Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Scottsboro,AL


Last night we spent the night in Scottsboro, AL out back of the Unclaimed Baggage Center. We had a very peaceful evening here...arrived too late to go in the store (they close at 6)so we are waiting for them to open to shop this morning.

Sunday evening was spent just inside the Mississippi border at a rest stop. I had looked at the weather radar and they were calling for severe storms and a hurricane warning was posted so we decided to stop before we got into bad weather. It looked really nasty on the radar and when we did drive up through that area we saw trees down from what appeared to be wind damage. Drove in light rain for part of the way yesterday and arrived here around 7:30 last night. After we look around the store, we'll hit the road again. Just meanderin' up the road...no tellin what we might find to explore ahead.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Great Women..

The other day I did something that I haven't done in years..I read a book. It was one of those projectless days and I had been curious about the book that Linda was reading so I thought..."What the heck". The book is called, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I had read the author's other book, Tuesdays With Morrie and it was a cute book. I found this one intriguing in the way the author counted the minutes till the character died and then who the five people were that he'd meet in heaven. An overall premise of the book is the connectivity that all of us have and how we touch each others lives, whether knowingly or not. We can have a profound impact on someone's life and not even know the person. Without giving any more away about the book, I'll leave it at that.

So on this Mother's Day, this book made me reflect on the impact of two great women in my life. The first is my maternal grandmother. A farmer's wife who worked as hard as my grandfather on their dairy farm, up until his death. My mom has told me that grandma used to drive a horse drawn school bus and later would work in the kitchen at Mansfield University. My mother too drove modern day school buses and apparently her love of cooking stems from her upbringing in my grandmother's household. A consummate gardener, I remember the huge poppy patch that my grandmother had in the front yard, along with countless flower beds around the house and a big garden out back. In my childhood it was common to have a "canning" kitchen and my grandmother had one in the basement. There were always wonderful smells coming from that room as she made sauces, jams and jellies and all sorts of pickles. My fondest memories are the Sundays I would spend at my grandmother's house once she moved into a mobile home over near my mom. I would ride my bike to grandmas and we'd have pickle sandwiches on fresh, home-made bread and watch classic movies on PBS...Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple, Humphrey Bogart, etc. She would show me her latest crocheted quilt or tatted doily and we'd laugh and laugh over the silliest things. She had the greatest cackle and never took herself too seriously. She was a wonderful woman !

So too is my mother who will be 84 this July. She has her own business making jams/jellies and all sorts of candies and wonderfully sweet concoctions. She has more energy than most women a third her age. She mows a huge lawn, still drives and loves to go to the casino once in a while for a day out. She loves to follow our adventures on the road when I call to talk to her and she is our meteorologist to let us know what bad weather lurks in the area. She has always been so supportive and has always been there when I needed her...no questions asked. Happy Mother's Day mom....

Remember those people who have had an impact on your life...tell them what they mean to you. So many times we think about it but we never tell someone. It can make all the difference in the world to someone. Happy Mother's Day to one and all !

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Leaving Baton Rouge...

It's 9:45 p.m. and still 75 degrees outside...sheesh !! Tonight as soon as Linda got home from work, we loaded up the boys and went to the dog park. Their last chance to run and play till we get back home. Linda counted 18 dogs there tonight and that was only counting dogs. I felt like I was at a junior high school dance with all the adult chaperones standing around the sides of the dog park, watching their "kid" to make sure no one misbehaved. It was kind of weird and Boomer and Schroeder didn't interact the same as they did when there were only two dogs. Too much butt sniffing to do for a couple of ADD dogs like ours.... it was too much. Boomer did pair up with one golden lab type of dog and do his sprint around the park. This is the only dog that I've seen that could keep up with him and actually beat him at the finish line. It was really cute to watch. Like the Kentucky Derby all over again....

I started getting things packed up for our leaving tomorrow night. Linda has to work 6-6 and will arrive home around 7. She saw a place on her route home where she can fill up with diesel for $1.99 tomorrow so we'll have a full tank to drive on. Tomorrow is her last day of scheduled work so we figured we might as well head out cause we sure would hate to sit here till Thursday and not have her agency call her for any more shifts. That would really make us mad so we figured we'll leave now. We'll drive till we feel like stopping...any distance between us and Baton Rouge will be fine. :) Our first stop is gonna be the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. This looks like a really fun place so we want to be sure to get there to have enough time to look at everything. Who knows what interesting things we might find ?

Well, that's it for tonight ? Gotta watch the rest of the race. 71 laps to go....

Friday, May 8, 2009

Our Anniversary...

Today is our 5th anniversary together and in usual fashion we re-created our first date. We went to Applebee's and had a great meal. Devin was our waiter and he surprised us at the end of the night by buying our round of drinks. What a nice guy ! In talking to him, he is from Orlando, FL and he isn't crazy about Baton Rouge either.He is planning on moving to Austin, Texas by the end of the year.

While we were having dinner, two sheriff's cars were searching a car they had pulled over in the parking lot next to Applebee's. Must have been a drug search as they were really going through that car. Didn't know we'd have entertainment with our meal. It will make for a memorable anniversary...when we're old and sitting in our rockers we can say, "Remember when we spent our 5th anniversary in Baton Rouge..." will make for a good laugh !

Dog Park

Today we took the boys to the ball field to run only to find that the grounds crew was dong some work on it. So we decided to go to the dog park that we had initially heard about but had been worried about the boys getting some disease or something if it wasn't well kept. This is it...turns out it's a wonderful place ! They have a pool like Boomer used to have at our house and he thoroughly enjoyed laying down in it and then taking off like a maniac and running in figure 8's all over the park. There was a 22 month old German Shepherd there named Levi and he and Boomer had a grand ole time, chasing each other and taking turns in the pool. Schroeder went over to visit the other little dog, who was chasing the ball her owner would throw. He behaved really well around both dogs so we've decided we definitely need to go back again.
We started to pack the truck today. Picked up the patio mat to dry out and got things situated on the back of the truck. We are planning to leave when Linda gets home from work Sunday around 7 p.m. She has to work from 6-6 the next two days so I'll finish up getting things ready to go.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Perkins Rowe...


On Monday night Linda had to work on the 6th floor of this facility, at the Neuro Medical Center. Although she had been scheduled previous times here, her shifts always seemed to get canceled so this was her first time there. She worked the overnight shift so it was dark as she made her rounds of the patients rooms. One guy had a room on the corner with windows that looked out over the surrounding buildings. When she went into his room she saw what a magnificent view he had from his windows. All of the nearby buildings had lights that lit up the roof line and she said it was an awesome view and she stood there for a while and just took it all in. We decided to go check out what these other buildings were in the vicinity. We knew that one was a Barnes and Noble bookstore so that was a good enough reason to go exploring.

What a great place this is ! It's like a little community within the city. Palm tree lined streets and these huge screens hung in front of the town hall and the images were constantly changing. There were shops and a big movie theater inside the town hall. You could tell that the whole thing wasn't completed yet cause there was a "Magnolia Park" at the far end of town that was still under construction. There were many vacant stores but instead of having empty store fronts they had scenes painted on screen material and it made the fronts of these empty buildings very attractive. The shops and boutiques that were open were really cute. Very attractive window displays and neat items in the stores.

A closer look at one of the three screens that hung in front of the town hall

The whole area was so cool. Most of the buildings were three stories tall so the top two floors appeared to be apartments. What a great place to live. At the far end of Perkins Rowe we found the Fresh Market I thought maybe it was a place for a farmers market to be held once a week but we thought we'd go check it out. When we saw a young man coming down the steps with grocery bags in his hands we knew it must be like a regular grocery store but once inside we realized that there's nothing "regular" about it.

What a neat store this was. If you think that Wegman's does a nice job of displaying items, this place is a cut above that. Around the whole perimeter of the room there were wide ledges above the wall cases and they had little scenes or displays set up like this one. The prices weren't bad we thought considering that most stuff was organic or fair trade or specialty products. Everything in there was immaculate. We talked to the man behind the meat counter and he said that there are other Fresh Markets around the country, such as in North Carolina. We told him how beautiful everything was in the store. We walked around and all we could do was ooh and ahh as we looked at displays and food items that were unique. We finished up looking around and headed back to the truck where the boys were waiting. Perkins Rowe was like a little slice of heaven in the middle of a pig sty. There is so much trash along the highways and around houses that it was nice to go to an area where things were well kept and the sights and smells were heavenly. Definitely a place we will go back and visit if we need a night out.

Look at the size of this pot that was
in the town hall building. There were
probably 8 of these in there near
entrances to the shops.


The huge chandelier that hung over where Linda
stood next to the pot. It was gorgeous !

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

News

Well not only are the temps heating up in this area but so are the tidbits we hear each night on the news. This is the first time I've ever lived in the city that is the capitol of a state. For those of you who don't know who the governor is, it's Bobby Jindal. Perhaps you heard his name shortly after the presidential election in November. He is a Republican "hopeful" for President the next go round. The guy is not afraid of the camera. At least twice daily he is on the local news delivering some tidbit of news that no one else in his administration apparently is qualified to report on. Hopefully he sets aside time in his day to get things done besides just conducting press conferences. Maybe this is typical for "capitol" cities....like I said I've never lived in one till now.

The crime here is horrendous and we can't wait to get out of here. Multiple shootings each day,usually resulting in at least one death a day and all sorts of robberies, etc. The other day a young woman, here from Kansas visiting relatives, came up missing. Yesterday a homeless man found her body washed up on the shore down in the area we were on Saturday. There are two problems in that last sentence....homeless and dead body. This was downtown where we had looked for a parking spot during the festival, within eyesight of the casino. No suspects yet in her murder. In other news, in Sherwood Forest just down the road from us, a man died when someone set his house on fire. Are we having fun yet ?

And late breaking news, here in Louisiana....a porn star is considering running for the senate in the next election. Maybe she and Bobby should team up....they're both no stranger to cameras.

We keep telling ourselves just a little over a week and we will be out of here....zoom..zoom..zoom

Monday, May 4, 2009

Running Away...

Yesterday I wanted to finish trimming up Boomer and give him and Schroeder a bath before someone moved in next door. I figured that concrete slab was the perfect place to hook up the hose and have someplace to wash them, out of the mud and slop. It worked out great too. Got them both bathed, toweled off and walked them around right before a band of storms rolled into the area. The skies were darkening as I was washing them but we got into the house and settled in before the thunder and rain came. My timing was impeccable as in between storms I see a BIG motor home pull up outside and proceed to back onto the slab next to us. Looks like a 40' Winnebago Journey...and he has a big pick-up and mustang with him. If you recall Donna, the park manager here, told me on Saturday that the carnival people were coming here and last year had parked on this site.

Linda had to work till 6 last night so she wasn't here when the new rig arrived. I asked her when she got home if she saw our new neighbor. She said "Yep and if he's with the carnival we're gonna run away and join them too if he can afford a rig like that." Haven't seen Donna yet to ask her about this new neighbor....It's doubtful he's with the carnival but inquiring minds want to know.....Some days our life feels like a three ring circus....

The Underdog...

On Saturday we starting watching the pre-race show for the Kentucky Derby, waiting for the start of the NASCAR race. My, I thought there was a big build-up to the Super Bowl?! Holy Cow, the Kentucky Derby is an all day marathon of chatter about anything horses that culminates with a two minute finale. As the horses were going around the track to get loaded into the gate I had to go to the bathroom but was afraid the whole thing would be done before I could get back to my recliner...

How about "Mine That Bird"...the horse that won ? Was that ever an awesome race? I just love to see an underdog or "horse" in this case, that no one pins any hope on, just blow the doors off the multi-million dollar horses. A horse that cost his owner less than $10,000 and was driven to the track, from New Mexico, in a regular ole horse trailer and truck and he put them all to shame. There's something truly inspiring in that. But that never seems to sit well with the media these days. Tonight on the news they are talking about his fluke of a win and betting he can't do anything in the Preakness. They said there was a "weak" field of horses in this year's Kentucky Derby, making it seem that he just lucked out. Horse Pucky!! People are so busy finding reasons why something "can't" or "shouldn't" happen that they miss the sheer joy that it DID happen. Be a believer.....Root for the 50-1 underdog and know that miracles still do happen.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Saturday...

Tonight our neighbor, Jim, pulled out and is headed to his next job in Missouri. Jim is an industrial electrician and has been here for about a month. He's from Tennessee so will get to go home for a day or two before he heads to Missouri. He will only be there for a couple of weeks and then he's headed to Washington state. He was a nice neighbor and we're sure glad we got to meet him.

Last night Linda got home from work around 12:30. About a half hour later we hear a loud alarm go off and then it kept repeating itself over and over for quite some time. We finally figured out that someone had tripped a security alarm in the Scottish Rite hall next door. Linda was really nervous that we had a criminal running around outside. The automated alarm was saying "You have entered a secure space. The police have been notified....." We finally turned on our meditation tape to drown it out. We asked Donna, the park manager, about it tonight and she said she was glad we heard it as it seems no one else in the park heard it. She said she called the sheriff to report it and they never came to take care of it but it finally shut off about 1:30. We told her that it made us nervous to have a criminal on the loose and she said that probably a rat tripped the sensor and set it off. We weren't sure whether we should feel better about that explanation than the one we had thought it was. Hmmm.... On top of that she tells me tonight that there are "carnival" people moving in the next day or two and guess what.....we have the space open next to us. Yeehaa !!That gave me a warm feeling all over. She said last year, the night they moved in, she found that they had started a huge bonfire outside their rig and there were about 20 cars parked on their site. Sounds like we have a fun time ahead.....

Went downtown today to tour the old capitol building but there was a festival going on and we couldn't get anywhere close to it. We wanted to take in the festival but parking was really tight and finally gave up and went to Sam's Club to get some things we needed. Got home in time to see Jim before he left and then watched the NASCAR race. Good race....my boy is back on top !

Weather is still staying really warm here. Has been in the high 80's all week and the humidity kept climbing through the week. Luckily today there was a good breeze despite the fact that the humidity was in the 70% range. Might get some rain tomorrow and little cooler (low 80's) on Monday.

As far as the swine flu fiasco, there are about 11 suspected cases in Louisiana. The local news is constantly covering it and it gets really monotonous. The whole thing is really overblown and the media, in typical fashion, has found their latest "crisis" to grab a hold of and blow out of proportion. Everyone needs to calm down and act responsibly by practicing good hand washing and just use common sense.