March 6, 2013 – Wednesday

36 degrees/clear/calm

Leesville, Louisiana

Today’s our last in the Deep South. Seems like it was yesterday that we were packing and preparing to leave. A week has come and gone and by late Thursday afternoon, we should be comfortably settled back on Pentoga Road.

Sargie was a happy girl Tuesday morning. We stopped at a Walmart that had a McDonalds inside. She could shop AND get her Coke at the same time!

Oh, but Tuesday was a day to remember. No one was in any hurry to get out of bed at the hotel and it was mid-morning before we drove back south across the twenty-mile long bridge over Lake Pontchatrain towards New Orleans. Still hustling and bustling, I asked the clerk at the hotel why there were no rooms in the area. She said there was a huge State Farm convention in town as well as a national medical gathering, adding that she hadn’t seen it so busy since the Super Bowl.

Despite his assurances that he knew his way around New Orleans, Andy's face told me otherwise

That's our car reflected in the building. We didn't know if we were coming or going.

We spent the majority of the day in the aquarium. I’ll let a few pictures do the talking. It was Sargie’s first time and as I told someone earlier, it was fun to experience it through the eyes of a person who’d never been there.

We're not in the UP anymore

We exited several hours later to find it sunny, and with the temperature around 75 degrees, we strolled along New Orleans’s River Walk watching the freighters entering and exiting on the canal, observing people, and visiting famous historical sights.

A magician being filmed for ??? 

Andy piloted us home without any hitches where we arrived last night around 10 PM. I’m not sure how long the kids stayed up, but Sargie and I were in bed almost immediately.

Today’s our last. We talked about sticking our nose in a pawnshop or two in the area, but mostly, we’ll just hang out, visit, and rest. Andy will drive us to Houston late tonight so we can make our 6 AM connection. The poor guy will be glad to see us leave so he can get a few day’s rest before leaving next week for a month in the Gulf working on oil rigs.

I see the coffee cup is empty and since I’m the only person up, I guess I’ll have to wait on myself. Oh, if only you had my life. A man’s work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road by way of Leesville, Louisiana…