Our first day back in circulation was a memorable seven-hour endurance marathon to Lafayette with Kenneth and Krisy. What we’d expected to be a quick trip to Wal-Mart turned into visiting eye doctors, health food stores, grocery stores, beauty supply shops, friends in hospital, and last but not least, Wal-Mart.

Krisy drove most of the trip as Kenneth still had dilated eyes from his doctor visit at our first stop. On the road home at last, well after dark, Krisy looked in the rearview mirror and laughed good-naturedly when she discovered we were tired. “Didn’t anyone tell y’all about my trips? Oh yeah, they loooong trips!”

After a much-needed rest and recovery day, we managed to visit Jane Hair mid-week for an hour or more at the Gueydan Museum, just long enough for big hugs and to quickly catch up on the “big picture” of the last few years.

After promising Jane a return visit, we popped into Patti’s Book Nook to see Jamie Gayle. Jamie had been writing us for nearly two weeks, ever since he’d heard we were back in town, but we were in no condition to do much of anything, so we kept rescheduling.

Jamie was getting increasingly frustrated at the delays, to the point of offering to buy us lunch if we’d meet with him. We laughed, but didn’t take him up on it (though it was tempting).

Jamie’s mom Patti died a year or two ago after a long battle with ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Since her death Jamie has been heavily involved with the ALS association.

He’s planning on riding in a thirty-plus mile fundraising bike ride in Florida in November so he was most interested in whatever advice we could give him on bikes, seats, clothing, training, the whole nine yards.

Since Chelsea and I have done so much riding in wide variety of situations we were more than ready to share our often hard-won expertise. We’re happy to report that we’ve heard from Jamie since. He’s gotten a bike and some other items and has begun his training rides. We’ll check back with him regularly to see how he does.

Chee Weez

Billed as New Orleans most popular party band, the Chee Weez band had a concert date scheduled for Friday night, right here in Gueydan at the Circle Top bar.

Since we knew the Chee Weez have played in some really big venues, it was amazing that they’d be playing right down the street at a small local place. We couldn’t turn down a great opportunity for a complete change of pace. A live concert with a party band? How could we say no?

Lively loud music, free-flowing drinks, a smoky bar, and the antics of the lead singer all created an unforgettable evening. The music ranged from the sixties to the present, with a heavy emphasis on upbeat, feel-good, dance music from the sixties to eighties.

The band setup was very professional and the members clearly had extensive practice at putting on a good show. Even the outfits they wore were lively and offbeat and fun to watch but not over the top.

Since it was such a small venue and wasn’t a sold-out crowd we had plenty of opportunity to get up close to the stage. Chelsea had great fun snapping photos with her cell phone while I had a great time tucked away off the side with an uninterrupted view of the stage.

After the concert, waiting for the parking lot to clear out and for the rest of our party to show up, I chatted with Matt Richard, one of the band members. I wanted to compliment him on a job well done. With Matt’s very ‘Steven Van Zandt’ look, I couldn’t resist Chelsea’s offer to take my photo with him.

Still in an evening-out mode, we headed over to another bar near Heuetta’s but tiredness kicked in about then, and I don’t think we even stayed for a beer. We got home by two, and to sleep even later.

Cajun Wedding

Getting to bed that late meant a slow awakening the next morning. We’d agreed quite some time earlier to help Heuetta with a catering job she was scheduled to work that Saturday, so sleeping in wasn’t on the menu.

Though we were all moving slowly, we left at ten with Heuetta to help get things set up. Heuetta, however, had a feel-good weapon in her arsenal – a quick stop at Johnny’s for a chocolate milkshake. She got no argument from us, as we love Johnny’s chocolate milkshakes and already had them on our must-do-before-leaving list.

Heuetta says they’re great for the morning after a heavy night. She was so right. My only difficulty was that I sucked my shake down so fast I got brain freeze, and I wanted another one immediately.

It took a lot of self-discipline not to suck down Chelsea’s as well or to wheedle her out of a few long swallows. I was proud of my self-restraint.

The wedding food preparations went well. We each got pointed in a different direction, and we’re good at following directions so Chelsea and I simply puttered quietly around, working steadily, helping out wherever we could.

The food was classic Cajun fare: a huge pot of freshly made jambalaya, meatballs, finger sandwiches, boudin, sausage, rice and beans, pulled pork, along with trays of crackers and dip, chips, and plates of fruits and veggies.

Watching the wedding guests arrive for the ceremony and seeing the ever-present cowboy boots and sprinkling of cowboy hats in the group reminded us we are in farming country.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day, besides the food of course, was the momma of the bride. All of us had been very busy in the kitchen but we were temporarily caught up and taking a break when a beautifully dressed, heavy-set, fifty-ish woman came in the back door.

She was dressed to the nines for the wedding, but the big beautiful corsage she wore gave her away as the mother of the bride.

She glanced quickly at all of us, then headed for the refrigerator, diving in and searching efficiently for something. Just as Heuetta asked if she needed help, the woman emerged victorious from the depths of the refrigerator, holding aloft an opened bottle of sparkling wine.

“Do y’all have any glasses?” she asked the room at large. She happened to look at me in the ensuing silence. I looked back at her, shrugged, and said, “Just drink from the bottle. We won’t tell.” She looked at me for a long moment, lifted the bottle to her lips and took a deep swallow.

There was silence for a few minutes after she left, then one of the women said, “I didn’t know she drank!”

I guess if there was anything that would drive her to drink, her daughter’s wedding day could be it.