Back in the West

Tonight we're in Carlsbad, New Mexico and it's good to be back in the West where there are mountains and open country. We're on our way to Albuquerque to spend Thanksgiving with Arnie Lerner and his family. Thanks Arnie!

We spent two nights and one day in the New Orleans area. Made a quick visit to the French Quarter but didn't even get out of the car as we felt a little bit old to watch the sex shows. We did take a walking tour of the oldest cemetery in NO, and we made a point of driving through the lower 9th ward, the part of the city hardest hit by hurricane Katrina. It's really sad to see how much damage remains unrepaired. Reminded us a little of our brief visit to Bulgaria 10 years ago. There it was crumbling infrastructure due to 50 years of Soviet rule. In NO I don't know who to blame - maybe the Bush administration?

While in NO we also tried to drive to the mouth of the Mississippi but gave up because it wasn't really very interesting country. We did stop and buy some wonderful citrus (oranges and grapefruit) from a local grower. Didn't know that southern LA was citrus country.

When we left NO it was raining hard (our first day of rain in 3 weeks) and we ran into many miles of nasty road construction as we traveled west across Louisiana and the very easterly portion of Texas. We were exhausted and wanted to watch a little college football (it was Saturday) so we stayed in a motel for only the second night since we left Tygh Valley.

Yesterday (Sunday) we spent an uneventful and unmemorable day working our way westward across Texas. Texas is big. Last night we stayed at a Texas state park outside of Abilene. It was nice and reasonably priced. By the way, on this trip we have paid as little as $8 per night (state park in Louisiana) and as much as $35 per night at some privately run RV parks. I guess the days of the $15 RV stay are over.

Tonight we're in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We came here because we thought we'd take a trip to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We never got there. Too much inertia and too many miles driven.

Tomorrow we'll probably be in Ruidoso, NM and then in Albuquerque for two nights. After that we'll head for home but will still spend a couple of nights in the Death Valley area.

Alabama and Gulf Coast observations

This afternoon we arrived at a Louisiana State Park outside of New Orleans (Nawluns) after traveling from Gulf Shores, Alabama which is south of Mobile.

We avoided I-10 and drove along US90 so that we could stick close to the gulf coast line. We were amazed at the obliteration of the coast line from Biloxi to Pass Christian, Mississippi - a distance of about 40 to 50 miles.

These communities are located RIGHT on the coast line. The highway is approximately 200 feet from the water for miles and miles. Across the road from the highway there used to be many, many (probably thousands) of beautiful old southern homes. You know the kind, where the rich people lived and vacationed. Now, with a few exceptions, they're all gone. Nothing left but vacant lots and foundations. Commercial buildings too. Great tracts of empty weed filled lots. The only businesses and hotels look as if they've been built in the last 5 years. Truly amazing.

We liked southern Alabama a lot (Mississippi not so much). Beautiful country with wonderful farms and hardwood forests. Lots of water and, of course, many beautiful old homes.

Here are a couple of other observations that we made: Rural Alabama has gorgeous public schools. Every one looks new and some could pass for country clubs. I've always thought that Alabama has one of the worst school systems in the country but, if that's true, you can't tell from looking at the facilities.

There are way too many check cashing and title loan businesses in the south. Let's all thank the Oregon legislature for basically outlawing such businesses.

All of the south could use a basic course in land use planning. From Mobile to New Orleans it is basically one long strip of retail commercial. You've never seen so many McDonalds and Waffle Houses.

We're going to stay in New Orleans for two nights so that we can tour the French Quarter and get a look at the areas that were hardest hit by Katrina. We're also hoping to drive south as far as we can so that we can see where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Headed for Loosana

We've been in Gulf Shores, Alabama for the last two nights. A very nice place. We're thinking we'll come back here for a week or two the next time we come to Kentucky to visit the McQueens.

We're heading west this morning. We'll probably end up tonight in Louisiana, somewhere north and east of Norlins. We're hoping to stay off of the interstate and hug the coast so that we can visit some of the communities affected by hurricane Katrina.

We've decided to slow down and add a few days to the trip because my friend Arnie Lerner, who lives in Albuquerque has invited us to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Originally we would have arrived there next Monday and now we don't want to show up until Wednesday. So, we'll spend a little more time in Louisiana and Texas. Now it looks like we'll be back in Oregon on the 2nd or 3rd of December.

I'm having a really hard time placing photos where I want them in this blog so I'll just plunk them all down here and let them decide where they end up. These are some of the photos of Kai and her kids that we took while we were in Hopkinsville.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again.....

We left Hopkinsivlle Monday morning after spending 15 days with Kai and Chris and their three girls, Olivia - age 4, Anna - age 2, and Mary age 1.

Needless to say, the girls kept us busy. Lots of hours spent reading books, pretending that we were dragons, going to McDonalds (and Chuck-E-Cheese).

When we arrived in Kentucky we were thrilled to find that Chris White and Bea Sunderland-White were there too. Bea and Chris had recently competed a work assignment in North Carolina and had accepted a new assignment in Florida. Hopkinsville is not exactly located on the route from North Carolina to Florida, but Bea and Kai hadn't seen each other for a long while so Bea talked (her) Chris into detouring to Kentucky. We were fortunate to arrive while Bea and Chris were in town. We hadn't seen them for almost a year.

While in Hopkinsville, Bill helped Chris demolish and rebuild a concrete block retaining wall that runs along one side of the McQueen's driveway. The old wall was failing and tipping over into the driveway. The project went well, we saved the McQueens a fair amount of money, and it kept Bill out of trouble for quite a few days.

We didn't keep our trailer at Kai and Chris' house. A couple of friends of theirs, Rocky and Brenda Waymon, were kind enough to let us park our trailer at their rural 7 acre property. We were about 10 miles out of town and we really enjoyed our nightly peace and quiet at the Waymons.

Originally, when we left Hopkinsville we intended to head to Memphis and then Arkansas, Oklahoma, etc. But, since Demi hasn't ever visited the Gulf of Mexico, we changed our minds and decided to head straight south to Mobile, Alabama, then head west along the gulf coast line of Mississippi and Louisiana before angling northwest across Texax towards Albuquerque.
Tonight we're staying in a very nice city park in Greenville, Alabama. Not much to report about the drive down here. Lots of interstate highway and pretty views of rolling hills and hardwood forests. We ate lunch today at a "Waffle House", a fast-food institution in the south. We walked in with some trepidation but left pleasantly surprised. Pretty decent food, lots of it, and very reasonable prices.

Pictures from our time in Hopkinsville will follow later

Here's some McQueens

For those of you who were hoping for some pictures of the McQueens.

Busy, busy, busy in Kentucky

We've been here 72 hours and literally haven't had a moment to post. We've been focused on the three McQueen kids, a visit to Hopkinsville by Bea Sunderland and Chris White, and Chris McQueen's desire to demolish a failing retaining wall next to his driveway (this involved jackhammers, a tractor, and a hydraulic dump trailer). So, this is the first free moment we've had.

Here's an interesting story: We had to return the dump trailer to Clarksville this morning, some 35 miles south of here. Somehow, the youth pastor at Chris' church heard we were headed to Clarksville so he called Chris and asked if we could deliver the deer that he had shot last night to the deer processing facility there.

Chris, Demi and I went by this gents work place. Chris called him on the cell phone but he reported that he was in a meeting and his boss wouldn't let him leave. So, the three of us located his pickup truck where we found a deceased deer with it's tongue hanging out and a bag of ice shoved into it's intestinal cavity. Chris and I loaded it into the trailer and hauled to to the designated spot. Not the way I anticipated spending the morning.

At least we're going to get a little venison sausage out of the deal. And I've got a youth pastor who I've never met who will be indebted to me for life.

Things are good here. The weather is beautiful. Chris and Kai arranged for us to park the trailer at their friends Rocky and Brenda's acreage about 20 minute north of town.

We're having a great time with the kids (but we're tired) and will post some pictures of the little munchkins soon

A few days in Lawrence with family and friends

We arrived in Lawrence, Kansas on schedule and parked the Airstream in the driveway of our friends, Rob and Nancy Marshall.

We plan to stay here for three nights and two days while Bill re-connects with sister Barbara and a few old friends.

Our first night here (Wednesday) we had a nice quiet dinner with Rob and Nancy. Later we watched the first game of the world series.

Thursday morning we accompanied the Marshalls as they ran errands around town and then took a little time to buy a few gifts for the McQueen kids. We don't want to show up in Kentucky empty handed!

Thursday evening Bill's sister Barbara, who lives in Lawrence, came over and the five of us had a nice dinner at a local Lawrence pub.

Friday morning Rob and Nancy's granddaughter Naomi, who is 3, came by to show us her Halloween costume - a very cute pink fairly outfit.

After Naomi and her mom left we took a drive out to Rob and Nancy's farm, which lies about 20 miles southwest of of Lawrence. It was a cold and windy afternoon but that didn't stop us from having a picnic lunch alongside their pond.

Rob and Nancy were kind enough to host a make-it-yourself pizza party for us. They invited Barbara and several of Bill's old friends from high school and college. Here's a picture of Nancy Marshall flipping a pizza up in the air.

We had a wonderful evening, it was great to see several folks that Bill hadn't seen in as much as 25 years, and our gratitude goes out to Rob and Nancy for being such gracious hosts.

Here's a group photo from our evening:

Top row: Bob and Barb McLaughlin, George Paley, Barbara Brackman, Rob Marshall, Mike Brewer, Bev Timmons
Bottom row: Judy Paley, Demi, Bill, Rick Gould
(Nancy Marshall took the picture)

Tomorrow morning (Saturday) we'll leave for Hopkinsville, Kentucky and a reunion with Kai and her family!