1/18/18 Isolated on the West Bank....

Congregation Coffee Roasters just up the street. City still frozen but a glorious bright blue bird egg sky morning. All interstates still closed, ferry still closed. Car doors frozen closed. Totally isolated on the West Bank. At least we don’t have to boil water as they are suggesting for folks on the east side. Apparently with all the broken water pipes and people running water all night to keep pipes from freezing there isn’t enough water pressure at the treatment plants to assure adequate protection. Thankfully we made grocery shopping as priority the first day and there’s plenty of partially used variety of dried beans and pasta left from previous renters. Folks a little ignorant about freezing weather here. Conversation in the coffee shop is about how “some people” have houses that are insulated and one of the workers here cracked her windshield this morning by pouring hot water on it to de-ice! 

I suspect we will again hang low today exploring the neighborhood and checking out the few eating and drinking establishments near by. (All the while trying to avoid broken hips!) If the ferry starts running again we might go into the French Quarter. Otherwise, it’s curl up on the couch with the dog and get imaginative for dinner. Herman and I do enjoy our walks. The levee is one block behind our place so we march up there to watch the barges cruise by on the river, marvel at the N.O skyline and supervise the maritime works in the dry dock as they re-outfit a bright red tug boat. Of course, H has to stop and smell everything and is learning to be cautious stepping onto ice. He fell thru this morning. Thankfully it was just a puddle so he got wet only up to his knees!

Go to N.O they said......

1/17/18  Brrrrrr......

Go to New Orleans, they said. It’ll be warm, they said!!

Twenty degrees and woke up to snow on the ground. Not like snow we know but enough to paralyze this whole town. Schools closed. Roads closed. Now sunny and bright but still cold and iced. Sarah and I decide not to drive anywhere. Not so much due to the weather and road conditions but locals inability to function in these conditions. Finally stir crazy reading discarded magazines and travel brochures we walked the block and a half to the Crown & Anchor English Pub. Entering thru the blue Tardis police box we are greeted warmly by the bar keep and informed there is no draft, no cocktails involving water, and no bathrooms. Pipes are frozen! Just like ours!! Well, we do have cold water but not hot. Kept the faucets dripping all night. We can live with that. And we have heat altho Herman has stayed in his jacket, which he usually hates and squirms out of, all night and today. 

Went to Mardi Gras World yesterday. The primary creators and fabricators of the Carnival floats, their cavernous warehouse is packed with styrofoam and papier-mâché larger than life characters of every imaginative creature. There’s 15 foot tall pirates, voluptuous dancing girls, King Kong and family, bats, birds, snakes, Bart Simpson and family, and semi-truck size floats decked out in plywood flowers being prepped to roll for upcoming parades. Taken for granted all my life that these floats just “got made” it never occurred to me the artistic and obsessive process involved. Blane Kern’s company also makes figurines and landscapes for Disney, Universal Studios, many of the casinos, advertising (the Chick-a-filet cows!), and anything else limited only by imagination or finances. 

Arrive NOLA

1/15/17  Arrived NOLA

First phase of our trip is done. Arrived in New Orleans yesterday and moved in to our lovely abode on Bouny St in Algiers. Across the mighty Mississippi River from New Orleans proper we are a $1 pedestrian ferry ride from the base of Canal St near the French Quarter. Algiers, the second oldest neighborhood in N.O, it has shown a slow economic growth over the decades (centuries?) but is now enjoying a certain popularity (read “gentrification”). Racially diverse with areas of continued segregation there is limited infrastructure in the immediate area. Other than a couple of bars, 2 coffee shops and a few 7-11 type stores there are few options for shopping. Today, we’ll meet friends in town and make a grocery run as a priority. 

Home is an older, well kept “shotgun”. Double barrel shotgun actually; a duplex. Given that real estate has always been a premium in this area, many of the houses are built on very narrow parcels. Shotgun describes the fact that one can shoot a shotgun thru the front door with the bullets going thru every room till exiting out the back. Living room on the street (this one closed off as private), followed by bedroom with small bath off to the side, sitting/dining room, then kitchen, and finally back mud/utility room. We also have a small 12 x 12 fenced in patio in the back. Decorated with numerous black and white photos in black frames, folk art of stylized  creatures, and the ubiquitous Mardi Gras beads there is a definite funkiness with a bit of a voodoo flair. Fully furnished and a fully appointed kitchen, this will be just fine for the next 4 weeks. Herman is already quite comfortable on the couch!

Going back....

Lafayette, LA 1/12/18

Today is a sad day. Bill Black, known thruout the Baton Rouge TV viewing area as Buckskin Bill died today. I spent most of my youthful mornings watching The Buckskin Bill show. I would join Buckskin every Monday with the Monday morning march using whatever was available as a baton then settled in to watch the Little Rascals and Bill’s antics with a wooden marionette,  Senor Puppet. A more popular personality than any celebrity in any parade, Buckskin Bill ended every show with “Remember Baton Rouge needs a zoo” and “You are never completely dressed until you put on a smile” and thanks to the penny drive thousands of children donated $6000 to purchase two elephants, Penny and Penny 2, for the new BR zoo. Buckskin Bill now forever in Storyland.

Other than the rush into nostalgia with the TV commemoration for Buckskin, there is little personal reflection for me in this town. They say “you can never go back” and that is certainly the case here in Lafayette. Graduating nursing school at USL (University of Southwestern La) now called UL of Lafayette and driving around a city changed by 40 years of history, this is a town I don’t recognize. Thank goodness Siri knows her way around. And the food! The food has not changed. Roast beef poboy for me and catfish for Sarah for lunch and the best 7-course Cajun dinner ever: a pound of boudin and a 6-pack. 

Drowning in east Texas....

OMG!!!!!  Left Austin early to overcast skies. By the time we got to Houston it was pouring down rain. I mean visibility about 75 yards! Trucks throwing blinding wakes at 60 MPH. White knuckled hands cramping on the wheel. Sarah too nervous to watch trying to knit. The dog sleeping obliviously. Hoping to blast to Lafayette to meet up with our friends, Steve and Laurie but bailed in Orange, Tx just west of the La border. Peeled my hands off the steering wheel and booked a room at Motel 6, the fourth place we tried to allow poor Herman. Assured the comfort of the wife and the dog then back out to hunt down vittles. A 9 piece chicken dinner from Church’s, a couple of bananas and yogurt for b’fast and a quick run into Red’s Liquor store for a fifth of Jim Beam. Now, belly full, dog gone to bed, two fingers bourbon down, and Sarah and I binge watching news. (Making my blood pressure go higher than the drive!!)

Had a wonderful visit in Austin albeit brief. Stopped in Bastrop about 15 miles out of town for breakfast. Maxine’s dinner for eggs, sausage, biscuits and grits. Refreshing to be served by tatted pierced  polite and friendly folks in an assumed redneck conservative environment. Having fantasies of this being our winter sojourn next winter. But have had that fantasy before and will likely have it many more times before this trip is over. 

Austin, Texas

Wed 1/10/17  Austin, Texas

Arrived here yesterday, driving I-10 (speed limit 80!), exchanging desert for Texas hill country. Moisture in the air! Siri led us straight to my old college friend, Gene. Plagued with debilitating allergies this time of year, Herman isn’t welcomed, so lodging procured at McKenney State Park on the edge of town. Well maintained complex populated with oaks and, er, trees; cheap and quite comfy..........Darren and his partner, the camp hosts, just drove by in their little green golf cart to say “howdy”. From Bend they have been traveling around, hosting, at various parks. Stood in the street, drinking coffee and talking weather, park accommodations from here to southern Calif., pros/cons of traveling armed, and beer. 

To Gene’s for b’fast. (Herman cloistered in the car. New temporary name: Anna for anaphylaxis). Almost 65 yrs old and the girl doesn’t know how to make an over easy egg?! I gave lessons and had her flipping 2 eggs at once with nary a broken yoke. She was so excited and can’t wait to show her husband. Two hour breakfast and a load of laundry doesn’t near cover the 40 years of reminiscing. Plans for genuine Tex-Mex tonight.

Dinner last night with Gene and Jim at Threadgill’s, an Austin institution. For me, a big pile of fried chicken livers, fried okra and a mess of collards took me back to my college days visiting here. I remember 8 deep at the bar waiting for a table. Last night apparently a slow Tues. Pictures of the old Armadillo World Headquarters music hall along with rock and blues legends lining the walls.

Points south....

Ok, ok, ok......I told folks I would “try” to post, so here......

Sunday, 1/7/28.......Picacho Peak State Park. About 30 miles west of Tucson. Drifted in just at dusk.  Red sky quickly fading to gray. Then black. Very very black! Tent set up with the waning light. Dinner of ham (left over from lunch) burritos by glow of head lights. Jewels of moving lights stretching along I-10 west and east. The hum of trucks to serenade as we do chores (my writing. Sarah organizing something yet again!). Herman patiently waiting by the the tent door until allowed in to go to bed. Damn dog’s been sleeping in the car all day and still can’t get into his tent bed fast enough!

Today drove from Anza Borrego Desert State Park 150 miles east of San Diego. Tamarac Campground with the only available shade (imported tamarack trees) and no potable water. Coming from a land where water routinely falls from the sky, one has to adapt a new mind set in the desert. Don’t expect readily available water and certainly don’t expect it to be free! We plan our day where we can obtain water and adjust our activity accordingly. Oh, and after the first day, we remember to water the dog! Snipits: a dozen hot sports cars racing past the campground at 7am; big horn sheep on the hill; morning coffee clutch of the guys lined up in formation with their dusty golf carts at Ironwood Resort bitching about cholesterol and salt restrictions; shopping at Walmart, the traveler’s oasis, hit and run rear ended on freeway in San Diego at rush hour (no apparent damage but pissed me off!)

Awakened at 6am to the most spectacular red and blue sky backlighting 15 foot saguaro cacti. The air cool and winds now calm. Fuel about gone for the stove so only a cup of lukewarm coffee before hitting the road east.

The ordered chaos from the Tetris School of car packing has deteriorated into the reality of willy-nilly! Easy access to luggage is now accomplished by not even bothering to zip bags closed. Torn maps of Calif are now at the bottom of the pile, overlaid by Arizona and New Mexico. Charging cables snaking here and there searching for hungry batteries. Devises 

tucked into nooks and crannies. Chip bags and empty coffee cups migrating around and warm coats still pilled on the floor of the back seat, obviously no longer needed. Herman riding copilot on top of his kennel bored with head hanging down in pretty good imitation of Snoopy on his dog house. Search of local radio stations for NPR reveals right wing talk show or Mexican music. We settle on Mexican. 

Trying to coordinate and time our arrival in Austin tomorrow for the convenience of our friend and host, Gene, we get a room at the Super 8 in Van Horn, Texas. Should actually be able to get up and moving at dawn rather than breaking camp for an hour. McDonalds right next door for breakfast. Dinner tonight cleared out our larder of left over ham, wilted lettuce, questionable cheese, and instant microwaved mashed potatoes. Oh, and finishing off the Jim Beam. Sarah now over her panic about loosing her checkbook. Pulled every piece of luggage and assorted boxes and bags out of the car, emptied the contents, cussed and moaned...then found it in her purse. Yep, Jim Beam’s about gone!