The Gypsy Wagon

Road Trip

I missed the Welcome to Virginia sign but we did traverse the entire state before entering Tennessee.We spent the night in Chattanooga - along with the under-six baseball all-star teams from Tennessee and Georgia.  It was a lively place.The next day took us to Georgia (guess I missed that picture too), then Alabama.

Then Mississippi (with the nicest Welcome Center manned by a lovely lady passing out cups of the best. diet. coke. ever.).  

Then into Louisiana - again, missed the sign.  As we got closer to New Orleans, the devastation of Katrina became more and more apparent.  In the outskirts of Metairie, we began to see houses abandoned and overgrown with vines and weeds, next to houses under construction with FEMA trailers parked out front.  In between were houses that were stuck in limbo - rickety and broken, but still inhabited.  Whole apartment buildings were broken like popsicle stick sculptures, and while some were being reconstructed others were left behind - remnants of a life that is no more.  As we drew closer to New Orleans we saw neighborhoods that showed pockets of empty lots, and more houses that nature had reclaimed.  I couldn't take photos of those houses.  Somehow it felt intrusive and unseemly, and that taking photographs would be akin to taking one more thing from these people who'd already lost so much.

We stayed in Algiers, and took the ferry over to New Orleans.Then we wandered around the city on one of the hottest days of the year. Periodic stops for water helped, but ultimately we needed an early dinner and the reprieve of the air-conditioned hotel room. I hadn't been to New Orleans since 1977, and I was surprised at how little the downtown area had changed

Evidence of last year's Mardi Gras is still evident in the trees.

And wrought iron artistry is everywhere.

Yesterday morning, we got the first ferry over to New Orleans

and arrived while the sidewalks were still wet from their daily cleaning. We went to the famed Cafe du Monde for cafe au lait and beignets.  One bite took me back 31 years to the summer of 1977.  The hot delicious powdered sugar coated pastry was worth every calorie and the sugar coma that followed.

We left Cafe du Monde and headed for Texas.

Texas or Bust!

I should be washing, sorting, planning and packing because at o-dark-thirty tomorrow morning we leave on our 2008 Texas and Back RoadTrip.  I love a good road trip, and so do our kids - and I'm excited about the time I get to spend with John in the car.  The ipod is loaded with great road trip songs, I've got books, magazines and the coursework for my next class all ready to go. 

It's been 3 1/2 years since our whole family has been to Brenham, and I can't wait to take them back.  We'll eat our weight in BlueBell and barbecue and tex mex.  Maybe we'll get to the coast for some gulf shrimp and beach time.  We'll definitely hit Austin for Chuy's (again with the tex-mex), and then New Braunfels for Schlitterbahn and some river time. 

It will be two weeks loaded with family, friends, food and fun.  Look for posts from the road.

In the meantime, here are some pictures to hold me over til we get there:

 

See ya from the road! 

If I got a cape, could I then be Superwoman?

When I started this back to school thing in March, I had visions of shiny pencils, crisp new textbooks and essays with a giant "A" circled in red.  I didn't picture: piles of laundry, errands, children in and out, and in and out, and in and out of the house - doors slamming behind.  I didn't picture the doorbell ringing every single time I sat down, spread out my  papers and settled my laptop on my lap.  I didn't picture dozing off while editing this ridiculously annoying 26 page paper FOR THE THIRD TIME.  I didn't realize that my writing would bore me to tears, and that I'd feel so inept. 

It's making me a little bit nuts - the juggling of it all. And the problem is that it's all good stuff to juggle and I don't want to give any of it up.  I'm annoyed that I thought it would be easier than it is and that I thought I would suddenly become organized and efficient.  Which it isn't and I haven't.  So there's that.

So maybe a cape is what I need.  Or a nap.

The Land of the Free

And the home of the brave.

Duh.

The headline below caught my eye as I closed down the CNN window.  If that's not a "duh" moment, I don't know what is.  OF COURSE we are caffeinating to keep up.  For crying out loud, it it wasn't for coffee, I'd have been left behind 15 years ago!

Caffeinated moms drink up to keep up

 

 

 

 

photo courtesy of starbucks.  i think.

Ohio Garden

My mother-in-law has beautiful gardens that attract butterflies, hummingbirds, deer and grasshoppers. The weather is lovely, so we can sit on the screened in porch and listen to the birds calling to each other as they fight over the cherries on the neighbor's tree.  The occasional car driving by interrupts the sounds of nature, and the day is punctuated by the mournful sound of the train whistle as another freight train rumbles through town.

  I have been coming to this home in the Midwest for more than eighteen years now and it occurs to me that  John and I have now been together longer than he lived here in Ohio.  Our time in our Gypsy Wagon together has now been the longest constant for either of us.  He left for college when he was seventeen, I left at eighteen and although we've both had stints at our respective homes during summer break or between moves, our home - our constant - has been us.  Wherever we are - we are home. 

This One's For You, Beth!

I can't tell you how proud it makes me to see this beautiful shell named in honor of one of our favorite people. 

Dale devoted time, energy and enthusiasm to the countless midshipment that he coached, and it's a tremendous honor that they named a shell for him.

Dale will recognize, of course, that this photograph is upside down, but the magic of computer manipulation let me turn it so that you can read it.

I'm not really sure that he's old enough to have a legacy, but it looks as though he's got one anyway.

Very, very cool! 

A Texas Night

 

 

It was a night for Texas in Annapolis when we hosted a Texas barbecue complete with Shiner Bock

 

 

Served in a wheelbarrow

And wine, too.

And flowers in big tin cans.

 

 

                                                                          

And to top it off we had Texas weather - 98 degrees in the shade and humid.  Despite the weather, we had fun!

Angels

 This shot is a couple of weeks old.  I took it as the Angels were flying over the stadium in a salute to the 2008 graduates. 

Hats

It was a day of hats at the United States Naval Academy graduation ceremony today. 

There were hats with ribbons and hats with bows.

There were hats for high fashion

And hats for utilitarian function

Wide-brimmed hats

And hats with a narrower brim

There were high-tea hats

And court-side hats

There were official insignia'd hats

There were hats at a rakish angle

And there were hats anticipating their big moment

 

And then there were hats aloft

And when it was all over, some of those hats found new homes - perhaps on the heads of future midshipmen.