Leaving Charleston and Dropping in on Family in Raleigh

We set a goal of getting the car packed up and the camper down by 9 am. We made it by 8 am, with plenty to time to spare for breakfast. So, we headed out to Folly Road searching for Sweetwater Café. To avoid the opening lift bridge, we took a right curve up a street we had not explored before and accidentally ended up discovering how to get on I-26, which info we needed to get out of town.

We searched King Street from Line down for a breakfast place and settled on Glazed Gourmet Donut Shop. It was a magical surprise for how random its selection was. The clerk also makes all the donuts onsite from scratch. I had an apple bacon fritter that was so light, it was pillowy – and delicious.

We took one more photo by the James Island campground sign after hooking up the camper, said good-bye to Charleston, and headed for the airport to get Mary on a plane. Dropped Mary off and said good-bye. It was great having her company on the last two stops. I stopped at the North Charleston airport visitor center to get a South Carolina highway map, then took I-26 up to I-95 heading to Raleigh, North Carolina to see my son Grant and his family. I switched to I-40 near Benson, but should have gotten off I-95 right before that since my campground, Raleigh Oaks, was right before the split. But I did have a chance to drive thru some beautiful countryside and see the lovely little town of Four Oaks by taking the “scenic route.”

Raleigh Oaks is a huge and really nice campground, but is just shy of 50 miles from Rolesville where Grant lives. The campground has two pools, a large kid tot lot, mini-golf, laundry, and a fabulous shower house. The weekend I came, they also had a jumping house for Easter. One of my new “neighbors” helped me get the top popped up. I didn’t need help, but he was so nice. I finished setting up the camper by 5 pm, got directions to Grant’s house, and drove over there. Grant and Tisha have a lovely new home in a mixed-race suburban development. Grant was out doing lawn work, and Nasir was playing with a football outside. I gave Nasir a fedora hat, and taught him how to pinch it in the front to put it on. He loved it, and wore it everywhere we went the whole time I was there. The two of us played catch until Mommy and Naima came home. I gave Naima her Oriental sun umbrella, which she also loved and took with her everywhere she went for the next two of three days.

We sat on the front porch and watched the kids put on their own show for us on the sidewalk. Grant mentioned that he has fond memories of camping when he was a kid and should probably take them camping. This set the kids off on wanting to go camping with me that night. I thought that was a wonderful idea, so they packed up their tiny suitcases with PJs, one change of clothes, a bunch of snacks, and their stuffed animals. We drove out to Raleigh Oaks campground (by this time after 10 pm). Of course, I got lost on the way out because I tried to take that back country road and made a wrong curve somewhere. Grant had to get me back using GPS from his house and doing a street by street description of where I should be driving. It was after midnight by the time we got there.

Mileage on car so far on this trip = 8,000 miles

Fort Sumter and Charleston's Take on the Civil War

Mary woke up feeling better today (Thursday). I had purchased online tickets for a tour to Fort Sumter in Charleston bay. So, we went straight there with no coffee, and no breakfast.

The National Park Service and Charleston Aquarium share a plaza called Liberty Square right in the midst of a working wharf and ship port. The building is a common southern design with about a million stes up to the main floor (I may have exaggerated). I picked up the tour tickets that I had purchased online and perused the “museum.” Boy, those South Carolinians sure did love slavery and are still nostalgic for it. And they still hate abolitionists.

The “museum” had a quote from Alabama Congressman David Hubbard displayed below a metal Charleston slave’s neck tag: “…the assumed power to put an end to slavery, being a higher power than the Constitution has given Congress, is a violation of its provisions and a destruction of liberty itself. It was Constitutional liberty which our fathers fought to establish and not union! They had union with the mother country when they rebelled.” Kind of scary that this “info” is going unchecked in 2016.

We boarded the triple decker boat (there were a LOT of people going to Fort Sumter including one large school group), and set out across the bay. I saw some small sharks in the water as we waited to board. Mary & I stood in the bow for the trip.

We docked at Fort Sumter and were given one hour to explore the fort. First up, Sgt. Antoine gave us a black powder shooting demonstration. Note: it was great to see that Sgt. Antoine was Black and wearing a blue Union uniform. He showed us all the individual steps it took to load and fire a musket during the Civil War. He then promised that he could fire 3 times in one minute if the crowd counted to 60 real slowly. We were slow and he made it. He showed us his “forager” hat and explained that it was used by the Union army to forage for food along their marches since it could double as a bucket. Remember that part of the reason Sherman’s March to the Sea was so successful was that he required his troops to forage for local food rather than wait for his supply wagons to catch up. This helped him move much faster than the Confederate Army. This fact BTW, was not mentioned.

Mary & I walked around, looked at the display of Union and Confederate flags (the popular notion of the Confederate flag is inaccurate and we could see why the flag was called the "stars and bars"), the cannons lined up to fire out of the holes in the fort walls, the rubble lying below the fort which forms a rip rap for the tiny island (created when Fort Sumter was barraged with cannon fire from Union ships), and the view from the top of the fort. They have a huge bunker-like building – concrete and covered in black tar – right in the middle of the fort called Huger that was built in the 1890s.

Then the call came to reboard. Some fellow travelers took a photo of me at the sign, and I bought the photo the tour people were selling. Also got my National Park passport book stamped. We headed back to dry land.

We saw some more either sharks or dolphins playing in the wake created by the front of the boat. You be the judge.

Since neither of us had breakfast, we were really hungry by this time – 2:30 pm – so headed to City Market for Queology. Mary was still looking for some South Carolina mustard and vinegar BBQ. I had pulled pork and she had chicken – fabulous sandwiches. The sauce is not cooked on the meat in the South, but rather added by the diner later. We both really liked the mustard and vinegar sauce – and the BBQ. The sandwich was well portioned. On the way back to the car, we walked thru City Market and I bought a gift for Trudie.

Back at the camper, we packed up for our departure the next day, and tried to catch up on blog posts.

Charleston Historic District Walking Tour

We got a late start in Charleston today (Wednesday) since we had gotten to sleep so late. I did some laundry, wrote in my journal, and posted to my blog. Mary read her book while sitting on an outdoor swing bench by the pond. Yes, we have our own private pond at the rear of our campsite.

We ate at the Triple D-recommended Cantina Fuel for lunch. I had a cucumber & vodka drink and jerk chicken sandwich. Mary had a jerk chicken salad and boiled peanuts. We both proclaimed it excellent. The restaurant was in a converted gas station – hence the name and the décor. Our waitress was so sweet, I had to take a photo with her.

We drove over to the historic district visitor Center. Charleston does visitor center right! Mary proclaimed it the best one she has ever seen. We got an historic district map and headed to Broad Street for our self-guided tour.

We walked down King Street to the Battery, along the Battery, and then back up Church Street, looking at all the historic houses, and snapping lots of photos. What surprised me the most was that the houses were revolutionary war - 1730 to 1790 - rather than Civil-War-era or even Victorian. They were mostly Federalist style with a little Greek Revival thrown in. And something they call "Charleston style," which I think might mean Gregorian. There was also a smattering of Roccoco detailing here and there. The right top photo below is one of the oldest houses in Charleston and when we walked by a young couple was having their engagement photo taken in front of the house. On the bottom left you can see the fake front door from the side.

I learned that: (a) the town used to be called Charles Town, (b) they had fake front doors that only open onto their open porches which is where the real front door is, (c) the first floor has solid shutters and the upper two floors have louvered shutters, and (d) Charleston gives out really cool plaques to their historic houses, and (e) that even though they are large enough to be multi-family homes or even live/work spaces, they were overwhelmingly built as single-family homes - often as second "city" homes for plantation owners. I really liked the round "key hole" filigree iron features many people had in their (usually) brick structures. The "key hole" also appeared as stained glass round windows in some homes. Mary was taken by the overly aggressive ironwork "barbs" installed above some iron fences. It did kind of look like some medieval torture instrument.

We were both impressed by how much use they got out of tiny, little lawns. I was particularly impressed by the flowering tree with two completely different colored blossoms.

Mary was not feeling well and didn't want to see City Market, but we ended up there any way and found an ice cream shop. Charleston's City Market looks a lot like New Orleans French Market, but narrower. At its western end, it is anchored by a large mausoleum-type building with many, many front steps and was built by the Daughters of the Confederacy. Mary had pecan praline ice cream and I had peach. Both wonderful - and reviving.

We had wanted to drive over Charleston's Cooper River Bridge - a cable suspension bridge. But we ran out of energy that day. However, due to being unfamiliar with their streets, I ended up driving over it twice any way. It is even more impressive close up. We took lots of photos.

We had planned to go to Duke's for South Carolina mustard and vinegar BBQ, but Mary didn't feel well and went to sleep about 7:30 pm. I drove over and got some fried chicken (they were all out of pulled pork) take-out and ate it in the camper because there were thousands of biting gnats at our campsite.

Driving Thru Florida - All Day Long - Day 68

On Tuesday I drove over to Martha’s for coffee at 7:30 in the morning (too early for Mary). She showed me around her cute 1960s era brick fixer-upper. The house has good bones and will make a great home for her when she is done making it exactly the way she wants it. She has already remodeled.

Back at the camper, Mary and I put the camper down (she had done a lot while I was gone and I did a little before I left), and got on the road by 10 am. Good-bye Fort Pickens. Mary pointed out that this National Park may not be here 20 years from now and this may be the only chance we had to see it. I finally found a car wash on Highway 98 out of Pensacola, so I was finally able to wash the visible coating of pollen off my car. My sinuses felt immediately better!

We took I-10 all (and I mean ALL) the way across Florida to Jacksonville, which took almost all day. I had to stop for one 10-minute nap. We had lunch at a buffet named Steak and Seafood in some medium-sized town I can’t remember. I had steak and baked sweet potato. Very good. I bought some silicone lubricant spray at Lowe’s – whose parking lot we parked in while we ate. Florida along the I-10 corridor is heavily forested and hilly. Even when we turned off onto I-295 around populated Jacksonville, it was heavily forested.

We left Florida behind about 7 pm (finally), and drove thru Georgia on I-95. The highway thru Georgia was 3 (and sometimes 4) lanes all the way – even thru the rural parts. We saw a beautiful sunset around 8 pm. Even though the highway is near the coast, we never saw the coastline. We stopped in Richmond Hill, GA at a truck stop for McDonald’s dinner about 10 pm. We both had breakfast biscuits. Beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to getting late night food on the road.

We drove for a little while on I-95 thru South Carolina, and then veered off onto Highway 17 into Carleston. It was a long drive (or so it seemed) since we kept expecting to see the turn for Folly Road/ Highway 171 any time. We saw several groups of deer waiting on the side of the road - hopefully not to bound into cars passing by on the highway. Found our campground – James Island County Park (which is huge!) and got checked in. The Ranger on duty helped us guide the camper in to our #34 spot and even helped us push it the last few feet. This all took place around midnight. We put up the camper in record time and fell asleep immediately.

Mileage at the end of Day 68 = 7,500

Beaches, They All Beaches

Today (Monday) was “walk on the beach day” in Pensacola for us two touristas. First we found a beach at Fort Pickens with a picnic shelter and restrooms. We walked on the white sand beach – billed as the whitest sand in the world. I wore my flip flops so I could get my toes wet. And I did. I put a little bit of that “whitest sand in the world” in a baggie so I could take it home. Photo: top row = photos from Fort Pickens beach, bottom row = photos from Pensacola Beach

We drove to Pensacola proper to buy Mary a new phone charger and cord to replace the one I lost last night (see story below). It was getting close to our dolphin cruise, but I didn’t want to wear flip flops on a boat, so we drove back to the campground for my shoes. That campground road is really long and parts of it have a 25 mph speed limit. Needless to say, we missed our 2 pm dolphin cruise, but Mary rebooked it for 5 pm. That meant we would miss Martha’s 5 pm zombie walk.

With time on our hands, we drove over to the Pensacola Beach strip in Gulf Breeze. We took photos at the Pensacola Beach signs (very retro and fun). And we visited their actual beach. It was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit that day, but people were swimming and sun bathing there. Pensacola Beach has several huge piers and we walked out on the one behind Captn Fun’s bar. I rolled up my pants and walked into the water on a tiny sandbar on the beach – and Mary took photos. We got drinks at Captn Fun’s (mine was a Southern Comfort hurricane that came in a sand bucket). BTW, don’t give the bartenders at Captn Fun’s any large bills. They claimed the $20 I gave them was a $10. We sat on their patio overlooking the beach and had a lazy day in the sun and sand.

Around 4 pm, we drove over to the pier where the dolphin cruise with Chase-N-Fins was going to push off from. We took another photo by the even more retro Pensacola Beach sign over there, and then hopped aboard our boat. Surly Mike was the captain and Charlie, the master of bad jokes, was our guide. I really enjoyed the trip out of the bay and into the Gulf of Mexico. We watched the buildings and houses on both sides of the bay slip by us. Pensacola seems to be a very long, skinny city that sort of morphs into Mobile, Alabama – which is on the same sea coast.

We saw dolphins jumping up for air near Fort Pickens and Charlie told us that is a dolphin nursery. The come there from deeper in the ocean to birth their young. They nurse their babies with mothers’ milk for 2 years, so they spend a lot of time in the nursery. We saw three more schools of dolphins out in the Gulf of Mexico, including one that was “surfing” our wake on the boat. I took a photo of the sunset from the boat. Mary paid for my ticket. Thanks, Mary! It was an experience that I will never forget. We tipped Charlie $10 after the cruise and may have been his only tipping customers that night.

When we got back on dry land, we picked up take-out Thai food and walked across the parking lot to The Bridge bar to meet Martha. There were quite a few zombie runners and walkers there, so did not have a lot of time to talk. She invited me over to her house for breakfast the next morning.

Fort Pickens and Bushwacking with Martha

Sunday: Mary & I went to Panera Bread for breakfast because they have free wi-fi. I called Martha and we agreed to meet for dinner at 4 pm. My sinuses are still stuffed up – so much pollen in the air that you can actually see it accumulate on the car and camper. Mary & I went to Target to get her a black towel and both of us some groceries.

We got back to the campground, put the groceries away, and drove to the actual historic fort at Fort Pickens for their 2 pm Ranger-led tour of the fort. It was a really interesting tour – a little history, a little architecture, a little warfare, a little cannon talk, and even a little gruesome (e.g. the killing field). The fort was built in 1829 to protect Pensacola Bay’s access to the ocean. It was fortified by President Lincoln during the Civil War and was the only Southern naval fort that remained in Union hands for the entire war. It was used in World War 2 to protect the coast from U2 submarines. I was amazed at how much is still in good shape today despite regular flooding and being abandoned for so long; not to mention being built on very fine almost powdery sand to begin with. Mary was impressed at how huge it was, and also how they mounded up dirt on the roofs and planted vegetation on it to camouflage the entire fort. The original green roof.

When we got back to the campground, we threw a load of laundry in and then met Martha at Paradise Inn for drinks and dinner. Why? Bushwackers of course. Two kinds of rum and vanilla ice cream. I had an excellent shrimp Po’ Boy for dinner – very lightly breaded, crisp, and tasting like shrimp. Martha seems to be blossoming down here in Pensacola – she looks fabulous, dahling!

On the way home, we stopped at the boardwalk to the beach to see the sunset. I locked my keys in the car, and my purse with the spare key and my cell phone in the trunk. We did see the sunset and spent some time on the actual beach. The sunset was glorious. I called AAA from Mary’s phone, and they showed up an hour and a half later to unlock my door. It was really cold waiting out there for him. He was young, very nice and polite. However, I dropped Mary’s phone off my car hood as I backed out of the parking lot. Luckily it still works fine.

Last Day in NOLA, Hello Pensacola

Saturday, and Day 65 of the National Retirement Tour. Last day in NOLA, and moving day. I got up early, packed the car, and wrote some more postcards. I sat in the lobby and downloaded photos until the others woke up. They got dressed and I went to the French Market. I bought a T-shirt for Autumn, one for Grant, and two for me. I found one more mask for Autumn, and another box of Aunt Sally’s pralines.

Went back to the hotel to pick up the girls for breakfast at Monty’s in the Pontalba Building on Jackson Square. I had the Jackson Square omelette with shrimp, crab, and crawfish. Numm. Mary said they have the best Bloody Mary she has ever tasted (they used pickled vodka). On the way back to the car, I stopped in the National Park Service office in the French Market to get my passport stamped, and get a stamp on a piece of paper for Trudie. I discovered that 3 of the National Park Rangers all play musical instruments, and they now give a history of jazz tour. Wish I knew that earlier in the week. We said our good-byes to Trudie, which was hard. I really wish she could continue on the trip with us.

Then we got on the road. First to Slidell – home of the rednecks – to pick up the camper, and then on to Pensacola. The only interesting thing we saw on the trip was that Mississippi and Alabama drivers don’t know how to merge on a highway. We also stopped at the Florida highway department welcome center for a highway map, and tourist ideas for Pensacola.

Got to Pensacola, then Gulf Breeze, and then Fort Pickens campground before 5 pm. I only had Martha Miller’s phone number on Facebook and no wi-fi at the campground. To shorten the story, we finally connected on Sunday.

Total trip mileage so far = 6,750 on Day 65 of the trip.

Courtyards of New Orleans

Both Trudie and Mary were up, showered, and dressed way before me today (Friday). We had breakfast at Croissant d’Orr bakery on Ursuline just a couple of blocks from the hotel. We sat in their courtyard for breakfast. Fabulous bakery!

We took Royal Street to an appointment with El Monde Creole tour of Nawlins courtyards – after an early morning detour on Decatur to check out the Palm Court Jazz Club, and to buy Brendyn a hoodie shirt in a shop on Decatur.

We met our tour guide at 622 Rue Royal, and were joined by a Black couple from Atlanta for the tour. It was raining softly and continued all day. We did the courtyards of the French Quarter (this time most of them were public and not private), and learned about Creole cottages, shotgun, and double-shot gun houses, slave quarters, and kitchen placement (hint: in the courtyards behind the house per decree from the Spaniards when they ruled the French Quarter). We went to St. Louis Cemetery, to the Pharmacy Museum, and to another New Orleans museum that has rooms decorated in period style. We also wet to Little Vic’s ice cream parlor to see how his courtyard had a shrine to St. Joseph. The Italians will have parades and celebrations for the Feast of St. Joseph next week. Photo clockwise from top: mask made from Mardi Gras beads at Little Vic's, slave quarters on Rampart, and portion of the old Slave Exchange on St. Louis (the original wall with the name was destroyed except for this small segment).

After the tour we three amigas ate at the Court of Two Sisters on Royal. It was a courtyard jazz brunch, but was in the dining room and not the courtyard because of the rain. But there was live jazz – or really jazzy show tunes. The buffet was well done and had: (a) some interesting new things like cold sweet potato salad, (b) crawfish pasta, (c) duck – kind of dry, (d) and more pecan pie for dessert. The wait staff were superb – and entertaining.

After lunch we split up. I bought two refrigerator magnets at the little shop where we met, and one of the two Mardi Gras masks I looked at yesterday at the art gallery. I settled on the comedy clown one. I decided the grandkids might be afraid of the Italian hawk nose one. I walked back to the hotel and spent over an hour cleaning out my computer’s browser history to make it go faster. Worked – sort of. I checked Facebook, and wrote up the direction to both Slidell and Pensacola for tomorrow, then updated my journal. Did not have time to blog. We had intended to go to Palm Court Jazz Club, but opted for drinks in the Le Richelieu bar instead.

Garden District, City Park, and Preservation Hall

Thursday and St. Patrick’s Day in New Orleans. We had an elegant breakfast at Angeline’s at the Provincial Hotel on Chartres, just one block from our hotel. It was delicious. They squeeze their own juices.

Then we began a day-long adventure on the streetcars of New Orleans. First we headed to Parasol’s in the Garden District for what was billed as an 11 am St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was more like a block party. There was no parade. But to be fair we did not get there until 1 pm. One lady who was sitting out on the boulevard looking like she was waiting for a parade told us, “There is no organized parade, but if you want a disorganized, those people over there are the masters of disorganized.” She was pointing at Parasol’s. It was an 8 block walk there. Trudie and I were both over-heated and dehydrated. So, we walked 7 more blocks to Joey K’s restaurant, which I learned about from the Triple D TV show. It was cool, the ice water had lemon in it. Trudie and I both had shrimp salads (of different types) with remoulade dressing. It was delicious, but the waitress just did NOT care about us at all!

Joey K’s had a painted sign on the wall that said: “Oh no, not you again."
>/br>We walked another 6 blocks back to where we picked up the streetcar and went to City Park where Mary wanted to see the New Orleans Museum of Art. They were only open for one more hour by the time we got there. People had created floral arrangements riffing off some of the paintings in the collection. Some florists had good concept designs that fit the painting’s zeitgeist, but some just picked up the colors of the paintings. I really the guy who put two birds of paradise in a birdcage. We walked thru City Park on our way back to the streetcar back to the French Quarter.

We walked for a few blocks on Bourbon Street but did not get the full effect of the smells, mostly because there had been rain that day. We went to dinner at Café Remoulade – the poorer sister of Café Arnaud (located just around the corner and whose kitchen they share). We had Creole dinners, Sazerac, and pecan pie for dessert. The food was great and our waitress was wonderful! We watched 3 young boys (about age 10) doing tap dancing on Bourbon Street. They were really good! And we saw part of a really pathetic parade.

After dinner we walked to Preservation Hall for the classic jazz show. We had fun conversations in the line with a father, mother, and son from near Pasadena, California (and previously Germany); and with a father, daughter, and friend from Oregon who was trying to organize a revolt in the line. The show in Preservation Hall was well worth experiencing – again!

French Quarter and Fauberg Marigny

Beautiful, warm, humid, pollen-laden, cloudy day in NOLA on Wednesday. Mary & Trudie wanted beignets from Café du Monde, so we walked over there thru the French Market. I bought two mask Christmas decorations for the grandkids, we all bought pralines from Aunt Sally’s, we walked over the levee path to see the Mississippi River, and got in line for our beignets. We each ate one while they were hot and brought the rest back to our hotel to eat on our balcony with coffee. The hotel has a large balcony with ice cream tables and chairs, so we ate there and planned our 3 days here.

We set out on Rue Royal for lunch at Felix’s and to explore the French Quarter. I found some gorgeous hand-made Mardi Gras masks at an art gallery on Rue Royal. They hand craft the masks right out in the store where you can watch them while you shop. I want to buy one. Trudie stopped in an old-fashioned pharmacy where they used to top shelf all around as a kind of pharmacy museum – and they had an old tile soda fountain! The owner told us that his family owns the building and has run the pharmacy since 1941.

We had lunch at Felix’s – which was almost all the way to Canal Street. I had a fried catfish Po’ Boy and a cup of Gumbo – delicious. The food and the restaurant were OK, but not the fabulous that was advertised. We walked back on Chartres. I stopped at Hove’ Parfumerie which has moved. I bought a Verveine refill and a Rose Geranium bottle. We stopped in quite a few other shops which I can’t remember now. Chartres is a little rough near the Neutral Ground, but you can see signs of gentrification. There was a Pharmacy Museum on Chartres, but we decided not to explore it today. We stopped at an art gallery where the artist made 3-D topo maps of depths of water (including the Great Lakes, Lake Ponchatrain, and the Mississippi River at the Port of New Orleans) out of bass wood. Unique and beautiful.

We had drinks at the hotel bar and talked so long that we missed our opportunity to eat at the Praline Connection in Fauberg Marigny. But on the bright side, that gave us an opportunity to hear the Tin Men band at d.b.a. New Orleans. One of their members played a washboard with a bicycle bell and 2 large tin cans attached. It was the percussion. They played a wonderfully odd and eclectic mix of music – Cab Calloway songs popularized by Mickey Mouse and one parody of a song about Paula Dean.

We moved next door to Snug Harbor where we had purchased tickets for the 10 pm show. We got there a little after 9, after taking some selfies outdoors. Believe it or not, this put us first in line to be ushered into the show when they were prepared for us. I bellied up to the bar and ordered a drink and some stuffed mushrooms from the bartender. I never did get my drink – or a check for the mushrooms. Worst bartender ever.

The band playing that night was Delfayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra. I think it was 14 or 15 players (5 on saxophones all of different sizes, 4 on trombone, 2 on drums, and 3 on trumpet.). They were great – funny, entertaining, and good musicians. They did a jazz thru the decades set. Louis Armstrong to Charlie Mingus. I do not care for the dissonance of Mingus, but liked all the rest. The alto sax player got most of the play time during the whole show. He was good. And one of the trumpet players showed up about an hour late. It is New Orleans, you know.

We walked back to our hotel along Frenchman until it turned into Decatur. That intersection looked like the City garbage dump. When we got to Decatur, Trudie and Mary wanted to eat, since we had missed dinner. I wanted to sleep since all that pollen had stuffed me up. When I came back to the hotel alone, the hotel clerk gave me some Mardi Gras green beads.<

National Pi Day and Taking Flight Day 61

Spent most of the last two days packing up to leave. And trying to explain to DJ that I really don't live here and I am going to disappear today. I am all ready to leave this morning. The Peter, Paul, and Mary song keeps running thru my mind.

• "All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go
• I'm standin' here outside your door
• I hate to wake you up to say goodbye."

Yesterday I finally got around to painting the top shelf Brent made for his two bookcases by cutting a 12 inch piece of lumber to make a large spanning topshelf. Very clever. He picked it up and put it outside. I sanded and primed the wood yesterday. Woke up this morning and filled in a few small holes with caulk. I think I can paint one side this morning before I have to leave.

But, most importantly, we celebrated National Pi Day (3.14.16 - right?) with a whole take-out fresh strawberry pie from Strawn's. Nummm! Best tasting math joke I ever ate.

The big morning, I tried to say goodbye to DJ, but he sort of hid from me. At first I thought he did not understand what I was trying to tell him about leaving, but now I think he did understand and wasn't sure what to do with that information. I did get to kiss Logan goodbye, but he was blissfully ignorant of my departure plans. I finished packing up last minute items in the car, went to the bank (she said my bank computers were down but I suspect her of laziness), hooked up the camper, and hit the road - in this case I-49. I pretty much drove straight thru - stopping twice for 10 minute naps, and twice for gas and a potty break. Then I had to pull over in Baton Rouge to figure out how to pick up I-12. Got to Slidell by 6 pm, dropped the camper, and headed to New Orleans. I had trouble finding the exit for Esplanade, and then there was construction and Esplanade was closed in the French Quarter. Then I had trouble finding the hotel's car park.

Finally got settled in. Total Great National Retirement Tour trip miles on the car = 6,500 miles.

Week 4 in Shreveport - What is a Cubit?

I took the family to Strawn's for breakfast on Sunday. It is THE place to be on Sunday mornings. The staff is so efficient and friendly, the food is well-prepared, and well-portioned. I had a ham steak breakfast. DJ had a Mickey Mouse pancake that he insisted on eating with no syrup. Logan had one egg and sausage, which he gobbled up. Or at least the parts that he did not end up wearing. Brent and I also had their famous fresh strawberry pie for dessert.

I thought I picked up a virus on my computer. I took it into the computer repair shop close to LSU to fix it. They said that I didn't have a virus, but I would have if I had called the phone number that the virus was trying to convince me was to Microsoft. I packed up all my brochures, maps, and extra post cards and mailed them to Mary Murphy, who agreed to hang onto them for me for a month. Thanks Mary! Also mailed the Medjool dates to the Thunes and Ellsworths. I felt the need to simplify my freight in the car. Also got my hair cut at Avalon Hair Salon. I think Elizabeth did a great job.

But the big news this week was the rain, the floods, the tree down in the yard, all schools including pre-school and LSU called off for the week, and spending 4 dark, rainy days inside with the boys and Autumn - and Brent until he had to go to work in the evenings. We had 5.5 inches of rain just on Tuesday alone, and a total of 15 inches of rain between Tuesday and Sunday - which is how long it rained. Although the sun did come out for long periods on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Three people died in Shreveport in the resulting floods. We did not experience flooding in the part of Shreveport where Brent's family lives. Autumn and I tried to get some take-out food, but all the restaurants we called were closed. Had to get take-out from Buffalo Wild Wings. Somehow the restaurant that Brent works at was the only one that was open during the brunt of the storm. And it was packed! The good news is that I finally got that green Chimayo chile soup made. Turned out pretty good, but was spicier than I remember.

When the storm sort of weakened on Thursday, Autumn and I were able to get some take-out crawfish delicacies from Shane's. Because it was hard to get out of the apartment, I finally made reservations for Charleston, Pigeon Forge, and Nashville. I got tired of staying inside and took the boys to Bossier Boardwalk Mall to do some shopping on Saturday while Brent and Autumn attended a funeral. The boys and I had fun at the Mall. We started at Bass Pro Shop where I needed some quick-drying pants and a day pack. We spent some time with the giant aquarium, played with the fish locators, played in the hollow tree, bought Grandma some pants, a day pack, and a compass for my car. Then we took the trolley, which scared DJ a little. We took Logan's overly big shoes back to Nike (they apparently do not make wide infant shoes, only wide youth shoes). We walked over to Chocolate Crocodile where DJ picked out pink marshmallow frosted oreo cookies for him and his brother. We started walking back to the car, but got distracted by a kid ride area. DJ rode on two cartoon-themed vehicles, but Logan wanted none of it.

Saturday night Brent, Autumn and I went downtown for dinner and some live music. First we went to Blind Tiger for a Cajun dinner. (According to their menu, a blind tiger is the same thing that we call a blind pig in Minnesota.) I had some pecan-encrusted Cajun catfish - delish - and they had a Cajun combo plate. I bought a T-shirt - I have been wanting a T-shirt from Shreveport, but it isn't much of a tourist town. Then we headed to the Noble Savage for drinks, cigars, and live music. It was a good band (although they did get started late). We shared funny stories and had a good time.

Week Three in Shreveport (and Houston)

I did make a stop in Houston on the Great National Retirement Tour after all. Brent and I spent most of the day on Sunday driving to Houston because his son had a court date on Monday. We had a long time in the car to talk about his and Autumn's plan to move to Minnesota next summer. We stopped in Lufkin for his lunch at about 4 pm. We planned to pick up the older kids for dinner about 7 pm, but ran into a freeway accident (apparently with injuries because there was an ambulance) near Conroe, Texas that delayed us for about an hour. We picked up the kids about 8 pm and took them to Willie's for dinner. We had some laughs and some decent food. br>
Brent and I stayed at the Spring Hill Suites hotel in Rosenberg that night. Really liked the hotel. Our room was spacious with a living room and a large desk, two separate bathrooms, and a large closet. The mattress was very comfy and so were the pillows - I am kind of a pillow nazi. We were deep into our computers until almost midnight. On Monday morning, he had breakfast at the hotel and then headed over to the Fort Bend County Courthouse at 9 am sharp.

It was fascinating to watch the people who worked there in that one little courtroom in Richmond, Texas. There was a bailiff whose job seemed to be to make sure all the men had their shirt tails tucked in and that NO ONE was using a cell phone for ANY purpose. There were three other women who ran around with a lot of papers and files and seemed to keep extremely busy, not sure doing what. There were several (4 to be exact) well-dressed men and women who were sitting at the tables facing the judge. At first I thought they were the prosecutors, but it turned out later that they were all defense attorneys, and they all seemed to have the goal of continuing their clients' cases to some future date. Then the prosecutor walked in pulling a dolly with a box full of files. Everyone just descended on her and kept her busier than a one-armed

paper hanger. Some conversa-tions she would have right there in the middle of the courtroom and some she would step outside for. The judge didn't actually show up until about 10:30. The defense lawyers immediately started asking to approach the bench for very quiet conversa-tions that all ended up with that lawyer's client being given a new date to return to court. Brent's son's lawyer did not ask to approach the bench, but somehow one of those three very busy employees came back with a form for the mother to fill out promising to return to court on March 14th. In fact, every one in that courtroom prior to us leaving had their case continued to March 14th. This was the 3rd or 4th time my grandson's case had been continued, which is starting to negatively affect his grades in school. I enjoyed watching how that particular courtroom operated; don't know if that is how all of them work, but I suspect so.

Brent and I took an unintentional tour of downtown Houston, and then got on the road for the 5 hour trip back to Shreveport. Again, we talked of many things - packages and sealing wax, cabbages and kings. We talked about the places Brent wants to show Autumn and the boys when they move to Minnesota - canoeing down the Saint Croix River, Duluth, Bemidji, New London, snow, lakes without alligators, etc. We talked about my farm and the value on hanging onto land for its steady, dependable income in perpetuity vs. selling out for a large sum of money right away that will be gone in a dozen years. "Never sell land - it's the only thing they are not making more of" has always been the Lindgren family mantra. We talked about my construction plans to prepare for them moving into my house next year. We got back to Shreveport at 6 pm and had dinner at Walk-On - a Creole/sports bar & grill. I had bayou shrimp and crawfish pasta that was fabulous and washed it down with Reasonably Corrupt beer, a local craft beer that I really like.

I got an eye exam and bought new eyeglasses on Tuesday (remember I sat on my eyeglasses and broke them on Saturday); picked them up on Wednesday. I also got an oil and filter change for my trusty Subaru on Tuesday. It came with a "free" car wash at the lube and oil place that cost me $4. Only in Louisiana do you have to pay $4 for a free car wash. DJ was sick again, so he came home from school early on Tuesday and was still home sleeping on Wednesday. Autumn made a really good avocado, tomato, and mozzarella salad which we had with "clean out the frig" left-overs for dinner. Then the two of us had a really good talk about my family and my farm. Oh, and Hillary won Super Tuesday really big, picking up 596 delegates compared to Sanders' 276. She is now 42% of the way to the Democratic nomination for President. Yay!

Thursday I traveled over to Bossier again to Bayou Outdoor Supercenter to buy a part that flew off my camper somewhere in Texas. Unlike the dealership where I bought the camper in Minneapolis, Bayou is actually a Palomino dealer. It was painless and the part fit perfectly when I got it back home. Celebrating small successes here. I went with Brent to meet DJ's bus after preschool twice this week; he is so super excited every single day that someone comes to meet his bus! Thursday was Brent's short day at work, so we went out to Silver Star near the race track for pit BBQ dinner. I had a combo platter: smoked turkey, pulled pork, and beef brisket. Nummm!

This week Logan decided that I am a playmate He gives me this little bright eyed kind of winking look that suggests that the two of us are in some kind of playtime conspiracy. And DJ revived later this week. This is the first time that both of them have been healthy at once since I got here. We played a lot! On Friday, the kids and I took the stroller and

went for a walk around the neighborhood. So much to see: 2 dogs, a lot of birds, blooming flowers, some Easter eggs attached to a mail box, and a swivel chair sitting on the boulevard. A kid paradise! One evening Brent, Autumn and I watched movies on TV and talked about: (a) funny things Southerners say that Minnesotans don't, (b) funny things that Minnesotans say that Southerners don't, and (c) how Brent and Grant used to have fart wars in the house.

Saturday I worked on downloading even more videos and putting them on YouTube so I could erase another 75MB from my camera's memory. I am still occasionally losing photos that I know I took. Then toward dusk I was trying to get Democratic presidential primary results for Super Saturday and picked up a virus that may have wiped my computer. I shut it down. We went to Tokyo to celebrate Autumn's birthday. She was joined by 12 of her family & friends and we all had a great time and some great Hibachi. DJ made friends with a cute blonde. At the end of the night he said goodbye and her name just as sharp and clear as a bell. I guess love will do that to a guy! I babysat (which consisted of putting the tired baby to sleep with a bottle, and falling asleep with DJ on the couch). A good week!