Traveling With Dad, Cajuns and Manifest Destiny

Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since the last post. I will offer up the generic excuse: baby. She is doing quite well and is even cuter than she was in her first weeks of life. I will have to get some updated pics up for you. She generally sleeps through the night (save an occasional night here or there), so that is nice.

Oh, I got to break up a fight in my classroom the other day. A desk was thrown to the floor (not by me). Both of these guys could have flattened me in two seconds, but fortunately they listened to me when I got between them. That was my first fight this year. OK, on to the post...

Since my wife has to return to work and I am working, my parents generously offered to come stay with us for two months to help with baby during the day. Once summer comes I will be able to take over and then she will be old enough for daycare. My folks wanted their car for their two month stay in SA, so I volunteered to drive it for them. They live in Florida along the west coast of the peninsula. I flew into Florida on a Friday night, turned around Saturday morning and drove back to Texas with my Dad through the weekend. A bit over 1000 miles. My mother decided to fly over on Sunday. I really love road trips, so it was cool.



You get into great conversations on a trip like that. My Dad and I talked of life, love, sports and music. I have made that San Antonio (or Houston) to Florida trip several times over the years, sometimes alone, sometimes with someone. (I made it with a certain girlfriend years back, and somewhere in Mississippi I decided she would become an ex-girlfriend upon our return. There is no hidng from someone in a car for 1000 miles.)

The Florida panhandle is extremely dull and goes on forever, and Beaumont to Houston is ugly with all of the refineries everywhere, and the Houston to SA three hour stretch I have driven 3,489 times and can give you a detailed description of every tree or fast food joint on the route...but I absolutely love the stretch through southern Louisiana. Having lived in New Orleans for a couple of years, I am fairly familiar with the area, but every time I go through I really enjoy it. Something rather mystical about the place, time has stood still in parts of it.

The Atchafalaya Basin is beautiful to me. It is about a 20 mile stretch of road through Louisiana swamps between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana. Here are some pics (I didn't take these, but they give you a feel for the place)...






ABOVE: The Atchafalaya Bridge is about 20 miles of I-10 over the Atchafalaya Basin. I read somewhere it is the 8th longest bridge in the world.

We stopped Saturday night in Baton Rouge because my Dad had to get to a TV in time to watch the Kentucky-West Virginia NCAA game. Having grown up in Kentucky, he is a devoted Wildcats fan, and has probably not missed watching or listening to a game in the past 60 years or so. (Strange game, W. Virginia did not score a two point basket the entire first half, it was all threes or free throws. They ended up knocking Kentucky out, too).

Louisiana people are unique Americans. At the hotel we grabbed a quick breakfast Sunday morning and the breakfast lady was quite enthusiastic in serving us. She was a cajun lady, therefore we could only understand every fifth word or so. Yet she really wanted to talk. Referring to my Dad as "brother" (or "bruddah"), she sat down next to me uncomfortably close and watched me eat my Belgian waffle and talked about the Indian owners of the hotel and the annoying guests she serves every day. We gave her a $5 tip and we might as well have bought her a new house and car. "Oh bruddah, you so so kind! What a good man, mm hmm!" We were half way down the hall going back to our room and we could still hear her shouting our praises.

Road trips are a wonderful part of American life. I would rather travel by car over plane any time. The open road is part of that American possibility. Something that people in the crammed Northeast cities miss out on somtimes, the wide open roads and spaces of the South and West have always represented new beginnings and opportunities. Or in my case, a certain rejuvenation and an opportunity to have some good times with my Dad.