Saying Good Bye to Reggie Bush of the New Orleans Saints

     Say what you want about Reggie Bush, he's always injured, he isn't all that, and then there is that whole NCAA thing, but he will always have a special place in my heart.  Reggie was there for us after Katrina.  He and the rest of the boys gave us something to live for back in 2006.

     I'll never forget the night when we realized the Saints were heading to the play-offs.  There we were in that FEMA trailer feeling like we'd never dig ourselves out of the seemingly endless debris and the boys made it into the playoffs.  The whole group of us jumped off the sofa and the next thing we knew there wasn't a dry eye in the trailer.  We all felt stupid hugging and boo hooing all over the place until someone went online and saw that people posting had fessed up that they had cried too.

     The entire region was still living in debris, mold, dirt and filth;  our boys were a shining beacon of hope.  Reggie Bush was one of those guys on the team.  Thank you Reggie.  Thank you for sticking with us at a time when there was no city left to play in, no Super Dome, and nothing left but a bunch of depressed and angry people.  You and the rest of those guys are heroes in our eyes and nothing will tarnish that.  Best wishes wherever you go; you will be missed.

My First Train Ride

     I’m headed off to Virginia to visit my sisters.   The younger one is moving back home so I'm off to help with the moving and to visit the big sis, (S).  Anyways, it may not be my first train ride if you count the little kiddie train in City Park, but it is my first time taking a train that actually goes somewhere besides the amusement park.  

Cool old train station.

     I have to say that I like the train thing, you get to see all kinds of stuff that you don’t see from a plane or from a highway.  I’m looking into people's yards, watching the woods go by, and there has even been a tunnel or two.  I opted to do the dining car thing and am a bit nervous about dining alone.  I'm wondering if I'm going to be seated alone or if I'm going to be at a table full of people I don't know.  Either way, I may never get the chance to do the dining car thing that you see in those old movies so despite being a little shy I'm going for it...

Tunnel!

     Well I never got back to finishing this post after dinner because all kinds of things happened which made it difficult to pull out the laptop.  I'll start with dinner.  I was seated with two older gentlemen, Bob and Warren, who did volunteer work for the national park service.  We had a great time together at the table.  Warren was from Brooklyn and sort of like a northern New Orleanian, he was really chatty and friendly while Bob was from Maryland and a good deal more reserved, but pleasant nonetheless.  When I got back to my seat we had a stop in Atlanta and despite having over 16 empty seats this older woman was told she had to sit with me.  

     That didn't go over too well with either of us.  She squished into the seat next to me and said, "Nothing against you, but I would rather sit over there by the window so I hope you don't get offended when I ask to move."  I laughed and said, "no offense but I'd be a whole lot more comfortable if you moved over there."  The conductor was really rude to her when she asked to move and cut her off before she even finished her sentence.  Apparently they were expecting a full train.  J and I, (J my new seat mate/buddy), well okay it was mostly me, started calling the conductor Sgt. Shultz, (the guy from Hogan's Heroes), and then it picked up momentum from there.  Apparently several others around us had heard how rude the conductor was to J and the sympathy came pouring in.  Before the lights were put out for the night people were calling the conductor, "Hitler," apparently J wasn't the only one feeling mistreated by Sgt. Shultz/Hitler.

Choo choo on a bridge.

     My pleasant experience just hours earlier turned into what felt like riding in the cattle car.  Indeed we were packed in and there wasn't an empty seat on the train.  J and I confessed to  sleeping on top of one another.  I woke up on her shoulder and she was snoring in my face.  We shared cat pictures that morning and, small world, her brother worked with the local sheriff's department after Katrina, but hubby J didn't remember him.  

     J got off two stops before me and despite being shmushed in with her, I ended up missing the company.  When I reached my stop I was greeted by big sis and a lovely bouquet of flowers.  I think I could take a train again.

     

Little Trip to Vicksburg For the 4th

     After a month or more of stress, we decided to take a little weekend trip to Vicksburg for the fourth.  I don't know what I thought I was going to see, but if you had told me the place was going to be like driving about in the mountains or San Francisco, I would have thought you were crazy.  I hate feeling like the car is going to fall backwards or go over the edge, so I spent the weekend clinging to what I like to call (pardon the language) the, "Oh shit bar."

I so did not expect Vicksburg to be so high up!

J wanted this pic because he thought it had
that traveling gambler look.

     We love anything cheesy so we dove right in starting with the hotel.  It was a throwback to 1978, and was probably the thing in its day, what with the attached bar and restaurant.  We were given poker chips to use to get breakfast and tickets to get free drinks in the lobby.  The restaurant was great, the food was good and the cheesy organ music brought me back to the old A&G Cafeteria days.  We were the youngest couple in the room; awesome.  Night two led us to explore the joys of a hotel/sports/karaoke bar.  We spent the night predicting what genre music each person was going to pick and hung out with a nice local couple who could both sing like pros.  Apparently the place is a draw for many native Vicksburgites.

The USS Cairo was salvaged out of the river.

Cool old bridge overgrown with weeds.

     We toured the museums went through a few antique shops, and of course toured the battlefield, (where the Union Army fired cannon at our car EEK).  I'm not sure which was my favorite, the USS Cairo ironclad or the Old Courthouse Museum.  I'll say the Old Courthouse did have a huge fat black and white cat so that probably tips it over for me.  I purchased a couple of books on the Vicksburg siege; I was fascinated with how the citizens of Vicksburg lived for forty-seven days in caves.

Geez

I've started several posts in the past week, but I've been so busy I have yet to finish a one of them.  Just a basic run down...  We spent the fourth in Vicksburg.  I've been prepping to head off to Virginia for a few weeks.  And now J's big brother is in the hospital and it doesn't look good as of today.  I've put my VA trip off once already and now it looks like I'm putting it off again, (I wonder how many times Amtrack is going to let me push back the dates).

J's big bro has a raging infection and is not responding to the antibiotics.  He's intabated because he stopped breathing on his own this morning.  The guy is forty-nine years old, so I'm going to be a Pollyanna and figure he's going to take a turn for the better tomorrow.  It's like I told J, the odds are in favor of a otherwise healthy forty-nine year old to pull through this.  I'm hoping so anyways...