27OCT-01NOV08 - Houma, LA (houma sweet houma)

One of the interesting things about our return drive to Houma was the diesel prices enroute. No matter what the price of a barrel of crude, the price of gas or diesel in Texas is almost always lower. But due to the recent really high prices we have learned to check numerous websites on the internet to determine cheapest price down the road. Lo-and-behold we discovered that diesel was sixty cents cheaper per gallon than any station in Texas, in our old home town of Houma! So we decided try and make it to Houma without refueling enroute, and we succeeded.

As we traveled from TX to LA we began to see the evidence of hurricane damage from Gustav and Ike. Although neither storm was as powerful as Katrina they caused more damage in Houma and even inland in Baton Rouge. The reason for this is that while the winds were lower, they were sustained for a longer time from one direction because the storms moved so slowly. So when we finally made it to Houma we found a tremendous amount of wind damage that did not occur during Katrina.

The primary damage was roof, trees and fences. One month after Gustav many houses still are covered with blue tarps, and hundreds of roofing crews work six days a week to accomplish all the needed repairs. In fact, the Civic Center parking lot where we have parked our RV in the past is overflowing with RVs, trailers, tents, etc, for all the “temporary” workers in town (habla espanol?). Unfortunately our daughter and son-in-law’s, Rebecca & Raymond Pitre, house received roof damage and they are in the process of finding a reliable contractor. Needless to say, Home Depot and Lowe’s constantly busy and half the parking lots are devoted to staging roofing material, cement and plywood.

Soon after our arrival it was time for Halloween. Since this was the first for Rebecca and Raymond in their new home, in the new neighborhood, they may have gone slightly overboard? They bought way too much candy and had a couple of animated figures that Dan felt might be too intense for younger kids. One figure was a guy with a “phantom of the opera” mask. To Dan this guy was pretty scary already, but when his motion sensor detected motion, he removed his mask to reveal an acid scarred face. We quickly learned to turn him off for kids younger than five.

Regrettably, soon after our arrival in Houma, Dan’s sister Sharon called to say that Dan Sr’s health had taken a turn for the worse. It was decided that Dan would fly back to Texas on Sunday, 02NOV.