The night before leaving Montgomery, I wanted to 1) paint something, anything as I hadn't in a while and that's part of this trip, and 2) leave a gift for my friends who graciously let me stay with them for 3 days. I opted to do a synthesis of the sunrise from the Hostel in the Forest, and their busts in a cloudy rendition (with their dogs closer to the sun below :))
I bid farewell to Montgomery, and got on the road to New Orleans, buuuuut not before making the decision to get my car looked at. Are you ready to be surprised? Yeah? Ok. It needed work. The noise from before that had caused me to replace the muffler was still sounding, and it turned out to be the rotors. The pumping on the breaks was a result of the break patterns, and those were replaced too. It came out to - $not-that-much and was done in less than 2 hours. A win in my book.
After that, I actually bid farewell to Montgomery, and got on the road to New Orleans. It's a bit of a hike to get there, so when I arrived, I was pretty beat, and opted to order delivery. I spoke with the front desk attendant at the Bourbon Orleans Hotel (on Bourbon st...), Kim, and she recommended a place that honestly I forget the name of. Oh well. You'll just have to go to that hotel. It's incredibly lavish, the rooms are nice, it was about the price of a Hilton, and when I left my room after stowing my luggage I heard two women laugh loudly, who definitely were ghosts. I mean they could have had their door open just down the hall, but ghosts. It was ghosts. Definitely.
Anyways, I chatted with Kim for a while and she gave me a couple extra drink tickets, so I went to the bar, got 3 drinks and waited for my food to arrive. It was my first taste of fresh, local, Louisiana sea food. I went up to my room and did something I'm not proud of (ate fast) and fell fast asleep.
The next day, I woke up well rested, and went to explore. The hotel lets you keep your car with the valet until 4pm... you should do that - word of advice. Instead, I got my car out and reparked it in a lot not too far away. Twice. 2x parking. I'm good like that. I walked over to a restaurant called Johnny's Po-boys, and it was absolutely packed. Eventually I squeezed my way passed the throng and ordered a Muffeletta, some pastries that I think I grabbed the wrong ones of, jumblalaya, and a beer.
It was awesome. I do not have pictures. Sorry.
After that I walked around the city, spoke with folks, enjoyed the open bottle laws, and did some of the famous river walk. I stopped by the Royal Praline company and bought some delicious fresh praline cookies - though Laura's was highly recommended. I also stopped in at a gift shop that had a Zoltar machine. My fortune is for my eyes only. Ok ok I'll tell you - it said that "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt", too late, whatever Zoltar, could have told me that about 18 years ago. The printed fortune said that I was not easily swayed, and uh, you know, I think it's right! Did you catch that? Jokes. Hah. Anyways, it did make me think about several purchasing decisions I've made on this trip alone.
Also, later on, someone told me that in the south, "closed mouth's don't get fed." So, uh, something to think about, huh, Zoltar? Also, the fool quote is attributed to a bunch of people.
My last stop in New Orleans was Villalobos (sp?) the no kill pitbull rescue shelter. I got there just in time for the end of the rules for walking, and fortuitously, they had a dog that didn't want to be walked too much, but loved to be doted on. I spent a while giving some love to a very large and cute pitbull and spoke with a couple who was doing the same. I wanted to make it (foolishly, (ok yeah Zoltar, see you're right)) to Austin that night, or specifically at around 2 in the morning. When I walked out, one of the dogs who wasn't really having it from the designated volunteer happily trotted over to me - named, Tigger, he was a speckled red and black pitbull and we were absolutely insta-bonded to the point that leaving, as I didn't have room to adopt a dog in my car even if I wanted to, was more than a little excruciating. I managed to pull myself away, somehow, and got back to my car, a little heart broken, and lightly glazed in dog slobber. I didn't get pictures, as I was busy petting the dogs, but here are a few pics of Villalobos itself. They also started a bar that I would have gone to had I not been a little overfull from the Po-boy place.
I headed out, and saw that someone was waving to me from the side of the road - their car's hood was up, and they did not look pleased with their situation. They said that their alternator was broken and that their car's battery dies if it sits at lights too long. I tried the inverter I bought (that also netted me a membership to RV World Club.. yeah I'm not easily swayed at all, nope, not whatsoever). That didn't work, so we used the spare set of alligator clips I bought before purchasing the alternator, and gave it a manual jump. After I gave it some gas, the car started! Woo! We shut our hoods, got into our respective cars and got on our way. That is exactly, that's what we would have done, had her battery not died once again while waiting for the light to change. She wasn't joking about the alternator. I turned back around and gave her another jump, this time putting a little relish on the gas. She thanked me, her (I think daughter?) did a victory dance, and we got on our ways. I was happy to help, and also get the extra pair of allagator clips out of my car and to someone who could use them.
On the way to Austin, I ended up stopping in Houston, as I was just super tired. The previous Friday, I was informed that my grandmother was sick with pneumonia, and was having trouble breathing. I spoke with several people about it and the consensus was to wait and continue on my trip, as it seemed like her condition was improving. That day I received word that my grandmother was in hospice care, and that they weren't certain if she was going to make it through the night. I let that sink in, and decided that I would swing by Austin the following day to check it out, since it was a couple hours away, and I was easily an 30 hour drive from home, then drive back home. I got to somewhere around the border of Tennessee and received the following message:
Your grandmother died peacefully at 4:30 the following morning.
Elizabeth Meakin Gebhard was a wonderful grandmother, even when she was strict, and/or I disagreed with her political views. She was a mother, an artist, a homemaker (quite literally, she and my grandfather, Peter, designed and built a house), and an overall strong woman. I used to joke that I didn't know her age but was certain that she would outlive all of us out of spite. I was only half kidding. It's a strange feeling to lose your grandparent, especially when their cognition declines each time you see them - it dulls the impact but not the pain.
Now I am in Nashville Tennessee, having not slept, and full on biscuits, chocolate "gravy" (syrup), peanut butter, pretzel bits, and a spicy chicken sandwich with gravy from Biscuit Love downtown. I write this sitting in the lobby of a nice hilton, too tired to drive, and without a private space to process my feelings. I'm mostly confused about the idea of not being able to see someone again, like a dog who doesn't know when their friend is getting back from work. What seperates me from a dog, is that knowledge however. It's the knowledge that she's not coming back, and that I need to hold on to the memories I have of her and the rest of my family even more tightly. None-the-less, there's a part of my soul that's sitting on a doorstep waiting for someone to return. Goodbye grandmother, I love you.