Shenandoah, Texas!

Yesterday afternoon we headed about 50 miles south towards Houston. We were on our way to Shenandoah. We had located our bank and one of our daughters banks there that we needed to visit and do some business.
On the way there we stopped along the roadside to take some photos of the wild flowers that are in abundance this week here. Spring has sprung and it is on the way to a town near you.

While there, in this boom town, city really, we saw more Porches than anywhere we have been yet on this trip and we also experienced a brand new Bentley. There was not even dust on these vehicles. It dare not land on them.
We also got to go to Borders, which is what we usually do when ever we have to go into the city. We each bought a new book or two, walked around the high price shops, strolling down the planned retail/restaurant row and then headed out to a recommended Mexican restaurant called Chuy's. The food was excellent and the place was very nicely and authentically decorated. They had a Creamy Jalapeno salsa there that was out of this world good. The highlight though of the dining experience was our waiter. His response to everything we asked of him was not the typical, "No Problem" it was an authentic and pleasing, "But, Of Course".
I have taken it on as my response to things in my life that are requested of me.

We have been staying at Livingston Lake State Park in Livingston, TX. We will leave tomorrow sometime and head to Austin for a good few days before heading into the western wilds of Texas.

Here in the park we have met another wonderful couple, Mike and Patty from Northeast Oklahoma. Mike is a retired physician from a small town there and they have headed out on the road for a few months to enjoy the sites and ambiance with no particular direction in mind. They sometimes head out and make it only 50 miles oer day to their next destination where they have stopped to see some interesting site or museum or the like.

We have been spending a good deal of time visiting and sharing with them. They are both learning to play different instruments, just for fun. Mike has begun on the Guitar and has just purchased a new Ovation Adamas with a wood top. It is beautiful and sounds great. So much different then my Adamas with the resin top. it was fun to sit by the fire last night with them till midnight and play and sing some tunes and chat about everything between family and politics.
Finding friends on the road is a blessing.
Today they borrowed our recumbent bikes for a try to see if it brought comfort to Mike. He has been competing in senior mountain bike events, I guess for quite some time, and it has really damaged his shoulders. He loved the recumbent. Patty did not!
they take some getting used to. balance is much different and the body dynamics is very different. But as equally different is the comfort. No seat up your butt and no stress to your wrists and shoulders.

I love it and Megan is not sure yet. I am certainly keeping mine. They are also great conversation starters and you know that suits me just fine!
While they were trying our bikes, we tried theirs. Seat up the butt, butt we made it around the loop before Jasper told me that it was hurting him. Of course, that won't stop him from wanting to ride again.

Floating in the Shower?

We learned something new today about the RV life.
Make sure that you trust the electronic gage that tells you how full the holding tank is and empty the holding tank for grey water when it says it's full.
As we started to do the dishes this morning I went into the bath area and opened the shower door to find the towels and laundry bag floating in the shower base.
This meant that the holding tanked had filled to capacity and just a bit beyond.
Thankfully I went and opened the door to put something in the laundry bag that we keep in there. Why I did that I can't really tell you but I am sure glad I did.
In the next few moments we would have been doing the dishes and rinsing them off and it would have surely over flowed out of the shower and onto the floor.
No Shit!
Thank goodness!
Just Grey Water!

Crawfish Fishing!

Well here is another first!

I always new that they were crawfish (crayfish)ponds but had never actually seen someone working the pond and cultivating the product.

As we were on our way to Lafayette, LA to visit with Jodi of Rebuilding Together Lafayette and see her build week using Alternative Spring Break Kids in her district, we passed this guy collecting in the pond along I-10 in Crowley, LA.

Crowley happens to be the Rice Capitol of Louisiana. Now you should know that they do compatible cropping here in LA. The same ponds that they cultivate Crawfish in are the rice fields in season.

You would think that this is a great way to grow. As the crawfish actually fertilize the water in which the rice grows and then you can harvest the crawfish every year as well and obtain two cash crops from the same square acres of land. Sort of Natural Hydroponics, if you will.

This man was willing to sell us Crawfish for $1.00 per pound. They were currently selling in the stores for $3.79 up to $5.00 per pound depending on where you shopped. Of course we would have to drive to Crowley and pick them up adding to the cost per pound but when you are buying 160 lbs that transportation costs get spread out quite thinly over the total amount.

By the way Easter is one of the highest holidays for the largest consumption of Crawfish.

Getting the bait for the traps from the truck!

Loading the bait into the skiff!

The coveted Crawfish, up close and too personal!

He places the Crawfish in this bin as he empties the traps while out on the water!

When the bins are full he returns to shore and loads the Craws into these large bags ready for .....

You can see the trap heads in the pond beyond Susan and the tarp!

Easter Boil!

Although, I know, this is gonna be hard to believe, this was our first ever Louisiana Easter Crawfish Boil!



Here is some of the family taken care of what was left of the 160 lbs of crawfish boiled and mostly eaten by the less then 20 hungry people in attendance. This here is good stuff!












This is Shannon getting his briefing from (his Dad) The Almighty Crawfish. Our heartfelt thanks to Lionel for including us and to all of the family for making us feel welcomed and at home!

The kids get there final instructions and guidelines for the Egg Hunt. It seems there really is no Easter Bunny. These eggs were hidden by The Almighty Crawfish himself. The kids never suspected it was him. You see the tall boy paying the most attention? Well it paid off. He found the Golden Egg. It had lots of money inside. I think it was like 1 million dollars or something like that.

Me and the Students

The Alternative Spring Break program that we have participated in for the past two years has been nothing if not spectacular. It is so great to be with people who spend their time making a difference for others. The most important part for most of them is to get to meet the people they are helping and most of them had that chance as the guys worked right along side of them thru out the week. You will see the age difference as the distinguishing factor as who are the students and who are the residents. See if you can the Bosnian, South Korean and American students among the students. I bet you can pick me out too!

As you can see there was a contest for the mediums here between Adem and Megan. Neither would give up on taking pictures/footage so I had them shoot each other while I shot them!

The Work Week At City Of Refuge!

These are the pictures taken on our final 2008 trip to City of Refuge where we worked with the Bosnian and American students to build shelter for the homeless.

This man, Burt, is the founder and director and has been doing his life's work here for the past 22 years. he is a great man on a mission to help.

The first picture is the building portion of the work that we accomplished during the week. The two units that are building will be accessible to wheelchairs via ramps that we also built during the week that will be installed when the building is completed and the bathroom and shower will also be modified to accomodate the wheelchairs.

The lower picture is what they will be when completed. 4 men live in each cabin and they share a bathroom and eat in a common kitchen/dining room on the property. They live here and pay what they can when they can toward room and board but are expected to work on site if they are not working off site (employed).

We met most all of them living their and found them to be a good group of people who found the margins of our society in their circumstance of life.

It was an honor to work with them and to know that we were providing shelter for others in the future.

OK, I'm Back!

We have left Louisiana and are in Southeast Texas. Our first night campsite is Livingston Lake State Park in the town of Livingston.

It was very nice to get here as the landscape has changed dramatically already and we are only about 120 miles north and east of Lake Charles, LA. Just to place it we are about 60 miles north of Houston.

The scenery is rolling hills, very tall pines and assorted hardwoods. The catfishing is supposed to be spectacular and the mosquito's are as strong as anywhere else in the woods in the south. Yoo Hooo!

We left Lake Charles yesterday morning after having spent Monday seeing Susan and Shannon off on their weeks vaca in Toledo Bend. The rest of our Monday was spent getting ready and completing any and all details requiring attention before we left. We did a bunch of laundry (including theirs, as we tried to help them out and say thanks for letting us stay with them for tow weeks, they didn't get to it while trying to get out of the house for their holiday, after a week plus spent arranging all of the details for all of the students being here for the work week), we returned the last rental car from the students, returned some movies we had rented, made some returns to Lowes from my previous attempt to make a bike holder for the new recumbent bikes we bought in Houston two weeks ago.

Megan spent time making the inside of the RV ready for the road. It takes on a different, um... atmosphere when we are stationary for two weeks. It takes on a different patina on the outside too, so I spent a couple of hours washing the RV and the car to get the SPRING TIME POLLEN off the vehicles along with any accumulated road crud. I also had to repair wiring on the tow dolly again. Sooner or later I will get the wires positioned so that they don't get pinched and break while turning. We'll See!

Later that evening we sat down to a easy rib dinner and took out all of our pre-gathered Texas pamphlets and brochures and selected a basic route to travel for the next couple of weeks. We moved the RV to a different location in their driveway that allowed us to hook up the tow dolly. I positioned the car in line behind it but left it off in case we need to go somewhere else prior to pulling out and hitting the road.

The next morning we continued to move through all of the final details and finish the laundry and get ourselves on the road. We were in the seats and roiling our way towards Texas by 10 :30 but i had a great desire to make an impromptu stop in Vinton, LA (just 4 miles before the border) at the City of Refuge where we had built last week, just to say good bye and get a final picture of the structures we had worked on. The people there were so nice, grateful and welcoming during the work week and it was no different when we arrived late this morning. They could not have been any happier unless we had answered their "Can you stay longer?" question with a Yes. We took a couple of pictures and had some conversations for the road and then we were gone.

Our next stop was to be in Orange, Texas.

We have been stopping at any of the small interesting and appealing places we can find along the way. In this town we stopped in to the First Presbyterian Church that had some unique and notable architectural features. This building was magnificent in structure and stained glass. The photo of the Stained or Opalescent Glass on the left is taken from the inside of the second floor, which is the sanctuary, while laying on the floor between the pews. It is inside of the copper dome you see on the roof in the picture on the right. It is massive and measures about 24 feet in diameter and about 12 - 15 feet up from where the glass begins to the center peak. It was built piece by piece in place.

Then we headed down the road a piece to Beaumont, Texas. This place brought us to the site of the first electrical sub station here that ultimately and ostensibly changed the way this town existed. In honor of the devlopment of that utility they created a small yet interesting Thomas Edison Museum. they have a bunch of facts and hands on things to play with that illustrate the growth of use and marketing of electricity that brought us into the age of electric that we currently (pun intended) find so simple and accessible these days.

While here we also visitied three other ornate and unusual church buildings as well as the Texas Firefighters Museum

Lake Charles and Building with Amazing Students

The Miracles Continue!!
I have not posted anything for the past week as I have been totally involved and consumed in organizing and mananging of the construction site for an awesome building effort in Calcasieu Parish in the town of Vinton, LA. This is about 5 miles shy of the south eastern Texas border town of Orange.
The build was at a delapadated shelter location that has been operating for 22 years specifically for the purpose of housing homless veterans of the Vietnam War. It has grown to include anyone who is homeless and continues to operate due to the diligent and pious efforts of the main man Brother Burt.
This building effort was similar to last years in that it was a spring break trip for some 56 students who arrived here in waves two Saturday's ago. Then the differences begin. 46 of the students are Bosnians. Approximately 1/2 of then are doing undergrad work at St' Johns University in Minnesota. The other half have already completed their 4 year degrees and are either back home working or are continuing their studies and furthering their degrees. They all are part of a Peace Trails organization that stems from Bosnia and there are 120 of them in the group in total. The web site to learn more about their efforts is http://www.nestovise.org/ (all though it is in the language of Bosnia.
Along with them we had an amazing contingent of American students and two women exchange students from South Korea, going to school in Long Island, New York. Thanks to each of you. You were the backbone of the group and worked your tails off this week.
Please see all of the pictures (or however many you want to) on Megs Website - http://picasaweb.google.com/Meganlps - the files dated March 16 thru the 20th will show you all that has occurred over the past week.
We will be sharing an official Louisiana Crawfish Boil/ Easter family meal with our friends Susan and Shannon and family at Shannon's Dad's house in Toomey, LA this afternoon and then tomorrow we will make our way west to Texas. First Stop Austin. We are attempting to layout a trip thru Texas but it is so big that we are having some difficulty slecteing a route. We intended to spend a month here but are getting concerned that if we stay that long we will not be able to spend as much time in New Mex and Arizona due to the oncoming heat (that Meg does not like)
So we shall see. Please stay tuned!

Getting to know each of these people this week was the miricale for me of the week. My life is forever altered by the relationships and friends I make from all over this planet. I am deeply honored to have been involved with them.
My deepest thanks go out to my new friend Bill from San Fran. Who made it all possible thru his diligent and peacefilled efforts to make it work as he guided his group through the process and help to make my days easier as well.
The guys from the shelter, Dan, Rick, Tommy, Doug, Scott all the John's on site and Vicki - You all were the best. Thanks for everything.

Port Arthur - Texas

I have not been able to catch up on the dates and posting since we spent the week in Mississippi without Internet access but i have been making headway.

I will jump ahead, just for today, to the current date of TODAY! March 14, 2008

We arrived in Lake Charles, Louisiana last Sunday and we have been busy having fun and helping our friends here since we arrived. today we took a break and went to Port Arthur, Texas. This is about 50 miles from Lake Charles and way in Eastern Texas when you look at Texas.

We spent the first hour of the trip at the Texas welcome center gathering info and talking with one of the host of the center. We are trying to get our bearings as we intend to spend one month in Texas starting Sunday the 23rd, when we will leave Louisiana. Texas in a big state and we have a bunch of places we want to see and none of them are even relatively close to each other so we will be doing some car driving from strategically selected RV sites.

Today though, we went to the Museum of the Gulf Coast in That small Texas town. I mean no offense but to the naked eye there does not seem to be much of any other reason to go to this town. It appears all but vacant although they tell me that the town center relocated about two miles away from where we were at the museum.

My reason for wanting to visit this place started last year during this month when I was down here doing the alternative spring break rebuilding gig. One of our rotating Vista assistants, Shelly, told me that she had gone and asked if I had ever gone to see the Janis Joplin exhibit there. Port Arthur was her birthplace and she still has family living there. I being the guy who loved what Joplin sang and how she sang it and who has watched all of the Dick Cavett interviews with her, during the very short lived time of her notable success, before her untimely, yet self inflicted, death was rightly jealous that this young woman had gone to see this exhibit that was so close (and that I knew nothing of). I didn't even know where she was born.

Well I must tell you that the museum is just great and the music hall denoting all of the Texan, Louisianan, and other southern musicians is awesome.

The Winter bros, ZZ Top, Janis, Percy Sledge, BJ Thomas, Fats Domino, Cosimo Matassa and about 50 others of varying fame and notoriety have a place in the hall and tell and brief bit about their successes in their respective fields. I found it as thoroughly fun and interesting, maybe even more so, than being in Cleveland at the RR Hall of Fame. At least a lot less commercialized and a LOT less expensive ($3.50) to get in. 9and I didn't get a parking ticket when I visited) There are pictures of all of their illustrated guests visiting the museum thru out the years hung in their respective exhibits.

The rest of the museum is first class as well. The history of the city is fascinating as is the uniqueness of its base and people. Check it out!

Here are some photos from the day.

Upstate to Tupelo!

I just typed the entire post. The battery power gave way and the entire post was lost as it seems my auto save was not working either. So....

Here is the brief news for:

Monday, March 3, 2008

We left Bay St. Louis around 10 AM and decided to head North to Tupelo, Mississippi.

Tupelo is the birth place of Elvis!

On the way up we stopped in Meridian, MS. to do three specific things.

See the Carousel, See the Jimmie Rodgers museum and see the Causeyville General Store.

Without our even knowing it, this was to be a lucky day filled with our favor.

The Jimmie Rodgers Museum is located in Highland Park a few hundred yards from the Dentzal Carousel. The museum was opened (which we found out later was a complete stroke of luck as it is not open any more unless someone calls to set up a special showing) We didn't call and it was open anyway and it was really cool to see all the memorabilia including the specially handcrafted Martin Guitar made for Jimmie. Upon leaving the museum, I asked the curator where the carousel was located, because we did not see it when we pulled in. She told us where it was but also informed us that it was not open. Then she told us that if we went over to another building in the park (the office of Park and Rec) that if we told them that we came to see it that they would most likely send someone over to open the building so we could get a look and some pictures.

As I was finishing the conversation with her, Megan and Jasper went to the building to see if we could get into the carousel building. As I left the museum, I saw Meg and Jazz walking back towards me and I assumed that we were not going to be able to get in. They told me that it was all set and that the guy told us that he would meet us at the building in a few minutes. He did (it was the director of parks and rec, caused all of his staff was home sick. He locked the office and came over to let us in.

This Carousel is the only one of its kind left in the world. The city of Meridian bought it at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1905 and had it transported back to MS. It is a two, side by side, hand carved, hand painted, stationary, wooden animal, Dentzal Carousel. It was made in Germantown Ave, Philidelphia, PA by the Dentzal Carousel Company in 1856.

Not only did we get to get into the building and were given a very generous private tour and narration regarding the history of the machine but he also surprised us by giving us a private ride upon the beautiful artful work. It really flys! Megan was completely thrilled at this treat. Her smile was as wide as the crescent moon. She looked just like a kid again. Priceless!

While we were talking to the great guy who gave us the tour he was also telling us of other places we should see in the city. We settled for the barbecue restaurant he recommended less than a mile away. See the pictures! This was the best little barbecue place and food we have experienced to date. And of course the owner (in the picture) has family in Hartford, CT.

After our meal, we drove the 18 miles out of our way to the Causeyville General Store http://www.visitmeridian.com/attractions.htm

Start there and look at a few more sites with its name in the google box. You will see why we went out of our way to get there, meet the owner and the neighbors and see this very neat historic place. I swear, going to Meridian and to these sites and meeting the friendliest people in our country is worth the trip. And I thought the people in Louisiana were the most welcoming! I think it's a tie!

We left the store under the threat of tornado's and violent thunderstorms (again for the second time since we have been on this trip) and made it again miraculously the next two + hours thru the line of the storm as if we had radar and missed all the bad stuff.

We arrived at 10 PM that night in the midst of that heavy rain storm that, by the way, halted for 10 mins at the moment of our arrival that allowed us to take the car off and get set up with out getting wet. Thank You! We had booked two nights at Trace State Park just outside of Tupelo. (In the completely dry county of Pontotoc,MS. Zero tolerance for alcohol - no drinking, selling, transporting, having of any kind, no kidding. Immediate arrest! Uh Oh!) Beside this, this was a really great state park and we had our entire section to ourselves the entire time. It was so nice that we decided to stay a third night.

More about Tupelo and Elvis in the next post.

Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi

Saturday March 1, 2008

We moved the next day from Mobile, Alabama to Mississippi. Bay Saint Louis is just past Biloxi and Waveland and Gulfport on the coast of MS. These areas were some of the hardest hit by Hurricane Katina. The devastation is still quite evident as are the rebuilding efforts still be carried out by many organizations and volunteers.

One evening on the beach in Waveland (where the sign at the beach reminds us, "debris from the storm remains in the water, do not enter") as I was standing in the sand watching Jasper play around, I started a conversation with some folks who I easily recognized as Mennonite. I asked them if they had a local community here in town. They told me that they did not and that what they were doing here was rebuilding homes for those affected by the storm and that could not afford to do it themselves. The actual crew leader, Jason, was a young man from Indiana, here with his wife and young child. They had been assigned here for three years by their church. They were also considered house parents of four other single Mennonite young men who had been stationed with them, they rotate in and out of their positions, and back to their home communities.

They had another family visiting them from Arkansas. This was a young family with two young children. This was a farming family who farmed 1500 acres of alternating crops of corn and soy on a farm where they had bought the house but leased the property until such time when they could purchase the land as well. They were very interesting to speak to and very dedicated minded young people. I was glad to know that they had such a strong and long term commitment to continue to assist the folks in these areas regain their housing. (Even if I still believe, personally, that it is a little silly to rebuild in such susceptible areas. The ways of methods of building are changing somewhat and the height of the buildings seem to be able to accommodate the rising waters. (which is scary enough in its own right)

Our first reason for coming to this area, as we continue to move west along the southern coast of the US, was to visit the Stennis Space Center. This is a place that I did not even know existed until this trip and my continuing research for educational areas and places to visit along the way. Stennis is the NASA laboratory and science center where all engines for all space craft are tested before they are installed on the actual space craft for travel. It is also the scientific place where many new development of materials take place for NASA. They do a very nice and thoroughly pleasant job of allowing us to tour the test facility and the attached museum. The test facility is coll to see but the museum is chock full of all kinds of really interesting info from the local area and also about all kinds of different things that revolve around the space program. It was simply a great place to visit and to experience, in particular, the shuttle program. We actually got to sit in and operate a shuttle landing simulator and try our hand at landing the thing. (I did it great the first time and crashed it the next two)

The next day we traveled into New Orleans, Louisiana, which is only 40 miles to the southwest. After having completed Mark Twain's biography, while in Florida, I felt it compelling to experience a ride on a steam driven river boat. (Rear Paddle) Just like the ones that Clemens became pilot of in his own lifetime. I booked us for a lunch time cruise on the Steam Boat Natchez out of the working New Orleans Harbor and we cruised around on the Mighty Mississippi for a couple of hours and enjoyed a somewhat, banquet style, Cajun lunch.

This was a great day and a great little tour filled with an informative and somewhat political narrative from the ships pilot house.

We completed the day walking around the French Quarter, as we have done several times before, sipping latte and thoroughly enjoying biegnets at Cafe Du Monde, listening to street performers, viewing the work of great local artists and strolling thru the sidewalk market before heading back to camp via the old RT. 90 along the coast yet again. It is still disheartening to see the houses missing but the world moves on and people learn how to deal.

A good Lesson!