Reading through some news, I was sorry to see that Camden Town Market had a huge fire.
We stayed right down the road from Camden Town, when we went on our trip to London. It's a very diverse part of town, that was great for people watching. I was strolling through there at the end of the day and got a great plate of Chinese food for two pounds. By far the cheapest meal of the trip and close to the best tasting.
We made it home from our weekend trip to Chicago. We took the kids up there to see their great-grandmother B, our sister-in-law with the twins and the cousins, that are now back from London.
I thought it might be fun to recap the night spent at the hotel on Friday, then the drive back to Indianapolis on Saturday night.
We got back at the hotel Friday night to put the children, that were just wiped out from travel and playing, to bed. Once we finished getting them ready for bed it was around 10:30pm. Usually in this situation, the light are turned off, all gets quiet and we lay with them in bed until they fall asleep, which usually doesn't take that long. No one wanted to go to sleep because of the noise that was coming from across the hall. It was a party! I called the front desk a couple of times over the first hour and a half, then went down stairs to the front desk around 1am, then went back to the front desk around 2am to let them know we would not be paying for the room. Every time I spoke with the people at the front desk they informed me they would take care of the problem, they didn't. I asked if they could move the party to a different location in the hotel, if another room was available to us, anything that would allow me to try to go to sleep. I guess the people that work there are people that are not into confrontation and they would rather just put up with me and not charge me for our room, instead of dealing with the party gals.
The Lady was sleeping right through this mess, as were the kids (finally), but they were tossing and turning, not really getting a lot of rest.
So, finally, the party winded down around 3:40am. I was pretty furious and remember looking at the clock before closing my eyes and passing out, it was 4:53am.
At 5:13am I was woke up by my wife, shaking my arm and telling me the fire alarm was sounding. I did not doubt her as there were blinking lights and a loud alarm going off in a rhythmic pattern that was surely to annoy any sound sleeper. That's right, put on your shoes, grab your coats, anything that is of value, put the kids over your shoulders and start heading down stairs, from six stories up, outside into the four inches of snow and into the freezing vehicle to sit in the parking lot, not knowing if your stuff was going up in flames.
After an hour of huddled in the car with crying kids, we were told the building was all clear. It was smoke smell coming from a furnace. Our kids were awesome, or was it just plain tired? They went back to sleep and I was actually able to fall asleep too, simply from being frustrated to the brink of exhaustion.
I just got off the phone with the hotel company to file a complaint about the guest services at that location. Whatever.
Since it seems like I'm nothing but a crybaby in this post, I'll spare you the white knuckle driving portion of the story of driving back to Indianapolis from Chicago on Saturday night. A drive which normally takes about three hours, took six and a half because of the snow and lack of Indiana plows going southbound on I-74.
It was a crazy, quick trip, but well worth it to see the kids with their great-grandother B on her birthday.
Plus, I still owe my other sister-in-law a pot of chili.
Oh this story just keeps getting better.
I'm writing this post off a wireless connection called "MorrisRocks". Morris, I have no idea who you are, but yes you do rock.
For those of you that might have read the last post, feel free to take a guess at what else could happen to make the night at the hotel and the rest of the trip even better worse.
I guess we will make it home sooner later or later.
It never fails when I drive between Indianapolis and Chicago, either way, there is always some left lane driver causing major traffic by poking along, while talking on their cell phone.
So we packed up to head for Chicago yesterday, but we stopped in Indianapolis and stayed at the in-laws house for the night. We got up hit the road and tonight we are in a hotel in the Chicago burbs.
It sucks having insomnia when you are in an environment where you can't have a light on. I have to be quiet and have the light off so our children will fall asleep, so I'm huddled down at the end of the sofa on the front half of this hotel room.
To add to my misery, there is some type of party going on across the hall from us, so I couldn't fall asleep even if I wanted to. This doesn't seem like the type of place to have a room party in, but none the less, I've got a gaggle of 40 year old women across the hall getting lit up like Christmas trees and busting into that loud ass, middle-aged, hackle of laughter every 30 seconds or so.
I've called the front desk twice to complain. Usually I could care less, but I've got a wife and kids with 400 miles on them in the past 24 hours and they need some sleep. I'm at the point right now, where I don't know if I should go knock on their door and tell the to shut up or go out, buy a couple six packs of Zima, give it to them and tell them to drink up, so they will hurry up and pass out.
Yes Santa, I'm pretty crabby right now.
While in Louisiana, one of our planned things to do was drive over to Lafayette, from Baton Rouge, to see an old friend and spend the night at his family's house. The trip from Baton Rouge to Lafayette is just a short 55 mile ride west on Interstate10, especially now that the speed limit is higher than it should be across the Atchafalaya Basin. I'm all for cruising along on the open road, but it's a given down there that people are pretty much going to drive ten miles per hour faster than the speed limit posted, so 70 mph over the swamp in my opinion is a little high. Yes, I'm getting old and have two kids in the vehicle.
We were originally going to go over there on Tuesday, spend the night and come back on Wednesday, but there was a hitch. I-10 was closed in both directions over the Atchafalaya Basin because a natural gas well exploded, some 300 feet from the interstate, and it was burning. With the alternate route being US-190, which added easily another hour or two on to the trip due to extra mileage, slower speeds and the traffic, we decided to go over on Monday afternoon and return on Tuesday.
Driving to Lafayette from Baton Rouge, along US-190, rekindled memories of old, when I used to go that way to go fishing at False River. Driving through communities like Livonia, Lottie, Krotz Springs and Port Barre could be compared to driving through Radiator Springs, the small town in the movie "Cars". The communities seemed to be alive with the flow of traffic from the detoured I-10 and signs were out on the road offering everything; gas, hot coffee, cold beer, boudin, turducken, and jalapeno sausage & cheese bread. Yes, I missed Louisiana.
We spent the night at my good friend's house in Lafayette. It was good to visit with his family and see their new house. Doodlebug had a wonderful time playing with their daughter, that is about six months older than she is. The two of them played dress up for most of the visit. There were more costume changes than a Gwen Stefani concert going on between the two of them.
The next day after enjoying shrimp po-boys, from BJ's Po-Boy & Sandwich Shop in Broussard, for lunch we thought it might be a good idea to check the traffic report before heading back to Baton Rouge. It's a good thing we did, US-190 was closed because of an overturned tractor trailer. Awesome. The only other way to get back to Baton Rouge was to go back roads down towards the gulf coast, deep into cajun country. The unexpected detour was actually a really scenic ride through sugar cane fields, down to Morgan City, back up through marsh lands, to crossing the Mississippi River over the Sunshine Bridge just outside of Donaldsonville, then coming back into Baton Rouge from the east on I-10.
Sure it was a longer two day trip than planned, but we got to ride around the beautiful state of Louisiana and see more than we thought we were going to on this visit.
As it has been documented, the family was down in Louisiana for the Thanksgiving tour. We stayed at my mother's house in Baton Rouge, my hometown.
I always feel odd going back to Baton Rouge, I'm not 100% sure why I feel that way, I just do. Maybe it's because I so wanted to leave there in my youth, because I didn't really feel independent until leaving there, or because I can start sweating by just standing outside in November. Perhaps all of those things together contribute to the feeling, but I try to control the sweating by only going down there between the months of November and February, this time I was just dealt a hot and humid hand.
Luckily, we had direct flights both ways from CVG to BTR. Unluckily, The Little Man was horrible on the flight down. Everything the kid could do on a first time flight he did. He screamed, kicked the seat in front of him (thank goodness no one was in it), kept slamming the shade down on the window, spilled something, dropped toys on the floor and so on. We were on a small plane so there were two seats on each side of the ailse, so it came to a point where Doodlebug and I, which were sitting across the aisle from The Lady and The Little Man, just started giving them the snake eyes like we didn't know them. At one point, I told Doodlebug to look over and tell that woman to control her child, which she did. It was funny for about a second, then the young man continued being a royal pain in the backside. The flight to London back in March seemed like a walk in the park compared to the hour and forty minutes that hell ride lasted. Funny how kids can throw a wrench into situations sometimes.
Once we got settled in at my mom's house, which took us no longer than twenty minutes, we said, "so long suckers!" and left the kids with her for some funtime and so we could forget about that flight. Nothing shakes off a stressful flight better than a cup of crab & corn bisque, followed by a fried shrimp & catfish platter, all washed down with sweet tea, from Parrain's.
The sun had gone down by the time we had arrived for our stay in Baton Rouge and I had heard lots of views about how Katrina changed my hometown, but I was eager to take a look after some time had passed to see what has going on there. As far as my odd feeling returning home, that was the biggest contributor now.
We are having a wonderful time down in the homeland, although I can't believe I used to live in this humidity. It finally cooled off a bit today, but everyday before this has been hot (around 85 degrees) and humid.
We went to a nice Thanksgiving gathering today that featured seven fried turkeys, four different types of dressing, two different versions of Louisiana sweet potatoes, numerous other side dishes and various desserts, featuring the southern standards, banana pudding and pecan pie. The feast was held at the custom built home of one of my mother's step sons. The home, that was built by the gentleman, is amazing and looked like it was straight from the pages of Architectural Digest or something.
I have not put a healthy bite of food in my mouth since we arrived here. I don't figure I will tomorrow, as we go to a huge tailgate party, prior to the Arkansas at LSU game.
LSU Tiger fans are all in an uproar over speculation that Les Miles, there head football coach, will be heading to Michigan to coach the Wolverines. It's huge news here and people are getting passionate. I'm sure it will be a big talk around the tailgates tomorrow.
I hope that you and yours had a nice day.
Now if you excuse me, I need to get a crane to come pick me up since I am still stuffed from the feast. It's time to give baths and get these children to bed.
I was on the phone last night, talking to my old high school friend that I will see when back in my hometown, and part of the conversation went a little something like this.
Me ~ We fly in on Saturday night. I'm not looking very forward to that.
Prom Date ~ I don't see what the big deal is, you flew all the way to London earlier this year.
Me ~ Right, that was just two grown folks.
Prom Date ~ Ohhh...right, right. You are the people I don't want to be anywhere near on the plane. After the flight I would be talking to a complete stranger leaving the gate, saying something like, "Good grief, what about those two crazy kids and that sweaty fat guy!"
Me ~ Thanks, I'm sweating right now just thinking about it.
So, we leave for Thanksgiving Tour 2007 tomorrow. It will be a wild trip through south Louisiana.
A few things I can guarantee you.
Let the perspiration begin!
Just three more sleeps until we take the airplane ride to Grandma & Grandpa's house in Louisiana.
That's how we tell dates and time here lately, by the amount of sleeps left before something happens.
I hate flying.
I'm sweating already just thinking about it.
The Lady and the children just left to go get crafty in Indianapolis and I'm heading to Louisville this afternoon with a few guys to play in my last disc golf tournament of the season.
My wife is hating me right now, but I love her and her new hairdo. Anytime she walks in with a new hairdo, I say something stupid, that I think is complementing.
I guess , "Cool, it's got a little flippity do-da-day like Carol Brady", is not that great thing to say about ones new do?
At least I didn't say she had a school bus driver haircut. Yes, I did say that one time.
Note to self: You are an idiot, just smile.
