{"id":3841,"date":"2016-03-06T21:55:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T03:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3841"},"modified":"2016-03-06T21:55:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T03:55:20","slug":"cajun-vacation-day-1-and-day-2-drive-drive-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3841","title":{"rendered":"Cajun Vacation: Day 1 and Day 2 Drive, Drive, Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vacation came early this year.\u00a0 Rick had his spring break start on March 4.\u00a0 I decided that March might be a great time to go and check out Louisiana.\u00a0 As long as I was paying, Rick was up for joining us.\u00a0 Sure, why not.\u00a0 Besides, his 22nd<\/sup> birthday would be during that week.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be like old times again.<\/p>\n

Rich had his first distiller\u2019s conference from March 1 through 3 for his new employer, Whiskey Resources.\u00a0 Not exactly the best planning, but he could use the week to rest and recover.\u00a0 Vacation planning went into full on mode in December and all reservations were made by January.<\/p>\n

Rick arrived home on March 4.\u00a0 He had finished up midterms the day before.\u00a0 He managed to sneak in the door without my notice.\u00a0 Sascha was right on it though.\u00a0 Poor baby, she hobbled to the door so fast to greet him.\u00a0 I ran to join her.\u00a0 My babies were both at home.<\/p>\n

As a side note, Sascha started to hobble on Tuesday pretty bad.\u00a0 I was thinking she had bruised her paw somehow on the ice and snow.\u00a0 By Wednesday, it wasn\u2019t any better.\u00a0 Being the worried mom I am, I took her off to the vet that afternoon.\u00a0 After a big hit to my wallet with x-rays, visit, and meds, the diagnosis was a broken toe.\u00a0 Yep, she had cracked it lengthwise down the second metacarpal.\u00a0 No wonder it hurt so badly.\u00a0 On the x-ray, it was pretty swollen.\u00a0 The vet insisted on bed rest.\u00a0 I told him that was next to impossible.\u00a0 At least, she was going to the kennel for vacation and would be limited to what she could do.<\/p>\n

Rich came in on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 He was still pretty excited from the conference.\u00a0 He had met so many people, tried so many distilled liquors, and had so much free stuff.\u00a0 He also had the beginnings of a cold.\u00a0 Darn!\u00a0 This is no time to get sick.\u00a0 He chattered away about his time with the distillers and I listened with lots of patience.\u00a0 It was great to see him get so excited about this aspect of his new job.<\/p>\n

We were all winding down that evening as we packed and got things ready for leaving on Saturday morning.\u00a0 Rich still had to keg his Husky Paws beer before we could leave.\u00a0 He got up and got moving without much prodding.\u00a0 As he was moving the beer from fermenter to keg, Rick and I took Sascha to the kennel.\u00a0 Everyone had to make over her paw. \u00a0As usual, she didn\u2019t plan to stay, but could make a quick enough getaway.\u00a0 We said good-bye and got in one last set of hugs.<\/p>\n

Back at the house, Rich was finishing up.\u00a0 Rick and I began to pack the car.\u00a0 Wow, it was almost 11 o\u2019clock by the time we were ready.\u00a0 Breakfast was next.\u00a0 I should say brunch, right?\u00a0 We stopped into Island Caf\u00e9 to get something good to hold us over until dinner that evening.\u00a0 I had a plan.<\/p>\n

It was almost noon by the time we got on the road.\u00a0 Traffic was fair and we made good time out to the highway.\u00a0 From there, speed was good and we were sailing along.\u00a0 If you have driven in Chicago, you know it is mandatory 70 miles per hour out there.\u00a0 I follow that run to keep from being run over.\u00a0 Pretty soon, we were on 57 and heading south.<\/p>\n

The trip was going well so far.\u00a0 The temperature was hovering around 40, but I could blue skies up ahead of us.\u00a0 Rich had checked his phone for weather and reported 65 in Cairo.\u00a0 No way!\u00a0 Warm weather was close at hand for us.\u00a0 Just about Mount Vernon, we could see the line of clouds that outline the boundary between cold and warm.\u00a0 Suddenly, sunshine was all around us.\u00a0 The car was registering an amazing 55.\u00a0 Vacation had truly begun.<\/p>\n

I had been trying to visit a BBQ place in Southern Illinois for the longest time.\u00a0 Today was the day we would stop and try it out.\u00a0 The restaurant is called 17th<\/sup> Street BBQ.\u00a0 The main restaurant is way off the highway, but they had a satellite open in Marion, which was right off the interstate.\u00a0 We made it there about 5:00 and just ahead of a crowd.<\/p>\n

We got seated and reviewed the menu.\u00a0 Tracy, our waitress, made a suggestion to get Mike Championship Platter, which came with a little bit of everything they had.\u00a0 We added several sides to that and were all set.\u00a0 The food arrived.\u00a0 Oh my gosh!\u00a0 This was definitely some of the best BBQ I have tasted.\u00a0 I do believe that Rich still makes the best, this ranked right up there.\u00a0 We ate until we could eat no more.<\/p>\n

It was back on the road.\u00a0 We had a couple of more hours until we could stop for the night.\u00a0 Blytheville, Arkansas was the destination.\u00a0 This was the halfway point for our trip.\u00a0 By 6:00 PM, it was getting pretty dark.\u00a0 I saw deer hanging by the side of the road and worried that I was going to have to dodge one of these things in the dark.<\/p>\n

Luck was with us.\u00a0 We had no suicidal deer, traffic was quiet, and we managed to drive in the warm night to our resting place.\u00a0 That evening, Rick and I hung out in the hot tub talking while Rich rested comfortably with his box of Kleenex.\u00a0 Vacation is good.<\/p>\n

The next morning, it was breakfast at Perkins and then out on the road.\u00a0 We made a stop by Walgreen\u2019s for more cold supplies.\u00a0 Memphis was relatively quiet.\u00a0 Sunday mornings must be a good time to circle the city.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be back on Thursday though.<\/p>\n

We headed south and skirted the Delta for now.\u00a0 The road took us down to Jackson, Mississippi.\u00a0 We did manage to get Rick to pronounce it like the locals:\u00a0 Missippi. \u00a0I was amazed to find that traffic was running pretty fast today.\u00a0 I was pushing the upper limits of 75 to 77 while a lot of cars and trucks were blowing by us pretty quickly.\u00a0 What is this the autobahn?<\/p>\n

Rick took over and drove for a bit.\u00a0 He was nervous, but probably with good cause.\u00a0 He had to manage not to hit the group of black kids crossing the highway at one point.\u00a0 Then there was the guy who was halfway up an exit ramp and slammed on the brakes so he could do a U turn and cross the grassy shoulder to get back on the highway just to try it again at the next exit.\u00a0 Rick did manage to avoid all of this and get to the Louisiana Welcome Center in one piece.<\/p>\n

From there, I drove to Lafayette.\u00a0 That\u2019s not without issues though.\u00a0 We got to I-10 and the world went crazy around us.\u00a0 Everyone started driving 90 miles an hour.\u00a0 To keep from being injured, I felt obliged to join them.\u00a0 I swear that the roadway automatically turned into the Daytona 500 and the vehicles all had decals of some sort on them.\u00a0 I was actually keeping up in the race for a bit, but was getting left behind pretty quickly.\u00a0 We raced on until just west of Baton Rouge when all of the participants seemed to melt away.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize that NASCAR was invented in Louisiana!<\/p>\n

We got off the interstate and onto the main road leading into Lafayette.\u00a0\u00a0 Once again, it became a race track.\u00a0 The speed limit was 40, but I swear everyone around was going 60 through town.\u00a0 I was trying to keep up to prevent getting run over.\u00a0 The turn for our hotel came and it led to a nice, calm street.\u00a0 After several turns, we found the inviting lights of our hotel.<\/p>\n

Inside, we talked to the clerk about the area. \u00a0He was quite humorous and had a lot of jokes to tell. \u00a0I asked for a recommendation on a restaurant.\u00a0 Being Sunday, I figured most things would be closed and I was right.\u00a0 He gave a coupon for Prejean\u2019s, which I had looked at.\u00a0 He assured us the Cajun food would be great.\u00a0 We unpacked and headed out<\/p>\n

This took us back out to the main road and the race was on again.\u00a0 I even got passed by a sheriff\u2019s car racing with someone else.\u00a0 I guess it was just is the normal mode around here.\u00a0 We made it up the road and off the expressway to Prejean\u2019s.\u00a0 Luckily, it wasn\u2019t too busy.\u00a0 The hostess tried to seat us directly in front of the Cajun band that was playing.\u00a0 I asked to be seated at least one table back.\u00a0 It was hard enough to hear and talk.<\/p>\n

Scotty was our waiter.\u00a0 He took our order without writing any of it down.\u00a0 We had gator bites to start.\u00a0 Rich got duck and andouille sausage gumbo while Rick had chicken and sausage gumbo.\u00a0 It came with rice on the side and a nice yeast garlic roll.\u00a0 I had the crab cakes with corn macque chow and rice pudding. \u00a0Rich got crawfish etouffee.\u00a0 Rick ordered the seafood Alfred with crawfish, shrimp, crab, and some other seafood offerings.\u00a0 I tasted it all just to be sure.\u00a0 It was all so wonderful.\u00a0 We had no room for dessert was the only regret.<\/p>\n

Back out to the car and get gas in this out of the way location.\u00a0 Then\u00a0 it was back to the race track and a fast run down to Kaliste Saloom Rd.\u00a0 Even the semis were trying to drive the route at 60.\u00a0 It was impressive.\u00a0 I wonder if it is better during the week.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s the first couple of days of vacation.\u00a0 Tomorrow, we are touring the Tabasco Factory at Avery Island.\u00a0 From there, we plan to see a plantation, if I can find one that is open on Mondays.\u00a0 The Acadian Village is closed so there went that plan.\u00a0 Still, there is good food to be had out here and we plan to find some more.\u00a0 Where is that crawfish boil?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vacation came early this year.\u00a0 Rick had his spring break start on March 4.\u00a0 I decided that March might be a great time to go and check out Louisiana.\u00a0 As long as I was paying, Rick was up for joining us.\u00a0 Sure, why not.\u00a0 Besides, his 22nd birthday would be during that week.\u00a0 It\u2019ll be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,12,13,14,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3841"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3842,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions\/3842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}