Our January Trip to Louisiana....Part 6(The End)

Part 1 of our trip is HERE.
Part 2 of our trip is HERE.
Part 3 of our trip is HERE.
Part 4 of our trip is HERE.
Part 5 of our trip is HERE.


So Hubs and I had planned to stay in Shreveport the day after the wedding but really there was nothing we wanted to see(touristy type stuff)as we have been here many, many times before and daughter and her now hubby had plans(to stay at the Casino/Hotel next door to the Aquarium and just relax *wink wink nudge nudge* for the day in their room).
So we decided not to stay the extra day and to head back to PA on Sunday which in hindsight turned out to be the right move. ;-)

Before we left Louisiana and hit the road we met daughter and son in-law at their hotel and treated them to the casino/hotel Champagne Brunch.
Very expensive(what isn't to me?lol)but nice to sit down with just the two of them.
And I had 3 glasses of Mimosas which put me in a fine mood...hey, I wasn't driving! ;-)

After the brunch we said our goodbyes and headed East.
I slept in the car(Hubs says SNORED!)until we hit the state line into Mississippi.

We stopped to potty at the rest area.

Can you see the dead tree trunks in front of the rest area building that have been carved into native birds of the area?  I thought that was quite interesting!
Then it was back in the car through MS into AL only stopping for coffee(for Hubs)or gas(for the car).

We knew we couldn't make the drive home comfortably in two days so I had made arrangements to stop overnight somewhere in Alabama after the first leg of the drive home.  Anne in the Kitchen had offered us lodging at her house for the night so it was a good excuse to see her again, so I said YES!
Since we got a late start that day(between noon and 1pm)we rolled into Anne's house a bit later than planned but still within the window of dinner time. Yay!

Anne pulled out all the stops for dinner and don't let her tell you she didn't!  There was chicken, greens, green beans, pickled something or other, cheese, bread, and probably 4 more dishes for dinner.  Then there were two desserts! My brain was mush by this time in the trip(and after 3 Mimosas for breakfast that day)so forgive me if I can't remember what we ate.  It was a lovely though. 8-)

Then we sat for hours in the den/living room and gabbed like we hadn't seen each other for years(and actually it had been years-since May 2017 to be exact when we first met Anne in person).

We headed upstairs for bed in one of the many guest rooms Anne's house has.  Let me tell you her house is deceptively modest looking from the street but inside is a labyrinth.....it just goes on and on, room after room and we didn't even get to see the whole thing!  Plus next time I'll be visiting during the hot weather and bringing my swimsuit to use the in-ground pool out back and scare the little children in the neighborhood with that sight. *wink wink*

I was sound asleep in no time and before long it was time to wake, dress, grab a bite for breakfst and head back out on the road.  And I was so out of it by this time I forgot to take any photos until we were almost out of Anne's front door.

Here we are with Anne's Greeter/Butler, Senor Wences?



No, that's not right but all I can think of is the Ernie Kovacs'"Nairobi Trio" routine otherwise.............


I'm sure Anne will pop in and tell me the monkey's name again. lolz
So a quick goodbye and we were off down the road again.

We had an 8 hour drive to our motel stop that evening in Roanoke Virginia.
We got in around 7 pm and after checking in and throwing the luggage in the room we changed and made a mad dash to the indoor pool there before they closed it for the evening.  We had a nice swim and didn't even go get dinner, just ate some snacks we had brought on the trip in our room and watched a little tv.

I don't think there were more than 5 other people staying in that motel that night.
The reason being is that a big snowstorm was heading in sometime late the next morning and moving east across the Eastern seaboard states.
So we went to sleep early so we could be up at dark thirty to leave and try to beat the storm.

But I took a shower first.  See the cute toiletries holder they made out of one of the washclothes?

And this was sitting on the edge of the bathtub on top of a bar of soap and a bath towel........

So we left a wake-up call for 5:30 am, got up, dressed and packed the car up.  Then we tried to get something from the free motel breakfast but the employee was still setting up and she wouldn't let us in the breakfast room.  So I explained to her how far we had to go and we were trying to beat this storm and couldn't wait and she relented and let us take from whatever she had put out already.
We made a couple of sandwiches on biscuits, took a banana or two and drinks, then jumped into the car(which we had gassed up the night before near the motel)and took off up I-81.

We kept an eye on the weather on our phone and stopped once for gas, coffee(for Hubs)and cruised on NorthEast ahead of the snow.
We got within 2 hours of home, around Carlyle PA when I noticed that one of the tires on the rental car was loosing air.  I showed Hubs and we stopped at a gas station right off the interstate to fill it back up.
Another 5 miles down the road it started loosing air again and at a faster rate.
There was a fair amount of yelling and panicking as I tried to find a tire place before the tire went flat.  There was another stop to put more air in the tire at a Sheetz and as we got to the tire place I noticed an Enterprise Car rental business right across the street from the tire place.
So Hubs turned in there and went in.

Now you would think that since we had a rental from Enterprise they'd just exchange our car for a working one there and we'd be on our way.
No.
Hubs comes back out and said they told him to find a tire place that had a relationship with Enterprise, have it changed and have the tire place bill Enterprise.
WTF?!?

That's the rental car we started with with the going flat back tire.  You can see the tire place we tired behind the car and trees, in the distance.

So we go across the street to the tire place and no they are backed up and can't get to our tire for hours(meaning we'll be stuck in this snowstorm)plus they don't even have a relationship with Enterprise).

I was so angry(with Hubs and Enterprise)I told him to drive back across the street and demand they give us another rental NOW, considering the weather and we were under a deadline!
I know he just went in there the first time and of course they weren't going to offer a new rental unless he asked and I just know he didn't ask. ugh.

The only available car they had was a minivan and here is my view of the Enterprise entrance from inside that car...which means Hubs got them to give us a new car to finish the last 2 hours of our halfway across the country trip and I didn't have to go in and go all "Sluggy on a rampage" on them.
lolz

So we took off after being delayed almost 2 hours between 3 stops to refill the tire and the driving back and forth to get a working vehicle again.  By the time we left Enterprise I looked and the old rental car's tire was totally flat.

We got within 45 minutes of home and felt safe enough ahead of the bad weather to stop at an Arby's off the interstate to grab a sandwich and drink each and eat it in the parking lot sitting in the minivan since we hadn't eaten since 6 am.
More gas off the interstate there and then back on the highway to home.

We got in around 3 pm, our 6 hour drive took 8.5 hours.  After unpacking the rental minivan we took a nap.
I woke up 2 hours later to find an 1+ of snow on the ground so we got home in the nick of time, missing the storm.
By the next day the storm was past so we could drop the rental back at Enterprise and go pick-up the doggies from the kennel and take them home.

This last day was the only aggravating and anxiety filled part of this otherwise lovely trip.  It would have been nice to not have to travel in January up North through various mountain chains but it's over with now and I'm only going to remember the good times of this trip going forward.  8-)))

THE END


  Sluggy