LA and TX - Jan 2024

We took a brief one week detour from our five month roadtrip to spend time with Shawna's mom in Louisiana for her birthday and to take care of some doctors appointments in TX.

Louisiana

We left our car at a Park and Fly in Miami and flew to New Orleans.  We then got a one way rental and drove to Shawna's mom's house, arriving on Sunday late afternoon.  That evening, Shawna made a yummy soup.  The weather for the week was predicted to be very cold (below freezing) so we prepped the house to get ready for the polar vortex.

We stayed in Moreauville for 6 nights and while there we did the following:

• Celebrated Honny's 83rd birthday - we went to dinner with Ginger and Lydia and their spouses at Broken Wheel in Marksville - our 'go to' place when we are visiting there.  We shared the crab cakes and shrimp and grits - both pretty good.  Shawna had baked a pineapple cake so we had that for dessert when we got home from dinner.

Dinner at Broken Wheel

• Shawna had to take her mom to two doctor appointments in Opelousas.  One one of the trips, she and her mom met with Betty (long time friend of Honny's) for lunch at Yamato Steakhouse.  We each got a stir fry with veggies and rice - very tasty. 

• Celebrated Nicole's birthday - we all went to dinner at The Francis in St Francisville.  We picked up Nicole and Hayden and drove together, meeting Hunter there.  We sat upstairs and we shared the crawfish bisque (the gravy was too dark and thick) and the triple tail fish (which was very tasty).  And for the table, we all shared the bread pudding for dessert - very good.  Nicole and Hayden then rode back with Hunter.  We had a great evening.

Dinner at The Francis

The rest of the time, we spent time with Honny at home and worked on some more trip planning and other items on our 'to do' list.  Shawna made a gumbo so we had that for dinner a few nights!

Texas

We drove to TX on Sunday, stopping at Schlotzsky's in Marshall TX for lunch.  We arrived at Keith's parent's house around 3:30.  Al (a friend of the family from the UK) and his business partner Graham were in town so we had dinner with them and Margaret that evening.  Jean made salmon with potato salad and Shawna made an arugula salad to go along with the meal.  

Dinner at Jean and Dick's house

Monday and Tuesday was catching up on doctor's appointments with the big one being Keiths' six week post-op follow up on his left foot, allowing him to finally get out of the boot!  On Monday evening, Shawna made chicken and salad for Jean and Keith for dinner and on Tuesday evening, Margaret came over and we did take out from a local Thai / Japenese restaurant.  Keith's parents had left Tuesday morning to fly to NM to spend time with Graham at NOSA for a few days.

On Wednesday, we flew back to Miami to continue on our road trip.