New Orleans part 4 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

Thursday, March 18

This was our last day working on the house, and to be honest, we were glad to go. There was a lot of frustration that had built up, because we’d work hard on a project only to be told we did it wrong by the project manager, and so we had to re-do it. He hadn’t shown up on Wednesday and didn’t show up until after we ate lunch, then gave us several large projects to try to complete. It was irritating. However, Andrea and I finished the Bathroom of Doom as best we could.

We completed to the best of our ability 4 rooms (master bedroom, master bath, secondary bedroom, and Bathroom of Doom), but there were several others that needed completion (kitchen, living room, front room, another bedroom).

After working we went back to the church to shower off (lukewarm this time) and get ready to see a presentation on the Katrina effects. Unfortunately we didn’t realize it was next Thursday, not this week, and so we changed our plans. We went out to supper in the French Quarter for the girl’s birthday at a place called Montrel’s Bistro. I had crawfish bisque and the house salad. The bisque was sneaky-hot and burnt my throat, but it tasted good. The house salad tasted good. For dessert we went to Café du Monde for beignets. These are kind of like funnelcake or fritters, with a ton of powdered sugar on them. I got 3 in my order and when we returned to the church, I measured the left over powdered sugar. It was just over ¼ cup. Wow.

We walked through part of the French Quarter and then went back to the church. It looked different in the dark, but it was still the French Quarter with its air of mellowness. There was a man playing saxophone as we waited in line for the beignets. It felt comfortable, in its way. I wouldn’t mind visiting again.

Friday, March 19

We got going around 8:30 for the trip home. We drove straight through. I got annoyed because the girl who was navigating kept flipping the radio channel and kept turning it up, until it was at ¾ the power of the speakers. The van was vibrating from the bass and it made my head hurt. Plus she didn’t navigate well.

Our final gas/bathroom stop was in Missouri, and we drove on. Between Fairfield and Oskaloosa we hit a snowstorm. What a difference from New Orleans, where we were going around in tee shirts! At Oskaloosa, a different girl was going to navigate, and I had the atlas, so I said to go on Highway 34, while she said take 63, and so the driver got annoyed, stopped, switched with the other driver, and then we listened to her. We ended up taking about three hours to go what should have been less than two hours’ worth of driving. On 92 we nearly hit a deer, but the driver never lost control, and we made it safely back to Indianola. I was so tired (because I’d been awake since 7:00 with no naps) but I was happy to be back safely. God heard my prayers.

Saturday, March 20

We got here at 2:30ish this morning. It was tiring but it was good to be back. I’ve had today mostly to myself, which has been a good de-compression day. I did some homework and catching up on things, and did laundry too. In conclusion, this trip was a good one, but not as life-changing as I would have hoped, since we never got to meet the homeowners. I got to see and do new things, and that was a good thing.