We’d planned on leaving Tuesday or Wednesday , but got so busy over the weekend that we knew we wouldn’t be ready to go. There was another four-day storm front coming in over the weekend, and we weren’t looking forward to being out in that, either.
Monday, Jo-Ann asked why we were leaving; asked if it was urgent that we go; and asked us to stay for a while longer. We need to increase our income (the rent income we’ve been relying on has been unpredictable), and we need a place to write our articles, e-books and trip book. We decided to say yes to staying.
Monday (April 13) we had another Lake Charles run – Jo-Ann had errands to do, and she was to be honored at an event at the Visitor’s Center. The event turned out to be next month, not this month (she’d been given the incorrect date) but we loved seeing the Visitor’s Center.
It’s very bright and open with a beautiful view of the lake – it’s got a peaceful outdoor area right on the lake, and a side room opening off the main area for coffee and relaxing. It’s got two artistic alligators on display; one is part of the Gators on the Geaux project.
We picked up new brochures on birding in Cameron – they are really well written, informative, and thorough; and we got the list of Gators on the Geaux locations – Jo-Ann wants to see as many of them as we can.
Gators on the Geaux (pronounced ‘go’) is a project in Lake Charles put together with the assistance of the Lake Charles Symphony and the Arts & Humanities Council of Southwest Louisiana. Local, regional and national artists designed and built a series of alligators dressed up in different clothing, representing some unique idea or thought.
Various sponsors then bought or commissioned the alligators. When finished, the gators were placed in locations around Lake Charles, with some going as far away as Florida, Houston, and Jamaica.
We’ve had great fun trying to find them, but after a particularly long day last week trying to do errands and see as many of the gators as we could, we decided to have Chelsea update and re-work the list given us by the Visitor’s Bureau. The list we had listed places where there’d never been an alligator, it had incorrect addresses, and had addresses where the gators had long since gone missing.
We have still managed to put quite a dent in the list – Chelsea is taking photos and we are identifying each one of the photos. Be sure to look for the Gators on the Geaux album – we’ll let you know when it’s finished.
Another fun thing we’ve done is get movies from the library and from Hollywood Video (Jo Ann is the proud new possessor of a Hollywood Video membership). We are watching movies almost every night, having great fun deciding which of the many we should watch next. We are catching up on many of the releases we missed over the last few years, as well as watching some of the great old classics.
Jo Ann got her video membership just in time for the lousy weather, and it turned out to be a lifesaver. The weather we’d been anticipating the weekend after Easter was as bad as we thought, if not worse. It rained and rained and rained and the wind didn’t stop blowing throughout all of it.
The weather was so bad that Jo Ann, Chelsea, and I watched one movie on Friday night (after a long and productive day in Lake Charles) and we watched three movies on Saturday, turning the volume up to hear over the thunder and lightning cracking right overhead.
We’ve continued to outline articles for publication, and keep up with the million tasks that seem to need doing, like upgrading Ubuntu, working on our route, and finding places to stay. We’ve also continued to make regular trips to Lake Charles with Jo Ann, seeing more and more of the city, looking for gators, and having some awesome food.
We’ve also started in with local bike rides, and we’ve had a few more wonderful birding sessions with Donny, and a short one with Jo Ann. It’s been like a dream being able to see so many birds at once!
Tomorrow we are headed off to points north with Jo Ann. We’ll start with errands in Abbeville, then move to Lafayette for the Festival International de Louisiane. After the Festival we head back to Abbeville for the night. We have services at the Baptist church in Esther south of Abbeville, then we’re headed back to Lafayette for afternoon events with Jo Ann’s grandchildren and great grandkids.
It’ll be a busy weekend!
Signing off from Oak Grove LA