Local Cuisine

Crossing the Mississippi

Gail says I should have lots of fodder for today’s blog.  We stopped at a small family-run Catfish One roadside food stand.  Based on the number of customers for the size of the building, about the size of our covered wagon, aka RV camper van, we figured the food must be good.  Every nook and cranny on the street and in a small gravel pad had a vehicle.  I pulled up to the curb with our tail sticking into the entrance to the gravel pad but it seemed like the thing to do.  Later as I waited for the food I pulled it forward to align with the curb.

 

The menu was nicely painted on a four by eight plywood with the words catfish, shrimp and po-boy repeated several times.  I quickly decided to go with the “light box” of each a catfish and a shrimp.  The two customers in line ordered quickly as did I.  I used a credit card and she said they’d call the name on the card.  I moved out of the way of traffic and watched Charlie as he surveyed the area from the driver’s seat.  Unfortunately my camera was charging in the van so there’s no picture of Charlie driving.

 

Waiting for their food were about a dozen characters among the eleven persons standing around.  Most had a deep southern draw.  We’re in McComb, Mississippi, just north of the toe of the Louisiana shoe-shaped state.  Most were blacks with a couple white males and white lady.  The first gent who was not afraid of talking out, said he had already ordered; he was waiting.  He presented himself as playful and friendly.  Others seem to take that as too outgoing, but they accepted him.

 

A later arrival tall white elderly gent was bit bent over and displayed a shaking hand and insecure balance.  He carefully sat down and waited his order.  He appeared to know his way around so I suspect he was a regular.

 

A gent who backed his pickup against a curb some distance from the stand, arrived before me but studied the menu carefully so I got to order before him.  After he ordered he took his stand at the far end of the outdoor patio and started chatting.  Apparently he had an opinion about the vaccinations (I didn’t hear his take) but he had COVID twice and once he didn’t even know it.

 

A young mid-aged lady was notable as she was wearing a neck-to-toe brilliantly colored and patterned jumpsuit (I’m not a fashion guru so you might more correctly call it something else).  It fully covered her skin but did not conceal any of her shape.  Her slip-on rhinestone covered scandals glistened in the sun.  She must have ordered something that was already cooked because she was in and out in a flash.

 

The staff looked like this.  A older woman, but not near as old as I, with a bandana around her head took the orders.  Two men and a young (maybe 25-year old) woman filled the orders into styrofoam shells from bins of deep fried foods which were refilled with pizza pan platters of greasy food from the kitchen to our right.  Another young lady, maybe a late teenager, brought the bags of food to a second window and called out the names.  Sometimes it was hard to hear so the lady next to me repeated the call and declared, “I must be the outside one to repeat the names.”  Just another character in the crowd.  One of her children and family were Guatemala as missionaries and trying to establish residency.

 

I think about four persons were wearing masks, as was I.  Several of the customers were a bit on the chubby size, probably not from the catfish but more than likely from the way they were prepared – deep-fried in tasty fat.

 

I suspect my wait was about a half-hour during which time Gail affirmed our stops with relatives in Florida and Georgia in the next several days.  We’re in a WalMart parking along with several truckers and RV’s.  It’s been a cool windy, long day and it feels good to put the feet up with some tasty local cuisine.  We have had several cool windy days and are looking forward to a quiet warm relaxing day and evening.

Arkansas

Wednesday was a not-so-good horrible terrible bad day for an Arkansawyer or Arkansan hawk.  That’s not a species or variety of hawk, it’s just one who lives in Arkansas.  His/her/its day started great, he found a fresh but dead squirrel in the middle of the road.  However, as we approached him he grabbed the squirrel and flew to avoid a possible collision with us.  Just moments after he took off, the prey slipped from his talons and got wrapped around the middle wire of a barbed wire fence.  Too high to reach from the ground and guarded by the top wire for a fly-by grab.  Anywhere but the middle wire of a barbed wire fence!  “Woe is me,” shrieked the hawk nevermore to eat that delicacy.

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As we passed from Texas into Oklahoma several events occurred.  I (Denvy) have now set foot in all fifty states, Oklahoma being the last.   -   We were singing a line or two of songs from the area:  “Oh, come sit by my side if you love me, … But remember the Red River Valley, and the cowgirl who loved you so true,” and “Oooooooklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.”  And have we seen sweeping winds, every day, every state.  Our goal this evening was to camp by Denby Point on Lake Ouachita in central Arkansas and enjoy the beauty of the state.  We only stepped out to plug in the electricity and turn on the propane and then only after we had donned several sweatshirts and covered our heads.  We are still enjoying the view from the shelter of our “covered wagon.”

 

As we passed from central to northern Texas we noticed a significant change in the landscape, most notable was the change from desert tans and browns polka-dotted with green shrubs and bushes to level lush green fields.  The greenery is in part due to the season, spring.  We also noticed what they called washes and draws earlier were now rivers and creeks and bayous with water in them.  We also noted that after coming out of the Red River valley, we crossed the Blue River, and then there was the Green River and finally the White River.  It was like a kindergartener coloring a map and naming the rivers.  Of course, there was also the Muddy Boggy River, or something like that, which had to be named by someone who actually saw the water.

 

One goal of the trip was to explore the back country of Arkansas and that we did.  The roads from today’s “Go” tile (think Monopoly) to tonight’s camp site was all back roads.  The painted middle line wiggled like a sidewinder sliding down the road.  At one point there was a rock near the shoulder so the edge white line swerved toward the middle of the road narrowing the pathway.  Some hairpins were marked 10mph while most often one could only get up to about 40mph before the next curve.  Fortunately there was minimal traffic.  I can’t blame them if they know the road.  The views were awesome but we were taken back by the numbers of abandoned and totally disintegrated buildings.  Several looked like the remnants of a passing tornado.  For several moments we also drove through some wildfire smoke.  Never did see the source of the smoke.

 

Google in all its glory indicated that today’s drive be just short of four hours.  We started at 9:00AM and arrived after 5:00PM; that’s eight hours.  Of course, there was a nap thrown in there and there was the matter of taking highway 28 instead of 27 at one intersection which added an extra hour of driving time but much more beautiful scenery, culture and more hairpins.

 

Tomorrow we head to Pearlington, Mississippi to see how things look 17 years after Katrina and Christ’s Church’s teams helping in the reconstruction.  A full day of driving.

 

The Road in "RoadTrip"

I hate to write about driving, roads, and bridges when our goal is people and special places, but you can't have a road trip without that trio.  And of course, vehicles; vehicles of all sorts, colors, sizes and purposes.  One of the more intriguing items traveling down the highways are the fins for the wind chargers.  They are huge!  

Usually we see them on the Interstate just going straight but today I saw three or four actually come from a side road and go up the ramp to the Interstate.  Not only did each one have a lead-car and a follow-car but there were about three persons with stop signs stopping and directing traffic as these monster long trucks turned up the ramps.  The frame between the front part of the rig and the back set of wheels was probably, at least twice the length of a normal semi-trailer, but the tip stuck out half again as far.  I'm impressed with the skill to move one of those fins.

I spent the morning at an RV service shop.  I had a list of about a half dozen items to consider but we focused primarily on the electricity.  The AC hasn't worked properly and the refrigerator doesn't hold a cool temperature.  I asked to sit in a corner of the covered wagon and stay out of the way, but the technician, a cool young man,Perry, would ask questions like "Where is the inverter switch?" and I was eager to learn so I became fully involved.  The fresh water tank leaked at the beginning of the trip and so that was on the list.  The black water tank after we drain it still registers 3 out of 4 dots full and there were some missing knobs.

We started with the electricity and we ended with the eletririty.  He disconnected, tested and reconnected all the batteries, even the one hidden under the driver's feet,.  They are all good.  I drew my own solution on the refrigerator: make certain the 120v switch is on because the 12v option just isn't hacking it.  The solution to the AC is "don't run it" unless we're connected to a land line.  The fresh water tank is a huge project and could take days so we set that aside.  The missing knobs weren't available and the solution to the black water tank was to not use the envelopes of cleanser (the bags don't fully dissolve and affect the sensors) but add ice which when driving will break up the poop and then melt to be pumped out.

So when it came to paying the bill after two hours, the report sounded like nothing was done and so the bill (I was shocked and pleased) was $22 and that included a better solvent for the black water tank.  So if you're ever in Waco, Texas with an RV with a problem that can't be solved, I strongly recommend Crestview RV.

After that intriguing morning, if nothing else I learned a lot about testing the batteries, I picked up Charlie and Gail and we made our final and third visit with Gail's sister.  It certainly was bitter sweet to have the opportunity to see her despite her inability to fully connect with us, and it might be the "final" visit.  She's 93.

Back on the road, it was God, Gail and I against thousands of vehicles and many more bumps in construction sites.  As we drove through Dallas with the thick cluster of skyscrapers in the downtown financial district, Charlie woke up, sat up and started barking at all the structures and traffic.  Charlie, I'm with you.

The storms you hear about on national weather news are one day in front of us.  We're safe but after last night's storms in northern Texas, it is now a sweltering 94˚.  So we're stopped in a WalMart near Denison, Texas (almost Oklahoma) to kick back and cool our heels.  We have two families in Arkansas on the agenda for tomorrow.

Oh, yes, the landscape north of Waco is beautiful farmland: green, lush and flat.

Betty

One primary goal in this trip is to visit with Betty, Gail's sister.  Since the last time we saw her she has moved from her home in Florida to a memory care community close to her daughter Nancy in Texas.  we have n=met that goal.  We spent a short hour with her Sunday afternoon and another this morning with a third visit planned for tomorrow.  Another big change since we last saw her is her memory; it very difficult for her to remember much or to formulate thoughts into sentences.  It was a delight to know that she remembered us.  Gail often says I was one of her favorites.  And she's one of mine.

It's hard to accept the idea that this vibrant healthy beautiful caring woman can't put together a full thought or remember her children.  During the first visit we sat outside and were graciously offered some very stale pretzels and water by the staff.  She noticed the flowers needed watering.  We love her dearly and struggled to just nod when we couldn't clearly understand her.

This morning Gail and I stopped by alone without Betty's daughter.  We were told she was playing dominoes which meant that a set of tiles were lying on the table before three residents.  It appeared that the best they could do was put the tiles back in the box.  We chatted for awhile and excused ourselves as the noon meal was about to be served.  We'll return for one more visit tomorrow.

Terry, Nancy and we went out to a Texas BBQ brisket this evening.  We were forewarned that there were both excellent and not so good reviews.  As we entered the restaurant we were greeted with a young lady on a mic, "Table for three?"  They were having karaoke night.  It was very loud inside and the selected song was not of our era so we asked for a table outside but the settings outside were all tall with stools with hard small seats.  The food was so-so and we left for softer seats in the car.

Now there are 4 seconds remaining in the final March Madness game with leading team leading by 3 points but the other team has the ball.  It's over.   Kansas won!  Thanks for the big screen and great company.

 

Charlie's Blog

 Blogger's note:  Like Bil Keane who allowed his children to draw his Family Circle cartoon, we are allowing Charlie to write today's blog.

These past several days are by far the best ever so far.  Kathleen had a little door so I could go in and out without asking my family to open the door.  The backyard was big and very safe where I could convince my family to throw the frisbees or balls.  There were also neighbor dogs who yipped every time I went outside.  It was so much fun to tease them.  

The next day and night weren't all that great, but the one after that, wow, it was super.  There was a fenced farm yard with two friendly spirited dogs.  The sheep, chickens and turkey were on the other side of another farm fence, but that's okay because we could see each other and run side by side.  However, they were party-poopers and didn't run; they just watched me and my new friends run back and forth almost like a tennis match spectator.

There also were new people whom I taught to throw the frisbee and they did well.  And, and, and, this is the best part, they had a tub full of water that I could cool off in.  It was awesome.  My family weren't too excited when I took a last dip just before going in the covered wagon for the night.

Tonight I'm in the house, not the covered wagon, after a day of romping with another new dog is a huge unfenced ranch where there were lots of black cows.  The bummer was that my family wouldn't let me play with the cows.  All these new dogs liked to run and nip at each other - I love that - but they wouldn't catch the frisbee or ball.  I guess they're not the athletic type.

/s/ Charlie

San Antonio - More or Less

Oops, this morning's blog vaporized into space, cyberspace I suspect.  So start again and add a bit more.

We just spent several hours over brunch at Mi Familia in a mall on the western edge of San Antonio.  Hosted by Gail's brother, Stuart, the sibling closest to Gail in age but still her senior by 5 years, and his son Tommy, the group included the wives of each Stuart and Tom and Tom's two high school daughters.  It was great fun testing each other's memories about events in Gail and Stuart's childhood, about what was happening in their lives and to learn more about the teenagers - one is graduating and headed to A&M with no specific career in mind and the other talked about being the only girl to play the tuba in her school.

The day before was dedicated to driving from El Paso after a grand visit with Gail's sister's daughter - a niece for short.  The road was good, the covered wagon was great, however the wind was atrocious causing me to glue myself to the steering wheel and jerk back to the straight and narrow after each gust of wind.  Niece Kathleen took us to missions along the Rio Grande and then to an afternoon Mexican meal.  The food was unique and exciting but the front door and parking were hard to find.  Eventually we accomplished finding both.

At one stop a group a ladies who were colleagues of Kathleen came over and introduced themselves.  Kathleen is a lawyer and is currently serving as a family court judge.  We had very lively and interesting conversation about justice and fairness in family disputes.  A part of our drive again included a view of the border fence.

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David was working on his RV trailer as we pulled into Lane and David's yard.  Not a gated community but a fenced yard with sheep, chickens, a couple dogs and a tom turkey.  Cheeses, sausages, and crackers with great lemonade was served and the stories, and questions, started about family (Lane is Gail's niece) and Alaska (they planning a 3-month trip to the 49th state this summer).  Soon Lane's brother, wife and two of the three brothers came by and the stories expanded to include their lives.  Mattie, Karl's wife (I'll let you guess who's related to whom), is a quiet beautiful Philippino.  The variety of occupations continues:  Karl is an ex-militrary, David is a handyman and Lane is a nurse.

As things were winding down, David showed me his latest project.  He has a computer-driven rotator machine with which he is carving serving/cutting board with inlayed shells and arrowheads.  As a lifetime woodworker this was priceless.  No, no such tool lies in my future, but I can still admire and appreciate this new technology.  Gone are the days of axes and chisels.

Another Best Day So Far

Security drove around the WalMart parking lot south of Albuquerque several times, I guess to make certain we were safe.  It's a fine place to park.

After few hours of southbound driving we opted for a back road into White Sands National Park.  The desert prevailed but periodically there'd be a lava field or a variation in vegetation or lack thereof.  Overhead the clouds ranged from scattered fluffy cumulus to dark rain clouds with hanging virgo which also sometimes reached our windshield.  Notable throughout the desert southwest these days has been the wind.  The roads are smooth and often straight but correcting for wind gusts keeps me glued to the road and steering wheel.

Our vision of the white sands was that it was just off the main Interstate but in fact it was an hour or so off.  Yet, the side trip was well worth it.  Kids had sleds and were sliding down the banks.  In places there were small drifts of sand across the road, much like snow.  The sand is the result of gypsum from the mountains getting trapped in the valley and eventually breaking down into very fine crystal.  While some of the sand was soft and difficult to walk in, like Oregon beaches, the dunes were firm and easy walking.  Apparently there is moisture not far below the surface which keeps the dunes firm.

After reheating leftovers from last evening's restaurant meal, we just sat back and rested.  Our niece in El Paso wouldn't be home until later in the evening so we had time to pause between driving and visiting, and visiting and driving.

Kathleen arrived home as scheduled.  We shared stories of the past and some ice cream on a bit of chocolate cake from the day before.  Then it's back to the evening routine for a night in the covered wagon, this time is cherished electricity from the house.  Good night.