I have fallen off the wagon!

I guess when you get phone calls about the lapse in postings its time to get back on the wagon. I fell off somewhere in Texas, the last place I was able to get internet. Cleburne that was. I left Cleburne on Tuesday afternoon, around 4ish and headed to Austin. Got to Austin around 6 and walked around for a few solid hours. I liked Austin. A lot. It would have been nicer not having to walk around by myself, but I atleast know its a place I'd like to go back to. And to be honest, probably my favorite big city along this journey. They say its the live music capital of the world and from walking around and hearing live music in virtually every bar, I'm pretty sure of it. I had to refresh my memory as to what day of the week it was because of the number of people out and about at the bars and restaurants sure made it feel like a Friday or Saturday night. I did venture down to the famed bridge which is home to thousands of bats… Rachel, you would not have much cared for the number of winged creatures lurking about. It was pretty interesting though. I left Austin around 11pm and was trying to get as far east as I could, ultimately needing to be in Mississippi by Wednesday night. My longest day driving up to this point was 500 miles and starting so late I wasn’t sure just how far I’d be able to get without dozing off. So I drove, and drove, and drove some more, stopping once to get gas and dinner. 6 hours later, I decided to call it a night in Lafayette, Louisiana, making it a total of 600 miles from Cleburne to Lafayette. Fell asleep at 5am, only to get up at 9am so I could shower and check out the town. Lafayette is a small little town, host to the University of Louisiana and feels a bit like a little college town. I meandered through downtown a bit, eating lunch in a little coffee shop (reading the local newspaper, this is the kind of place where the police blotter, all 10 incidents, are for everyone’s viewing- including the 83yr old man charged with attempted manslaughter) and stopping in a glass studio to watch a couple people hard at work on their stained glass pieces- the sound of the glass cutter running over the glass really made me want to get back into doing stained glass. They let me watch for a little bit, which was quite enjoyable. I only had about 180 miles to go to reach Gulfport with no need to be there before 5pm, so I was able to take my time. I’m still a little weary about the things in my car so I have been carrying my most valuable things with me each time I get out. As I came back to my car in Lafayette there was some creep hanging out around my car and he began to walk off as I approached my car, continuously looking over his shoulder. I had a half hour left on my meter but I’m glad I made it back when I did cause I might have had a couple things he may have wanted. It’s nice to be in a place where I don’t have to worry about these kinds of thing- heck, Jonah has been leaving the keys in my ignition most places we go- I’m certainly not use to that!! I made it to Mississippi early evening Wednesday, excited to see my friend Jonah’s latest purchase- a house! The house is about a half hour from Gulfport, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which is a nice thing. In the middle of nowhere, yet only about 30 minutes from the beach. Growing up, for one reason or another, I hated the beach. Not real sure what was wrong with me, but things have changed. I’m really happy to be here, and to be able to spend over a week relaxing here between Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Jonah was able to get a 3 day weekend so we decided to take off and hunt for sailboats and a good time. We found one of the two, the less expensive of the two! Lots of marinas are littered with boats, but we found few for sale. I didn’t do as much research as I should have, but maybe that’s a good thing cause I could have potentially come out of this weekend with zero dollars had I found one! The weekend was really enjoyable though, probably one of the best times I have had in quite some time. We spent Friday night in Alabama with Jonah’s cousins. Saturday we headed over to Florida, the Fort Walton area to meet up with my friends Josh and Carrie. We’d decided that we would engage in a friendly little round of putt-putt. Jonah stated that he would only play putt-putt if it contained these elements: a waterfall, a pirate ship, big zoo animals, and was multi-leveled. Hmmm, we wondered if we’d be able to find a place to meet his needs… and sure enough, we succeeded. This place was pretty elaborate, with some holes have 3 levels! Shewwweeeee. It brought out the worst in us, however, with some of us becoming more frustrated than others over our inability to get the damn ball in the hole! After all was said and done, Jonah got first and I came in second. The others were too far behind to mention ;) . Afterwards, we went out to grab dinner and a drink, catching bits and pieces of college football games and phenomenal Halloween costumes. Leaving here and going to the next venue was either the best or worst idea ever, depending on who you ask. It was but one block from Carrie’s house so we decided that would be the best place to hang out. Someone had told us it was called the Tiki-Lounge, so we were thinking it might be sort of this cool, beachy themed establishment, conducive to a nice, relaxing evening with friends. Hmm, turns out it was actually called the Tee-Luck Lounge and we’re not real sure why. Jonah called it the “seediest bar he’s ever been to”, Carrie kept referring to it as the VFW post, and I’m still not sure what to call it. We were the minorities there without a doubt, but it was a good time nonetheless. There was a little dancing, but not too much, a Halloween costume contest that Jonah tried to enter, animals coming out of the holes in the ceiling, and a painful tab to close it all out. We stayed the night at Carrie’s and headed back to Alabama on Sunday. We ate Sunday lunch with his extended family and then went to his cousins to help him paint for a little while. My mind though has been steadily focused on the loud grinding noise coming from the front end of my car. I felt so bad bringing my car troubles to town, but after a few people looked at it, they thought it was the transfer case which is no good. We went and bought some heavy duty grease for it, hoping that would cure the noise. Unfortunately, it didn't. Back to square one. To make a long story short, numerous people looked at it (which I feel horrible about the headache it caused many people!) and they decided it is probably the CV joint making all the noise. I much prefer that problem over the other, so Jonah is going to try and see if it's something he can fix, if not, it will be in the shop at the end of the week! That poor kid has had to deal with more of my car problems than anyone should ever have to!

Anyways, because this isn't yet long enough, I must continue. Today I drove back to Florida from Mississippi to stay with Carrie and the fam for a couple nights. We walked down to the beach today which was really nice. Wish I could have just fallen asleep out there! Ok Jonah, so maybe the sand is whiter on your beaches, but they're still not better than North Carolina's! Tonight we went and picked out a couple pumpkins to carve tomorrow and I sat over the huge bag of pecans that we gathered with Jonah's aunt last night and chowed down! Well I think this is long enough now, and I'm sure everyone's lost so I will call it good. I have internet here in Florida but not so much in Mississippi, hence my lack in postings. I should be home in less than two weeks and am excited about that, but also really enjoying myself here. Anywhere in the Southeast...