Well, that Holiday Inn almost
dropped to one and a half starfish. And
half a starfish is a pretty messy sight.
Poor fruit selection at breakfast for one. But they had no waffle maker. Instead they had a machine that spit out
paper thin pancakes. Unbelievable. That in itself should have at least ripped
that poor starfish in half. But then
everything changed. We had Breakfast
with Colleen. Colleen was the lady in
charge of setting up the breakfast. She
was quite cordial, and very professional at first. But the more we talked, the more she opened
up to us. She shared story about how a
nun once told her mother that she had been cursed. Unless she wore a cross around her neck and
never took it off, she was cursed to have miscarriages. After a few miscarriages, her mom obliged,
and wearing the cross she had a boatload of kids. Fascinating look into a pseudo-catholic-creole
cultural phenomenon. Culture vs.
Jesus. Jesus wins every time. After that story she apparently felt like she
could tell us anything, so we ended up hearing a rousing Holy Ghost sermon for
the next fifteen minutes. We even prayed
together before we left. I guess Holiday
Inn can keep its half a starfish just because of Colleen.
From there we headed roughly northeast. Waved hello to the Coushatta Casino in
Kinder, Louisiana. That’s the one in all
the TV commercials that show in Texas. When
we began to get hungry Chris decided she wanted, of all things,
Whataburger. But sadly, we were nowhere
near Corpus Christi. We did pass Sonic
and Burger King, and of course MacDonalds.
Oh, and there was the Butt Hut Barbeque.
Chris refused to stop there. This
particular stretch of Louisiana was Nursery Row. There must have ten or twelve different nurseries,
all massive. One of the little towns we
passed through, Forest Hill, touted itself as the Nursery Capitol of
Louisiana. Doesn’t match up with Texas’
biggest rocking chair in the world, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere. They did have signs all over the state
advertising jumbo shrimp for $5.95. Must
be a state law regulating shrimp pricing.
Did I mention that we made the
entire morning part of this drive in a driving rainstorm that slowed us down to
30 mph in some places? We even had a
scary little whoopsie with some hydroplaning.
Chris handled it admirably.
After a pleasant lunch at a Wendy’s
in Natchez, Mississippi (It was playing
all Christian music. Very nice place. And they do serve Frosties, although I had no
idea they have branched out into vanilla ones), we embarked onto the
Natchez Trace Parkway. All we knew was
that this was supposed to be a relaxing drive with little to no signage, lots
of trees and even some wildlife. And
according to our beloved Siri, we were only about an hour and a half from our
next destination, Vicksburg. Four and a
half hours later we pulled into Vicksburg.
The Parkway was all it had been advertised and more. Lots of trees. Virtually no signs. And wildlife.
Chris drove the first part of the way, and she kept insisting that she
was seeing redbirds … elusive, perhaps imaginary redbirds. I could never see them. Now, when I took the wheel, I saw more than a
few wild turkeys. We both did. I have to hasten to add, though, at one of
our stops, we saw some small, sparrow-like birds (wink, wink) fly by. Chris told me they were red. So I suppose I saw her redbird imaginary
friends after all. We stopped at just
about every possible site we could in the 60 or so miles on this trail. Lots of history. A mansion.
An 1800’s inn (actually a nasty old shack with three or four rooms. It had been “restored” to its 1800, middle of
nowhere, “rustic glory.” Antique
furniture and artifacts from the period were all set up like someone would be
back home in a few minutes, just as soon and they finished chopping some more
wood for the fire. Thing is, no one was home. Literally.
No guards. No docents. No one.
Self-guided, totally trusting tour).
A waterfall (the sign said you could “only hear its singing after a
substantial rain filled the creek.” Well,
see there. A reason for everything. Because we suffered through that torrential
downpour, we were blessed to see the little waterfall. And it did sound like singing). The Natchez Trace Parkway won us over. The thing continues on into Tennessee
somewhere, so we might just tack that onto the end of our journey.
We trudged into Vicksburg about
supper time, so we stopped at Cracker Barrel for what we thought would be a
nice meal. Not so much. It took quite a while for them to even remember
we were there. And when we finally
ordered, they didn’t even have the first two things we wanted (soup and
meatloaf). We ended up settling for
chicken fried steak. But when we were
served it was pressed meat - the kind of stuff they serve at school lunchrooms
and hospital patient trays. At least the
fried apples were good. With fear and
trembling we chose a nearby Best Western hotel to rate with the now-world
famous starfish system. The lady who
checked us in started our stay out well.
She was happy and helpful, all I would expect. We decided to hit the pool for some water
exercises. Now when I see “heated pool” I
expect the water to be warm, wouldn’t you?
In this case, however, it meant the room would be hot and humid and the
water would be really cold. I almost didn’t
get Chris into the water at all, but we finally ground out our routine. Now we can report back to our teacher.
The workout really wore Chris
out. She fell asleep around 9
again. Then at precisely 10:01 she woke
up again. How do I know? I was still working a crossword puzzle at the
time. And her entrance into the world of
consciousness lasted but a second, just long enough to express her undying
concern for my welfare. She said, loud
enough for the room next door to hear, “Are you hungry?” And that was it. She returned to her peaceful rest. And I laughed out loud for the next three
minutes. Three minutes? She woke up again and wondered two
things. Did I pick up our list of
exercises from the pool and why was I laughing.
I tried to explain, but I was laughing a bit too hard. She was more convinced than usual that I was
nuts. I just assured her that I
appreciated her her loving concern for me … even in her sleep.
And finally, the hotel rating … we
just came back from breakfast. Bacon and
eggs and sausage and … drumroll here … Belgian waffles. Perfect.
The attendant was nice and professional, but certainly no Colleen. Overall, a great stay. Can’t go all five starfish because the water
in the pool was so cold. But how about a
firm four?
Psalms
27:13 says, “I am still
confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Father, thank you for Colleen and the
joy she brings to the people she serves.
Amen.
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