Hammond – Day 7

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Today I was up before Sally and the sun, so I walked the three blocks over to get my caramel latte from PJ’s and then walk 4 or 5 blocks further to mail a baker’s dozen of the postcards I discussed yesterday, before retracing my steps back the Airbnb. Sally and I got our hairs cut and a little shop that always goes to we she is in town.

 
Fried Chicken Showdown Results:
Saturday 1/11 – Zaxby’s 1/2 ☆
Sunday 1/12 – Popeyes ★★★★
Monday 1/13 – Piggly Wiggly Deli ★★★★★ !Winner!
Thursday 1/16 – Raising Cane’s ★★★★
Church’s, Chick-Fil-A & KFC were not nominated

I hope the crappy chicken at that particular Zaxby’s was a one off because I always loved their fingers back in my Aiken days. Today was my first exposure of Raising Cane’s and it was like my prior Zaxby’s experience. Those two are very similar in execution, breaded chicken breast strips, fries, butter thick toast and a dipping sauce. The differences are Zaxby’s has straight fries, Raising Cane’s has crinkle and Zaxby’s toast is shaped like a slice of bread while Raising Cane’s is longer and narrower. There is only a slight variation in the dipping sauce.

Our afternoon was spent at the birthday girl’s house with Sally’s first born, Claire, a cruise ship pilot in Alaska waiting for the younger son, Stuart who works in advertising in Baton Rouge to show so the “kids” could drive an hour and a half east to Mississippi to visit with their disgraced father. Below is a photo of most of the players from 30 years ago in Lexington, Virginia cutting down that year’s Christmas tree.


From left to right: Claire, Me (I still have that coat), Stuart & Sally

Hammond – Day 6

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Yesterday we drove to Ponchatoula because the ladies wanted to do a little antiquing at a place called CJ’s Antiques and Collectables. While they were poking around, I was doing the same thing, only in another section of the store that had more of a guy vibe, automotive signs, license plates, NASCAR car models, etc. When I went to catch up with them, I stumbled on an open cabinet that was five feet high and six feet long that was sectioned into 6 x 6-inch segments that was stuffed with old postcards. Very few of them were already used, but that left hundreds of blank ones to pick through.

Before I left Oregon, I bought a couple of small packs of Thank You that I planned to send to everyone who mailed me a Christmas card in 2024 because I did not send out any cards for Xmas (the only card I did send, was a Hanukah card to my sister & her husband.) While perusing the plethora of vintage postcards a light bulb appears above my head, skip the thank you cards, let me send out my gratitude on old postcards of America and the world beyond. I bought 10 at a dollar each because that was my recollection of how many Christmas cards I received, but when I checked the address spreadsheet, I had highlighted a dozen. That number, plus the one I promised a neighbor back in Fairview, meant that I was three shy.

Fortunately, CJ’s was only a little less than 10 miles away, so Sally and I went back today to pick out 3 more cards. I took those purchased Thank You cards and traded them with the manager for three more postcards. While sifting through looking for three new old cards, I came across more than I needed, but wanted, so I paid for the three more. When I said a dollar, it really was $1.10 with tax, man I miss Oregon’s no sales tax.

If you would like to be sent one of those three remaining postcards, comment below with your name and address you will get a weird or obscure old postcard with a witty bon mat or your money back. Below is an example that I’m sending to a friend that I served with on CV-41, the U.S.S. Midway, back in my stint in Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club.

Day 5 – Hammond

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Monday I did a beautiful & scary thing at absolutely the wrong time. You would already know this from the hints in the 2 Monday posts.

Beautiful Thing: I just won an auction for a 2001 Miata on Bring A Trailer. It only has 10k miles on the clock.

Scary Thing: It is still on its OEM Bridgestones! Tire manufacturers say to change your tires at least at 10 years, tire retailers say six. The tires on the car are over 23-years old.

Wrong Time: I live in Oregon outside of Portland and I’m Hammond, Louisiana with a friend visiting her family and I won’t be home until the 31st. before I can be home to receive the shipment.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

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Brian Buys Another Miata Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM mountain time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
2001 Mazda Miata 2008 Porsche Cayenne 2012 BMW 335i
You can’t have this, its spoken for. You can have this, but hurry up, it’ll be gone soon. This one will be gone by tomorrow too.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: 1973 BMW 3.0CS Sold for $46,250 on 1/8/25
Off-Road: 2004 Land Rover Discovery Sold for $8,000 on 1/8/25
Touring: 2018 Porsche Panamera Sold for $85,000 on 1/10/25

Day 4 – Hammond

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The highlights of today are – Morning latte and a chocolate cookie, at PJ’s Coffee. Lunch of a sandwich made from leftovers of last night’s meatloaf. Buying a second Miata off Bring A Trailer. Dinner of Piggly Wiggly fried chicken. Part 2 of the Steve Martin documentary on Apple TV+.

Wait, “What?” Miata? “Yep!”

Day 3 – Houston to Hammond

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Oh, happy morning. Turns out there was a standalone Dunkin’ a mile and a quarter away from our hotel for last night. When I got up and finished my morning ablutions, I went to get a “real” coffee. As I was exiting the lobby to get in the car the woman who was the night clerk said, “Don’t freeze out there.” I looked at her and asked, “What’s the temperature out there?” She replied, “39°.” My answer, “Then I probably not need this third layer, when I left Santa Fe 2 days ago it was 11° and snowing.”

Even though the Dunkin’ was that close, it was an adventure to get to it. The road it was on, was under construction and the store was on the other side of the street. So, I had to drive past it and make a U-turn, but there was a knee-high concrete wall that wouldn’t let me over. After the wall ended there was a line of those big orange barrels and the Google Lady was telling me to make my U-turn.

When I found a large enough gap between a set of barrels, I started to cross, then the headlights illuminated a 3-foot wide, who knows how deep, ditch. Yikes! Imagine the damaged that it could cause to Sally’s 3-year-old SUV. Brian would not only be paying for any repairs insurance wouldn’t cover, but a 2-week car rental as well. Fortunately for me, it was also 6:00 AM on a Sunday morning and having witnessed the amount of traffic, even on a Saturday afternoon while driving on those three lanes per side secondary roads.

It was raining when we left hotel and little did we know it was portent to how the drive was going to be. There probably wasn’t 5 minutes in a row that the windshield wipers weren’t on. We made two stops the whole trip, once to get gas and the second to get a lunch at Popeye’s where we changed drivers. Sally sort of picked the lunch spot, she was raised in New Orleans and she was jonesing for a fried chicken sandwich from there because, the poor girl lives over an hour away from one. She was also kind of looking out for me as well, because I wanted a biscuit from somewhere because the free breakfast at the hotel (Homewood Suites by Hilton Houston-Kingwood Parc-Airport Area) was almost the worst meal I’ve ever had at a hotel.

We made into Hammond about ten minutes after 2:00 PM, which was ten minutes past when the time lock on our Airbnb would let us. We dumped everything out of the SUV and headed out to The Pig, AKA Piggly Wiggly, to do the breakfast meal shopping. Lunches will probably be out somewhat often, with dinners at her mom’s house. Anyway, we will be sleeping in a 3 bedroom/3 bath place that looks like this on the outside. On the inside it is fully stocked, thoroughly updated and modernized

Day Two – San Angelo to Houston

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Yesterday evening while refining today’s route I found a bit of Roadside America in the the town of Lampasas. There was a park that offered a a spot for a short leg stretch walk and it included an art sculpture garden that included a old rusty pickup truck with a giant catfish in the bed. The giant catfish did not disappoint and there several other art pieces that were worth a few minutes of contemplation too.

About 2/3rds of the way into the day’s drive, we stopped for lunch. My first plan from the night before was for us to get some pizza or some Chinese food in the town of Temple. But I changed when I saw a sign for Zaxby’s just as we entered the town of Temple. I always enjoyed their chicken fingers while Donna and I lived South Carolina. Sally was agreeable to go there, so we plugged the restaurant into Google maps. I should have called an audible to find another spot because when we found it the parking lot was practically empty a 12:30 PM on a Saturday. It was disappointing on practically every level, the cole slaw was as I good as I remembered it and the frozen lemonade was pretty good too.

We had passed a drive through car wash on the way to lunch and thought it would be nice to wash the dirt off the car that we gathered on the snow-covered drive yesterday. While looking for maybe a different car wash that was more along our way out of town, I found out there was a Buc-ee’s in Temple. Originally the Buc-ee’s visit was slated for on the way home when we spent the night in Amarillo. Even though this would add several extra miles to the drive to Houston, who could refuse?