Saturday January 12, 2008

We had a lovely dinner with Carol last night. She had quite a bit on damage to her house due to a river overflowing into a pond in her yard. The front of the house was pushed in - all windows blown out and 11 feet of water in the downstairs. Of course, the sheet rock, being drenched, just fell off the walls into a jumble on the lower floors. They weren't able to get in to check the house for 2 weeks. They cleaned up what they could and then headed back to CT to start gathering what they would need to repair the house. Things like lumber, windows, and sheet rock were not to be had in this whole area. It took them a month to gather all of the needed supplies which they shipped down in a Pod. The house is pretty much done - there are a few things that need doing, but it is lovely and very livable. We got back to Lagniappe about 9, chatted with some folks who were also leaving in the morning and then went to bed. We got up this morning and started packing up. We left after breakfast and went up the street to the laundromat. It is so nice to pack clean clothes. We then went for a ride down Bay Shore Drive in town and took photos of various damaged homes. There were only 2 or 3 that are being rebuilt at this time on the waterfront. We got on the highway and headed out. There were only 15 miles of MS and then we were in LA. Most of the state along the highway is swampy. We did pass some oil fields and rice fields and of course we went through New Orleans. There is still a lot of damage to the houses we could see from the highway - blue tarped roofs, etc. We stopped at the Texas welcome center and picked up some literature to help us decide where we will go next. We stopped a few miles into the state for the night. We brought all of our clean laundry into the room and sorted it - we will send all of our work clothes home as soon as we can find a box. We went into the diner next door for a light supper - chatted with an older man at the next table - he was in North Africa and Italy during WWII - quite interesting. We look forward to sleeping in a real bed and taking a real shower!