January 28, 2014 2:14 PM
Greetings and long overdue salutations from the winding road through the Southeast. I would like to thank most of you for graciously awaiting our return to the blog-o-sphere. The rest of you apparently forgot where you put your “patient panties.” You KNOW who you are so there is no need to call anyone out ….Claudia Burris. Harriet, Big Lil, Kim and I would like to extend not –so-warm greetings from the shores of Lake Ponchartrain in Fontainbleau State Park near Mandeville, Louisiana. We have been on the road for 10 days and the fact that this is my first free minute just confirms that we have had an awesome time visiting friends and family.
We are sitting in the trailer while freezing rain sticks to everything outside. Since the roads are expected to be icy and the temperatures around freezing for at least one day and maybe two, we are enjoying some quiet time snuggled in the trailer. So I thought I would catch everyone up, at least with where we have been so far.
We began our journey in Santa Fe with Bonnie, Jacki and Louie. Louie seems to have settled into his new home very well. His crate has been replaced by a luxurious, memory foam, dog bed. He is eating gourmet, homemade food prepared tirelessly by his two moms’ who monitor his input and output with maniacal attention. We learned that after much discussion, his new parents have decided to raise Louie in the Jewish faith. We sort of expected Bonnie to be a typical Jewish mother but Jacki dotes on him just as much, if not more. We met Jacki and Bonnie’s friends, Ben and Paula who came by the house to help us cheer our Broncos to victory. We really enjoyed their company. As usual, Jacki and Bonnie spoiled us during our short visit. We enjoyed home cooked meals, wine and lots of laughter. Since Bonnie’s birthday was approaching, Kim presented her with a set of hand-made, “Kim Hodges Creations” potholders. Kim has begun creating potholders on a little, square loom much like many of us played with when we were young. I know I am biased but I think they are really cool. Bonnie seemed to like hers however, after she perused Kim’s inventory of potholders, she laughed and said to Kim, “You really do need a job.”
On January 20th, we packed up and headed to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. This is our second trip that featured the caverns on our itinerary and yet again, we did not stop. We realized about halfway there, that the nightly migration of bats out of the caves does not occur at this time of year. We also realized that at our current course and speed, we would not make Tampa in time for the Super Bowl. Normally, we wouldn’t really care, however Jerry informed us that they were having their Super Bowl Party again this year and many of his friends were expecting us to be there. So we recalibrated and decided to head on into Texas and begin getting ahead of schedule. This was the first of many schedule adjustments to come. Good thing Kim built some flexibility into the original itinerary.
After two long days on the road, we rolled into McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas on January 21st. My wonderful brother, David and his partner, Broocke were kind enough to clear their schedules despite the short notice and we met them for dinner. Our friend, Richard, was correct. The traffic in Austin was horrible. My brother lives nine miles from the park and it took us 35 minutes to get to his house. The good news was that the State Park was really cool and on the east side of Austin which helped us avoid rush hour and made our departure relatively painless. We did not get to see much of Austin but we had a nice visit with my brother whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time. Love you, David.
We had planned to spend the next few days sightseeing in San Antonio but when my lovely navigator checked the weather, we decided to beat feet to Effie, Louisiana and the Hayes family. Snow was on the way! What is up with that? Apparently, the memo explaining we wanted some warm weather did not make it up to Mother Nature. We laughed at the plethora of shorts and T-shirts each time we went to our closets. We were truly just ahead of the weather until we got to Houston where we fought rain, high winds and the bridge “de-icing” trucks. Thankfully, we got to Effie just before the snow began in earnest.
I have to say I was grateful to drive into Louisiana from Texas. I am probably not being fair since we decided not to spend any appreciable time enjoying the nicer parts of Texas but it just felt like we drove on lots of bad roads enjoying no scenery whatsoever. No offense to some of our friends with ties to the 28th State but we kept saying, “What the hell are we doing in Texas!” Now, we weren’t silly enough to think we could head to the southeast without going through Texas but we managed to drive through the widest portion of the state, enjoying over 800 miles of the Lone Star “experience.” Perhaps on the way home, I can give them another chance.
I will go ahead and post this and then add another post about our amazing trip to Effie!!! Stay tuned! Hugs to all.