Road tripping for 13 days

We left home Thursday morning, stopping in Rolla to have lunch with our college grandson, Brady. We will miss his team introduction of their Mars rover. 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=xsqk0lP8PPE&feature=share

You will hear Brady at 35 seconds into the video.

We then headed south. After hours of driving, I stopped in Bastrop, Louisiana. 

The next morning, we left and headed south arriving in Lafayette, Louisiana before noon. We caught up with friends at Dave’s shop.

Lunchtime we all met at Shucks Restaurant, Abbeville Louisiana. Tradition is we meet here at noon the day before conference!

Friday evening, we were invited to a get together at Terry and Ada's beautiful home on a bayou in New Iberia, La. The demonstrator for the Louisiana Metalsmith Association is Gordon Williams in the cowboy hat. 

On the bayou. 

Inside Terry's shop.

The Missouri guys talk to the Minnesota guy!

Wayne dips into the huge cast iron kettle of my favorite, Pastalya. 

The next evening, I went with the Missouri smiths to another seafood restaurant. I mean when in seafood county you must eat it every meal. Here they are discussing the big boat anchor in the flower bed. Next thing I knew they were pushing the mulch away to see how many forge welds were in it!

I believe they decided on 3 welds. But who's counting???

Gordon demonstrating Saturday.

Sunday at 12:15 we gave our hugs and said goodbyes until next year. We headed to Florida. We drove until dark, stopping in  Marietta, Florida for some sleep.

Next morning we headed to Winter Garden Florida. The grandkids did not know we were coming. However, Logan knew his quilt would be delivered that day. So, when we got in the front gate, Sarah told them the delivery was on its way, to go outside and wait. 

Their joy is PRICELESS!!!

Logan finally got his quilt! I think it was a hit. 

He had picked every character he wanted on the quilt. 

 The next morning, he made one big Pop Tart!

This was the first of many trips we walked to the pier behind their house. Logan is a fisherman for sure, Connor will fish a little. 

Quite the team!

His first catch. He wanted to eat it so bad. 

Grandpa checking out their computers. 

Thursday Sarah had to go into work for a couple of hours. So, Logan and I made chicken and rice soup. 

Legos overload!

Here is the first fish he caught. 

 Grandpa fried it up!

He ate the entire thing too.

The front pond wasn't successful.  

Back to the lake behind the house. 

This was a nice one. 

Don't tell their daddy that grandpa cleaned the fish at the kitchen sink. 

Since we came to town his birthday was celebrated early.

Our Missouri kids were at the state archery tournament in Branson Missouri. 

Lizzie took 2nd in the state for 3D shooting, middle school!!! 

Lori center front!

Blair Oaks High School on stage. They were awarded 2nd in state for Bullseye. Jeremy and grandson Alex are two of the coaches.

Lizzie receiving her award.

Thanks  to technology we were able to watch the ceremony live on the web!

Jeremy, who is the high school coach, carries the gold! 

Saturday evening, we fried up the 8 fish Logan caught the day earlier. 

This time we all enjoyed his catch. 

 Time to set off the Volcano experiment I brought for Connor and Logan. 

Connor and Logan show off the geodes Grandpa cracked for them.

Sunday evening, we went to a new restaurant, New York Beer Project. The food was fantastic, as was the company. 

Our "must take"  front door picture, taken early Monday.

We pulled out of the driveway at 6:45 CST. 

Our total milage for the 13 days was 2,670. I drove all but 240 miles! 

1,127 miles later arrived home at 12:34 AM, 17 hours. What a trip!!!

Life is GOOD!

God is Great!

 

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. 

. 

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!