Anecdotes

March 13, 2012

Several things I forgot to include in previous posts:

1)  On Wednesday last week (March 7), while sitting in the library, Duffy got to talking to a man also working there.  Inquiring of the man a good place to eat dinner, he recommended either a walk-up Texas Bar-B-Que place or a Mexican restaurant.  Later, when we sat down at a table in the El Rodeador Restaurant (spanish for rodeo), the same man was there.  He claimed to have gotten hungry telling Duffy about the food.  In talking with him, we learned that he had lived in Olympia, Washington while his Dad was in the army stationed at Ft. Lewis.  His sister still lives in Yelm, and his father and step-mother in Tacoma.  He visits them once a year or so.  Talking further, we learned that he also lived in the Yakima area in Washington, specifically Zillah, east of the Cascade Range.  We got to talking about our favorite Mexican restaurant and tortilla factory, El Ranchito, in Zillah.  Turns out this man later became an auctioneer working all over the country.  He was the one who auctioned off the El Ranchito site when it closed.  We did not know whether to love or hate this man - love won out.  It was not his fault that the family who owned the restaurant for so many years decided to close down.  He said the Mission brand now makes the El Ranchito brand, having purchased the rights.


2)  In New Orleans on Saturday, March 10, while listening to Doreen's Jazz ensemble on Bourbon Street or somewhere close-by, the man with the bicycle I mentioned in an earlier posting, claimed to have most recently lived in Anaheim, attended Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, recognized Doreen, the clarinetist, from Junior High School, and remembered her exceptional musical talents, and let her know they went to school together.  He had just happened upon her on the street, and wished American Idol could find her.  Who knows, maybe he will promote her one of these days...if that's what she wants.  She is not as lost as one would think on the streets of New Orleans:  http://www.doreensjazz.com/.  It would be great to hear them perform at the Washington Center in Olympia sometime.  Anyone reading this have influence with the Center?  What a stroke of luck that we happened upon them on the streets of New Orleans!

3)  All of the weird weather began just after I was gathering laundry and liquid detergent from the trailer and the car on Sunday afternoon, March 11.  Jeremy and Lindsay Reynolds invited us to do our laundry at their house.  It was time and we were ever so grateful.  As I told Lindsay, it takes a certain amount of talent to be a klutz, and I have the talent!  I opened the back hatch on the Honda Pilot which lifts up, and out tumbled what I was looking for - the liquid Seventh Generation detergent I bought in Burleson, Texas.  Unfortunately, the container tumbled out onto its lid, breaking the lid so that it imploded into the container, spilling liquid detergent all over Lindsay and Jeremy's circle drive in front of their house.  Terrific.  Not.  The detergent was as slick as ice and I danced around it to keep from ending up head over teakettle on ground, too.  I could just envision soap washing into the storm drain and sending bubbles up into the street and over the sidewalk.  I used a towel to mop up most of the detergent - and it was not just a little bit.  I added no detergent to that first load of towels and whites.  No need.  Not the way I would recommend adding soap to the washing machine.  :~(  I must have been the one that brought on the deluge and severe thunderstorm.  I just needed to make certain all the soap washed off of the driveway so no one would slip and get hurt.  You're welcome, Louisiana.

4)  The strange goings on with our GPS not working and cell phone not charging in the car yesterday, March 12, was not a burnt fuse in the Honda after all.  They both worked okay this morning.  Even the refrigerator in our trailer was acting goofy - instead on remaining on the setting I had selected (3 out of 5), the light kept bouncing to one light after another.  I could only stop it by turning off the refrigerator, then turning it back on again.  It appears the highly charged air and lightening of yesterday's massive storm caused these things to go haywire.  I only hope no pacemakers worn by folks in the storm's path did the same thing.

5)  Today, we stayed put here in Lafayette, LA (actually Scott, LA just to the west).  I slept until 10:00am, having typed yesterday's blog until this morning at 2:00am.  Once I showered and Duffy finished his business with Kurt by phone, we set out at nearly 3:00pm for Walmart.  The first time we tried to find the store here, our GPS got us lost.  We found the store, some distance to the south, and when returning to the campground we took a wrong turn and headed a couple of miles west of where we wanted to be - what's new?!  Can't blame Miss Direction, we were not using the GPS.  Our track-retracing-gone-wrong took us north of the freeway.  In trying to work our way back east, north of the freeway, we saw the flooding damage.  My goodness, whole fields and pastures, yards and roadways were covered by water.  We ended up making a U-turn and heading back the way we had come to go south across the freeway.  The water was just too deep to chance driving through.  Now, here we are snug in our cute and cozy Baby Beluga once again.  We will probably stay here two more nights (fourth night is free) to see the things we could not see yesterday and did not see today.

Until next time...
Pam