough to do it? Time will tell….

Before heading out I talked Ron into a mani-pedi at Acqua Salon right on Rte. 90 in Ocean Springs. Best idea ever. We both spent a relaxing hour getting pampered while the rain continued, on and off, for the entire time. Grabbed a sandwich before heading west to Louisiana and drove along the Mississippi coast for a while, admiring the white sand beaches, the big old live oaks streaming with Spanish moss, and the remnants of Ol’ Miss plantations along the shore.

At exactly 5:00 pm Gai met us in her driveway, introduced us to Misty – her 8 year old black lab – and our next respite from the road began.

Day one: Took a “tour” of Gai’s new rig, a 24′ Regency. Hard to believe they can pack so much comfort and luxury onto a class B chassis. When Ron sat in one of the captain’s chairs and Gai rolled up the 40″ TV in front of him I could see van envy setting in. Gai drove us around of one of her favorite small towns, Madisonville, where we turned into Fairview SP on the Tchefuncte river and admired the view from a picnic bench. I took the Swamp Walk boardwalk trail alone (looks just like it sounds) and kept my eyes peeled for gators and snakes. None showed. Later on, we set off to have dinner at Acme Seafood, one of her favorite restaurants, only to find it closed – not for the night but permanently. Disappointed she took us to downtown Covington and we soothed our sad feelings with some excellent fried seafood and crawfish etouffe.

Day two: We set off this morning to toodle around Covington in daylight but after stopping off at Sam’s Club to pick up meds for Gai (and a slice each for us/hot dog for Ron) the skies opened up again and we retraced our steps for home. Sitting around that evening eating Gai’s jambalaya and discussing our plans for the next few stops, we got her really excited about seeing the Sandhill cranes in New Mexico so off we go tomorrow, in tandem to New Mexico and Basques del Apache! First stop – tomorrow’s zydeco breakfast outside of Lafeyette.

Day three: Be careful of making too many plans. With hopes high we called Buck & Johnny’s for a reservation only to find they no longer do zydeco breakfasts on Sundays. And Gai woke up to find her achy neck had only gotten worse overnight and she would not be joining us on our road trip after all. So we said our good byes to her and Misty and set off for Lafeyette to revisit Vermillionville Historic Village, have a great lunch and spend the night in their parking lot – sanctioned by our Harvest Host membership, of course. The band playing in the dance hall – as part of their Bal Dimanche line-up – was more southern rock than zydeco but it was live and the dance floor was packed. I stayed to listen and watch the couples two-step and waltz while Ron retired to the van to rest a bit. After the last note, and when all the visitors’ cars had left, we found a level spot under a live oak near some picnic benches and settled in for the night.