Thursdays Here Already

 

Alarm is going off so it must be 5:00 am. GEEE that is just too early to be getting up…but then Sherri has to get ready for work. I got up and slipped on my clothes so I could make the journey down to the coffee maker in the lobby. There were several people down there when I arrived. I got in line and waited my turn…I could smell the coffee as each individual poured their cup and I was hoping they would speed it up so I could get mine.

I pumped our two cups…this machine pumps to disperse the coffee…and then headed back to the room. Sherri open the door for me an then snatched her cup from my had…are we addicted? We drank our coffee while Sherri told me what all she had to do today. There was some inferences made that I would be doing nothing…I ignored them…I know she has to work but I will be too and then she will not have that to get on to me about. Only working three days a week wont be bad for me…after working 7 days a week 10 and 12 hours a day…no I will survive this I am sure.

Opelousas Historical Museum and the Jean Lafitte museum

Cajun Music Hall of Fame here in Opelousas

 

My sister in law Becky Turner will be having open heart surgery on Monday of next week. We will be there for her and Rodney during the operation. Sherri and I request your prayers for Becky. She has a bad valve that will have to be replaced. The procedure takes several hours and can be risky. I don’t know for sure if I will post a journal entry on Monday but will bring everyone up to date on the outcome of the surgery on Tuesday for sure.

These are some of the plantation homes here in Opelousas. There is so much history here that is overlooked just running down the Interstate at 70 mph. We could spend another week here and still not see it all.

Meantime we will be moving from Marksville Louisiana to Lake Tawakoni Texas. We will be staying at the State Park until Sunday morning when we plan to leave for Lake Lavon. This will put us closer to the hospital in Dallas. From there we will be traveling south to Lake Whitney. We are really going to be on the move this next week. I will try to keep you up to date on our whereabouts…

Somewhere in Time. 

Back in a Hotel for a Spell

Well not bad accommodations for a po boy. Notice the pillows and they range from soft to firm…How-a-bout-that.

This is a little different morning than usual. We did not wake up in the RV but in a hotel in Opelousas Louisiana. I did not go down to the kitchen to make coffee… I walked down the hall to the coffee machine located in the lobby of the Holiday Inn. I pumped out two cups of coffee…put flavored cream in one and straight cream in the other. Put in the usual amount of sweetener and then headed back to our room.

Sherri was getting ready for work and I was getting ready for a day of reading journals and catching up on my emails. So many of my friends send me streaming video that I cannot download on my Verizon Air Card…due to the bits they eat up…so today I get to download a ton of stuff I have been saving for so long. Any of you out there that send me this stuff…understand it might be a month before I get a free WIFI to download it with. I may never reply back but you can believe I do look at all my emails and enjoy them.

OK so Sherri headed out about dark thirty and I walked her down to the truck. I made sure she left safely and then I returned to the room. She was suppose to call me when she got there but she didn’t so I called her. The phone went straight to voice mail which told me that her phone was in need of a charge. OH WELL…I am sure she made it OK…I do worry about her…but she does not think so.

I spent the day as planned reading and commenting on so many journals. At lunch I walked across the parking lot to a Mexican Food Restaurant and had Cheese Enchiladas. Not bad but nothing to write home about. I returned to the room….by the way it has rained here all day. I walked in the rain over there and back and was quite chilled when I returned. I turned the heat on in the room to warm up. Back to reading and writing and soon I looked up it was almost 3:30. Sherri was suppose to get off at that time so I put the computer up and turned on the TV to see what was happening in the world. Sherri knocked on the door about a 4:15 and we got ready to go and eat dinner.

This is the restaurant in the Holiday Inn…a little pricey for me so I head across the parking lot to the Mexican Food restaurant….in the rain…no less.

The decision was made to head over to Evangeline Downs Casino and Buffet. Sherri was tired and wanted to have a set down meal. We had the buffet dinner and then went out on the casino floor to try our luck at slots. I did not do too well but Sherri came out $10.00 ahead. She is so lucky and I am such a loser….no comment from any of you.

That just about did it for this day. We went by Wally World on the way to the hotel and picked up some snacks for the room. Sherri found some plastic bowls, like yours Leslie and she just had to have them.

For more humdrum excitement…stay tuned to this network and follow the adventures of Speedy’s Hotel Adventure…

Somewhere in Time

Move Down South

Headed south to Opelousas Louisiana

Sherri and I made the decision that I would go to Opelousas with her. There is nothing for me to do here in Marksville so I will just go down there with her and stay in the Holiday Inn and catch up on my emails and journal reading.

After we finished our coffee Sherri started packing. I had some outside things to see to and she put some of the stuff away inside so we would not have to do that when we returned. When we got all that done it was 11:30 and time to think about lunch. We ate some of our leftovers…finished putting away the dishes and packed the truck up.

We sat down to watch the weather before we headed out and got caught up with a show on the weather channel listing the Hottest…Coldest…Wettest…and Driest towns in the country. Before we knew it we had sat there for two hours! Well it was time to go so we left about 2:30 on an hour and fifteen minute drive.

When we pulled out of the RV Park Sherri said, “Let’s take a different route to Opelousas.” She mapped out a route that took us through some small towns that might turn out to be interesting. We both love to see old towns and see the old houses and stores that are there.

 This is just one of the many towns we traveled through on our way to Opelousas.

This is the only view I could get of this old house. All others were obscured by the trees and shrubs.

This is an old store long ago abandoned. How many folks stood out on that old porch and sipped a cold soda in the summer heat?

This old house is still occupied. Notice the large oak out front. This entire roadway was lined with these giant oaks. Just think how many passing travelers these trees have seen.

Once a home? Then a barn? Now abandoned and forgotten. No more mail comes here.

This house has not been to long abandoned. Soon it will fall into despair much the same as the other houses we saw.

This old house had a bathroom added…but it has since fallen in. Notice on the right side the addition with bathroom fixtures still visible.

As it turned out we were not disappointed. We got to see many historical sites and the giant oaks along the road we traveled were beautiful. I did not get many pictures of the trees but we did take pictures of the old houses and stores along the way. We talked of how they must have been grand places at one time in history. If you ever have the chance to travel the back roads where you are you wont be disappointed. 

I am getting better at my night photography…This is a great place to eat Cajun food just south of Opelousas.

We are now in Opelousas and plan on whipping up some adventures here. Stay tuned and we will take you along with us  as we  travel…

Somewhere in Time

Walking Again

 

Sherri was in the kitchen making coffee this morning when I woke up. Soon I could hear the coffee maker perking away and the pot filling with hot java…and the aroma was out of this world…I just had to get up and pour some in a cup.

Today we had planned on loading some pictures up on our memory stick and try out the new picture frame viewer. We have several disk of pictures to go through so Sherri and I split them up and went through and picked out the pictures that we wanted to display on the screen.

It took us a long time to sort through all the pictures and then load them onto my computer. We then went back through all that we had loaded and culled out the pictures that we did not want. After about 3 hours of loading and unloading we had the first rough draft on the memory stick ready to display.

We loaded the stick into the picture frame and turned it on. How cool is that…but we still needed to delete some of the pictures that proved to be too grainy. Some of the pictures we had taken with our old digital camera that did not have the pixel count that the new one has so they will have to come off.

After we finished with our picture down load it was time to plan lunch. We decided to cook out on the grill. Our choice of food was pork chops. Sherri found a new marinate…so we used it on the chops. I readied the grill and Sherri put together a salad and some baked potatoes. When we got it all ready we sat down to a great meal and was it good.

Soon after eating it was time to walk. We have made it part of our day to walk from now on. We use to walk everyday before I retired and then I would walk when Sherri continued to work… slowly but surely we walked less and less until we stopped altogether. Sometimes it is hard to get motivated when the weather is bad but we are determined to make it happen from now on.

We have not totally decided whether to stay here next week or move on south toward Lake Charles. We will be investigating some alternate places to stay next week. Oh the tuff decisions you have to make when your on the road…

Somewhere in Time

Good Deals At Wally World

 

We were up at the usual time and had our coffee. We decided to eat a real light breakfast. We had a coupon to eat lunch at the buffet for free. Hey we could not pass that up. About noon we headed to the casino  to eat our lunch and it was so good. I’ll have to say that the food here has not been a disappointment. We will have to diet for the next year or two but while we are here we are not going to pass up the good food.

With all the free food and other free money to play on we have not spent that much money here and we have had a good time. Sherri told me that she has some more free meals coming next month here so we look forward to that.

Wally World had it’s Friday Morning Madness Sale. We had not planned on attending Friday morning but would wait until Friday noon to see what they had left and get what we wanted. Much to our surprise…there was just about everything left that we wanted so we bought it without the pushing and shoving that goes on during the regular sales hours. Some of the items they had cleaned off the shelf but one of the associates there told us to look around in some of the return buggies and we might find what we were looking for. Sure enough we found everything.

We found a 19 inch TV for Kris and his sister. We bought a Blu-Ray…what ever player. I have no idea what all that means but everyone said that you must have one. We found Sherri a picture frame player. She has been wanting one of those for some time and they had these on for $30.00. We picked up a memory stick for the player and a cutting board for the mount on the TV. “What,” you say…A cutting board for the TV mount?

OK here is the story on the TV wall mount. We changed out TVs and the wall mount for the old TV is very hard to take the TV down from. So the decision was made to change out the mount. The mount for the new TV was too small to mount to the wall studs provided for the old mount so I had to span them with a piece of wood…which I could not locate…due to the lack of lumber yards in this area of the world. OK so the wooden cutting board was used instead of buying a board. Anyone that takes my TV down one day may ask themselves what in the world I was thinking using this cutting board…and you will know the rest of that story.

After getting the TV mounted we fixed us some dinner and then watched a few movies rented from the “Red Box”. When the last movie was over about 10:00 Sherri and I both called it a night and turned in. Tomorrow we plan on getting some pictures down loaded to our memory stick and then trying out the picture frame player. I will bring you up to date on how that goes…

Somewhere in Time

 

The Day After…

 

Hello morning…

Sherri and I had a wonderful day yesterday. We did not go anywhere…other than out for Thanksgiving dinner. We ate at the casino and had turkey dressing and all the other trimmings. We had a buy one get one free coupon which we used and got our dinner for $9.00 each!

Before we left for Thanksgiving dinner we took us a walk around the park to burn off calories…to make room for more.

When we got to the casino the line was almost to the door and my heart sunk…thinking that we may never get in to eat. I told Sherri to go on in to the casino and get on that machine that has won her all that money. I was hoping she would hit the jackpot again…if so we could grab a bite to eat somewhere else. Well…..

To my surprise the line went rather fast and Sherri’s machine was broken. She was waiting on the Tech to fix it but it looked hopeless so she came on over and got in line with me. Before we knew it we were paying for our dinner and were ushered to our table.

Dinner was so good and we were real good about not overeating. We got small portions and ate those and then ordered coffee and a small dessert.

When we finished we went to the casino floor to make our fortune…that never happened…but we did have fun and did not lose any money. We went to the atrium to see the alligators and take some pictures. We also checked out the movie to see what was playing there.

This is the atrium located between the casino and the hotel. Many of the rooms have balconies that overlook this area

Looking from the other end toward the street

The lobby is decorated for Christmas

There is a swamp in the center of the atrium and yes these are real!

Sherri said that this one had sinus problems?

They have a movie theater in the hotel.

Sherri waiting for the shuttle to take us home

We decided to rent some more movies at The Red Box at Wally World. We had already rented 3 there the day  before and this time we picked out 4. The movies we picked out were much better and we enjoyed them. It is really nice to set and entertain ourselves for such a little investment.

We ate leftovers and finished off the last movie and then made our way to bed. What a wonderful Thanksgiving day this has been. I hope that everyone had as good a time as we had. What more could you ask for…

Somewhere in Time

Happy Thanksgiving

 

It is Thanksgiving morning and we are setting in our living room with the fireplace going and the computers glowing. We have phone messages from Sarah… saying,

“Happy Thanksgiving”.

We are not with any of our family but we are together and that is what really counts. We both knew that one day it would come to this…just Sherri and I living our lives out away from our children and all those we love.

When we use to have the Thanksgiving dinner Sherri would work herself to death getting everything ready. The boys and I would be watching football and the  girls would be visiting out on the back porch watching all the little children. This Thanksgiving Sherri will not have to work so hard to get that dinner ready…but I know she would if asked.

I am thankful that I was blessed with Sherri in my life and not a day goes by that I am not enriched by her wisdom. Yes without her my life would not have any meaning and I hope that we will be together for many more Thanksgivings.

I love all my children that have brightened the road in my life and made me stay the course. Without the children I know that Sherri and I would be lost. Together we have made memories that will last forever.

God bless all my family and watch over them and be with them in all they do. Watch over my Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren in their lives and I pray that the Lord will continue to be an influence.

Someday this will all come to an end…I know this…but until that day takes me away from all the people that I love I will always thank the Lord for the blessing of having them in my life.

To all my friends out there I wish you the best life has to offer. Stay safe and live every day as though it was your last. I hope that we will meet along life’s highway many times and share our stories and make many memories together…

Somewhere in Time

What a Wonderful Day

 

The morning came but the sun did not. It was light outside but I could tell through the skylights that the sun was no were to be found. We had both hoped for a bright sun shinny day but it did not look as though that would happen.

We had our coffee and then started planning what we would do on this…another gloomy day. Sherri had separated the clothes and so we decided to make a trip to the laundry…after we played a few slots. Everything has to follow playing some in the casino.

Sherri finished washing one more load of clothes in our washer and then we got dressed and walked over to the casino. Sherri got back on the machine that had paid off for her yesterday and sure enough it paid off again today. She won $60.00 on it today and we felt good about it. I won $2.75 on my machine and I was ecstatic. We would both be able to eat today.

After cashing in our tickets we caught the shuttle and went back to our house and gathered up the wash. We loaded it in the truck and headed over to the laundry mat. We watched TV in the lobby while the clothes finished and then went back home.

We went to Wally World and rented three movies that we had never heard of before. We fixed a pizza and watched our movies while we ate. Not the best movies but the pizza was great.

We are really enjoying this time we have to relax and enjoy doing nothing…

Somewhere in Time

Adventure to Chicot State Park

 

Morning came with a little more hope of clear sky. Only the words of the weatherman kept this hope alive in our hearts. As we drank our coffee this fine day and looked outside all we could see was the same dreary sky that we have seen now for the last 3 days here in central Louisiana.

With that little bit of hope and our desire to search out a new adventure today we drank coffee and planned out the route we would take today. Sherri had the computer on and was reading the reviews on Chicot State Park. The park is located south of Alexandria and north of Opelousas on Interstate 49. Not too far off the Interstate as Google Earth showed. I zoomed in on what appeared to be a swampy lake with cypress trees and flooded areas all around. Most all the reviews were favorable and spoke well of the north park camping area but did not fair well on the south. They said that the southern area would not work well with longer RV’s which is what we have so we were going to concentrate on the north.

We finished our coffee got dressed and gathered all our exploring tools together. Our tools would consist of maps GPS computer and determination to make this a fun trip.

By the time we were ready to head out we both realized that we were hungry. We had taken up most of the morning planning our day and had not eaten. We decided to eat some of our leftovers from the days past. I had the last of the gumbo and Sherri had a serving of chili. We both finished our lunch cleaned up our mess and headed out to the truck. We left the park about 12:30 which was a little pass the start time we had been shooting for….9:00.

Our Streets and Trips said that we would be traveling for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This was to cover on 34 miles which told us both that there would be many back roads that we would have to wind down to reach our destination. This would make the adventure that much better…being that we love back roads and all the sites they provide.

Sure nuff we were not disappointed by our route and the GPS was correct in the time and distance that we would travel. We went right to the park with a few misses by the GPS wanting to take us down roads that were marked Do Not Enter. I am sure they had been changed to exits out of the park over time and we did not have the updates in our unit.

We arrived at the entrance without any further problem and noticed a road lined with tall pine and larger than life hardwood  trees. The trees formed a canopy over the road and for some time we could not see the sky. Soon we came to the main entrance to the park and pulled up to the rangers office. They gave us a map of the park and we drove to the north campground. This drive is a good ways from the gate and we were wondering if we would ever get there.

We crossed over the lake on the way to the campground. It was just as I had pictured it. Sherri was worried about alligators…wonder why?

We missed the turn to the camping area and ended up down at the boat launch. We turned around and went back to the campground where we drove around the entire area looking for sites we could get into. There are some sites that we could fit in but Sherri was a little uneasy about the fact that we were so far away from civilization. She really is not into the wilderness camping and this place is very wild. The lake is really cool and is exactly what I pictured it to be. I had mentioned to Sherri that I would love to put my boat in and explore around there. She said something about alligators…so I kind of put a lid on that idea.

We drove around for some time but did not find anything that Sherri felt comfortable with. We left there and returned to Marksville by a different route…actually shorter. Along the way I stopped and took some pictures of the cane fields and the bayous along the way. When we arrived in Marksville we decided to drive through town and take a few pictures of the old homes there. They have historical signs out front of each of the homes that are real old. Some date back as far as 1890’s.

We passed through many small towns on the way back to Marksville. This particular road followed this bayou for many miles. It was lined with beautiful homes…we wondered where all these people worked?

Surely they could not all work in the cane fields…If so I missed my calling…I should have been a field hand. This is one of the many cane fields we passed along the way.

This home is in Marksville and dated back to the late 1800’s. Between 1890 and 1915 there must have been a boom in this area. Where did the people get all the money to build all these beautiful houses? I will have to do some research on that.

One more of the many homes built in that time period. I could not put all the pictures on this one entry but they were all beautiful.

We exhausted the things to see there so we returned to the RV park. By this time we were getting hungry and made a plan to go to the buffet to eat fish. Sherri and I both had a taste for catfish and we had to satisfy that craving. We did and then put a few dollars in the slots and came back home.

We had a wonderful day here together…just me and my best friend…

Somewhere in Time 

Hoping for Sunshine

 

Man that coffee is good this morning. I really needed a good ol cup of coffee to get me going. I have plans today that need to be carried out…outside the house. We need some sunshine to warm things up a bit. Then the bad news came from the weather channel. No sunshine today folks.

OK so we sat there and tried to figure out an alternative plan on what to do if we could not do our house cleaning chores. What could we do that would be fun and exciting and get us motivated this morning. You know right across the park from where we set is the casino with all kinds of things to do. Why not get dressed and go over there and play some slots.

The race was on…we were both getting showers and putting on our gambling clothes. We were making record breaking strides in getting ready for the day. Soon we were dressed…smelled good and ready for the shuttle to wisp us away to the casino.

All night we had noticed the number of shuttles that were passing by…what seems like every 30 seconds. Now here we both are looking like something out of Cosmopolitan and no shuttle in site.

It was  not too long and one did show up and we were off. We were dropped off at the side door…not too far from the slots we wanted to play on. I had my $5.00 in my pocket and it was ready for me to play it. Sherri had her money and we hit the Turtle machines and started pumping the buttons until they were hot. I was holding my own but I could tell Sherri was getting upset. She was not taking in the wins she is use to. She did score a few times that seem to make her smile. Overall we came out OK and the money we spent was well worth the entertainment.

We halted play about 10:00 and decided it was time to head to the house. We don’t like being up at the casino when the crowds start pouring in. They were starting to do just that so it was back on the shuttle and back to the house.

I had got a recipe from the internet that I was wanting to make and so we put that together in the crock pot and then fixed us a late breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent playing on the computers and when the temps did reach a comfortable level I retreated outside to get some chores done. Sherri cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry in our washer.

That about does it for this day. Sherri and I are becoming very relaxed here….

Somewhere in Time

Rain

 

 

Well that should say it all. When my little green eyes flashed this morning and my ears cleared from the sleep…I heard that sound…Rain. I would hear that sound all day according to the weather channel. We watched the weather thinking that it would change but it would not. All the outside plans I had made for the day where being washed down the street with the rest of the run off.

OK so new plans had to be made and where better to make those plans…setting in the recliner with a hot cup of coffee with the CEO of plan making next to me. We turned over many ideas while sipping our coffee. Some of those ideas were…

Set here and come up with ideas

Set here and watch TV while thinking of things to do.

Set here and not think of anything

Set here and look for something to do

Set here and wait for something to happen

We decided to just set here…that seem to be the consensus from both chairs…so that is exactly what we did all day. We sat in our recliners and watched TV. Well I will have to tell you that we made a trip to Wally World to get our supplies for the week. What better day to do that than when it is rainy and cold. Then it was back in the chairs to carry out the rest of our planned day.

Sherri did get up to make Gumbo and was it good! We ate gumbo for lunch and then…yes that is correct…sat in our recliners and did nothing. We really did enjoy the day…just setting there doing absolutely nothing at all. We don’t get to do that very often and it was really a nice day to do it.

That evening we finished doing nothing because we had not got it all done that morning. About 10:00 we called it a day and went to bed. Wow we will have to do this again…

Somewhere in Time