I had scheduled us to leave Houston at 11 AM September 19th so that we could have an easy drive to Lafayette,Louisana to get broke into traveling. Caro and I have become poor travelers. Caro doesn't want to leave home and my bladder doesn't stretch. She decided the evening of the 18th to have the air conditioner in her car replaced. So I hung around until the garage called and said the car was ready. While waiting a tropical storm moved onshore and it began to rain. at first showers then a deluge. I nearly drowned going to get her car. I held off packing until the very last minute and then just threw everything in the back seat. Figured I could rearrange the load next morning in Lafayette. We drove through rain so intense we could not see the hood ornament. Of course, Caro was begging me to stop but that would have put us at risk of someone running into us from the rear. I put my right tires on the "rumble" strip on the right edge of the freeway and kept driving. We left Houston at 3:30 pm and got to Lafayette at about 9 pm. That is normally a 3 1/2 hour drive. Caro took the picture below while we were driving around in the drizzle in Lafayette looking for Ben Gay for my arm. Carried that all the way to Gatlinburg and home without opening the box.  The following picture was made when I went in to check out of the Holiday Inn. I did take time to scientifically repack the car. During the night about 2 inchs of rain had fallen. I was so anxious to get on the road that I insisted we eat breakfast somewhere other than the restaraunt in the motel. Stopped at Waffle House and ate too much. Then off east on I10. I tried to drive 70 so that we would average 50 mph when all the stops were factored in.  Room 129 Lafayette Holiday Inn. The rooms all look alike. I guess that is comforting when one is far from home.  Lafayette to Meridian is about 300 miles and at 50 mph is a 6 hour drive. Ww stopped somewhere just over the MS border for snack sandwichs and drinks. Caro did get a picture of the sign for their welcome center to document our progress. We talked about returning through MS by way of the towns where her father was raised. Ha! Talk is so cheap.  I had a whole list of sites in Meridian related to the "Freedom Marchs" of the 60s. Some of them I have wanted to see for the last 40 years.  We got to Meridian just in time to be inundated by rain. Caro needed some cloths that I had agreed she could get at Wal Mart. I had planned on sight seeing while she shopped. Wrong again. But the rain. It was raining so hard that we called room service for dinner. I believe the catfish was about as good as I have ever had. We were so fagged from the drive through the rain bands that we went to sleep about 9pm. Up the next morning and room service for breakfast.  Drove to Wal Mart to shop. As always I ended up on a bench waiting for her. Wal Mart is almost a holy experience for her. While we were checking out the RAIN started again. Caro waited about 20 minutes in the store until the rain stopped. I loaded the purchases in the rain, again. |
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