photo-a horse-of course

Waking up in Waco, TX ---"i see horses"

Sept 23-Sept 27

Finally--we have internet access again. Now we have to hope that my laptop has enough battery for me to finish this blog.

Friday sept 23rd- we made it to Austin. The music festival is still a go. It sure was touch and go there for awhile. We had a great time at the festival-listened to Lucinda Williams (was disappointed in the fan response-we thought she was great!)..also heard/saw Thievery Corporation, Allman Bros, Keane, Lyle Lovett and the Black Crowes. We were exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel...yes---we had a very nice Marriott Suites room for the whole weekend!!! Thank you, Andy for the hookup! I've been bugging Laura every night for a phrase or word of the day.

Lu=Austin Rocks Laura= nice cool sheets

Saturday Sept 24th...uggh woke up with a damn sore throat! I'm sure that yesterdays all day music fest in a dust bowl didn't help. We weren't as thrilled with the lineup today so we took our time getting to the fest. Rode the free "dillo" around downtown. I swear that's what they call the tourist streetcar --but you know that everyone says "ride the dildo around town..it's free"---well i'm guessing that's what they say--cuz we sure did. Had some margs, salsa chips and some mexican dish at Iron Cactus. Met two lesbians (i mean ladies) at the table next to ours. Laura does a hilarious imitation of the one woman. She shook hands with her left hand and held it out as if we were to kiss her hand and bow down before her. She has been officially named "Princess Alexis". Well her other half was so butch and so hard to understand--think she really did have marbles in her mouth...or she might have been chewing on some of her missing teeth? anyhow they were telling us about some "nudist beach" that we should visit......can you say....."no thank you your highness". After the festival--which was a HUGH hot dust bowl--but we still enjoyed it. Heard/saw Oasis and Widespread Panic. We went to a gay bar afterwards...Rainbow Cattle Company. It still makes me chuckle seeing men two stepping together....don't know why.....it's just kind of funny.

Lu="sorethroat and brown boogers"
Laura= "God bless Texas"

Sunday Sept 25th- Still feel yucky from the dust down my throat...yes i did the kerchief over my face...(even have photos to prove it). Totally hot again today. I don't think i've made myself clear about how hot. Today was 107 degrees and it broke records. Didn't get to the festival in time to see bands that we were interested in because Laura had to have her Stubbs BBQ. Oh-that girl and her damn fried chicken and BBQ! We missed Rilo Kiley, Kaiser Chiefs and most of Jason Mraz. This was the last day of the fest and we heard/saw Decemberists, Jack INgram, Wilco, Dierks Bentley and then Coldplay. We were in the Taco Cabana after and this short pudgy mexican woman walked past us. I looked down at her dirty feet (believe me --we all had them-from the festival) and at first i thougth she had 6 toes on her left foot. Double take proved me wrong--yeah. But it made me ask Laura "would you still love me if I had 6 toes"? her reply still makes me laugh..it was so serious/deadpan "Ummm, ok but you'd have to wear socks to bed". Maybe i was slap/dust happy but i laughed for minutes-not just seconds.

Lu=Hot-HOt- HOT
Laura= "extremely hot" (isn't that cute--we don't know each others answer when we do this)

Monday Sept 26th..Happy b-day Sissy!! We have been officially on the road for one week. We haven't even had one big blow out --mace hasn't been used yet. I would call this road trip a success so far. When speaking to Sissy (speakphone) she mentioned that she loves the "blog"-when i hung up --Laura asked "what's a blog?.....is it the finished room above a garage" she really has never heard of a blog. Oh my girl. We drove to San Antonio. Did the touristy thing--riverwalk boat ride. Very cool city. This is embarrassing but that whole "Alamo" thing--I thought it was just the name of their shopping district. I thought the real Alamo was closer to the border of Mexico. WRONG.... We wondered over and they had a "shaved ice/snowball" stand right outside the Alamo. We couldn't believe it! We've been taking photos of the stands --in different cities etc. Of course I had to buy one!! Well the next thing you know...I'm being filmed ( I guess local news?) and the reporter asks if he can interview me. It's HOT HOT HOT again (102) he wanted to know what I call the ice dessert--they call them "Raspas"......i sure wish we had more time in san antonio--would have liked to see if i actually made their news...but we had to head to Corpus Christi for the night. Found our Wal-mart home for the night pretty easily. Found some mexican sports bar (50 yard line) and watched some football and drank a pitcher of been and had some guacamole (laura said-not as good as Pam Tuttles) chips and salsa...our bill was $8.23.......that's what i'm talking about. Laura found out that her mother was panicked when she received the post card that we sent to her. I'll try and make this story short...(yeah right). About 10 years ago Laura's mother (Jan) left her favorite pair of orange handled scissors at a beach house in Ocean City. Beach house belongs to Laura's ex (Mary Jenkins). Anytime Laura mentions Mary to her mother--her mother asks about those damn scissors and if they still have them. I think the first 5 times meeting her (you know family dinners-bdays etc) she mentioned those scissors 3 times. Finally in August...Laura and I were in Ocean City--visting Mary and her gf. Guess what??? We found the f--ing scissors. now-laura didn't tell her mother that we're going cross country-nor that we found the scissors.

we have been taking photos--of the scissors in different cities and mailing her the photo. She received the first one...scissors in Panama City(Laura not in the photo) with this written on the back of the photo "Heard you've been looking for me. It'll be hard to give up the beach life..but will try and make it back to you"...scissors.

But her mother didn't get it..and thought Laura wrote it as some kind of code. Like she was kidnapped of might actually even contemplate suicide. OHH--no... her poor mother called Laura's cell all day but we didn't get the calls. Luckily, Laura's sister, Leslie clued her in and I think all is ok now.

Lu= "i'm going to learn spanish today"
Laura=

Tuesday Sept 27-Corpus Christi--had lunch at Snoopy's. This is where Laura said "i can't believe the music in this town. Last night at the sports bar they play real old country songs and here at the beach cafe they are playing Herb Albert and the Tiajuana Brass Band" I totally thought she was making that up....NOPE. Sometimes-she actually impresses me. We stopped in to "just look around" at Cavender's Boots. We both purchased a pair of "sweet" cowboy boots. Mine are brown and pink : ) Padre Island National Seashore---wow!! Felt like it was our own private beach. Still kind of nervous walking around...signs "Watch for rattlesnakes".

Drove to South Padre Island (about 3 hrs away--i thought it was only 45 min away--almost offered to drive..so glad that I didn't). Oh that poor Laura--out of all this driving--I think I have driven a total of 2 hours. We tried to sleep in the Holiday Inn parking lot--but 1 hour into our sleep --2 police cars arrived to inform us that they have an ordinance prohiting overnight car camping. Luckily, Port Isable (right over the bridge) had a brand new Walmart--so off to our Walmart hotel again.

have to run to the beach..then we have a long drive (or should i say--Laura has a long drive ahead--to Big Bend National Park)

Love Lu

photo mississippi river

we're in vicksburg....great sunset over the mississippi river bridge

pictures--hopefully

My tech savvy self is having some problems with uploading photos..hopefully you'll receive more than just this text and a white screen ......if you have a photo it's of Laura showering in Panama City, Fl ..at the beach rinse off station. Hey--you make do with what you have.

Cross Country Trip 05

hello everyone~ I hope and pray everyone is staying safe and healthy this end of summer-beginning of fall season. If you didn't know-Laura and I have embarked upon a cross country trip. We left Charleston, SC on Monday Sept 19th. We have mapped out 6 weeks of travel-going to San Diego and back. We plan on staying overnight in Wal-mart parking lots. We are driving our Honda Element-we have an aero bed that fits in the back (with the back seats out). Their policy is to allow overnight camping-so we are trying to stay at 24 hr Wal-marts-you know for bathroom convenience and all. We are hitting a lot of our National parks -so we'll probably have to do campgrounds there. Every now and again we have a hotel reservation or will be staying with friends. (thank you Pam in Sante Fe and Jimbo & Cheryl in Kansas City!!) figured we'd give you a brief overall of our last 4 days. ---19th We arrived at destination Wal-mart Panama City Beach, Fl around 11:00 pm on Monday night. After a miserable nights attempted sleep (it was VERY HOT & humid and Laura wouldn't let me sleep with the door/window open)...ugh I was miserable. Anyhow-I finally fell asleep around 5:30 am and awoke to a police office knocking on our car window. "You're not allowed to sleep here"---I was like "What?? I thought Wal-mart allows overnight campers"...well they do--except in Panama City Beach, FL--they are on the front beach road and don't want to encourage that. anyhow--we got up and left to go to the beach. After a frustrating experience with the inverter that we had a mechanic rig in the car (so we would have 2 electrical outlets for use)--we had to give up on brewing our coffee. Luckily the beach pier had an outlet and we did our one cupper right there--nice!! We loved the beach---white white sand. Almost looked like snow. 20th--Drove to Pensacola FL after our morning in Panama City. Pensacola Beach -again had the nice white white sand but we couldn't believe how much damage we saw. Many, many building we being rebuilt. Only about 1/4 of the city was open for the public. Was told that the majority of the damage was from Hurricane Ivan (hit last year) and then Dennis this year did some more. Katrina didn't really do much damage. I was NOT about to spend another miserable night in the boil mobile-so we attempted to get a room. Well--if you didn't know--Mobile, AL is not too far from Pensacola and they still have a bunch of evacuees staying there. They only reason we found a room--this sweet "family member" took pity on me and gave us a "damaged room"--scored on the discount rate of $36.00) anyhow I did feel a little guilty when we were finalizing our room payment and this 70 yr old disabled woman was turned away--I did wish her "good luck" though. On check out the next day- We met this woman from Mobile that lost everything in her house and this was her 2nd trip to Pensacola just to buy furniture, washer-dryers etc. 21st-Leaving Pensacola-we heard that the road to Mobile and Biloxi is open. Our original itinerary was visiting those cities but we rerouted after Katrina. Anyhow, Laura decides that she really wants to see Mobile and Biloxi and maybe even New Orleans. We couldn't believe the damage in Mobile. We drove out to Dauphine Island and it really was 50-60 % devastated. The police had a roadblock and only allowed residents after a certain point-really where the big high dollar homes are-- right on the Gulf. Or I guess --"what's left of them are"---again such a sobering experience. Your heart really goes out to those folks affected by these storms. Well Biloxi was even worse than Mobile--even driving into Biloxi we were astounded by all the debris on the sides of the highway--mattresses-dryers, roofs -just everything and anything. We did a "no-no" and went beyond the sign that stated "residents and relief workers only" and did a quick tour. We filmed some damage--it was awful. The smell was pretty rank as well. We got nervous with all the police around-and us with our "Delaware" plates so we headed out. That was definitely the worst that we experienced and truthfully we didn't have the heart/stomach to go further to New Orleans. I guess you just can't imagine how devastaing ---well it's hard to me to put into words...it's just incredibly sad. We drove onto Vicksburg, MS and spent the night in the car (walmart). 22nd-We enjoyed our day in Vicksburg. toured the Military National Park. walked around downtown. Met some relief workers from California (4 very interesting fire fighters). After conversation and cocktails with them we hit the road for Texas. I did some calling and the Austin City Limits festival is still on--so we headed to Waco to spend the night. Lets just say that I'm glad that we were going against the evacuee traffic. HWY 45 was backed up --and I mean BACKED up--traffic was going both ways and luckily we only intersected it for a moment. Crazy ass drivers and folks lined up down the street at the gas station. The police officer in Waco sent us to a church parking lot to spend the night--said it's safer than the Wal-mart.....luckily it was a much cooler night. 23rd-woke up to Laura saying "we have a horse next to us" and sure enough the folks in the parking lot--right next to us had their horse trailer and they were walking their arabian horse-right behind our element. They were from Beaumont and said they don't expect to have a house after Rita hits. They had to leave their other horse there. Again--such sad stories. ok--Laura is telling me I have to get ready--we are actually heading out for that concert. sorry --didn't realize how long this was. love Lu