To put a downer on the trip, we found out last night that Bryant was laid off (with 78 others) as his company had a bad year and is trying to stay afloat. He'll bounce back – he's good at his work and has a network of friends in his work community.
The pavement was wet this morning as we eased out, but the sun was peaking through the clouds. And that's the way the weather went today; a little rain, a little cloudy, occasional sun. The weather was no problem and the truck ran great.
The traffic was another matter. We headed east on I-10 and stayed on it to I-12 to here. Beaumont was a small hassle. Lake Charles was a bigger hassle, compounded by a broken-down pickup in the center lane – the first time I've locked up the brakes on all four axles in a long time.
Then came Baton Rouge. Approaching from the west was pesky with traffic slowing and speeding up, all lanes full, and so forth. We crossed the Mississippi and got into their construction area. They funneled down to two narrow lanes with no shoulders. There was no way I could pull out into the “fast” lane to pass a slow truck because no one would let me out.
The construction continued, on and off, all the way to the I-10/I-12 split. Then it continued on I-12. It finally ended eight miles short of our exit.
I kidded the RV Park staff that I should make up bumper stickers reading “I Survived Baton Rouge Eastbound”. To my amazement, they thought that was a great idea. I'll have to look into this – it might be a seller.
After setting up the trailer and having a beer, we walked across the road and up a hundred yards to Crazy Dave's Bar & Grill. We ordered up a beer and a wine, D ordered catfish & fries, I ordered a hamburger on jalapeno bun and salad. As we ate, Crazy Dave came around and chatted for a while.
The burger was excellent and so was the salad. D reported the catfish was good and the fries just the way she likes them. So we had another liquid round (it is Friday, after all) and ordered a sausage and cheeses platter to take back to the trailer.
I hope Dave's makes it (it's the first bar in a county that only recently went wet). It's clean, good food, nice people. We'll stop the next time we pass this way.
We returned then to the little house to take it easy for our last night on the road for this trip. Tomorrow we get home.
