Last of the blogging marathon

We still had more packing to do--after we unpacked. We had started last night because we were still on west coast time and didn’t get to sleep until after 2 AM. We also had a ton of laundry to do so we began it today. I had thought I would cut the grass today since the man I had hired to do it had not. I went to borrow the neighbor’s mower as I always do and found it gone. I guess they sold their house while we were gone and they had sold the mower to Juan, the man who was supposed to mow our lawn. I still wanted to get some of the trimming done so I cut the old fronds from the sega palms around the yard. Along came Juan who promised to mow next Monday. I also had to get our month’s worth of back mail and begin to go through it. We also began having gourmet meals from the freezer so we could clean it out. We fried the pound of crawfish tails we had brought from Lafayette last fall. We worked at these tasks all day and went to bed early.

Thursday Evelyn continued with the laundry and I began to pack the Saturn for travel. It was difficult remembering the things we wanted to take. We will leave some of the items in NC but I didn’t know how we would ever get all the things into it. Evelyn was able to get blood work done at Dr. McDougal’s and an appointment with the internist for tomorrow. It was hot during the day but cool in the evening. I had to put air in the tire of our golf cart so I had to get some advice from Tom Crouch as to how to get the sealant into the tire. He loaned me a tool that would unscrew the valve core. Then he and Diesta came down to visit for a couple of hours. We have a good time with them. He drank some wine which surprised me. I needed to finish a bottle of white wine and gladly joined him. I also put several items into the car but had many more to go. I also pulled the tomato and squash plants and put them out for the park workers to dispose of along with the palm fronds. Our neighbors had their grandsons come to help them load a U haul truck. We worked late and went to bed after 10.

I continued to load Friday and Evelyn finished the laundry. She also worked on closing the house up for the summer. She was able to get an appointment for a permanent in early afternoon and then keep her appointment with the internist. Her report was very good so she will stay on the medicine he has her on. I was finished with the car and we rested until time to go to Joe and Bonny’s for steak. We took them a great many things we could not take with us this year because we don’t have the motor home refrigerator to use. We did take some boudin to them for us to eat during the dinner. We had a nice dinner and visit with them. They think they will come to visit us in NC in July. That will be a busy month for us since Stacy’s family will be visiting several times during that month. We came home and went to bed.

We were up and working by 7. We finished the interior, turned off the water and electricity, and set off 4 insect bombs before we left. We were on the road by 8:50. We had a wonderful uneventful day driving through Houston and made it to Lafayette by 7:30. We checked into a motel and were off to Randol’s for dinner and dancing. We really were in the groove and danced very well. We did have some surprises while driving: gas was around $2.75 most of the time (cheaper than in the Valley) and averaged around 25 MPG. It was a bit frustrating when I could not get my computer to connect to the WiFi at the motel.

We made arrangements to check out of the motel a bit late so we slept late and went to church at 10:30. We had planned to go to Dwyer’s Cafe for lunch but were still full from the large breakfast provided by the motel. So we returned to change clothes and finish packing. We were on the road by 1:30 but were hungry by then. We drove to Breaux Bridge and went to Mulate’s for Mother’s Day lunch. We were surprised to find a live band playing Sunday afternoon. We were able to dance some more before eating our crawfish ettouffee. We left there and drove to Gulfport, MS. We found a Best Western by going to several motels and finding it. We decided to drive along the gulf and view some of the damage from Katrina a year and a half to go. It is humbling to see how this rich area was just wiped out by a storm. I was able to connect to the Internet this time and published many blog entries and pictures. I stayed up later than I should have with this important task.

We slept late and enjoyed the breakfast again. We drove through more damaged areas until we came to the bridge closed on highway 90. We turned north and drove into Alabama, stopping at the welcome center for brochures. We spent 45 minutes there talking with the helpful worker. We drove on to Dauphin Island, a place Evelyn always wanted to visit. I didn’t think it was worth the trip. We took the Fort Morgan ferry across to Fort Morgan. We drove up through Foley where we bought a travel pillow from an outlet mall. We also found a very nice room in a Regal Inn near Lambert’s where we had planned to have dinner. We had to stand in line as always and took a table with two other couples so we could be seated earlier. We both ordered dinners of which we could only eat half. We carried out food that we have no way of transporting in a cool environment tomorrow. The other couples were from Baton Rouge and we talked a great deal about our travels and time in Cajun country. We came home and watched the Cubs blow a game in the 9th.