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Hammond – Day 15: Four Forks and a Feeding Frenzy

Sally has been talking about wanting to go to B&J’s Seafood to get a po’boy almost since we got here. But family plans have been getting the preferential treatment so far. There was a moment earlier this week when it could have happened, but the parking lot was overflowing, and even the across-the-street lot was full.

Sweet Heat For Your Meat

It had to happen today because it was our last day in Hammond, and Louisiana. If it didn’t happen, she would have been talking about not getting to eat from there all the way back to Santa Fe, so we broke down and set out early for a meal. She got her soft-shell crab po’boy, and I got one with crawfish. Both are on the cusp of their seasons, hers waning and mine waxing. Killing time while waiting for our order, I perused the plethora of spices, rubs, and seasonings. Sweet Heat For Your Meat stood out, mainly for its package art.

The food there is great, and it is apparently true about not being able to rush greatness, as it took nearly 30 minutes to get our to-go order. At the table in the Airbnb, if you listened carefully, you could hear us actually purring quietly while polishing those sandwiches off. Trouble is now she probably won’t stop talking about how good it was all the way back to Santa Fe.

Tonight’s meal is back at Adele’s with older brother Steve and his wife Janet. For our dessert, we were tasked with picking up a couple of slices of cake from The Cocoa Bean Bakery. Their cakes are beautiful to look at and delicious to eat. Their 9″ cakes feed up to 20 because of their height. Each slice is $4.25, so you do the math on the total cost of that cake. The woman behind the counter asked if we wanted them in two different boxes, and Sally replied, “Don’t bother; we’ll put it in the center of the table, and it’ll be four forks and a feeding frenzy.”

Those po’boys were worth the wait, and the cake was worth the cost.

Hammond – Day 14: Three & A Quarter Meals, Hundred Something Miles

Breakfast: Maybe five miles to go to get my usual morning latte.

Sally and I headed to her mom Adele’s house to pick her up.

World’s Largest Ronald Reagan Statue

Lunch: From Hammond I drove Sally and her mom 20 miles east from Hammond to Covington to have lunch with a couple of old friends from their days at Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. I was invited to join them, but was also given the option not to, seeing as I didn’t know them, I opted out. I had something way more interesting to see in Covington, the World’s Largest Ronald Reagan Statue. Less than a 1/4 mile away from Mr. Reagan was a restaurant called Lola’s where I had lunch. I dined on a 1/2 Bostonian sandwich and a bowl of Corn & Crab Bisque. It also included a small side salad of mixed greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. Iced tea to wash it down.

We returned back to Adele’s house just briefly before heading out again.

Afternoon Interlude: We drove over to Adele’s friend Charlotte’s house, maybe 5 miles away, to trade her some (a lot really) plastic food containers that we brought back from Covington for some of her fresh-baked biscotti, which is a big draw for Sally when she’s in Hammond.

We returned back to Adele’s house just briefly before heading out, sans Adele.

Dinner: From Hammond I drove Sally and me 30 miles west of Hammond to Baton Rouge to have dinner with son Stuart and family for the 7-year-old granddaughter’s birthday. The birthday girl picked for our epicurean delight was Central Buffet. Stuart’s wife Christina’s parents were there too. We reintroduced ourselves because the last and only time we had met was twenty-three years ago at their daughter’s and Sally’s son’s wedding.

We returned home to our Airbnb stuffed to the gills, but already planning tomorrow evening’s big dinner with Adele, Sally’s big brother and his wife…

Hammond, LA – Day 13: Just Another Day

I didn’t take a picture.

Sally and I had breakfast at the Airbnb before heading over to her Mom Adele’s house. From there, they were off to visit their Edward Jones rep for some financial wisdom. On the way they let me out at the local shopping center for some retail therapy and to await their return. I spent the next hour or so shopping at Target (a couple pairs of shorts) and Books-A-Million (a couple, well, guess.)

After, we all met up at Shoe Show or Shoe Town or Show Something where Sally looked for a pair of, well, shoes, while her mom and me, cooled our heels (pun intended.) I briefly considered buying a pair of Hey Dude flag themed foot coverings that I would wear possibly once a year on the Fourth of July before coming to my senses after seeing the $50 price tag.

After shopping, there was a lunch at a local watering hole with me, Mom, Sally and Sally’s big sister Susie. Satiated, we three returned to Adele’s house and whiled away the afternoon telling tall tales of our wasted youth.

A couple hours after Susie left, a friend of Adele’s arrived with our dinner. She had recently purchased a Big Green Egg and is breaking it in by cooking up a storm and sharing her cooking skills with her inner circle. Dinner was a pork loin wrapped in bacon, sweet potatoes and a succotash of broccoli and squash. Scrumptious.

When our evening repast was finished, Sally and I returned to where we started our day and watched the Red Sox game. The FRS charged to an early 6-run lead only to have the Blue Jays storm back in the 7th and 8th to tie it, and then win it in the 10th.

Tomorrow, I promise a picture, and it will be worth the wait.

Hammond, LA – Day 12: A Sucker Born Every Minute

Back in January during the first trip here I bought a bunch of postcards at CJ’s Antiques and Collectables in Ponchatoula to use as Thank You cards for the people who sent me Christmas cards. So, to kill some time while Sally was at her doctor’s appointment in that same town, I returned to CJ’s pick out a few more vintage postcards I plan to send off to friends and relations while on this trip.

That first time I came really close to buying something that for whatever reason really spoke to me, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. This time I almost bought a bunch of Boston Red Sox Media Guides from the Early 2000’s, but couldn’t pull the trigger on them either.

Carl Durbin – Leading District Manager 1977

But I did pull that metaphorical trigger on the thing I almost bought in January – Carl Durbin’s 1977 award as Leading District Manager for the United National Insurance Company. There is just something about a trophy for a businessman. That Fedora! But what really chinches it is the portfolio tucked under the arm, not a briefcase, a portfolio is so insurance salesman.

Austin Crawford Hunt Story Teller

I would like to tell you I had a very productive day, but I can’t because I haven’t left the building all day. Didn’t even crack the door. I’ve made three square meals for myself, I built the above puzzle and then watch a 6 part documentary on James Bond films.

I guess you could call doing a whole 1,000 piece puzzle in 6 hours productive…

Four For Tuesday

1) This morning I finished up the travel sticker/poster jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks.

2) After lunch I went for a 2-1/2 mile walk around my favorite local trail around the Salish Ponds Wetlands Trail. The picture above is the west pond.

3) While searching for something to watch today, I discovered that A Complete Unknown was available for free on Hulu, so I spent the next 2 hours and 20 minutes planted on the couch.

4) The radio for Bucky with its newly installed Bluetooth module was deposited on my doorstep this evening. Tomorrow I will install it.

Souvenirs

We’re a big fan of postcards around here. I like to send them to people, sometimes unexpectedly, like when I used them to say Thank You for the Christmas cards I received last year. Unfortunately, the mailing of postcards has fallen by the wayside with the advent of cell phones and its companion “social media.”

Santa Fe Sally has been sending some to the last embassy she worked in Bern because they have a wall that is filled with postcards and she likes to add some to that. When she sends them it is not the old-fashioned way, put she puts a bunch in an envelope and mails that. We looked for some along the route of our last road trip. We looked in the places when we had a gas stops but never found any. Nothing in Paris, TX and you’d think we could have found one, what with the Eiffel Tower wearing a Cowboy Hat.

When I went grocery shopping this morning and I had to wander pretty much the whole store because they are remodeling and the aisles are half full and sometimes on different ends of the joint. Dang, I’d never noticed before that Fred Meyer carried souvenirs. Maybe because I never went down where they were. Or perhaps they didn’t before, but with the remodel they’ve added that stuff. Either way, forget gas stops for postcards, grocery stores seem the way to go.

Take a listen of my favorite song about souvenirs, Souvenirs, as sung by Suzy Boggus.