Lucky penny

Saying goodbye to your children is never easy.  Wednesday night I had to say goodbye to my boys for 6 weeks.  That is the hardest part of this journey, not having my boys to hold when times get tough and we are down.  They remind us of what we are fighting for.  They are our reason for living.  Harland didn't understand that we were leaving for 6 weeks but Reynolds did.  Harland just thought it was another spend the night at Lolly and Pampaw's house.  But Reynolds knew.  He cried and begged to come along.  It was so hard to have to literally peel Reynolds off of my leg.  I cried the whole way home.  They are my life but so is Dusty and right now, Dusty needs me.  We have to do this so that we can be here for the boys forever.

Thursday morning we loaded up and headed out.  Not sure where we would stop but knew the route we would take.  I started my iPod playlist by artist, Alan Jackson was toward the top and we heard Midnight in Montgomery (song about Hank Williams Senior), Dusty said, "Hey, lets go see Hank Williams' grave while in Montgomery."  So we did!  I mean, Why not?  We didn't really have to be in Houston until Saturday evening so we thought we would make a trip out of the drive.  We saw the grave and took some pictures.  It was neat.  We continued on and ended up getting all the way to Biloxi, MS.  We stayed in a casino hotel and decided to play our luck on the slot machines.  Hell, we have had good news lately and felt lucky.  I put in $20, Dusty put in $20, and Mitchell (Dusty's dad) put in $13.  At the end of an hour we had $53.01. That's right, we won one penny!  That is our lucky penny!  We cashed in a called it a night.

Mitchell, Me, and Hank

Friday morning while leaving the hotel we passed the slot machines.  I threw in two more dollars and BAM, lost it.  So, in the end, we were in the hole $1.99.  Better than most of the poor souls we saw going machine to machine, rubbing rabbit's feet, and losing everything!

We continued down the coastal highway and saw Jefferson Davis' house.  We didn't pay to go in, just drove by and took a picture.

We decided to drive into New Orleans.  Katrina aftermath is still EVERYWHERE!  We passed many sections that were like ghost towns, construction dumpsters were on every corner, and every third house seemed to still be condemned.  It was so depressing.  Then, we went to the French Quarters.  EW!  It is the filthiest place I've ever been.  The streets were full of weird people and trash everywhere.  It seemed like every block had a strip club and sex shop.  It was not where I wanted to sightsee.  I checked trip advisor and everyone said you should visit the cemeteries in New Orleans.  So, we did.  It was worth the trip.  The monuments that people used to build are unbelievable.  Total works of art.  It was fascinating and creepy all together.  I enjoyed reading the history and learning the stories of some of the tombs.  They give you a CD to put in your car and a map of how to get to the different tombs.  It was really cool.  

On to Houston.  We arrived in Houston at about 9:30 and got checked into our hotel and passed out.  It was a long two days of driving.  I learned a lot along the way.  I learned that my father-in-law giggles in his sleep, that I never want to return to New Orleans, and that I want to be buried in a kick ass tomb!