Engineer's Daughter

You may not know that Suzanne's dad Bill was a train engineer who started shovelling coal aboard real steam locomotives. So she has a special passion for trains. She can also blow a mean train whistle. We were bicycling in Austin's Lady Bird Park and saw this diesel replica and had to take a photo... it's called the Zilker Zephyr, and is a favorite attraction for grandkids if you're ever here. A 20 minute ride for $2 (kids) or $3 (adults). All Aboard!!!!

That is the Austin skyline behind Ty and Lady Bird Lake. We rode a 12 mile loop around the lake, mostly on dirt/gravel paths. It was amazing how many people were out running, cycling, and walking (with and without dogs) on a Thursday morning. It was a good way to get pumped up for this evening's "Messages of Hope" film viewing which was a wonderful, love-filled event.

The picture below requires a little explanation. This little critter is a "walking stick", also known by its scientific order name, Phasmatodea. It is very common in this part of Texas, and often grows to a foot in length. This specimen was on our car fender. They don't move very quickly, so we had to brush him (her?) off the car before we drove away. They have an unusually long mating process... pairings of 3-136 hours are not uncommon. Hmmmm.... I'd better stop there and leave the rest to your imagination.

Austin... and a lot of bull...

Walking around as a tourist in Austin, Texas, on a summer's day can be very hot. Today was in the high 90s, and we were wilting as we strolled down Congress Street to see the state capital. There was not a lot of shade, nor even a breeze, and it was past lunchtime, so we decided to get a bite to eat... but where to go?

Aha! There on that beautifully restored antique car was a sign for the 1886 Cafe, just inside the main entrance of the historic Driskill Hotel. The architecture inside and out was spectacular, and the food gourmet. A salmon salad with candied pears and goat cheese for Suzanne, and huevos rancheros for Ty (the best ever). After lunch, we walked around the lobby and mezzanine for a peek into Texas history, circa 1890-1930. There was a bronze sculpture named The Widowmaker, of two horses at full speed, the lead horse dragging its cowboy rider, his left foot caught in a stirrup, the second rider with his Winchester carbine aimed to take down the lead horse to save his compadre... then we turned a corner and saw...

This patriotic bull is evidently used for public relations work for the Driskill. He fits in pretty well with Austin's other attraction, the University of Texas (yes, sir, the Longhorns, although this bull isn't one of that breed). To avoid unnecessary confrontations, I wasn't wearing my Texas A&M shirt today when we visited the UT campus... (daughter Elisabeth is an Aggie grad). Unfortunately, we won't be visiting College Station this trip, so A&M won't be getting much press. But for Texans, that's the big football rivalry here.

Wasn't that interesting?

First, the FUN part of the day... We are in Austin, Texas, with our motor coach parked for nine days at beautiful McKinney Falls State Park. We visited the Austin Center for Spiritual Living (where Suzanne will be presenting later this week) for Sunday services and met their delightful ministers Richard and Merry and a very lively, fun-filled congregation/community. Then we mountain biked on great rolling trails through the woods and along Onion Creek. That was the fun part of the day.

The UN-FUN part of the day came very unexpectedly at 10:30 PM when we took Rudy and Gretchen out for their last "walk" of the day. They completed their canine duties very quickly, and we went to open the door to our RV... and the door had locked itself... the lock is not supposed to do this; it has a little lever that has to be lifted and clicked into position to get out... and no, I had not thought to bring a key, since we have been doing this same routine for over a year. Did I mention that there is only one door, the windows are 8 feet off the ground and are all locked, my toolbag is locked in a belly storage compartment, the car is locked, there is no roof access, it's very dark, the mosquitos are rallying for a major assault, we had seen a five foot long snake two hours before, and the cicadas are all clicking in the trees (I think they were laughing). On the positive side, Suzanne had her cell phone in her shorts pocket. The photo above shows me trying to explain to Gretchen why we are out looking at the night sky instead of letting her crawl under the covers and go to sleep. An hour and $79 later, a locksmith had arrived to save me further male embarassment and we were back in the coach. And yes, our Navy backgrounds set in and we did a Lessons Learned Hot Washup and will have a Plan of Action to Avoid Future Embarassment shortly.....

P.S.: Louisiana residential architecture

This is a PS blog entry. Even though we are now in Texas, we wanted to add an entry for Louisiana architecture, since it's so different from our current home town, The Villages, FL. The house above is a pretty upscale house in Covington, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The main living quarters are on the second floor, above expected hurricane flood levels. Note the wide porch with overhangs to reduce the heat from the summer sun. The ground floor is enclosed, but will likely have non-essential storage, a party room or spare bedroom for guests, and garage located there. This area was not heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

The second house is in Mandeville, LA, also on the north shore. Less ornate than the first, but still very nice, and also built up high in case of flooding.

The third house is called a shotgun house here, for two reasons. It is a side by side duplex, so the front doors are positioned like a double-barreled shotgun. The second reason for its name is that all of the rooms were off a single hallway, so you could fire a shotgun from the front door down the main hallway and out the back door... not a good place for a burglar to get caught! This style house was the most common found in the New Orleans area until tract houses appeared following World War II. Many have been converted by younger couples into trendy single family homes by knocking down walls and making larger rooms. 

Flavors of the trip...

Here is a pop quiz. Name this plant... if you are from south Louisiana, you will recognize it instantly as rice. It is the principle crop here, after crawfish and oil. Speaking of crawfish, we have seen dozens of stores, restaurants, as well as roadside and backyard vendors selling boiled crawfish. Last night we had a meal at a great seafood restaurant, the Little River Inn in New Iberia, Louisiana. We had shrimp remoulade, crab cakes and a house specialty, shrimp and catfish pirogue. A pirogue is actually a wooden boat used in shallow water while fishing or crawfishing, or simply to get from point A to point B. In this dish, the pirogue was actually fried eggplant, with a mound of shrimp and catfish with a yummy sauce over it.

Some of the spices and food you find in stores in Acadiana (otherwise known as Cajun country, down near Lafayette, Breaux Bridge and New Iberia) is different here; we bought a string of Cajun chicken and shrimp sausage (moderately spicy), but passed on the boudin and cracklin' from Billeaux's Market. Also passed on the industrial size containers of cayenne pepper; 32 oz. bottles... they were on the rack in the market by the dozens, so people actually do use that much hot pepper. We are wusses....

Today we arrived in Beaumont, Texas and visited the Babe Didrikson Museum.  On to Houston tomorrow.

Swamp Lady...

Suzanne is paddling on the Little Tchefuncte River near Madisonville, Louisiana. The stream was narrow and windy, with several fallen trees that we had to navigate carefully under/around. Ty warned Suzanne to always look up before passing under trees or overhanging branches, since some of the local reptilian residents have been known to drop into unwary paddler's boats... that would not have been fun. We didn't see any alligators that day, since the weather was very hot and the midday sun probably kept them in their dens to keep cool.

Crawfish... 3 ways

Just across the street from the statue of Evangeline (see Longfellow's epic poem of the same name which made the Acadians (later to be called Cajuns in Louisiana) famous, Ty enjoys very spicy boiled crawfish after a bowl of crawfish bisque with stuffed crawfish heads. Suzanne had a delicious crawfish etouffe. It was a simple neighborhood restaurant, but like many such eateries in Louisiana, the food was superb. It's fun eating our way across America!

Only in New Orleans (the City that Care Forgot)

The sign on the side of the drive-through shown above may be hard to read, so we will help you out and give you a blow-up of the menu.... it was hard for us to believe as well, but yes, here in New Orleans you can get a take-out daiquiri at a drive-up window, and it's perfectly legal, as long as they give you the straw in one hand and the drink in the other (it's considered a closed container until you put the straw in). And no, we did not take advantage of this opportunity. It was 9:30 in the morning, and we didn't think it would be a good idea in any case.... but there is also a great Smoothie King stand right next door that had fabulous strawberry and blueberry yogurt smoothies!

This is the last post from New Orleans; we had a very successful S.O.A.R! Workshop on Saturday; now, on to Austin!

River Cruising...

This understated, humble abode is located on the Tchefuncte River near Madisonville, Louisiana. We cannot in truth say that it is typical of the surrounding real estate, but it is certainly eye-catching. We can actually see it from our campground at Fairview-Riverside State Park, but the photo was taken from a pontoon boat; Ty's sister Karen and sister-in-law Debbie treated us to a terrific day-long cruise on the Tchefuncte and Bogue Falaya rivers (both Choctaw Indian names), and then to a delicious seafood dinner at Friends' restaurant near Lake Pontchartrain. You may have noticed that food is a significant focus of life in New Orleans and its environs. Most people eat to live; down here, people live to eat.  Suzanne recently commented that "I have never seen so many restaurants in one city in my life!"

The ship in the photo is actually on the Mississippi River, headed upriver to New Orleans.You are looking up at it because the river is higher than the surrounding land, which is part of the delta built up by the river over many centuries. The earth levee, which holds back the river when in flood, is critically important to life along the river. The levees run for hundreds of miles, and are constantly being upgraded/maintained. The helicopter shown here flies oil rig workers (roustabouts) out to the platforms offshore. Oil, fishing, crabbing and shrimping are the main source of employment on the lower river. We took a day off to visit this area of Louisiana, the "toe of the boot". Not many tourists get down here unless they are die-hard fishermen.

Lower Mississippi River

Graves/tombs in the New Orleans area are often built above ground, both by traditional French design and because of the shallow water table and frequent flooding of the Mississippi River. These newer tombs are off the River Road on the lower Mississippi, near Empire, LA, which was inundated by 20 feet of water following Hurricane Katrina.

Charbroiled Oysters?

We celebrated last night's Messages of Hope documentary viewing with a visit tonight with Ty's family to Drago's Restaurant in Metairie. One of New Orleans' gourmet treats is an order of charbroiled oysters on the half shell, which Drago's chef invented.  Basted in a mixture of butter, garlic, herbs, Romano and Parmesan cheese and charbroiled over a 800 degree gas grill fire, served with crusty French bread for dipping, they quickly become one of your favorite meals. Then you move on to the entree; we selected soft shell crab served with crab and shrimp stuffing with a savory sauce.... New Orleanians sure know how to eat!

New Orleans

We started our first full day here at the Morning Call... a coffee and beignet (French doughnut) shop, which has expanded its menu in recent years to lunch or dinner entrees. Your server doesn't ask if you want your coffee black, because even Hulk Hogan couldn't drink coffee and chicory black. It's served half and half with scalded milk. And the beignets......

... covered with a minute amount of confectioner's sugar (well, okay, a small mound), they are the traditional way to start the day (or end the night) in New Orleans. The Morning Call is one of two famous coffee and beignet shops here; the other is the Cafe du Monde, perhaps more known among tourists since it is located just off Jackson Square in the French Quarter.
   Tonight we will have a screening of Messages of Hope at Unity of Metairie. If you're in the New Orleans area, please join us! See www.onemindbookclub.com for details.

The Good Life

This post is from Rudy and Gretchen: We are on alert after seeing squirrels in the campground. This is the best thing about leaving home in The Villages, since our neighborhood there is boring, since it has no squirrels. We have seen those critters every day, but haven't caught any. We sit for hours on top of the couch, looking out the windows, on guard... life is good.

Suzanne and Ty meet a new friend, Brad Bernardy, at The Half Shell Oyster House in Biloxi, Mississippi. Brad has followed Sanaya's messages at www.sanayasays.com for over a year, often commenting on the posts. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi, and when he heard we were stopping in Biloxi, we all decided to meet for dinner. Brad is a neat guy and we had a great evening.

Nostalgia

So here we are, driving "back roads", i.e., mostly two lane US or Florida state highways rather than Interstates, since we like to see what we think of as "The Real America". Instead of cloverleaf exits with fast food franchises and malls, we see some priceless jewels:
- Ida Mae's Beauty Salon
- a mobile fishing tackle shop in a trailer pulled by a beat-up Suburban
- firetowers that you actually had to climb to get to the top
- Pa Pa's Feed Store
- a transmission shop with John Wayne's famous quote, "Life's hard. It's even harder when you're stupid."
- jacked-up pick-me-up trucks with smiling teenagers going for a Sunday drive
- "Mushroom compost - Cheap"
- fishermen in jon boats on the Suwanee River
- armadillo road kill??? We're not in Texas yet!
- All the Perks coffee stand, with the "barista" in a 6x8 wooden stand built around the former pump island of a 1950's gas station
- Tammy's Sand Bar, a local stop for boaters after a hard day water skiing
- and in remembrance of the days before cell phones, no cell phone service while driving through long stretches of pristine forests and wildlife management areas

Driving through Oxford to Ocala, we started hearing splat-splat-splat sounds like raindrops on the windshield; huge swarms of lovebugs! We stopped in a parking lot to clean the front of the coach after only one hour on the road, and it was UGLY! This tour is all about sharing Love Centered Living, but this lovebug experience was a bit extreme.

 

We arrived in Ochlockonee River State Park to find a "controlled burn" which had gone out of control. It was a bit disconcerting to find fires still smouldering just 50 yards from our campsite. But the smoke helped keep the deerflies somewhat under control. Ah, the joys of camping...

Suzanne and Ty celebrate their first day on tour with a glass of wonderful Georges De Latour Cabernet... Thank you, Mike and Cheryl!

We have Rudy and Gretchen and all the toys and we are ready to roll!

Packing up the Eagle!

Here is our planned 2012 Book, Movie and Workshop Tour route. Cities with stars are where our events will take place. Please see http://www.loveatthecenter.com/ for details and to register for Suzanne's S.O.A.R! Workshop. In between starred cities, we will be making R&R stops, such as Sequoia National Park (hiking among the largest trees on the planet), Napa and Sonoma Valleys (research!), Mt. Shasta (vortex), Arches National Park (mountain biking) and visiting friends and family. We will be posting photos, so if you're not traveling yourself this summer, you can join us from your armchair!

Rudy and Gretchen are ready to head out on our summmer 2012 book and movie tour/adventure in our motor coach.

May 4, 2012: 115 people attended the exclusive viewing of the Chris Lavelle documentary Messages of Hope at First Unity of St Petersburg.  Everyone was enthusiastic in their positive comments about the movie based on Suzanne's most recent book.

May 4, 2012: Suzanne is introduced by Andi Scheinbeck at First Unity Church of St Petersburg, FL. First Unity hosted the first on-the-road exclusive showing of the Messages of Hope documentary. The movie was produced by Chris Lavelle and North Island Media of Rochester, NY. Suzanne and Ty will be taking the documentary to  additional cities (see http://www.onemindbooks.com/ for exact dates and locations.