When someone says, “Y’all should stay at my place in New Orleans,” you do it. You don’t think about it; you graciously take them up on the offer, and you thank your lucky stars for such generous friends.

We spent last weekend a block from Bourbon Street in the heart of the French Quarter gobbling up amazing food, sampling an endless supply of great music, taking in bits of shopping, and making memories with our Louisiana friends.

A good bit of the weekend was spent sipping cocktails on the balcony… yes, one of those really cool, rickety New Orleans balconies. Just below us, a fantastic group performed most of the day and into the night… there’s something special about sitting out on a Sunday morning and hearing “Easy Like a Sunday Morning” playing below.

There’s music all over this town. We were even serenaded at breakfast on Monday…

Here are a few other snapshots from around the French Quarter…

It might seem hokey, but the talking raccoon, turtle, alligator, and pelican at the Atchafalaya Welcome Center near Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, is pretty well done. The stop gave us a nice introduction to Cajun Country.

We spent our day in the swamp yesterday… well, rivers, bayous, lakes, and marshes… but they all have a few similar characteristics here in Louisiana… trees growing out of the water and an amazing array of nesting birds. Absolutely gorgeous. Especially our the Nature Conservancy at Lake Martin.

We didn’t get to see any alligators yet… which is probably just as well.

We also got our fill of pepper sauces at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island, Louisiana. They had the hot pepper sauce in and on everything… including two flavors of ice cream.

Scavenging for 'chanies' in Ireland.

Each summer I scavenge the beaches in Ireland, in search of “chanies.” Those are little bits of broken dishes and glass that wash ashore… often from English shipwrecks in the Irish Sea.

This week, we settled in at an RV park in Shulenberg, Texas, and I was able to put my creativity to good work. I’ve turned 25 “chanies” into shard jewelry. They’re quite a joy to work with… delicate shapes, antique patterns and colors, loads of history.

My favorite piece didn’t come from broken dish. Instead, it’s a combination of a Virgin Mary statue I found at Annestown in County Waterford and an oyster shell from Brittas Bay in County Dublin.

A peek at those “chanies” I worked on…

Schulenburg, Texas, prides itself on homemade bakery and meat. We tried the bakery. It was pretty good, but it’s Good Friday, so we couldn’t over-indulge.

We got to see the giant squirrel, but no nuts at 8am in Sinton, TX.

No, we haven’t added wings or fins to the RV. We simply stopped in Ingram, Texas, where a guy created his own representation of Stonehenge. I’m not sure why, but he made the stones shorter and wider than the originals and didn’t orient them to the sun. He also decided to add two replicas of heads from Easter Island… I guess a stone circle in the middle of Texas needed a bit more exotic flavor.

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Corey and I both woke up early in the Walmart parking lot in Las Cruces, New Mexcio, so we decided to hit the road before sunrise. That got us into El Paso, Texas, just in time for the morning rush hour. From the highway, we got to peek over the fence into Juarez, Mexico.

Okay, so maybe I wasn’t in Vietnam, but visiting the Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in Phoenix on Palm Sunday was about as close as I could get with the RV. From the road, only the large silver crosses on the roof suggest the enormous Temple is Christian.

A very nice parishioner proudly gave us a tour of the place. He told us about all the imported statues and images, as well as, the story of the French missionaries and the Vietnamese martyrs. When it came time for mass, we couldn’t understand a word, but enjoyed it none-the-less. One observation: the congregation at that mass was at least 75% children… it’s been a long time since I attended a mass where that ratio wasn’t flip-flopped.

The Last Supper Carved into the Altar

The Giant Entrance Doors

The Virgin Mary Statue

The French Missionaries and the Vietnamese Martyrs.

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