Our January Trip to Louisiana.....Part 4

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


So Chris got home from work and off we went to dinner to a place called The Fish River Grill.

"A Funky Junky Redneck Joint" as the menu says.  My kind of place! lol

It's a local casual dining restaurant that serves local seafood which is right up my alley.
They serve something called "Swamp Soup".
An ominous moniker for a food, but it tasted much better than it sounded.  lolz

Every diner gets a free sample cup of it with your dinner. It's basically a greens and beans soup with a hint of sausage.  I'm not a big fan of beans(except the pork and bean kind)and it has beans in it(Great Northern/Navy)but it had a great flavor.  I may have to try to make this some day...maybe the next time I visit my brother because I KNOW his wife will love this sort of thing!

Hubs got a fish dinner and I got a combo fish and oyster platter(which Hubs had to eat about 1/3 of for me).  I love this photo Lorraine took. I was squeezing my lemon on my fish when she snapped it and the lemon squirted Hubs in the eye so his smile turned into a grimace as he hurled an expletive in my direction.
Priceless!

On the way out of the restaurant I spied these colorful plastic miner hats with headlights attached.
The sign said they were crabbing hats.

Is nighttime crabbing a thing?
I spent Summers of my youth crabbing all. day. long.  We used lines of chicken backs on string to lure them in to shore.
But never at night just using lights and a net.

But it seems to be a "thing" down here and the video below is from a crabber in Virginia where I am from so it's a "thing" there too and I never knew that.



Anyway as we drove back to Lorraine and Chris' house I noticed all the Holiday lights in town........

I forgot that it was still the Christmas Season and decorations would be up. lolz
Home and a couple of hours just talking before bed.

The next morning by the time Hubs and I got up Chris was already at work, Lorraine had run a marathon, painted the house, cured cancer AND gone out to a local pastry shop for Donuts, Kolaches, and Sausage Breakfast Pastries for us.
Nom nom nom

And Lorraine had fixed us each up a present.......

A pack of Abita Mardi Gras beer, beads and a mask for Hubs.........

And a bag of red and white striped candies(Red Bird mints, Hershey kisses)a Peppermint Chap Stick and a handmade soap in the shape of a candy plus a small wooden sign to hang in my kitchen.
I LOVE peppermint Chap Stick and I used to always have one in my purse.  I used my last one up about a year ago so this one will be cherished and used......did she know I loved this?  I don't think I've ever blogged about my addiction to peppermint Chap Stick.  I guess she has omniscience as another one of her Super Powers, huh?  8-)

So after a quick photo together, since we hadn't taken one yet...........

Notice I let Lorraine stand on the fireplace hearth to be taller than me in the photo because ya know, I am soooo much taller than her in real life. *snort*

And a blurry photo of  Zoe where her eyes are glowing and she looks possessed......

No kitty photos because basically they hid from us for the two days we were there.  I hear cats tend to do that around strangers.

And back in the rental car we went and headed West to Louisiana.  We still had a 6+ hour drive to the hotel in Shreveport.
We stopped somewhere in Eastern Louisiana for lunch.  It was rainy and Hubs was in a crappy mood because I tried to use a coupon on my Burger King app AND pay with a gift card for his meal and a freebie coupon for my meal I still had from their Xmas promotion.  He gets annoyed so easily.....especially when he needs more coffee.

I just got the so yummy chicken fries, no drink or anything because I didn't want to sit there with him so I just sat in the car by myself for awhile.
Can you tell from my chicken fries selfie I am annoyed with him? lol

So back on the road with another pit stop somewhere between Baton Rouge and Alexandria, at a McDonald's with the nastiest bathroom I've seen since the Summer of 1999 on a trip down to see my family and we stopped at THE WORST BATHROOM OF ALL TIMES.  There was also a convenience store attached.

3 pennies found by the Mickey D's registers and 1 penny found in the  convenience store while Hubs waited on his coffee order.
I also saw locally made pork rinds.........

And this soda........

Delaware Punch soda.
I'm 60+ years old and I've never seen this soda before.
It's a grape fruit(not a grapefruit)punch flavor, not carbonated and not caffeinated.
I say, "What's the point of it then?". lolz

Seems it can be found in parts of Arkansas, Louisiana and around EasternTexas and was invented in 1913 by Thomas E Lyons.  Ya learn something new every day.

Just one more stop for gas and for potty time outside of Chopin LA.  The bathroom was the size of a broom closet and the door knob was in peril of falling out of the door and there was no lock but this place seemed to do a booming business mostly in fried chicken and booze sales.  Well it was a late Friday afternoon so most places do a brisk booze business at that time/day.

We got into the Best Western in Shreveport at 4 something pm.
After checking in and unloading the car we headed back out to meet our older son(who flew in from Virginia), daughter, her fiancé and a couple of his friends at a local Brewery at 5 pm.

They were running some sort of Holiday promotion and were giving out envelopes with prizes in them for every beer you ordered.
Hubs and I paid for this gathering(my daughter's idea of a pre-wedding dinner as there was no rehearsal)and we all won brewery stickers like pictured above, 50% off food items, money off your next beer, and stuff like that.
I gave the 50% food coupon I won to my daughter since we wouldn't be coming back here anytime soon. ;-)

Hubs, our eldest and the fiancé's friend enjoying their brewskis.

They also had live entertainment(a singer/guitar solo act)which was pretty good though we were sitting a little too close as conversing was difficult with the noise level.

Everybody ate and drank and had a good time.  Hubs and I left around 10 pm as we were beat and needed a good night's sleep as the wedding was the next day.


Sluggy

Our January Trip to Louisiana-Part 1

I don't know what possessed our daughter to decide to get married in early January(probably because the venue they wanted was available then).
But she did, so Hubs and I had to take a trip to Louisiana for her wedding.
Traveling here in Pennsylvania in January is a crap shoot no matter if you drive or fly due to the unpredictability of the weather.  The train is really not an option since we'd have to drive 2 hours to Harrisburg and pay for parking for 2 weeks for that.

We priced out the options and driving a rental car/gas/hotel/food/dog boarding was almost half the price of flying to LA/hotel/car rental/gas/food/dog boarding.   Plus we had things the Daughter had left here to bring to her so the car made the most sense.

So we rented a full sized car from Enterprise, dropped off the puppies at our local family run boarding place on the 30th and left at dark o'thirty on December 31st....yes, New Year's Eve Day.
We'd be ringing in the New Year somewhere in podunk Tennessee which was fine by me as we aren't NYE party people.

The first day we didn't stop unless absolutely necessary....for food, coffee for Hubs,, potty breaks and to stretch our legs.

Except for one stop in Carlisle PA at the Lindt Outlet for a small bag of chocolate. ;-)

Our first stop for food(besides the biscuits we ate in the car for breakfast from Mickey D's near home)was at Cook-Out in Harrisonburg VA.  I texted eldest son's GF a pic and told her to guess where we were(she went to college at James Madison U nearby).

And I found 2 pennies there of course! lolz

We stopped again at a gas station/convenience store(for gas, potty and Hub's coffee) further down I-81 in Dublin, VA...............

And I found another nice shiny penny right at the counter/register for my collection.

We pulled into the Quality Inn around 6 ish that evening in Bull's Gap TN.  We had stayed here on a previous trip but it had a new name now(same chain but a different level of "quality", thus a different name).

We quickly weighed our dinner options....Taco Bell across the street, McDonald's next door or the truck stop convenience store sandwiches(as there wasn't a restaurant attached to this one).  So we drove South a couple miles down the road away from the motel(we already knew there was a bar North of the motel and a Mexican restaurant we ate at in which probably wasn't there any longer).

Me at the bar in April 2014......

And a quick Google says the restaurant was gone in 2019.

So we landed at another convenience store/gas station with a Subway attached to it for dinner.
I had my usual Subway order though at that late hour I should have only gotten a half sub.  I had to sit up way too late that evening in a tired state to digest that sucker so I did actually ring in the new year at midnight.
yay me!

We wandered through the convenience store part after eating and before fueling up so we were ready to hit the road first thing in the A.M. and I found this under a rack of keychains....

So back at the motel, I sat on the sofa in the room and perused a free local newspaper we got from the lobby.  Love this front page story they had.......

Can you tell nothing much(bad/newsworthy)ever happens in this place? lolz

Oh!  There was also a Food City ad in the paper..........

I'm always interested in food stores we don't have here and to see what other folks pay for groceries.
Belinda over at "My Frugal Workshop" has mentioned she shops at this chain sometimes.

I figured we'd have a hard time getting to sleep since it was Dec. 31st and there might be a fair amount of partying folks staying at motels(especially since this exit had a truck stop and 2 motels)but this place is pretty much in the middle of nowhere TN so those fears were for naught.

While I was waiting for my dinner to digest I took a shower instead of in the morning.
This was the situation I found in the bathroom.......

The clip holding the shower head was broken.........

And when you turned on the shower head the cord jumped around like a snake from the force of the water flowing through it, soaking the walls and the floor.  It was tricky maneuvering things....you had to close the nozzle thingy if you needed two hands to soap up or do your shampoo, then bend down, pick up the shower head and open the nozzle again so the "water snake" was controled.
Fun times people, fun times....
We reported what needed to be repaired when we checked out so management could address the problem.

But things took a bizarre turn the next morning at the complimentary breakfast and how!

We went down to the lobby and the breakfast area and chose a table to eat at.
Hubs went over to the coffee/tea station in the background of this photo below to make his first cup of coffee for the day....

I proceeded into the breakfast alcove where the food was laid out in the very back of this photo............

Sorry it's fuzzy but I had to blow up a stock photo from the motel's website as I didn't DARE take any photos as you will understand why in a moment.

You can see the food stations and we sat to eat at the table closet to the food alcove.
The only other person in the lobby/breakfast area was the motel clerk at the front desk.
It was nice and peaceful....until.

As I finished making a plate of food and made my way to the table, Hubs came over with his coffee and said there's a full cup of coffee over on the drink station with about 12 stirrers in it and nobody around.  Strange.

As I began eating I noticed a woman shuffling in to the breakfast area toward the food alcove.  She looked a hot mess(who doesn't at 8 am?)....hair all stringy and she was wearing fuzzy pj pants and a t-shirt.  She had a strange gait to her walk like she suffered from CP or had some kind of spine injury.

Then she started staggering and swaying like a drunk(still drinking since last night maybe?) and loudly talking to someone who wasn't there like a crack head or someone off their meds so of course at this point I stopped eating and just watched her. lolz

She went from the display case of breads/muffins to the hot food chafing dishes to the juice machine to the tabletop fridge with eggs/cream cheese/yogurts in it to the bowl of fruit, asking her imaginary  friend what they thought and what they should chose to eat.
During this touching everything episode she spontaneously would stop, raise her arms and begin dancing and singing around the alcove for a few seconds before going back to asking her "friend" what they thought was a good idea to eat for breakfast.

Then she spied the waffle maker!
She began to pick up/handle all the equipment for making waffles....the big plastic fork/spork in the utensil holder for getting your hot waffle out of the machine, the can of generic Pam spray, the waffle maker itself and the little machine that dispenses waffle batter.
It's like she was from another planet and had never seen anything like all this.  Then I watched in disbelief as she took the big fork/sprok out of the utensil holder, moved the holder under the waffle batter dispenser and began dispensing batter into it.
Wtf?!lolz

Obviously the motel clerk had also been watching her somewhat bizarre behavior because he rushed over to stop the waffle batter flow before it overfilled the holder.
He tried to assist crazy crack head lady, by getting a small cup which you actually put your batter in to  pour it into the waffle maker and showing her what to do.
Crack head obviously had the attention span of a gnat because 3 seconds into his showing/explaining she danced/staggered off, praising Jesus at the top of her lungs out of the lobby.
The clerk was heard to say, "I guess I'm making a waffle now."

I think my mouth was hanging open as the clerk's eyes met mine.  He shook his head, picking up the half waffle batter filled utensil holder to remove and clean it and as he passed me said, "And it's not even 9 am.....sigh".

Now Hubs and I aren't rocket scientists but we feel that A-this clerk sees this sort of thing on a regular basis in his job there and B-that abandoned coffee with 12 stirrers in it was definitely the work of Crazy Crack Head lady.

In our trips in and out of the motel when leaving that morning we never saw CCH lady again and we suspected that she wandered in from either the Motel 8 next door to our motel or the truck stop next door to the Motel 8 and decided to help herself to some waffle batter and coffee stirrers before the motel clerk thwarted her plan.

That was just one of the more bizarre people/motel experiences we've had in a long time.

We finally got on the road and out of there by 9 am.
We planned to stop in I think it was downtown Chattanooga  TN for lunch at a local joint but that plan was thwarted when we got there it was closed(New Year's Day holiday)plus there was little parking to be had, had they been open.  So we drove another hour and stopped in Fort Payne Alabama for gas and a latish lunch.

I opened the car door to use the bathroom inside and lookie what was waiting to be found at the gas pump?

A worse for the wear penny.

Then we hit a place called "Western Sizzlin'" for lunch.
Sort of a combination of a "meat and 3" sit down restaurant ubiquitous in the lower South and what Western Sizzlin's were back in the old days-order of cheap cut of steak(or chicken), a potato, a piece of Texas toast or rolls and an all-eat-cared-to-eat salad bar.  You could order the steak still but they had a massive full food buffet instead of just a salad bar.

And they had a lunch Senior special of $8 for the buffet so that is what we got..........

I highly recommend their teriyaki chicken, as well as the green beans, mustard greens, and the grilled squash and onions.  Besides all the fattening heavy carb foods some of the food was questionable(like a basket of deep fried potato skins just sitting out at room temp for who knows how long over on the salad bar).
We ate pretty well/healthy(avoiding carbs other than I had 1 roll and part of a pork chop)which I didn't finish as you can see.

A father and son(an older teen)sat down across from us while we were eating.  The father who looked like he had not seen his feet in many years(not that I am judging him!)came back with a heaping plate of mac and cheese with 5 rolls on top of that.  He went back for deep fried meats(chicken and pork)for another heaping plate with another 4 rolls in top of that plate before we were finished, paid and left.  There were also 3 cups of Mountain Dew(the color of which is undeniable)brought and emptied by this guy while we were there.
The teen ate about the same in similar quantities but he was rail thin.....at least for now. ;-)

We got back on the road after paying our under $18 bill!!! and made tracks for lower Alabama.
We were going to be staying with friends Lorraine and Chris for two sleeps as Lorraine was on Christmas vacation under the following Monday.

Lorraine had cooked a lovely dinner of Lasagna and Salad with Rolls.  We ate, the guys had some beers too and we chatted until well past Lorraine's bedtime of 8 pm. lolz
Hubs and I snuggled into Lorraine's office/guest room and fell dead asleep quickly wondering what fun was in store for us that next day.
Hopefully no Crack Head Ladies.......

Sluggy

What I Did on My Summer Vacation.....Part Four--The End!

This is Part 4 of my Summer Vacation Travelogue.  Catch up on Part Three HERE.

Monday was Hubs day to do what he wanted most. And what he wanted most was to explore history. Specifically,  some Native American history.
He's been interested in learning about the history of indigenous peoples since I've known him.

So we set out for Orono Maine, to the University of Maine's Museum.  They have a nice, well presented permanent collection on the Native Americans of the Maine region: the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, the Maliseet and the MicMac.
As a bonus over the next 3 days, there was suppose to be a full sized wigwam constructed in the art gallery space, by Native children, coordinated by former Penobscot Nation Chief and birchbark artist Barry Dana.
The local tv news report about it is located HERE(it starts after the motorcycle store ad).
Unfortunately, when we were there they were just bringing in the materials and no one was there to build it yet so we didn't get to be a part of that experience.

I am a crafty type person, so something they had at the museum that interested me was a video/interactive presentation by Native American master basket makers. There were videos of them talking about their craft and demonstrating aspects of it.
You can view the videos online HERE.  There are also videos of woodcarvers as well.

After a good hour there we got back into the car.
Two years ago we had been up here as Hubs wanted to see the Penobscot Indian Museum over on the Penobscot Tribal lands by Old Town.  The Museum was closed that time.
Since we were about 2 miles away I suggested we drive over and see if they were open.  We had come 500+ miles....might as well try since we were so close, right?
Hubs gave me an argument at first but I insisted in that way only a wife can, that we go.
So he threw up his hands, figuring it would be a goose chase again.

And he was wrong!

The Museum was open and he finally got to check it out.  It is housed in the old Government Indian Agent's office so it's a bit small.  But you wouldn't believe the amount of items and displays they have crammed into the building!  It's chalked full of photos, newspaper articles, and Penobscot items.  They even have 2 full sized birch canoes on display.  One is approx. 100 yrs. old and the other is over 200 yrs. old.  As there was no one else visiting at the time, the museum director, Mr. James Neptune, was able to chat with us at length on many of the items on display and answer our questions.  We only stayed about an hour but there was so much to see we could have been there all day and still not taken in everything.  Many of the items on display had been in private collectors' hands but were donated back to the museum where they can be appreciated by many.
I really enjoyed talking with Mr. Neptune.  He is an artist in many media as well as a writer and an activist....a true Renaissance man.  We found many things in common to talk about and we commiserated on the eBay scene as well.lol

He even consented to posing for a photo with me in the Museum's foyer. 
I take fond memories of the day with me....it was a pleasure to connect with Mr. Neptune.

Me & the Penobscot Museum Director, James Neptune, at the museum on Indian Island, The Penobscot Indian Reservation.  The Island is in the Penobscot River just off shore of what is called Old Town Maine.

On Tuesday morning, Hubs and I packed up at the campground and headed out to my friend's house outside of Augusta.  We made a quick stop in Waterville to check out the new Marden's store, for some discount shopping, and then a quick lunch across the Kennebec River in Winslow Maine.
While I didn't get a photo of my friend Brenda this trip, here is the one we snapped 2 yrs. ago...

And here is her backyard.....

Her property is right on the water.  Dusk brings alot of skeeters(that love to dine on me!)but otherwise it's lovely and peaceful.

We spent that evening and most of the next day just sitting and visiting.  There was also some drinking and eating.lol  Nothing very interesting except to us.

Of course Tuesday through Thursday turned out to be 3 of those hot and muggy days that they do get in Maine.....figures, right?  I'm there so it gets hot and muggy...lol  Brenda doesn't have A/C at her house.
She does have an awesome spa room she built onto the house with floor to ceiling windows.  Most of the day with the ceiling fan going, that room was nice and cool.

Hubs and I did wander off on Wednesday afternoon to Gardiner to check out the farmer's market at the Common in town.

The Wednesday Farmer's Market in Gardiner Maine.  It was hot enough to pop corn.
I spent most of my time sitting on a park bench to the left of the red wagon on the left in the photo(with the open door). That wagon belonged to an ice cream vendor that made a luscious ginger ice cream. Mmmmm.
 We bought home to Brenda's some fresh organic veggies and homemade hummus.

On Thursday Hubs and I had decided to head to the coast...Rte. 3 to Belfast, down the coast via Rte. 1 to Camden and Rockland and Wiscasset and up Rte. 27 to Gardiner and back to Brenda's place.
The weather however, did NOT consult us!  We hit Belfast and after some more discount shopping at Ocean State Job Lot, we drove down the hill into Belfast by the harbor...into a thick fog that obscured any lovely ocean views we had set our hearts on seeing and photographing for you all.
So much for sightseeing along the coast and some lovely photos.....

So we just kept going and hoped that the weather would clear(which it did not).  Stopped for lunch at a little joint called Nana's Kitchen outside of Rockland.  Not very impressed with the food or the prices(a gussied up shack with tourist prices).  We had a funny thing happen though when we were getting out of the car.  Two ladies were getting into the car parked next to us with Maine plates.  They saw our PA plate and asked us where we were from in PA.  Turns out one of them used to live literally 2.5 miles down the road from the development where our last house was/is in PA back during the time we lived there!  What a small small world it is....

So we drove through Rockland(the fog was still rolling in)and continued on.  It would have been nice to hit the Wyeth Museum while there but our timing was again bad since Thursday was the first day of the yearly Lobster Festival held in Rockland.  The traffic was miserable and getting worse with all those extra tourists in town for that event.  We hit one of those roadside seafood sellers out on Rte. 1 for some lobsters to cart back to Brenda's for dinner.
We also stopped in Edgecomb on the way back to Brenda's and bought 3 quarts of wild Maine blueberries to take home to PA(I should have bought more!).  August will find entrepreneurs along Rte. 1 in Maine selling berries, pies, seafood, you name it!  The prices are ridiculously low so it's always a good idea to have a cooler in your car when you hit the coast.

This is the celebrated Red's Eats at the corner of Rte. 1 and Water St. in Wiscasset Maine. I took this from the car stopped in the summer long gridlocked Rte. 1 traffic heading into town, westbound from the bridge over the Sheepscot River.  Wiscasset is a quaint little town.  The woman who founded and still ran the Maine State Music Theater(then the Brunswick Music Theater)back when I worked there had her summer home here so I've been here quite a few times.  I still mourn the loss of the old relic Schooner ships on the banks of the river that were still there in the 1980's.(There were various pushes back then to refurbish them before the sea reclaimed them but nothing was done and they disintergrated over time.)

The traffic traveling through Wiscasset in the summer months has boomed since then, as this is the direct route to most of the coastal points that lie east... but it's still a 2 lane road here.  Between the road going through the center of town and the speed restrictions and the Red's traffic, traveling on Rte. 1 here is a nightmare in the summer.
I've eaten at Red's a few times over the years....the last time in 1998.  I hear the food hasn't changed a wit since then and the lobster rolls is still most excellent.

We all dined on fresh lobster that evening.  Brenda made us wear the silly bibs and use her lobster napkins, plates and wooden mallets.  Hey, if it means I get to eat lobster, I'd wear clown shoes and a g-string.  Of course, if I did, no one would have much of an appetite anymore.lol

Sluggy looks a hot, atrocious sweaty mess but she finally gets her lobsters.  Don't we look like a couple of mental patients here?lol

We headed home bright and early Friday morning, again taking the back roads to the Interstate in VT, through MA and down into CT.
The next time we go through CT I'll need tranquilizers.
What.
A.
Nightmare.

It's been 2 years since I've been through CT and I can't believe it, but it has gotten so much worse!  The people drive like lunatics....Seriously!
Hubs has to drive to Hartford for business on a regular basis.
I don't know how he does it and doesn't have an accident.
The drivers are unbelievable and you NEVER see a policeman!

We almost were in an accident too.
A car, 2 car's ahead of us got cut off by some maniac flying up the left lane....we were traveling in the center lane.  He cut off that car trying to get over to the righthand lane to the exit.  The car spun out, hit the concrete median, blew 2 tires and blocked the left and center lane.  The guy inside looked fine(in shock but fine).  The idiot who caused the accident just kept going!
So the car in front of us and Hubs sped up to catch the idiot driver's car(at least get the license plate number). We both boxed him into the emergency lane and made him stop before he got to the exit ramp.  I got on the cell and called the police to report the accident since the interstate was now down to 1 travelable lane.
We couldn't stay there and keep him until the police arrived since the traffic would have smashed into us so we left after we got the plate number and I made the call.
I think I was still shaking when we arrived home hours later.

As an added bonus, at some point traveling on Friday(probably at one of the places we stopped to eat) I picked up a virus bug.  I got to spend the entire night and half of the next morning puking my guts out.  Seven trips to the "porcelain god", seven.  I spent Saturday sleeping all day and most of Sunday too. 
But I lost 5 pounds!lol
My ribs were sore for a solid week.
Not a good end to our vacation but I'd do it all over again if I could.....well, except for that puking part.

I hope you've enjoyed my little narrative on our summer vacation. 8-)

Sluggy