Catching up - Part II

We're here in Guadalupe River State Park. It's extremely dry here so the water level is really low but it's still a beautiful place. During the summer, this is a hot spot to float down river on tubes. Right now the water is a little cool. We're enjoying our quiet time here but have both caught head colds so our hiking activities have been curtailed. We drove up to Fredericksburg, TX on Tuesday. The Hill Country is really beautiful. Rolling hills covered in live oaks, mesquite, and cedar trees. Lots of cattle, sheep, goats and very little water. Most ponds are almost dry. The weather has been beautiful. Highs in the 70's with light winds and lows in the 40's. Clear blue skies and low humidity. It's really nice. We tromped around Fredericksburg (LOTS of little boutique stores and eateries) and headed towards Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City, TX. It's another lovely park where the water has eroded into the stone cliffs around it. Again the water levels were low so there was very little water at the falls. The park has a very nice bird blind where we spent about an hour watching the birds. Got home about dark. It's New Years Eve tonight. No special parties here -- we'll probably be in bed by 10 pm -- we're pooped! Having trouble with telephone and internet connections out here - hope this post uploads. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

Catching Up

Hello everyone! Hope your Christmas was wonderful! We've been in Houston since the 15th enjoying family and sightseeing. Our Christmas was really nice. We tried to get back to the basics for this Christmas. The only Christmas decorations in Barnabas were a couple of decorated jingle bells we received on Christmas gifts and Christmas cards we received. That was it -- no tree, no presents, no cookies & treats. We really tried to focus on the simple gifts of Christmas. We did have a tree & decorations at my sister's house as well as lots to eat. Linda and Mandy actually cooked a turkey and the trimmings on Christmas day. WOW! It must have been good - it disappeared! We've seen lots of birds we don't normally see -- flocks of parrots on the lawn in our campground, white pelicans, roseated spoonbills (look like flamingos with green heads), and lots of seagulls. We would have loved to caught a couple of the parrots for Pastor Jake but they were very noisy and I'm sure they would have disturbed his nap times at home. :-) We also traveled around the area surveying the damage from Hurricane Ike. It's amazing how much repair and clean up has been done in just three months. In Mandy's area - it looks as though there was very little damage, some fences and roofs which have all been repaired. Closer to the water, there is more damage but mostly on waterfront houses. Galveston was hit a little harder. The damage there is a lot easier to see. Any house on the waterfront has been damaged. A lot of the palm trees have been blown down and most plants damaged from the salt water that covered them. The beaches have been heavily eroded and in some places have disappeared. Galveston's sea wall held but it is just cement and rocks now - no beach. They'll have a lot of work to repair all the beaches. We didn't get out to the Bolivar Peninsula (which is up the coast from Galveston - north). I understand it is still quite bad up there. The attitude here is much different than in New Orleans. In New Orleans, they are still trying to repair the area three years after the hurricane. There is a kind of despair. In Texas, it's a "let's roll up our sleeves" & "git er done" feeling just three months after the hurricane. Amazing!
Tomorrow we head for Guadalupe River State Park (north of San Antonio) for several days.

Another Fun Saturday

Today was another fun sightseeing day. We started the day driving through the New Orleans Southern Baptist Seminary. They have a really pretty campus there with a lovely chapel and large live oak trees. They have a Lifeway store there also so we just had to stop and shop for a short while. :-) Then we found our way onto the Pontchartrain Causeway. It's a 20+ mile bridge from the south shore to the north shore of the lake. Found a Backyard Burger restaurant for lunch in Mandeville and enjoyed a good lunch topped off with blackberry cobbler and ice cream! YUM! Drove to Fontainebleau State Park - a wonderful place. Enjoyed extremely large live oak trees just covered with moss and resurrection ferns, lots of birds (golden eagles, great horned owls, egrets, ducks, pelicans and lots of little birds flitting all over the place). Spent a good amount of time with GreyHawk Perkins, a Choctaw Indian, who works at the Visitors' Center, listening to his stories and watching him make wooden implements and an arrowhead. Could have stayed longer. It was a truly beautiful place. We were lucky enough to be returning on the causeway at sunset and caught the picture of the pelican at sunset above. What a wonderful day! Tomorrow it's church at 9:30 am and then move Barnabas along to Sulphur, LA on the way to Houston.

Oh No! Snow in New Orleans!

Well we tried to go far enough south this winter to avoid the snow....but God had other plans. New Orleans was treated to "measurable" snow on Thursday, Dec. 11. Great big flakes began falling around 7:30 am and continued until about noon. The ground was warm enough that it didn't stick (at least on the south shore) but it did cover the cars. Everyone here at Operation NOAH Rebuild was going nuts about the snow like little kids - making snow balls & freezing them, going out and taking pictures. It was great! The children across the street at school were literally "screaming" out in the playground. It was all very exciting. I guess when you get snow every 4-6 years it's something to rejoice. No worries though - the next day all the snow was gone and it was a beautiful 60 degrees. Andy & I could learn to enjoy snow like this! We finished up the week--Andy working at the warehouse organizing and building shelves -- Linda in the office working on Excel and Quickbooks to finalize the inventory. Thursday night we were treated to a lovely dinner and drive around town to some of the "hot" spots. It was a good two weeks but we are looking forward to traveling toward Houston on Sunday.

French Quarter

Started out the morning with worship at Calvary Baptist. It was neat to walk to church -- we're just across the parking lot from them. Had good worship - sang a lot of Christmas songs together. The sermon was on a Simple Christmas -- good words to remember -- the simple things -- like home, family & friends!! Came home and jumped into Little Red and headed for the French Quarter. Not much has changed here since our last visit. Lots of people, lots of stuff happening, lots of drinking. The New Orleans Saints were having a home game -- the Superdome is right downtown -- but we didn't have much trouble with the traffic and "wiggled" our way thru downtown to the French Quarter. NONE of the roads here are straight or go straight east/west or north/south. It's a mess. Everything "bends" with the river! Walked by Cafe Du Monde which is famous for it's Cafe Au La'it and Biegnets (ben/yays). I don't know why -- it's just REALLY strong coffee and powdered sugar over fried biscuits :-). Had lunch at The Market Cafe -- shared a Muffeletta and two bottles of water. I think we were the only ones drinking WATER at the cafe. Everyone was well behaved but certainly not sober. They had a great Dixieland Jazz band playing so we sat in the sun there for awhile and enjoyed the music, the sun, and the 70 degree temperatures. Was really nice. Took a walk around Jackson Square (the picture above) and walked thru the St. Louis Cathedral. Beautiful paintings on the ceilings! The walk around Jackson Square had all sorts of "characters". We had musicians, live statues, period costume strollers, and a very talented group of street dancers. Spent a little time walking along the river, watching the barges go by and headed back to the car. All in all a good walking trip - nothing too outrageous -- and the Saints (the home team) won! Tomorrow it's back to the inventory.

Plantation Fun

Today we went on an excursion west of New Orleans to several plantations. The first was the Laura Plantation, an old Creole plantation started in 1755 in Vacherie, LA. It was a great tour and a very intriguing look into Creole society and early slavery. Spent most of the morning tromping around thru the buildings and learning about its history. We then went up river (everything here is up/down river!!) to Oak Alley. Talk about culture shock! Where the Laura Plantation was a working sugar cane plantation -- Oak Alley was built for entertaining wealthy friends from New Orleans. With a 1/2 mile live oak gallery in front, rooms with 12-1/2 foot ceilings, and decorated for Christmas, Oak Alley was truly beautiful.

Had lunch at Oak Alley - Allegator Nuggets & Chicken and Sausage Gumbo soup followed up with Key Lime pie! Yum! Drove back to New Orleans along the river road - past fields where farmers were burning off the remnants from the sugar cane harvest, past a nuclear power plant, and miles of river! Had a good day tromping around the plantations.

Is it an earthquake?

Forgot to mention an interesting effect we have here at Fort Calvary. Our first night here in New Orleans, we would have sworn that we were having earthquakes! The ground here is mostly river silt/sand with a high water level. Some would call it "gumbo" but not the soup you eat. With the interstate / bridge / highways close by -- when the large trucks roll by -- the ground SHAKES! There it goes again! This takes a little getting used to. The garbage collection truck was especially fun. Then you have the fire station that's less than a block away. They must have a lot of fires in this city because the fire squad is running all hours of the day and night. Friday night was a lot of fun too with the BOOM boom BOOM of the radios and the nearby high school football game. Needless to say - it's not rural Indiana where we're sleeping (or trying to sleep). This city life would take some getting used to! Somehow the coyotees we have back in Indiana don't seem so bad now..... :-)

Operation NOAH Rebuild

We worked at one of the warehouses for Operation NOAH Rebuild this week doing inventory. Operation Noah Rebuild is a three-year partnership project (through August 2009) between New Orleans churches and associations, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, and the North American Mission Board to help New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers are needed to rebuild homes; start, restart, or strengthen churches; and reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ. Just driving from our campsite to the warehouse (about 15 miles from the downtown area to East New Orleans) you see many damaged houses that have not yet been repaired or have been abandoned. We were not prepared for all the damage that still remains. Hurricane Katrina hit this area August of 2005. Over three years later, much work still remains to be done. East New Orleans is especially still in disrepair. On our way to the warehouse, we pass repaired houses -- then 3 or 4 boarded up and abandonded ones. The water in this area got up to about 5 feet. I don't know how long it stayed that high but you can imagine the damage. Some people will never return. :-( We counted lumber, painting supplies, respirators, rubber boots and earplugs -- doors, windows, beds, bathroom fixtures -- and you got it -- PLUMBING supplies! At least Andy knew what everything was -- to me it's just a piece of plastic - but to him -- it's a 3/4" to 1/2" reducing Y coupler??? or something like that! Had fun working with him, the Warehouse staff (Ron & David) and the other helpers. I've never seen so many different types of screws/nails. I'm lucky that I know the difference between phillips and common screws let alone deck, galvanized, roofing, shingle, etc.! By the end of the day, we saw visions of dancing 2x4's and drywall trowels in our heads! The weather has been nice though. We've seen daily highs from 50 to 70's! LOVING IT! Heard that Indiana had some snow -- too bad! :-)

Heading to New Orleans

We had an interesting trip into New Orleans. Left Shreveport after church on Sunday (11/30). Attended First Baptist Bossier City - good singing - good sermon - but not a single person said hello or greeted us. Not a mega church but there were at least 500 people there. Kinda sad! Went back to Barnabas and headed south. It was windy today and Andy had a time keeping Barnabas on the road. We stopped for the night in Marksville, LA (at another casino)! What can we say! They have great spots with all the bells for a minimum amount -- and we don't even have to go into the casino. Spent a quiet, uneventful night there and headed for New Orleans in the am. It was WINDY again so it was slower going than we had planned. The country here is really different that southern Indiana. We drove past swamps, mile after mile of pine trees, more swamp, bayou, and etc. Started seeing palm trees today so we know we're getting to warmer country. Drove approximately 20 miles on an elevated 4 lane highway over swamp/waterway/more swamp! Skirted around the western side of Lake Ponchetrain while the tide was out so we saw a lot of mud and shore birds. I'll have to get my bird book out and look some of them up -- we don't have these in Indiana! We managed to follow our directions fine all the way to downtown New Orleans and then took US 90 East instead of US 90 Business. Guess what! It dropped us off of the interstate and right down into town just north of the French Quarter. OOPS! When we passed one of the St. Louis cemetaries I knew we were in trouble. Somehow managed to find our way back thru all the one way streets and back up onto I-10, across the Crescent City Bridge and over to Westbank where our campground is. We're parked at Fort Calvary -- a RV park next to Calvary Baptist Church. Thank goodness for Google Earth where I scoped out all the roads and the church location the night before! It really helped. We'll start work tomorrow at the warehouse. Kinda noisy here close to the bridge and interstate. Hope we'll sleep....