Vacation
Decades Old Fantasy Fulfilled
BACKGROUND:
In the early Aughts when the X-Files was on TV every Sunday night I developed a little crush on Gillian Anderson. Somewhere in there I started a minor little gallery of photos that I culled from the internet. Everything from her early modeling days to then current magazines to show screen captures. If any of you were around then, and I can’t fathom that any of the tens of people of might see this now were, at one time I thought it might be fun to add one of her pictures to each of my posts. There was no correlation to whatever I was writing about to whatever picture, but anyway, it was fun for a while.
I would point you to that era if I could, but in a move from one blogging platform to another or one server to another I opted not to put the pictures back in place. The picture collection is long gone too, probably dumped in the bit bucket on a PC move or due to hard drive space requirements. I don’t have the compunction to blog stalk her with photos anymore, but somewhere deep inside my addled brain is the thought that if I wasn’t married to Donna and she wasn’t married to whoever, I’d have a chance.
THE EVENT:
I got to sleep with Gillian Anderson. Not in the same bed. Well, I don’t know, it might have been in the same bed, but it definitely wasn’t the same time. It was the same house though, well, it might have been the same house. It was on the same property, well, maybe it was the same property, but I definitely slept in the same B & B that had an autographed picture of her on their brag wall downstairs.
Using the same logic, I also got to sleep with Shirley MacLaine & Hugh Jackman. It is kind of hard to tell, but that is Shirley in the pink jacket in the photo above and to the left of Gillian and Hugh is the photo above and to the right.
Big Easy
One of the parties planned for Adele’s 90th birthday celebration was to be a champagne & chocolate fete thrown by her eldest daughter Susie. So I thought I had it made with the Hammond B&B being practically next door to the birthday girl’s house and all. This way if I had a flute or two too many, I could walk home afterwards not risking a DUI. I was also hoping not to have to drive into New Orleans and thought maybe I wouldn’t have to, as Donna was not to pleased after our last trip in 2012 to the town where she last lived before joining Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club.
Sunday afternoon, not long after arriving in Hammond both hopes are dashed summarily when I was informed the Champagne & Chocolate party was going to take place in the Big Easy’s Garden District. Susie and her husband John were renting a house in New Orleans so they had a place for them and their two adult daughters that was a little more cosmopolitan and more to their liking than Hammond. And when I say house, its not just any old house, it is owned by a native New Orleanian artist and decorated in a style that would probably be too funky in any other town in America. It is kind of over the top, but so far over it worked. VRBO Listing
The party was slated to run from 1-4 PM, so we decided on a 2 o’clock arrival. We left Hammond about ten o’clock and instead of taking I-55 due south, we opted to take the somewhat scenic route of LA-22 west around Lake Maurepas before catching I-10 east into the city. We had three goals in the French Quarter to take care of before making our way over to the party. First up was lunch real Louisiana gumbo for Donna and red beans and rice for me. Then we needed to make our way to Aunt Sally’s for pralines, one for dessert and a box to bring home as souvenirs. Last up were some beignets from Cafe du Monde. This one didn’t work out so well. Because it was mid-day the place was jammed with tourists1 and the line was real long for a table. We then though maybe we’d just get an order to go, but that line was even longer…maybe next time. We did get a chance to stroll along river on the Moon Walk for a bit and I took the obligatory photo of the St Louis Cathedral and one of the Mighty Mississippi.
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- Jackson Square
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- Big Muddy
Michabelle Inn
Normally when we take a vacation and are driving, we are typically spending each night in a different hotel, but this time we were spending the bulk of away time in the same spot, a B & B called the Michabelle Inn in Hammond, Louisiana.
Hammond was our destination because Donna’s 2nd mom was going to be celebrating her 90th birthday and that is where she is living after being exiled there by the Wicked Witch of the Gulf, Katrina. We would also get to spend some time with Adele’s daughter Sally who has been friends with Donna since they were like 9-years old. Also we’d get to see these “little” tykes who at one-time used to be sort of our god children, Claire & Stuart, Sally’s offspring.
The Inn, as well as being a really nice place to stay and costing slightly less than the Holiday Inn Express, it is within easy walking distance (less than 1/4 mile) to Adele’s house, AKA Party Central. Because we weren’t going to be up at Oh Dark-Thirty for a dawn departure as usual we would actually be able to take advantage of the breakfast part of the B & B, normally by the 8:00 AM breakfast start time we are 50 miles away from whatever table it would be served on. All four mornings we were there we woke at 7:00 AM (or our normal work start time), made coffee and tea in the Keurig machine in the hall and sat on the 2nd floor balcony until it was time to eat.
The only real negative about staying in this place for me was the crappy WiFi. I couldn’t get a decent signal in the room, on the balcony, in the hall or downstairs in the parlor, which is why I wasn’t writing about this while there. I’d give it 4-1/2 stars out of 5 and if we are ever near there again at a logical overnight stop we’ll probably stay there again.
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- Michabelle Inn
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- Marie Antoinette Room
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- Michabelle Inn Balcony
Visibility 66,000 Inches
Two weeks ago I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the CTBNL because we were getting ready to take a weeks vacation and drive to Louisiana. After studying the future weather in Hammond all week with figures crossed, on Friday night we gave up hope and started to pack like we had 3 times the storage space of a Miata, because we did. The forecast said anywhere from 100% to a low of 60% chance of rain/thunderstorms for the entire four days we’d be there and for the drive both there and back. We’d take the Sonata.
We still were going to take the back roads as both Donna and I abhor the Interstates. We simply enter home as the start and add our the destination into Google maps while selecting the Avoid Highways option. We then made a couple of slight shifts in the route to accommodate our choice of an overnight stay and a small bit of nostalgia. 673 miles/12 hours 56 minutes There was of course a few more minor shifts (and one major) in the route on the fly as usually happens when we get going.
The minor shifts mostly involve wandering around looking for suitable lunch places. Because the route and timing may fluctuate it is nearly impossible research every little town and every little eatery on the internet beforehand, so we are usually end up relying on our Garmin GPS. And while I try to keep the maps updated (and I did just before the trip) its database of places to eat is not that comprehensive, so we’ll roll up on what is supposed to be a chosen lunch spot and it will be out of business, only serves dinner or there are no cars in the parking lot. So we try again. If that fails we will try and find a local and ask, “Where is a good place for lunch.” This works well, if you can find someone knowledgeable, but you might be surprised at how many people say, “I don’t know, I just work here. I live in another town.”
The major one happened because we were using the map of Alabama that we used 2 years ago for the Motoring Challenge Loop and it had a nice highlighted route on it. On that trip our last stop over was in Evergreen at a Sleep Inn & Suites, somehow we got that in our heads that that was where were going, except we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express this time. As we got closer and closer to Evergreen the GPS was kept telling us to veer north. Finally Donna pulled out the reservation email and noticed that the HIE was up the road northwest 35 miles. If you leave the GPS in the Avoid Highways mode and select Shortest Distance under navigation, the route turns very zig-zaggy and adventuresome just to save possibly a few feet.
Visibility along the Gulf Coast last Friday was a little more than a mile in spots (or 66,000 inches) and along there somewhere the Purple Whale passed the 66,000 mile mark.
Seattle Souvenir
©Tom Schelfaut 2016
Donna’s brother Scott gave me the above little trinket while we were visiting with them last weekend. It is something that the place he work at makes. It came as one big flat piece that needed to be bent in two places to form the business card card holder you see. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it as I don’t really give out business cards on a regular basis, I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll give it to somebody who could use it.
From: Bogardus, Brian [INDAUTO/ASCONUM/USAK]
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 7:29 AM
To: Fab Guys – Carlos; Keith; Rob; Ian; Tom
Subject: Seattle SouvenirAll,
I have a souvenir from Seattle, that trust me, will make you the envy of anyone who sees it, but because of the expense, I only have 1. So, I have written a number between 1 & 50 inclusive on a sticky note and placed it in a hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls’ porch since noon yesterday. Reply to this email before noon today with your guess and the person closest to that number will win. In case of a tie, a coin flip will be used to pick the winner, the runner up will receive a somewhat less impressive item, but still be more than anyone else has.
Brian
After I had gathered all 5 co-workers guesses, the winner was obvious and I sent this out:
From: Bogardus, Brian [INDAUTO/ASCONUM/USAK]
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2016 11:25 AM
To: Fab Guys – Carlos; Keith; Rob; Ian; Tom
Subject: We Have A WinnerAll,
No one got the number exactly and there were no ties, so there is only one winner – Tom Schelfault!
Tom guessed 30 and the actual number was:
Be sure and stop by Tom’s cubical to see his fabulous prize. And if those of you who didn’t win the grand prize would like I have enough of the runner-up prizes to go around – sticks of spearmint gum bought at the Seattle airport.As an interesting note (at least to me it was) here are the guesses in the order in which they were received.
Carlos – 2
Keith – 5
Ian – 17
Rob – 22
Tom – 30
Those numbers correspond to the first 5 numbers in the Bernolli Sequence exactly. Take a guess what the next number would be…Brian
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 171
4 Hours & 54 Minutes
It takes 4 hours and 54 minutes to fly from Seattle to Atlanta, then you add the 3 hours clock time and you end up with a whopper of a trip back. Although we have had a blast out west, it is time to get back home.
No pictures from yesterday as it was filled with nothing but NW Washington weather, AKA liquid sunshine, so we spent most of the day indoors. There was breakfast followed by a snack, which was immediately followed by a big ol’ family style meal with the 5 Morrisons (Scott, Donna’s brother, Beth his wife and the kids James, Madilyn & Susan) who we were staying with, 3 other Morrisons (Donna’s brother Jim, his wife Linda and their daughter Jennifer) from California, a family of three that centered around Beth’s sister (Meghan, her husband Tyler and their son Eli) and last but not least, Beth’s parents Les & Joanie. Dessert was a birthday brownie for the newly 4-year old Susan. An afternoon of building Legos with the grand finale of going to bed early.
Today the 8 Morrisons along with Donna and I rode a couple of Washington State Ferries including the one from Winslow (Bainbridge Island) into downtown Seattle with fabulous views of the skyline. I didn’t take any pictures because I’ve become jaded, this has been our tradition to take this ferry on the way to the airport the last bunch of times while out here. See photos here and here from a couple of previous visits.
