Alabama: Part One

I made a mistake in my last post. We did not go to Louisiana until after we had visited Alabama. This is the real order starting at Georgia. Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas. I had posted out of order and put Louisiana first. Sorry if that's a little confusing. The dates I wrote for Louisiana are all wrong. Those dates actually belong to Alabama. So, I'll just start all over again.

Monday, September 31 [Update: 11/22/12, Ahh! Why did I put Speteber 31? There is no Septeber 31! This was actually Monday, October 1]

We got to my grandma's place in Alabama late Sunday night. I can't remember if grandma met us at the door or not, it was a while ago and things have kinda blurred together in my memory. Anyways, I'll just get started with the pictures. We stayed in Alabama for a whole week. Here's (quite) a few snapshots of what we did that week.

We went out on the river of course...

Louisiana

Monday, September 31 [ Update: 11/22/12, I wrote the dates wrong on this post. This actually happened in the early part of October, after we had been in Alabama for about a week.]

We got in to Louisiana late Sunday night. After greeting our friends in whispers and pajamas, we quickly went to our prepared places of rest and plunged into a very deep sleep. It's amazing how hours of being cramped in a vehicle can make a sofa feel like as if you were enveloped in a cloud. (Although I've heard that clouds are actually very wet and cold.... but let us leave that to the scientist.)

The next week was filled with both joy and sadness. This would be the last time we saw these folks for a very long time. With laughs and smiles that were both genuine and sad we spent these days trying not to think about the day we were going to leave. Here are a few pictures of our time there. (Please note there will be no pictures of faces as our friends have asked to be kept private.)

 

The second oldest is growing avocados. This is her second try. The first two died after she put them in soil. I was quite impressed, I've always wanted to grow avocados, my older brother has.

Teenager n. A young person that shows irrevocable signs of being a jug-head and/or is driven by insatiable selfish desires

Who are we?

There is this thing that has been bothering me lately.

The misconception people have that "teenagers" (any young person 12 through 18 or 19) are practically a different creature than "adults" (any person that is finished with college and may or may not have children). Teenagers either think differently, see differently, dress differently, eat differently, think they're smarter than their parents, listen to horrible noises that they call music, practically LIVE for fashions and celebrities, or have a chronic disease called "irresponsibility". Teenagers get a "mouth off for free" and a "party, have sex, get high and get drunk for free" card. After all they're teenagers and that's what teenagers do. (I don’t mean to say that adults approve of these things, but they sure aren’t doing anything to stop it. Oh, and handing out condoms doesn’t help.)

And then there's "My crazy college days". This is the same thing as the teenage years except for two differences.

Georgia

Sunday night, September 30

On our way to Louisiana we stopped in Georgia. We did not stay long at all, only for a few hours. We have some friends that live there, they used to live in South Carolina. They went to the same church we did and we lived right next door to each other for a while. (I was too little to remember that part but I do remember their house.)

Seeing these people was two things, strange and dreamlike, but also like we had never left. I used to call the mom Aunt Lasagna. For some reason Tanya was very hard for me to remember. Em---- was there and S------ to but their middle brother was not. He died last year from a heart attack. It was very different not having him there. He was my "boyfriend" when I was little and we played together all the time. S------ didn't remember us, he had only been a baby back then, but I remember him. He and my little sister would play out on the sun porch with the big blocks. I was the only one of us young people that remembered anybody. Mom and Dad did perfectly and talked and talked.
They had dinner waiting for us when we got there. Pizza, lemonade, and some dessert. It was good, and boy let me tell you, I was hungry.

South Carolina: Part Three

I have not posted about our travels in quite a while. The days are kinda blurring together so I will have to go real quickly through the rest of the pictures to get all y'all caught up on current events in the H--------- household.

Right, so South Carolina. Here are the rest of the pictures.

Saturday, September 29


These pictures are all from the Jockey Lot. A huge outdoor flea market where you can practically do ALL of your shopping. From pigs to socks, guitars and lotions... anything you can think of you can find here. We used to go here often when we were little. Sometimes Dad would buy us a bag of boiled peanuts to munch on as we walked around. The place used to seem very big when I was little but somehow it shrunk in size over the years.

One time in the indoor section I started following a man in a huge brown overcoat. Dad had one similar to is and I thought it was him. When I found out it wasn't I was so scared and didn't know what to do. I stood there in the middle of the walk way my mind racing trying to figure out if I should go searching or to stay put and wait for them to find me. Thankfully Dad found me before I had made up my mind. After that I stayed very close to my family.

Another time before that, I don't even remember the event myself - have only heard Mom and Dad talk about it, we bought a pot bellied pig and we named it Jack. I don't remember getting him but I do have a faint recollection of the car ride home. It was stinky. We didn't keep Jack for long but I do have a few personal memories of him.... Like the time Mom and Dad gave him a bath with SOAP. (Don't laugh please, I beg for the cover of ignorance.) They were giving him a bath in preparation of the greased pig chase. (Which by the way I remember, it was very funny and scary with Jack running all over the place.) Oh man, you wouldn't believe the fuss he put up. He screamed and squealed and screamed and kicked and thrashed around as if he was seeing the light of day for the last time. The whole neighbor hood must have heard him for miles around. First I was up close watching but Mom screamed to me, "Stand back!" I went up on the back porch and watched the whole thing with eyes opened wide.

Anyways, I could tell you more about Jack but we must get on with the Jockey Lot.

South Carolina: Part Two

Tuesday, September 25

We didn't do very much this day. Just has breakfast did school work... just like we used to. :)

Look at these two little sleepy heads.... <3

South Carolina: Part One

Sunday, September 23


Having left Indiana we head for South Carolina. Here are some traveling pictures.

Now isn't this great? It was so odd to see this design on the bag.

Yes, we are on the road.

Late night supper in Tennisee

He was soo wired. He had so much fun flipping the pages in the Juke Box, and climbing up and down from the benches, and crawling over Mom as he tried to do a face plant in the waffle.