June 16, 2017 Day
8
For the first time in a long time I slept so well though I
know it was all attributed to drinking the night before. True to form I woke up at 06:30 and started
putting my bed and everything back together.
I did one last load of laundry, broke down camp, and took another
delicious shower. By noon I had
everything packed up and drove to a gas station to acquire gas and ice. While there I ran into a man named Trace who
began our introduction by asking if I was lost.
He was referring to my Wisconsin license plate. I laughed and said you know I am not quite
sure but if I am I’m not too concerned.
He was a jolly man who seemed to smile a lot and I never did see his
eyes they were so squinted. We stood in
the parking lot, with the hot sun beating down and the bag of ice I held slowly
melting away, talking about my trip and
where he has been also.
Twenty minutes later I was back at camp with a new bag of
ice. I made a game plan for the day and
hooked up my camper to my vehicle. At
13:04 I was back on the road and getting lost.
Apparently my phone wanted me to take a ferry which I said no to. Finally, back on track I arrived at the
Atchafalaya Welcome Center at 18:45. I
want to interject here and say that the roads in Louisiana are absolutely horrendous! They are worse than the back roads in
Wisconsin and I just kept imagining my tires on the camper coming off as I
drove like you see in the cartoons.
At the welcome center I met three men and a woman who were
swapping boats with each other. First,
the oldest gentlemen who had on a veterans hat and I came to find out was a carpenter
came over to look at my camper. I asked
if he wanted to see inside it and he was like, “you know curiosity got the best
of me and I just couldn’t help myself I had to see what this was all about.” After giving him the grand tour we spoke for
quite some time about building campers, how he used to be a chief and what true
gumbo is, the history of the area and how his last name is the same as only 62
other families in the United States. He
suggested a few places I should visit if I had time and then he gave me his
sisters’ information that lives in California.
He told me if I ever get over that way and find myself in trouble to
give her a call. However, I was not to
call her by her name which was Gloria but instead to call her “Cook”. During our conversation the other members of
his group came over to look at my camper and we all got to talking.
Once we all said our goodbyes and they went home I crawled
into my camper to spend the night until the Welcome Center opened in the
morning. Before going to bed, I Skyped my parents which I have come to realize
I Skype more now than I have ever done before.
It is probably due to the limited about of people I talk to daily but
when I do get to talking to someone now it is like I can’t shut up and just keep
going like the energizer bunny. Which
might explain why these posts are so long!
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