Today we're doing "The Turnaround"

Today is February 16,2009

Today we are at the halfway mark of our journey and we are doing "THE TURN AROUND"--We got as far west as Amarillo, Texas, touched "base" so to speak and turned east and now we're heading toward home. We have traveled 3300 miles to date--(It is approximately 3000 miles from New York to California--for a reference)

But first , let me catch you up from where we left off on the previous post as I'm sure y'all are sitting by your computers waiting to read where Sue and I have eaten and shopped for the last 6 or so days. The last y'all read we had eaten at Rockefellers--Miss Paula Deen had her picture taken there--they showed us that, they did--

a note on our journey into Ponchatoula from New Orleans on Feb 9: When we left New Orleans to get to Ponchatoula, we had to cross a GIGANTIC swamp---the roadway was raised over the swamp and it was , I think , 37 miles long!! and there was NO warning on the New Orleans side that there was NO GAS for a bazillion miles---Thank God we had a full tank of gas, but it made us aware that we should not let the gas get down to below 1/2 a tank-

Feb 9 was also our first situation with a TOILET PLUNGER being delivered to us by the front desk--
"no thanks", said we, and we had our room moved-- I certainly don't mind PLUNGING a toilet, but not after we'd been in the room for only 10 minutes and ONE FLUSH-- that looked like a dangerous situation where something might have crawled back OUT of the sewer pipes from previous guests---A`~a~a~a~r~r~g~g~h~h~

February 10, 2009 Tuesday

Today we "antiqued" in town (Ponchatoula LA )-- there were quite a few shops closed-- Everybody in town told us we absolutely HAD HAD HAD to see the alligator in town-- we found him in a cage down by the RR tracks-- He musta been a young alligator because he wasn't very big, but his growth may have been stunted from living in a cage--I'm pretty sure he must be deaf because the train whistle was the loudest thing ever-- a train came by every hour or so (they were the old fashioned freight trains, with box cars, freight cars, and oil cars ( sue said)). It would take about 5-7 minutes for them to get past the cage, blowing the whistle at full throttle-- He had pennies all over his back from people throwing them into the water in his cement cage . There was rabbit wire lining the cage now, so things hadn't been thrown in for a while, so I guess the pennies had been on his back for a while--- He probably thought he had the finest "coat" in town. He couldn't hear what people really thought because he's deaf.. He didn't have a name but was an advertisement for KYLEE'S SWAMP AND ALLIGATOR TOUR. ~~KYLEE should be shot. poor little deaf, tacky 'gator. :*(

Before we hit the road, Sue and I ate at the Strawberry Patch Cafe---(God forbid we missed a meal)--- we shared a Reuban sandwich and had the BEST BEST BEST Strawberry Beignets--They made tiny beignets and filled (injected) them with a "runny" homemade strawberry preserves. Sue wanted me to tell y'all they were filled with COULIS (pronounced COO-LIE) to impress y'all, but I'm pretty sure NOBODY in PONCHATOULA , LOUISIANA knows what the hell a COULIS is?

We left town in early afternoon and made it to Denham Springs LA where we found GOBS and GOBS of antique places -- we shopped til they closed and then hit the road again heading WEST-

We stopped for the night in Sulphur LA at a MICROTEL--it was GROSS-- it had ants,--Sue got all nervous and scritchy~~ scratched~~ all night--
~~scitchy ~~scratch~~scritchy~~~scratch~~~

February 11, 2009, Wednesday-- the temp is 55*--YEAH~~

In the morning I discovered a "bulletproof" glass, in the lobby doors where they lock the main hotel doors and have a window kinda like a drive up window at the bank for you to slip your credit card in to register at night--~~YIKES!!~~--Sue is delighted for me to spray the rooms down with Lysol, now.

Sue is still looking at the birds on the wire-- She'll say, "there's a HAWK," and then she'll immediately say, everytime, every single, solitary time, "or a falcon"--like, I'd know the difference--- they all look like pigeons to me--

Stay tuned for the next adventure--the "devastation tour"
Later~
Mar