“Drove my [Lincoln Town Car] to the levee…”

Today was another laid-back day of touring. Carol’s friend Paul lent me his Lincoln Town Car for the trip yesterday and told me to keep it as long as I needed. So I was lucky to have it again to do a little more traveling in the region. I have been attracted to the Atchafalya River and basin since reading John McPhee’s book The Control of Nature and accompanying chapter about the river. Hilton Tacke is the immunization specialist for the region and seemingly the most quintessential Cajun of the people I’ve encountered on this trip. He’s made reference to ‘the basin’ numerous times, referring to it as being one of the best places to look for gators.

So today, I jumped in the Town Car (a much more pimped out ride than my ’93 Topaz!) and went east and north. What a trip! It was really awe-some seeing the giant levees that line the banks of the river. I captured a couple photos of the river, with a picture-perfect setting of the swamps, complete with cypress trees in water up to their bellies. Also, someone had introduced me to a local derogatory term, “levee trash”, which is used to describe some folk in the way ‘white trash’ describes some personalities elsewhere. I may have seen some of those people on my travels today.

I ended my trip in Lafayette, where I swung by the Heymann Center before going out to the Super Target. (The Super Target to re-acclimate myself to Minneapolis as my trip is winding down!) You may recall that the Heymann Center was our home for the first two waves of Minnesota Lifeline and the adjoining convention hall served as the special needs unit. When we had gone for lunch last Tuesday, I noticed a sign saying “Gun Show, this weekend at the Heymann Center”, which was funny to me because I had a dream or passing thought about that very thing before my trip down! The gun show was last weekend and today there was a Home and Garden Show in the same space as the special needs unit. I felt compelled to stick my head in and look around and paused in amazement at how time passes and things return the same.

Last night, on the very same stage that we slept on, Allison Krauss and Union Station played to a sold-out house. Today, there was a theater show that attracted many African-American theater-goers. I’m glad that everyone going into the Heymann Center was going in for a very different reason than we were 6 months ago.

I likely won’t get to journal on my time Monday as I’ll be crashing at Bruce’s place before flying back to Mpls very early Tuesday morning. My plans are to help out at the Lafayette PHU in the morning and most of the afternoon and attend my own class’s lecture by computer videoconferencing in the afternoon. I hope to pass on a little of what I’ve learned to my students.
Thanks all for tuning in to hear about my travels. Though this has all been mostly about my fun times down here, I plan to share the hard, public health details of the trip and where things seem tao be now, six months later, when I return. Love to my family.