It’s hard to believe that it’s been only four days since I’ve written, because it feels like we’ve been plunged into a radically different world overnight. Nothing seems the same except the fact that Chelsea and I are together and we still have our bikes and gear.
We worked steadily on Friday and Saturday getting our gear ready and organized. We re-packaged our food, Chelsea did the maintenance on the bicycles, and I finished writing the current blogs for both sites. I finished off all the photo albums as well, bringing us completely current.
We brought both trailers out, and started packing them.
About five on Saturday, we headed over to the River Fest festival in downtown Lake Arthur with Justin and Kathy. River is a Christian band from Illinois that is reputed to play great rock-n-roll, and we’d been hearing about them for weeks. We’d also heard that a number of food booths were set up, and all the food was free. How could we turn down a chance to have great food for free, and listen to great music?
The food was truly great – very good quality classic Cajun food – brisket sandwiches, jambalaya, red beans and rice with sausage, and chili. Not only were there large jugs of free Hawaiian punch and lemonade, they were offering free bottled water! We never did figure out who paid for all this.
Though the music was good, it was really slow, and combined with a relatively small crowd and being stuffed with good food, it made all four of us feel sleepy and a bit bored (being tired and distracted didn’t help). There wasn’t anything to really get the blood going. There were no activities at all – all anyone had to do was watch the crowd, and it was a pretty conservative crowd.
We kept waiting for the River band to show up and play, and by the time they did, we were all ready to go home. They started over an hour late, and though the music was reasonably good, it wasn’t compelling enough to make us want to stay. We finally walked home about 9:30, saying our good-byes to Justin and Kathy.
Chelsea and I hadn’t finished the photos and hadn’t finished uploading, so by 10:30 at night we set up to finish. I was in the cottage doing the photos, and Chelsea was over on the benches outside the dining hall, working by the security lights around the campground. We didn’t finish until 1:30 am, then Chelsea wanted to upload the photo albums and really feel finished before we left, so she went back over to sit on the bench in the dark while I continued packing.
By the time all was said and done, we didn’t get to bed until 3 a.m. We set the alarm for 6:15 because we still had at least an hour’s work to do, and Kenneth was due to pick us up at 7:30. It was nearly 8:30 before we finished with all the cleaning, packing and last minute things in Lake Arthur. Kenneth was a model of good-naturedness, chatting and making us laugh.
Breakfast in Gueydan was awesome. We love Fat George’s anyway, and sure enough, the food was great. We ate with Kenneth, but Heuetta (who’s working there on weekdays until 7:30 and Sundays till closing) had time to sit and chat with us a bit (we managed to be there during the breakfast and lunch rushes).
Much to our mutual surprise and delight, Jaimie Snoddy came in with her cousin and her cousin’s mom, so we had a chance to chat with her, too.
Meanwhile, Elray Schexnaider had called us late Friday, letting us know that he had arranged a family barbecue and wanted to be sure we’d be there in Abbeville. He agreed to drop us off over the bridge in Forked Island or bring us to Pecan Island after the barbecue, late afternoon. That meant we had to be in Kaplan at eleven so he could pick us up for the day’s festivities.
The good-byes in Gueydan/Lake Arthur were very emotional for us. Kenneth and Heuetta have become like extended family to us, and it seems unbelievable that we won’t be able to see the Hair family easily. We really enjoy Jaimie Snoddy, and now we won’t have her telling us “Y’all can’t miss this!” For the first time, we were in tears.
The barbecue at the Schexnaider’s house was wonderful. We had a chance to see Nancy again and talk to her quietly, and we got to see Lee and Sheila for the first time in months. We met neighbors and friends, had great food, and relaxed. On only three hours sleep, the day was just about perfect. Once again, it was emotional saying good-bye, after sharing so many great memories.
Time with Elray is always like a living history lesson, and Sunday was no different. On the way down to Pecan Island, he filled us in on local history. Among other interesting bits, he showed us one cemetery at Esther where the graves floated up out of the ground after Hurricane Rita. It took a team of people and quite some time to collect all the graves they could find (some had floated quite a distance away), and identify the remains. Many were never identified, and were reburied in a mass grave.
After a few side stops to check out Pecan Island, Elray dropped us off at a small plot of land which his son Kerry leases. Kerry loves fishing, and brings his boat and camper down as often as possible. The site is right on Highway 82, with electric and water. The grass is reasonably high right now, and we felt awkward, so close to dusk, with mosquitoes thronging us, and no bathroom facilities. We were pleased about having water and electric, though.
Dithering a bit, we decided to let the next door neighbor know that we were there. After introducing ourselves, Verta Choate (our new neighbor) invited us to put up our tent on her land instead. The wind had picked up quite a bit by then, and it was a cold wind, so we picked a site and had Elray bring our goodies over.
I was in capris, and was smothered with dozens of mosquitoes, so my first move was to find the mosquito spray while Chelsea started putting up the tent. From long experience, I knew exactly where it was, and it didn’t take long to get slathered with spray. It didn’t take long for the two of us to get the tent up either; Elray was impressed. After reassuring him many times that we’d be okay, Elray left us on our own.
The mosquitoes were so thick, and we were so tired and overwhelmed, that all we could think about was getting our things into the tent and crawling in ourselves. After doing mosquito patrol, we simply sat where we landed for quite some time, talking over the day quietly, and trying to decide what to do next. We were too tired to eat, we had no access to a bathroom, and the mosquitoes were so thick that we had no desire to step out of the tent anyway. I crawled into bed by 8:15 and was sound asleep shortly after.
On the one hand it was fun to be back in the tent again. On the other hand, it was no fun having no bathroom, and having the mosquitoes be so bad, on top of being so tired. At one point, Chelsea had to stick her hand out of the tent to do something, and the next morning we counted dozens of bites just on her hand. It was a really rough start to our next phase of the trip.
We did manage to get some decent sleep for the night (though Chelsea had a much tougher night). Next morning we were awake but still trying to figure out what to do with our day (finding a bathroom had urgent priority by that time) when we heard a male voice calling out “Hello? Y’all okay in there?” We called out that we were fine, and the voice kept on, “My sister Verta called me this morning and told me that y’all were camping here. I live just one house over, and she wanted me to check on y’all.” We scrambled out of the tent to meet Nolan.
After eyeballing each other for a minute or two, Nolan offered to put us up. He’s got a spare room in his trailer, and didn’t mind company for the next few days. He invited us over to see the trailer and the room.
Our challenge has been that we are facing up to four days of heavy rain and thunderstorms (a big front is moving through from the west), and we aren’t prepared for that. Never mind not being prepared for that, we just plain don’t want to be out in that. Another problem is that the area we’re riding has been wiped out by Hurricanes Rita and Ike, and many places we could normally take shelter don’t exist anymore. So Nolan’s offer sounded promising.
Signing off from Pecan Island…