3/16

We arrived home late Thurs - just in time for the snow Fri night.  Great trip, and we plan to do it again next year, but it is good to be home.

Low-lites on the way home:
1.  Just north of the Tenn/Bama line, a large bill board for "Booby Bungalow"  J said I could not stop.
2.  Late one afternoon, we pulled into a Comfort Inn.  I was suspicious when I counted 4 cars in the lot at 5PM, but J went in and came right back out.  Dark, dank, and smelly.  We left immediately
3.  Our last night on the road, we stopped at a local restaurant, and I asked the waitress how was the prime rib.  Her answer:  "Fresh"

J is scheduled to go to England in June with members of her father's bomb group.  The locals have fixed up the old base and welcome visitors.  She is looking forward to it, but first must get her shoulder fixed.  She sees her Dr on Monday.

3/10

We head north tomorrow, hoping to be home by the weekend.  We were driving toward Biloxi this PM and ran into a traffic jam.  Someone drove his pick up truck 20-30 yards into the gulf.  How drunk do you have to be??  Stopped at White Cap for dinner and had my last oysters until next winter.

3/10

3/9

We are in Long Beach Miss, just west of Gulfport and Biloxi.  Arrived Thurs, leave Mon.  We have been here before and like being back on the gulf.  Long Beach had their first annual St Patrick Day parade this afternoon.  Lasted about 10 minutes.  More beads!!  I asked a local why they were a week early.  Gulfport and Biloxi each have a large parade next weekend,  and the fear was that no one would come to Long Beach if their parade were also next weekend.  Nice turn out.

I am done coughing, and J has substantially reduced hers.  Her shoulder and arm have improved somewhat.  She will get second and third opinions when we get home.

3/6

J and Em had a nice visit on Tues, and she joined us for dinner that night.  We left Houston this AM and are now in Scot LA.  Nice dinner at Fezzo's with some great oysters.  Waitress was super religious, and J would not let me make comments.  Her given name was Bliss, which would have been just too easy.

I noticed again tonight, as I have many times on this trip, that the majority of men at dinner keep their baseball caps on during dinner.  Mom would have thrashed me for that.

Picked up a pamphlet at dinner tonight for the Boudin Festival April 5-7, topped off by the boudin eating contest and the Kickin Cajuns.  Too bad we won't be here.

3/4 part 2

The first night after we left OB, we stopped in eastern LA.  An hour of so before we stopped, we pulled into a McDonalds to drain a kidney and get a quick burger.  An hour after we checked into Residence Inn, I experienced some severe intestinal problems.  It will be a long time before I eat anything at McD again.

The next day we stayed in Scott, just west of Lafayette.  We have stayed there several times, and like Fezzo's restaurant.

Em and R joined us for dinner at the hotel Sat night.  Good meal, and good to see them again.  Since we spent most of Sun at urgent care, J and Em could not get together for Em's birthday.  She has Tues off, so the girls will play.

3/4

We have been in Houston since Sat, and plan to leave on Wed.  The week before we left Orange Beach, there was construction in another unit, 3 floors above us.  They were using a jack hammer type tool to break up the tile floor.  Two days of that was more than enough.  But then we started coughing (and so did our next door neighbor), and we could see construction dust on our furniture.  Obviously, they did not close the vents.  After 2 weeks of coughing, we went to urgent care down the street from the hotel  X-rays disclosed that we both had pneumonia.  So, more drugs.  We will still go to Biloxi to enjoy some more warm weather before we head north.  But we will not visit J's aunt and uncle in KY, and may skip Memphis.

One of J's friends suggests that next year, we plan a trip to Lourdes.