After bidding farewell to my new friend, Rick from North Carolina, who's heading west into Texas, and all the activities with this lively group at Betty's RV Park I felt an urge to do some shopping therapy in Lafayette - about 20 miles northeast. Now, mind you, I'm also working diligently on my new Budget program in order to have it ready for lift-off Wednesday morning, so the term 'shopping therapy' has morfed into much-modified verbiage.
So, after morning 'chores' like coffee and reading blogs, walking Lacy, reading a little more of my new novel and my personal 'toilette' that includes a daily shower (now that I can indulge in that each day with the sewer hook up), I jumped in Petunia and headed all the way(!) to Lafayette, a city of about 123,000, just a hop, skip and a jump from Abbeville. The first item on the to-do list was to try a restaurant I'd noticed there last week, Cheddars. I wasn't familiar with what I assume is a chain restaurant.
University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Ragin' Cajuns
The Sunday morning brunch crowd had come and gone so I was immediately seated in a nice booth where I could 'people-watch,' one of my favorite pastimes. Since it was almost noon, I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, coleslaw (I've loved all the Cajun specialities but had a hankering for what I call plain food) and a coke - I'm not a soft drink person, so the coke was a once a month or so treat.
While enjoying the lunch and the view I decided to head to The Grand theater complex a couple of blocks away, to take in Leonardo Dicaprio's new movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street," the fairly accurately retold story of Jordan Belfort,
the infamous unethical, disreputable, unscrupulous Wall Street trader of the late 20th century. It's a long movie - 2 hours and 58 minutes - with more use of one particular four letter word than I've ever heard in one film. I did a little research on the real Mr. Belfort, whose autobiography and screenplay, with Martin Scorsese's direction and Dicaprio's lead make an interesting, albeit dark, portrayal of the man's career.
That took up lots of afternoon, which in turn helped moderate my 'retain therapy' session. After sitting for 3 hours I ventured into the Acadiana Mall where I purchased a pair of Levi's and a couple of tees; then headed home to rescue my family from the inevitable day of sleep in Floribunda.
Louisiana sunset taken from Petunia heading back to Floribunda in Louisiana Bayou country. What's a bayou, you ask:
Bayou
While enjoying the lunch and the view I decided to head to The Grand theater complex a couple of blocks away, to take in Leonardo Dicaprio's new movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street," the fairly accurately retold story of Jordan Belfort,
That took up lots of afternoon, which in turn helped moderate my 'retain therapy' session. After sitting for 3 hours I ventured into the Acadiana Mall where I purchased a pair of Levi's and a couple of tees; then headed home to rescue my family from the inevitable day of sleep in Floribunda.
Bayou