2016 Road Trip.....May 16 & 17th, Last Day in LA and Driving to AL

I don't remember what we did on Monday, May 16th, on our last full day in Louisiana.  Probably a trip to the insurance agent to cut a check for house insurance, hanging out in the motel pool and a little shopping.
Speaking of shopping, the Daughter and I hit the Hancock Fabrics near her house.  Last Spring/Summer Hancock stores were having going out of business sales.

The trip to the Hancock Fabrics near her/own house turns out was the last time I spent money at that chain.  This loyalty card got pitched when I got home to PA. sigh.

Here are a few goodies I picked up there because at 50% off or more, what fabric-aholic could resist?!?

 A bunch of rayon prints, my favs.

More rayon and the green one is a cotton print.

Some novelty prints, Dr. Who in cotton and flannel and a craft beer print.

 We also hit the liquor store.  I got some cheap watermelon vodka and more of my frozen paper umbrella drink  packets.

I also spied a nice sale on Laphroaig 18 year Scotch for Hubs.  At the price it was at, I should have had Hubs buy a case of it!

I also hit Walmart and loaded up on Blue Plate mayo and sandwich spread.  This lot didn't last very long.......

On the morning we left Shreveport, we stopped in at Daughter's work as we headed out of town for home.

Daughter was a manager at a Jimmy John's sub shop in Bossier City.
She wasn't there when we arrived because she had to run to Sam's Club to pick up some supplies that they were out of........

After she and one of her workers got everything in the building they set to work getting ready for the lunch crowd........

Even with us there, Daughter is all business when she is working and we had to visit while she barked out orders and prepped for the lunch rush(even though it was barely 10 am).

I liked these signs they had in the eating areas.

We said our goodbyes and headed out East on I-20.

We made a pit stop(for both the car and us)before we crossed over into Mississippi at a truck stop in Tallulah LA.
While waiting for Hubs to finish in the men's room I wandered around the convenience store and found some Southern eats......

As the sign says, "Hot Boiled Peanuts", regular or spicy.....

And jackpot! a jar of pickled eggs too. lol

The guy working the register saw my flash go off and when I wandered up to the front he started asking me, in very obviously stilted English, a bunch of questions about what I was doing.  Could be that he thought I was a health inspector or INS spy or something.  Who knows?
He looked a bit calmer when he understood that I was a blogger and just take photos of interesting things for my blog and nobody from the state was going to shut his store down or cart him off for deportation.
Geez!

We rode straight through MS and next stopped in Tuscaloosa Alabama to gas up and then stretch our legs at a store.
No we didn't go into this store........

We headed to World Market in that same shopping center.

Ok, here is a great mosaic table on clearance this WM had on their front sidewalk....get it now because it's "The LAST ONE!".

Or is it?  LOLOLZ
Only in Alabama?......maybe.......

This shopping center also had a fancy Burger/Craft Beer joint.......
Lots of fancyfied stores in Tuscaloosa.

Between our trip to WM in Shreveport and this Tuscaloosa stop we picked up some necessities at a good price.  Those bags of coffee were awesome buys on clearance(not ground so they kept fresh longer)and I LOVE that hibiscus syrup added to my iced tea in the Summer as it's so refreshing.

Another hour+ back on the road and we made it to Birmingham and our hotel at the start of rush hour.
The Quality Inn we stayed at was not bad pricewise(considering it was in B'ham)plus they had a small pool and a nice breakfast spread.

The only not so great thing was that our room and window was on the back of the building and appeared as if the woods by our room was used as a hang-out drinking spot.  If you can't see it there are beer cans and glass liquor bottles in this photo I took.  I guess the motel management wanted us to feel at home.  *snort*

After settling in and taking a quick swim I called a fellow blogger who lives in the area to see if she was free to meet up and maybe have a little dinner with us.

About half an hour later up drives Anne in the Kitchen of New Happenings At The Table Blog in her van.
Quick hugs and hellos happened and I think I said something ever-so witty like, "Anne! You're not in the Kitchen!". lolz
After she finished rolling her eyes at me(and thinking but not saying, "Bless her heart", at me)Anne whisked us off to this place............

Well not their catering truck(which I took a photo of as we were leaving) but the Full Moon Bar-B-Que restaurant. It's a local chain that does BBQ and other southern specialties.
Their motto is "Best Little Pork House in Alabama".  Now how could you NOT like a place like that? hehehe

Anne got a plate of 5 non-meat items.....

I got a plate with 'Cue, Collards and Fried Green Tomatoes(of course).
While still in line ordering I saw they had grilled pimento cheese sandwiches on the menu, after I had already ordered a plate of 'cue.  Without a second thought I also ordered a sammich! lolz
Hey, we didn't have lunch that day so I didn't feel like a big ol' greedy slug, but maybe I should have. '-)

After a couple of hours of getting to know one another and chowing down, Anne had to take us back to the motel.
I had Hubs snap a few photos of us together for the proof that we really did meet Anne and this was the best of them where one or the other of us wasn't closing our eyes or had a big goofy look on their face(you decide who did which).........

It was so nice to finally meet Anne and she is such a sweetheart and full of that good ol' Southern hospitality and charm.

And I found out that she has VA ancestors too so once I actually do the work we may also be related. lolz

I would heartily recommend if you are ever in Birmingham to try out Full Moon Bar-B-Que.  Not only was the food good but even though it was well after the dinner rush the staff was mighty friendly.

It was back to the motel and we waved as Anne drove toward home.  We went to bed that night with 'cue in our bellies and the satisfaction of having met another online friend.

Sluggy

2016 Road Trip.....May 15th LA to TX & Back-Part 2

So we left Natchitoches Louisiana and headed Northwest toward Texas, driving down back roads.

We came to a crossroads called "Kickapoo Corner".  I don't know if this area is called that or it's just the name of the gas/convenience store someone put up here. lol
We also saw advertisement for the Champions of God Cowboy Church too.  Cowboy Churches are not something I am familiar with back in PA.

Driving west we came to Keatchie LA and this historical marker............

and pulled over by some abandoned buildings where Keachi College use to stand.

These buildings aren't ruins of the College but a farm.  There are ruins of an abandoned high school behind the tree line too on this property.

Keachi College, a women's college, was used as a field hospital after the Battle of Mansfield, LA on 8 April 1864.
The Red River Campaign of the Union involved Gen. Banks attempting to invade Confederate Texas traveling inland from the Red River on back roads below Shreveport, LA.
Banks didn't count on Gen. Taylor, CSA, and his troops challenging Banks' advance.  The battle lasted two days and was a Confederate victory, although short lived obviously.

The wounded and dying from the battle were transported to Keachi College to be patched up or prepared for burial.
The dead were interned across the road in a makeshift graveyard for the Confederate troops, as the climate here in April made it impossible to "preserve" and transport the dead home to their families to bury them.

It is said that many were buried in communal graves too as they were dying in quick succession. Local slaves were tasked with digging trenches into which the dead were placed.   The dead number over 100 both in marked and unmarked graves.

While we were there, we saw two men doing maintenance on the grounds(mowing and burning brush).  The one stopped to talk to my Daughter and I briefly(sorry that I didn't get his name).  The local Sons of Confederate Veterans and Daughters of the Confederacy Chapters have taken over maintaining this graveyard.

Me at the Keatchie Confederate Cemetery.

After that stop, we headed on west into Texas.....

We drove into the little East Texas town of  Carthage, TX.
We stopped in at the local H-E-B grocery store.....I had never been in one of these before.

Since it's Texas they carried liquor in the grocery store and they were well stocked with the "high end" stuff cousin Sonya Ann likes....*snort*

Hubs found some local brews too, Karbach Brewing out of Houston.  Hubs bought this Hopadillo IPA.

I always like to look around in grocery stores when I travel and see if there are items for sale I can't get at home, and the H-E-B did not disappoint!

You probably can't read this label but it's Beef Tongue....fresh tongue, not frozen.  Not sure if this was a good buy or not at $5.36 lb.
I didn't buy it as transporting it home would have been problematic(as would figuring out how to cook it). lolz
Oh darn.

I left the tongue at the H-E-B but did buy a few drinks.

We then went off in search of a place for an early dinner.
This wasn't an easy chore since A-It was a Sunday in a small Texas town where the sidewalks are rolled up after Church and B-it was a small Texas town with not a lot of choices.

We finally settled on the Longhorn Grill.
Not Longhorn the chain but this one.......

We got there as they breaking down their Sunday Buffet so we ordered off the menu.

 I got a Surf N' Turf plate(steak and catfish)with salad, fried okra and broccoli.

Hubs got this Bread Pudding dessert to top off his meal.  I took one bite but that was all I could fit in my already full stomach. Eck.

We headed back to LA after that, dropped Daughter off at her house and went back to our motel room for the evening.

Sluggy

2016 Road Trip......Time in LA May 12th-14th

Since the Daughter worked until Saturday we had a lot of time the next couple of days to just hang out.
But Thursday morning, May 12th, we rose early and headed for an appointment here......

The lawyer's office where we began the process of buying Daughter's house from her.
Since the rest of her college funds had been used to buy the house, and she now wanted to return to school and finish her degree, she needed to sell the house.  Not being able to wait for someone to buy it on the real estate market and then move home and start school, we bought the house from her.

Things went well and we returned the next day with Daughter to sign all the paperwork and became 2nd home owners.

Then we hit the local World Market store and Hubs needed new sandals so we hit up a SUPER Target(which I had never been in one of those before)....

Besides the sandals, we got some Abita beer(I still find it funny being able to buy liquor in a grocery/department store!)and some mayonnaise.
Not just ANY mayo......

Blue Plate mayonnaise!  Besides Duke's(which I was raised on)this is the "go to" mayo.  But they don't sell it around here(except at the Army commissary about an hour away from here and we aren't military)so when we head down South I pick it up as a "souvenir".
Yes, I am weird like that.....

We met up with Daughter that evening when she got off work and had dinner together.  I just had a basket of fried okra bites and iced tea.

On Friday we headed back to the lawyer's office, meeting Daughter there to sign papers, then over to the insurance company to write them a check for coverage on the house.
We bought a house!

Then back to the house to have the showdown with the Daughter's boyfriend's parents, who had taken up residence in what was now, our house.
It got ugly for awhile but when all was said and done they became our tenants.
yay us......

Then Daughter went to work and we just hung out at the hotel to recuperate from all the drama on the monring, swam in the pool, napped, ate lunch, and watched tv.

There may have made a run to the liquor store that day as well.  This is just the part of my haul that made it home to PA.
I have no knowledge of other liquor that may have been consumed before we got home.  ;-)

Daughter came over that evening to swim and Hubs went around the corner to get us burgers.....
Not just any burgers though.....

Nothing says vacation like a local burger and beer, right Hubs?

With our business dealings taken care of we were left free on the weekend for fun.
So we drove to the little town of Blanchard.....

to take part in their Annual Poke Salad Festival.

See me poking Hubs? and pointing to the word "POKE" on the sign in front of us?
Yah, I am a real card sometimes.........

And if you aren't from the South, this is what Poke Salad is....

But never NEVER eat raw poke salad!  It is a nightshade family member and the raw leaves are toxic so it must be cooked and prepared to be edible.  When cooked it should be referred to as POKE SALLET.  I won't go into the reasons here but if you are really interested you can look it up.

Here is the famous song from 1969 about this Southern delicacy, a la Elvis.........



And here is the originator of the song, Tony Joe White, performing the song with Johnny Cash......

This photo reflects what I was really feeling that day.  It was hot as blazes(it's May people!?! WTF?)
and muggy to boot.  There was nowhere to sit and I had walked a mile from the street and was glad for at least this railing to lean on.

Blanchard is a dry town evidently.  Good luck getting that law changed!  This is the South people and things don't change fast around here. lolz

The Poke Salad Festival was not much.  A separate area with carnival rides across the way which we didn't even go to, a few food vendors of crappy fair food(though that ice cream cone looked sweet and beckoned to me because of the muggy heat)......


There was entertainment under the Poke Salad Pavilion.  While we were there is was a Cheering Team and then some Children's Singing Group performing.  I guess the "good" entertainment was slated for later on in the day.

So we wander over yonder to where the folks selling "stuff" were set up.....at least there was a bit of shade over there and one of them was giving out bottles of water too.

There was an informational, nature group and they brought along a baby gator.

This photo is for my eldest son.  It's handmade wooden bow and arrow sets. I was finally going to let him have a bow but he's too old for this now.  Inside joke people!

I thought of a couple of friends when I saw these handmade signs........

There was a booth with a guy in full-on Confederate uniform handing out brochures about joining the SCV(Sons of Confederate Veterans).  I didn't take his photo as he didn't look very friendly(must have been the heat and the fact that his side lost that war)but I took a couple of leaflets.

While I can't join this group(it's for guys only)both my sons could if they wanted to.  Of my 8 2nd or 3rd Great Grandfathers on my maternal side who would have been of age to fight for the Confederacy I have only found proof of enlistment for 3 of them. (One of the 8 was a federal Postmaster so he couldn't join up without losing his job and jobs were hard to come by in the rural South.)
But I do have scads of "collateral" ancestors(Great Uncles)too that I could use if my sons wanted to join.

After sweating our balls off for about an hour+ we headed back down to the road to find the car and leave.  This was the road were we passed the fenced off ride area.
Though we had missed the Poke Salad Parade which had kicked off the Festival there were still tons of strands of Mardi Gras beads along the road(some of which were even intact)so we grabbed a few of those.

And, what do you know?!, I saw a road kill armadillo on a road heading back toward Shreveport!

So what do you do after all that excitement......how do you top that?
You go to the Great Raft Brewery in Shreveport, that's what you do.

We sat outside on the loading dock area as it was quieter.  The bar area was filled with either a bachelor party or a pre-wedding groomsmen party.(They were all in suits and ties so I think it was the later and it was just after noon.  Steeling themselves for the big ceremoney with drink? lol)

Corn Hole, anyone?
I remembered that the benches weren't weighted done well so I didn't go sliding off one onto the floor this time.

A wall of growlers.  A craft beer drinkers wet dream if only they were all filled......

After Hubs and daughter had a couple of drinks we headed to the other side of the river for food at TOM + CHEE.

This is a must stop when in the area.
Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches?
Yes please!  I had one with Swiss and 'shrooms + a cup of tomato soup.

I talked the Daughter into getting a "dessert" grilled cheese, which consisted of two doughnuts with a filling of blueberry compote, bleu cheese and lemon mascapone cheese.

I think her eyes rolled back into her head when she bit into that one.  And she tried to NOT share a bite with me....humph!

So what do you do after that?

Well, if it's American Craft Beer Week you hit another craft brewery, that's what!

It didn't take any convincing at all to get Hubs to go to Flying Heart Brewery in Bossier.

They were having a special event that evening so it was not crowded yet but dang was it hot!  The building there is an old fire engine house with big bay doors and they had them all open and no a/c on.  I guess for mid May this weather was considered "cool" by Louisiana standards but man!  It was hot!!

A craw fish food truck was setting up while we sat and Hubs had a few.  Big D's Who Dat Shack is a favorite 'round these parts.  Unfortunately we had just had lunch so we passed on mud bugs this go around.

Back to the hotel to nap off the beer and the lunch.
But first another trip to a liquor store to see what they had.........

I found Hubs a great deal on Laphroaig 10 yr. old Scotch at Thrifty Liquor.  This particular store was having an overstock sale-$39 a bottle which is a great price for what we can get it for here in PA.
I can't believe Hubs only bought 1 bottle!

At another liquor store I didn't even go in but there was entertainment outside while I was waiting in the car.  I watched an old drunk woman stagger down a road from a trailer park to the store and inside to get her fix.  The entertaining part was how many times she stopped, swayed, staggered and almost fell tits over ass to get there, all the while talking out loud to herself.

On the way back to the motel I saw this sign......

A Lord of the Rings themed bar!  

More swimming, drinking and tv watching happened that evening.  But it was early to bed because we had another jam packed day on Sunday.

Sluggy