Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ready for service in 2011

The month at home passed so quickly. It was already time to catch our plane back to Austin and carry on with our MDS work. Despite all the difficulties people in Eastern Canada and the U.S. were having with flying, our connections were all right on schedule and the flights were excellent. The Saskatoon airport was abuzz with young people in their shorts and sandals headed to Mexico to party big time. Made you wish you were young again! There were also several wedding parties headed to warmer climates to get married.

Driving from Austin to Marble Falls, we realized that we would miss this part of Texas, as the Louisiana countryside is much different. We were pleased to be back in summer weather.

Before heading out to Louisiana with our R.V., John noted that the two tires on one side were very weather-checked. We had a flat with a weather-checked tire last year when traveling, so he decided not to risk it and bought two new tires. The tire shop was very slow and we were in and out with two new tires in about 15 minutes!

Our first stop was at Brookshire. We were coming into Houston just before rush hour and decided we would wait until morning to go through. It is a very easy city to get through, as I-10 goes right through the centre of it and the markings are very clear in the pavement. The Good Sam campground was a little more expensive than we would have liked, at $33.00 a night, but it was nice and the lady gave us a $3.00 coupon which helped. I was pleased to have internet access.

Our second stop was Ben Rogers Welcome Centre in Beaumont where we hoped to say hello to our old friends, LaRue and Jessie; however, they were both off for New Years. The only one we knew was Joe, the maintenance man, so we gave him a big hug for them, and carried on to Johnson Bayou, LA. There were several friends I had hoped to see, but with the large RV and the road being quite narrow, it was not comfortable to be driving in places where we could not get in and out. The only place we could stop was the RV park where we had stayed when we worked there, and 76 year old Miss Flora Belle Trahan lived next door. Although we did not work on her house last year, our MDS friends did, and she remembered us from when we were there two years ago. It was obvious she did not get very many visitors, as she was totally delighted to have us show up on her doorstep, even if only for a few minutes. Her husband had passed away 9 months ago.

Then we continued on to New Iberia. We were not familiar with the area east of Lake Charles and chose to take a secondary road instead of I-10, as it looked like a good highway on the map. We soon realized that we should have taken I-10 all the way, as this was a poorly maintained two-lane highway. We did get to see country that we would not have seen otherwise.

We could not believe all the fireworks that were set off during New Years – New Years Eve and New Years Day and even the day after, it was like being on a firing range with the pop, pop, pop, starting at dark and going on until late at night. There are fireworks stands on just about every corner.

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