LAMA Louisiana Metalsmith Association zconference

Road tripping is always fun . . . well at least the trip there. 

We stopped in Branson at the visitors center to use the bathroom. Instead, we used the Phillips 66 gas station across the parking lot. As we walked in, we saw a very small food counter and the special was homemade tamales, 3/$6.99 in pork, beef, or chicken. 

We were hungry and decided to go for it. We found a table up front and placed our order. 

They did not disappoint!!!!

We traveled to Alexandria, Louisiana the first night. It would be an hour and a half drive Friday morning. 

We arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana Friday mid-morning. 

We meet up with fellow Missourian Steve and drove over to our friend David's shop.  After hugs from the Minnesota guys several of us walked to the market close by to buy cracklins.  It is eating pretty high on the hog at $22.99 a pound.

These grand old homes were across from David's shop. So majestic!

We meet lots of old friends and some new friends for lunch at Schuck’s. 

This was Nathan's appetizers!  

Whereas BAM has a pot luck dinner to welcome everyone, we were invited to Terry and Ada's shop in New Iberia, LA. Wish I could have gotten a daylight picture of their beautiful home and shop on a bayou.

The main dish was pastalaya. For those of you who are like me, I was calling it spaghetti. Oh my, what a mistake. It is actually jambalaya made with a pasta instead of rice.  Again, my bad for not taking a picture as they had a huge kettle of it, simmering over a gas burner. 

It was a great time to get acquainted with old friends, and making new ones. 

Before we left, the guys did a special tribute to Phil Cox, sadly it was 4 years ago to the day that we lost the great blacksmith and friend. 

It was good to meet Miss Della in person, last year she was just a big bump in her momma's belly. She was the happiest baby, not afraid of any of the grubby ole blacksmiths and would go to anyone. To quote her mom, "Della had all the men acting like fools"!

Lunch on Saturday was piping hot Jambalaya, Cole slaw with pineapple and warm bread pudding, that I'm pretty sure had a whiskey sauce over it. 

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They had several big aluminum roasters of it!

There was always a group of guys in deep conversation. 

A knife holder for the auction. 

A beautiful piece which was to hold your hat, your keys and your pocket change. It mounts on the wall. Another auction item and Ada won it, lucky gal!

 

Nathan's hammer table. 

Bernie's tong table. I also had jewelry for the BAM boutique.

Alan Lee's bowl for the auction. It was absolutely beautiful, but I didn't win!

Suraiya Howerter was the demonstrator. She is from Texas but came prepared for the cold. 

It was 34 degrees on Saturday morning . .. and this is Louisiana??

Some of Suraiya's work. 

Conference was over Sunday, we left shortly after enjoying their grilled burgers. It was 698 miles home. Our plan was to drive 7 or 8 hours,  grab a room, and then hit the road early morning. But at 9 hours we were in Missouri and thought why not go all the way home.  When we got out of the truck in 11 hours 58 minutes our feet and butts could hardly move.

It was another wonderful conference where we enjoyed the company and food. Until next time . . . hammer on!