Waiting in line with Judy Siebert from Iowa City, Iowa...
While the freshly broiled crawfishyies getting spiced-up and served...
We all pile into the upstairs of the American Legion Hall and as always there are never enough chairs for all of us...
After I finish my load I go get some more and discover that a whole bunch of people are hanging out under the tent outside, I join them with my second load of crawfish. We sing and laugh and don't care a bit about the downpour. It is raining so hard right now that you can watch the water rise in the cutters. I'm standing under a tent but my feet are in a pool of water while bugs try to crawl up my lags to get to the dry, I have to fend them off as I'm eating more mud-bugs, that's another way the folks down here are calling crawfish.
The other crew eating mud-bugs in the downpour...
As every year there is the show we're all invited to at the Liberty Theater, the "Rendez-Vous des Cajuns" is a life broadcast. It is always a treat to be there, dance to the cajun tunes and sweat like a pig because the air-conditioning did not work at all, men was it a sweat-fest in there.
But first we had to get there... swimming certainly could have been an option...
The Liberty Theater in action, first Cajun style then with the Franklin Fiddlers of Mt. Blue High School in Farmington, Maine...
After all this sweating and dancing I'm ready to eat some real food, the thing with crawfish is that is is more work than food and so I join Karen, Sharon, Sarah and Lee to go eat at Nick's instead of the food we get catered by Tremar Food. But before that I quickly hop into the local music store, Dees Cajun Gifts, and buy a scrub-board fro myself, a thing I wanted to play since I know Zydeco music. With that I buy two bottle-opener, kind of like the old-style type to play the board with, then dive into Nick's. The place is a mad-house, and it takes forever until we finally get our food. In the meantime I've been going in and out of the dance-hall. Kyle Huval and the Dixie Club Ramblers doing the cajun noise I'm not crazy about. But there is nowhere to go and pretty soon we have to cut that show short because of the weather.
The dinner at Nick's, not too good of a service and the food was so so too...
It has been raining for a couple of hours no and the streets are about ready to flood, we all have to get back to the places we call home for tonight...
Boy am I glad that I spend the night inside the gym, even though a lot of snoring and noises from the ventilation system I slept real good. I pack-up the tent outside that is still wet and then my stuff before finding the breakfast at the Junior High School cantina. A ton of scrambled eggs, I don't believe those are real ones, a pile of bacon and sheets of cinnamon rolls were waiting for me, I try to leave some for the other too.
The rain has stopped again just in time to hop on the bike again, drivers from Cycle Zydeco were already out there to check on flooded roads and rerouted us to dryer ones, it's time to hit the road for the last 46 miles back to the car at Grand Coteau.
Karen & Sharon paying a surprise visit to the sleepy-head in the gym, once on the road there is lots of water everywhere...
I could not find Harry to ride wit me until he caught-up with me on a rest-stop, so I get a few miles with Michael Papas in... at the rest-stop I get my hands onto a YooHoo drink
Last group-shot and Karen all beat-up...
Passing the old country store and more flooded fields...
Rolling into the town of Sunset I know the ride is almost over, I was treading these past few miles, usually the wind is strong and right in our faces all the way to the finish-line, this year was not too bad, just some headwind and not too strong either, I made it once more and as always it was a blast. GOing under Interstate 49 to Grand Coteau where the home of the Academy of the Sacred Heart is. That is also the place where the Honda is waiting fro me since Wednesday afternoon.
The car parking is lined with these humangus Oak Trees, reuniting with Honda...
It is time now to say good-bye to my old and new friends, shower, eat and repack the car so Harry and his luggage can fin in there too. I ran into Frankie, a wild Cajun that has ridden previous years and he promised me to hook me up with a friend of his to go shrimp-fishing with him, but it has not happen yet. Still it was fun to see him. Finally I can get rid of the case of two-buck-chuck, I shlep the box over to Moto's car and leave it on the roof for them as a surprise...
Finding Harry was another challenge, he was busy packing-up his bike so it can be shipped back to Madison, we both cruise off into the unknown of a world without pre-organized life.
First on our list is to get a cup of coffee, unfortunately the place I know in downtown Lafayette is gone, and so I have to follow my instincts to find the one CC I saw before the ride somewhere around here...
With a cup of double late breve we regroup and plan an attack to go to the benefit dance in Scott to see Curly Taylor, well then let's go...
3 o'clock on the interstate 10 going west to Scott...
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