Shared Illusions

Howdy! Why start with Amarillo? Cuz that’s where we hit a snafu. Imagine cruising along sweetly on I40 west, when all on a sudden, the engine starts getting rough; you give it gas and it slows down! Darn thing has a cough worse than the one I got due to bronchitis. So we pull over and stop. Nothing to do, but call the Ford dealer which I noticed we passed just a few miles west. Call the towing company they recommend – an hour to an hour and a half wait. Call another who says 30 minutes to an hour, which sounds better, until they start asking for everything but your first dog’s name. Whne you tell the woman in India or Korea or whereever she is that you are done and do not want to deal with all that, she still asks, “But sir what are your coordinates?” By then, the first towing company is calling and ready to come get you, sooner than expected, and in addition he now has room in the cab to also take us to the dealership and we don’t have to call an Uber! After lunch and another hour or two later we’re back on the road. The problem? Something from the highway got sucked up into the engine and had to be cleaned out. That’s it. So – could’ve been worse and we made our destination, Gainesville, TX albeit about 4 hours later than expected. The rest of the journey was smooth! We found a great little joint for lunch outside of Shreveport, LA called Herbie K’s. Charlie had the Special – Shrimp Remouldae Salad – which was an excellent choice! I had the Shrimp Buster which locals crave after going without for too long. Or so I was told. Heres\’s what a shrimp buster is: take a big ol’ gulf shrimp and split it in half horizontall; bread it lightly. lay it on buttered french bread; add hot sauce and cole slaw. Yummy! I also had fried oysters, which were delicious.

If we were heading home that way, we’d stop here again!

APRIL 11, 2023

I can not believe we are a week into this trip and I’m just getting started. That’ll happen when BIL and SIL are joining you and time gets taken up with visiting, in addition to sight seeing and the French Quarter Festival. On top of which, I was still recuperating from the damnable bronchitis. It did not stop me from dancing though! Or having a Bloody Mary or a beer in the course of the festival. It did result in some early nights, though.

Here are BIL, Larry and SIL, Carmen. We’re on Bourbon Street for their first and last time. Yep, that’s how much they liked it. We prefer Frenchman Street, but newcomers gotta go to Bourbon!

Before hitting Bourbon Street, we did a little tour of the Garden District. But I didn’t get any good photos. Carmen probapbly got a lot. She took lots of photos anyway. That was Wednesday the 12th April.

Thursday April 13 and the Party commences with a parade! Starts on Bourbon Street, heads to St. Ann and on up to Jackson Square. We arrived early for a good spot on St. Ann’s. Below is a photo of the quintessential local parade participant.

Then the music started in Jackson Square on the GE Stage with the Preservation Brass Band. I could not stop moving! Then Tuba Skinny came on and Carmen and I grooved and sang and had a good time! The day passed swiftly with traversing between stages and dancing and taking breaks. I know we saw Corey Ledet and His Zydeco Band and later on Bag of Donuts, a local cover band with a guy looking like Gene Simmons from Kiss, one dressed like a mime, 2 guys in marching band suits, and the the lead singer’s skinny son in red spandex pants who Larry thought looked like a meth head cuz he was so slender ( they did an excellent rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, with the whole crowd singing along), and ended the night with Irma Thomas, Soul Queen of New Orleans! Do I have photos? No. Too busy dancing.

And that ends my post for tonight, cuz this dang cough is hangin’ on and I need to get some sleep! Beaux reves ma cheres.