Charlotte Holiday Trip # 1 — MidWeek Blues —

.We drove to Charlotte, N.C, and back starting last Tuesday morning, November 22, and returning Saturday night, December 3. Charlotte is 1313 miles from our home.

The purpose of our trip was, along with thirteen others from Mrs. Jim's Sunday school class, to help process the filled shoe boxes that were sent in to Operation Christmas Child (link).

Along the way we would visit relatives. The first was Mrs. Jim's cousin, Mary, who lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That was a four and a half hour trip normally. It rained on us most all the way so driving slower we made it there in five hours.

Mary is pictured at left with Mrs. Jim. Mary's brother and sister and their spouses were also visiting so we had not planned on spending the night with her.

Oh yes, we were travelling with Adi, our beagle dog. Adi would be left the next day at Mrs. Jim's brother's home in Tennessee.

From right to left above, we have Mary's sister Mrs. Jim, Mary, Mary's brother (left picture), his daughter and wife. A brother-in-law was out of the room and I did not get his picture.
I had mentioned that it rained on our way. We stopped at the information center coming into Louisiana and had coffee with them and got us a new road map of the state and some Louisiana tourist information, especially information of upcoming events in New Orleans. We haven't been to New Orleans since the Hurricane Katrina and have been wanting to visit this city again.

Pictured at the right is a nice picnic spot near which is now a haven from the rain. Here Mrs. Jim gave Adi a walk.

Aptly named is this rain tree in the Mary's back yard. They trees are prettiest in the spring and again now in the fall when their seed pods become ripe and bright. In the rain they were shiny and pretty.

Below is Mary's potting and garden shed. She spends a lot of time here doing things to keep the yard so pretty. In addition to the flower beds you see she also grows a few rows of vegetables.

Adi appreciated the yard as a nice place for her walk but I don't think she really appreciated the rain as much as we did. Rain has been very scarce this year.

Check her out below as she patiently waited for me to finish taking back yard pictures.

We all had a nice visit. Of course with Southern hospitality we had plenty to eat. I had a nice ham sandwich and chips. Mrs. Jim had brought a Key lime pie and she very nicely divided it into eight pieces. Nellie and husband had brought some citrus fruit from the Florida orchards so we all had a tangerine.

Before we left we had another look at Mary's prize Christmas decoration, a St. Nick made from a cypress tree knee. It also had come many years ago from Florida. Now it is against the law there and in some other states to cut the knees out of the cypress tree roots.

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If you want to post a MidWeek Blues picture, go get directions from Rebecca by clicking on the logo picture on the right. She has a Mr. Linky and good directions . Just do what I did.