A whole month off

Monday, home office told me they had no place to send me just for a week because I had a 3 week vacation coming up and they didn't want to send me out only to send me home again Friday. So, after major foul ups from the Carlson-Wagonlit Travel/Booking agent and airport delays from Tropical Storm Fay, I finally made it into Baton Rouge around 10 PM Monday night and glad to be there.

A new starter for Boudreau lay on the carport floor and winked at me and called my name as the garage door raised and we drove in. After Darlene left for work Tuesday morning, I had purposed myself to get the new starter installed, get the carport clean and be able to take a late afternoon ride.

As fate would have it, the nice folks at J & P cycles had sent me the wrong starter and poor Boudreau sat all torn apart. The nice lady somewhere in Iowa promised me they would get another right out but there was no chance it would get here before we boarded the plane for Maui Sunday morning.

So, I guess Boudreau will have to weather out Hurricane Gustav with all kinds of little greasy parts lying beneath it with only the companionship of Gary's Sportster while Darlene and I dodge falling coconuts on Maui for the next 3 weeks.

Fay, Fay, go away

She wasn't much of a bona fide Hurricane. Shortly after crossing over the Florida Keys, she hit the mainland again and slowed from a category 1 to a tropical storm. However, even though she wasn't a real hurricane, Fay took a slow methodical path up across the state and back into the Atlantic where she just sat there offshore and churned, and churned and churned. Within a weeks time, she had managed to water the entire state down all the way over to Alabama.

Great job Fay. You managed to disrupt business and lives for a week.

Finally, Friday afternoon life began to get back to normal for the northeast corner of the state and the tourists began to show up again by Saturday. Sunday was the first full day of normal August sun and the beach once again had volleyball, sun bathers and surfers.

I'll be wrapping up in St Augustine (3 1/2 months) and probably Monday or Tuesday, I will be looking for an airplane to either get back home for a long awaited vacation back on Maui again.