Wofford Travels – 2019-10-25 – Lafayette-1
Greetings,
We’ve moved on from Austin. This was a sorely needed travel day. There is this sense that when you’re in a location for a number of days, you need to check out as much as you can…so, you’re checking out as much as you can, even if it’s one or two historical sights, museums, special events, etc. “Pack in” the day, so to speak. We’re both guilty of that. But we’re not as able to “pack in” the day as much as we were able to years ago. Except, the brain hasn’t figured that out yet, while the body is “sorely” aware of it. But, overall, it’s not too bad. You just need to pace yourself and build some room in the “plan” for a change of plans. It’s more a matter of just being sensible. Wow, now there’s something to strive for!
OK, enough philosophysing. We left our hotel at 11:00 and were on I-10 20 minutes later. We would have lunch after we got through all that traffic.
We ended up in Beaumont, TX with a stop at Luby’s Cafeteria…just what we needed to take in some vegetables. Fifty minutes later we were back on the highway, and by 5:00 we had crossed the Louisiana state line.
Now, I always like to take a photo when we make a “border” crossing, and I would ask Tom to let me know when it was coming up. Of course, you can’t guarantee for sure when it will be, so 99.9 percent of the time he would tell me as we were crossing it, much to my chagrin. Then I got this (not so brilliant, just sensible [there’s that word again]) thought: why don’t I just follow the phone road map, and I would know immediately when it would appear and be ready for it. So, I did this, and it worked perfectly. Otherwise, I cheat, and find the “Welcome” sign in google on my phone, and take a photo of it from my camera. Actually, I don’t consider it really cheating because my writing and photos are for ME to keep track of my trips…and in the process; I like to share the experiences just in case someone else might be interested.
Now the road sign said, “106 miles to Lafayette,” and at about 70 miles per hour, it should take close to 2 hours. So, leaving at 5:00 for Lafayette should get us there about 7:00 PM. We were humming along fine for about a half hour when we ran into major roadwork on the I-10. Long story short, we ended up taking I-210, a slight detour, but getting us to the same place. However, this was after well over an hour of literally “crawling.” I told Tom, we could have walked faster. So, rather than get there by 7:00, we got there around 8:30. What was I saying about plans?
We checked into our Days Inn and were headed out to dinner close by. Tom spotted the name Gator Cove on an Internet map. It was just a block or two away. We drove into the parking lot…didn’t see any cars, and checking further realized that they were “closed for the season,” probably for some specialty seafood. So, going a little further ahead we found the Cactus Mexican Grille. OK, I guess we’ll go Mexican again. We both ordered Cheese Enchiladas topped with beef and a guacamole salad. Then back to our room. At least we’re not going to bed at 2:00…closer to midnight. ODO 20,446 (2,696 miles).
Tomorrow we visit with one of three couples on this trip that we have known for years. The 3 gentlemen were all college (Tallahassee, FL) buddies of Tom.
Tita