Bayou Country

Home from a fantastic weekend with family, I am back to my day job and trying to catch up on my blogging and writing. I had intermittent service with both my cell phone and my laptop since the connection in the location we were at most of the time was dependent upon the one little satellite that seemed to work for everything out there, and if it was feeling up to cooperating.

On the drive in to my parent's place our GPS went from telling us the roads coming up ahead to showing a little car driving on dirt and saying "Driving South". You know you're hitting God's country when the GPS says "destination location not found" and the Verizon team leaves your butt high and dry once you turn off of the blacktop and gravel road.

We were greeted by my parents' best friend, Jack (a two year old Chocolate Lab). Dogs run free in the country; no fences, or chains, no pens except perhaps at night if necessary. We considered bringing our four-legged boys and realized Nixon (our Golden Retriever) would run and keep running like the dog in Funny Farm, and Doug (our English Bulldog) would die from heat exhaustion or be carried off by another wild animal.

Our niece, who is 19, joined us for the weekend and is a true city girl. Her amazement and humor with country living kept us entertained for the entire adventure. She learned how to drive a riding mower, a John Deer tractor, rode a four wheeler while wearing a 10 year old's clothes...and they fit, she tasted boudin and fried fish, and let's not forget the "horse" riding she did at the Pike County raceway!

Ant, our oldest son at 10, lived it up as a true country boy playing paintball, shooting fireworks, riding the golf cart/quad/and go-cart, swimming, and hanging out with his cousins. He only gets to see all of them once maybe twice a year so it's a real treat when we catch them all together:

Bam, our baby at 19 months, couldn't nap no matter how hard he tried. There was too much going on at every turn, and he was involved in most of it. My parents ate him up with his jibber jabber, his swimming, his fascination with the loud race cars, and the concentration he applied to the bolts and screws he found on the golf cart:

We have nearly 500 pictures from the long weekend, and so many stories; the jackelope, the Pike County Raceway, Bedazzling cowboy hats and my niece's possible new business venture, riding the golf cart/go-cart/quads/and tractor, the fish fry with boudin balls, Jack and the bubbles, oh and let's not forget the fire...yeah, my hubster always seems to leave with a "bang":

So much fun in so little time, I can't wait to go back at Christmas.