Liberty Theater

If you ever get a chance to visit Eunice, you really should plan to visit the Liberty Theater on Saturday night where they feature the "Rendez-vous Des Cajuns" music show. Each Saturday different Cajun bands are featured. The show is broadcast on the local public radio and TV. I believe you can listen to the show by visiting http://www.krvs.org/





We saw Geno Delafose and the French Rockin Boogie Band... a grammy nominated Cajun band that was absolutely fantastic. The theater has a dance floor in the front and people just had a wonderful time. The show runs from 6 -7:30 every Saturday. You can buy tickets, but seats are available first come first serve. It didn't really matter though because most of the people were enjoying dancing so they didn't stay seated.

While we were there, there was a Cycle Zydeco group. They are a group of bicylists touring the Acadiana area. For four days they cycle through Cajun country and visit local tourist attractions. They were dancing and having a wonderful time.

Eunice, LA

The town of Eunice was founded by Eunice Duson's husband. He settled the area and when it came time to name the town, he named it after his beloved wife. What a romantic.

This is a statue of Eunice in the town square with a listing of all the women of the town who have made their mark. This is a town who really knows how to honor their ladies.

B's accident

Our new bassett "B" has her list of phobias... one of them is that she is afraid of the noise that the chain we use to tether her to the trailer makes against the metal steps. Our first night at Rayne, she didn't wait for me to unhook her before she went in. As she went up, the chain rattled against the steps. B was attached by her choke collar. When she heard the noise she pulled harder against the chain and broke her choke collar. That had to hurt! I keep telling her that she would do so much better if she didn't strive so much...

I have been thinking that there is an object lesson for me as well. How often do I strive in my flesh trying to accomplish what I think is best when the Lord calls me apply his precepts and trust him for the outcome. He longs for us to choose his way and so often we strive to accomplish things and only look to him when we have failed and are wounded from the strife we bring to ourselves.

B is really a wonderful dog, but she has not yet learned to trust us when she is fearful. She creates her own chaos and then finds that she is in over her head quite quickly. Lord, help me to trust when I can't see the end, but know that you love us and keep us in your care.

Ripley's Believe it or not

This cemetary is featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not as the only Judeo Christian cemetary known where people are buried facing north to south. Christian tradition positions graves east to west (the east metaphorcally representing the beginning of life with the sun rising and the west metaphorically representing the ending of life with the setting of the sun). Another oddity in the great state of Louisiana.

It is not clear whether the positioning of north to south of graves was an accident or intentional.

Make way for the house

Kenny and I were just touring about the countryside when lo and behold a house came at us down the road!

Rice and Crawfish

In Louisiana, they have Crawfish farms where they grow rice in the same pool of water that they use to grow the fish. Rice and crawfish seem to cohabitate well together and allow the farmers a way to make their land even more productive.

Here is a picture of a farmer harvesting some of the crawfish in a boat as he moves through the field. Even the birds joined in to help them out.

Frog Capital of the WORLD

The city of Rayne, is the Frog Capital of the World. Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE oddities. I love to visit them all. Louisiana has quite a few of them too.

All through the city, they have murals of frogs and statues of frogs. In September they have a frog festival where they have a competion for Frog Queen. To win, you have to race your frog and even dress him up for the costume competition. It sounds like my kind of fun.

The city has a park they have opened up for RV parking. It is great. This year we even have sewer and water and electric at our sites. I love it when I can take a long shower and not have to worry about where the water will get dumped.

This is why you RV

We traveled into Mississippi where the NASA space center was located hoping to take a tour of the facility. We arrived on Tuesday, but unfortunately they only run tours Wed - Sun. UGGH. Plan B... have lunch and rest a while at the rest area. By the way, the rest area at exit 2 on I-10 is wonderful. They have nice pull outs for RVs, dumping stations and everything. There was lots of space to walk the dogs and just enjoy life. The azaleas were blossoming and it was just a beautiful day.

We ate lunch and then we rested. You can't do that with a car. Here is Kenny at the rest area and resting with some help from the dogs...

My Hero

As we were traveling toward our ultimate destination of Rayne, LA for the Holiday Rambler Southwest Regional Rally, we stopped at a truck stop for a break. As I walked into the truck stop, they had one of those machines where you can try to win a stuffed animal by picking it up with a mechanical arm. Inside the machine was a Tigger. As you may know from previous blogs, my old stuffed Tigger had been unstuffed by rats about a year ago. Tigger has always been the mascot of our trailer because Tiggers love to bounce and that is something that Tiggers get to do back there as we go down the road. Well, I asked my hero if he would win me a Tigger. He gave a big groan and reminded me that those machines are nothing but rip offs. He did however stick his dollar in and won me my new Tigger! I am so happy that Tigger is back! I have a picture of the stuffed Tigger along with my bouncing Tigger that we keep on the table to look out the window as we travel.

Kathy and Leonard

After leaving Simpsonville, SC we headed to Milledgeville, GA to see our friends Kathy and Leonard Edwards. We have missed them since our days at Magnolia. They were in one of our Crown small group studies. We really enjoyed getting to know them through that small group. Kathy and Leonard invited us to spend the evening with them and have Easter dinner. Kathy made ham, asperagus, rolls, potato, and red cabbage. The company just couldn't be beat. They live across the road from Lake Sinclair. 400+ miles of shoreline. Just beautiful.

We have just enjoyed our visit thoroughly.

Visiting my Sister

Well we are on the road again. I was thrilled to be able to leave a day early and spend some time with my sister Easter weekend. We arrived on Friday and enjoyed time together through Sunday morning for Easter services.

Grace's mother in law cooked us a wonderful Easter dinner on Saturday after we viewed a model of their new home. We also trekked up to the location where the house will be placed this summer. She has a beautiful view of the mountains in the background. I will love visiting her there. I hope she keeps an extra bedroom.

I always enjoy being with Gracie. This morning, she went to sunrise service with me for Easter. We visited the Methodist Church in Simpsonville. She was cold not having a heavy jacket, so I wrapped my arms around her to keep her warm. I am not sure the people from the congregation knew what to think of us, but the pastor did welcome us after the service.

Our Bumble Bee

It has been a long time since I have added to my blog. I wish I could summarize all of life that has transpired, but I just can't. The Lord has ministered to my soul and continued to grow me and all of that just can't be captured in words.

One blessed event that has occured in our family was that our Bassett Pru got a dog of her own for Christmas. Her name is Betty, though we call her "B". She was absolutely adorable and we thought that Pru would really like her since they are about the same age and B is an active dog as is Pru.

In fact, Pru and B have really gotten along well. B just had no manners when she came to us and had some issues with Eva our cat. Eva was harrassed at every turn by B and couldn't feel comfortable being in the same room. Fortunately Brood (Bassett Rescue of Old Dominion) was kind enough to connect us with a trainer. We have finally gotten where B and Eva can be together mostly. You can see by the pictures, that Eva and B have even peacefully rested on the same bed together.

For those of you who can't tell the dogs apart, B has more red in her face and Pru has the stripe up her forehead. The one in the t-shirt is Kenny, but he really isn't a dog, he just plays one (ha, ha). We are about to take our first big trip with B to Louisiana. Stand by for more posts in the weeks to come.