Bayou Bunch

As promised, a breakdown from my trip to see family in Louisiana this past weekend. I thought I’d post my itinerary along with some commentary from my adventure (be forewarned, this is long):

Thursday 9pm: Leave Atlanta with my parents. I have obviously overpacked, but I’m a girl, so what else is new? I really didn’t think I’d need 4 pairs of shoes for a 3 day weekend, but you just really never know. Pick up my sister in Alabama around 11pm. Arrive in Meridian, Mississippi at 2:30a.m. Check-in to the cheesiest Jamison Inn I’ve ever been in. The outside was the bait because it looked new, but the hotel room was the switch. The entire wall behind the beds in my sister and my room was completely covered in mirrors. I was half expecting the beds to vibrate. I felt icky but was far too tired to complain. Just know I wore my flip flops around the hotel room the entire time and the comforter didn’t come anywhere near my body!

Friday 8:30am: Back in the car and in a really good mood. No coffee and facing 4 more hours on the road. Even those car magnets shaped like ribbons that everyone apparently has on their cars these days pissed me off. They make those for everything now! They make me almost as mad as those stupid rubber bracelets that Lance Armstrong started a trend with. Dammit Lance, even my company created orange rubber bracelets that they’ve passed out to all of us (let me know if any of you want one, as I learned last week they’re putting them up for sale on our intranet so we can buy them for our friends and family. Guess what everyone’s getting for Christmas this year…) Shortly after Meridian, we pass the exit signs for Chunky, Mississippi. No matter how I try to imagine the people that might reside in Chunky, I never come back with anything good. Please let me know if any of you do. On the way to Vicksburg, MS, we pass by the self-proclaimed World’s Only Cactus Museum (in Mississippi? Not Arizona or New Mexico, but Mississippi?). I begged and begged my dad to stop but nooooo. My mother, sister, and I did get him to stop in Vicksburg at the outlet mall, er, 7 outlet stores and one Billy’s Italian Restaurant (how authentic does that sound?) that they have. I didn’t think I brought enough shoes and somehow got my dad to buy me 2 new pairs and a new skirt. Then we stopped at the Ameristar Riverboat Casino on the mighty Mississippi River where I promptly left behind $40 in about 45 minutes. So much for hitting the jackpot and quitting my job. We arrived at the Townsmen Inn in Jena, Louisiana (the lavish resort I bragged about in the earlier post, I tried to find a picture for you, but it should be no surprise that it's so exclusive, it doesn't even have a website) at about 6pm. Hey, instead of the big orange plastic key chains attached to the metal keys, they’ve changed it up to red plastic key chains with the room number taped on it these days. Our rooms were in the high rise portion of the motel – you know, the building with 2 levels. Dad didn’t spring for the penthouse though, so we were on the lower level. We freshened up and headed out to my dad’s first cousin’s house where the fish fry was to take place. The fish fry included fried catfish, fried homemade french fries, fried hushpuppies, and a vegetable tray (probably just for looks - c’mon, this obviously wasn’t a weight watchers event). I guess it’s kind of a clogged artery Russian roulette game that they play out there. Whoever has a heartattack first after eating all of that has to host the next one. No one collapsed, so I guess my dad’s cousin has to have it again by default. And they were going to on Memorial Day.

Saturday 9am: Made coffee in the room as I bragged about in the earlier post. The lady gave us our Styrofoam cups, sugar and creamer packets when we checked in. It was raining so we weren’t able to swim in that extravagant 4’ pool I told you about. Met up with my dad’s cousin and his family again. Today we were going to do something special. We were driving an hour to the closest, largest city, Alexandria, to eat at Chili’s for lunch. Yep, we drove an hour to eat at Chilis. Here in Atlanta, Chilis might as well be a fast food restaurant. But to my family, this was a big deal. By the time we got back to Jena, it was just about dinner time. Shortly before we headed over to my great aunt’s house for dinner, we went through downtown Jena. NOTHING was open except for WalMart. How do these store owners make any money if they aren’t open past noon on a Saturday? At my great aunt’s house, other family members were gathered to eat (do you see a theme developing here? The entertainment is food. Everything surrounds when you eat - that’s all there is to do). On the menu: candied yams, ham, baked beans, potato salad, duck stuffing (made from a duck shot by my 2nd cousin at Lake Catahoula), squirrel, and red velvet cake. Yes, squirrel. And no, I didn’t have any. In fact, I didn’t eat at all. After all, it had only been 3 hours since we ate lunch, so beside the fact that squirrel was on the menu, I didn’t have an appetite. We visited with them for the remainder of the night, the high school aged 3rd cousins went to make “loops” through town (where they just ride up and down the streets of downtown for fun), and we went back to the motel around 1am.

Sunday 9am: More bad coffee in the motel room AND very little sleep because the people in the “penthouse” above us were apparently running a marathon around their room starting at 4:30am. Packed up the suitcase, we’re hittin’ the road a day early. Stopped by my great aunt’s and sat on her large wraparound front porch for a few minutes saying good-byes. As planned, we were going to try to make it to the cemeteries to look for our last name on grave markers, but the rain prevented that from happening. So we just headed home. We stopped in Natchez, Mississippi on the way and looked at a few of the restored plantation homes. We rode for several miles on the historic Natchez trace, but with the speed limit at a whopping 50 mph, we weren’t getting to Atlanta any time fast. As beautiful as the drive was, it was time to get going. Because of the rain all the way home, and the stops, it took 12 hours to get back, and I had to drive the last leg because my dad got sleepy. It was good to be back.