Yesterday and today were both interesting, in different ways. Today, I cycled through some beautiful backroads in rural Louisiana, through gently rolling hills and small, quaint towns on our way out of the Girl Scout Camp in St. Francisville to Kentwood, where we are staying at the Lions Club Hall on the outskirts of town. The scenery was beautiful, and despite some large logging trucks on the road and a fairly consistent headwind, made it to camp by 2:00pm.
Yesterday, we took a short excursion to New Roads, Louisiana, a quaint little town about 30 minutes away from our camp. There, we visited their town square, and saw a statue in honor of John A. Lejeune, a US Marine Corps Commander, who led troops during World War 1. Apparently, Lejeune, (pronounced “Luh-Jern”) was born in the area, and was known as the “Greatest of all Leathernecks”. Lejeune served for nearly 40 years in the military, and then, after his retirement, became the superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute. As you might have guessed, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was named in his honor during World War II. While he was a very accomplished military man, his biggest concern was that people pronounced his name correctly as “Luh-Jern”. I wonder how many past and present Marines were aware that the name of their basic training camp has been mis-pronounced as “La-June” for years and years?
About 10 miles from our final destination in Kentwood, we had a SAG stop at Hatfield’s Country Store. I quickly became embroiled in a conversation with Rosalie, the proprietor, who undoubtedly was in charge of the place. Rosalie has a very engaging personality, though her thick Cajun accent made it nearly impossible to understand more than only a few words in each sentence. In addition to her thick Cajun drawl, Rosalie has a beautiful smile, which was quite overshadowed by a bright gold “grill” ornamented on her front teeth, which seemed to gleam when she spoke or smiled. I tell you this only to set the stage for what happened next.
As I was waiting for my order to be filled, Piet and Wim, the two guys from the Netherlands entered the store, and walked up to Rosalie to place their order for lunch. Of course, Piet and Wim don’t exactly exhibit a mastery of the English language, and I doubted that Rosalie was going to be of much help. Wim took charge, and in a very confident, heavily accented Dutch accent, ordered “two chickens for (him) and two chickens for his friend Piet”. This seemed to throw Rosalie for a loop, who, understandably, thought that she had just made a sale for a total of four (4) WHOLE chickens, (fried, of course!). As she threw her head down to the counter calculator to begin to tally this enormous order, I considered intervening, however I thought that the situation was too interesting to interfere with, at least for the moment. Rosalie first wanted to clarify the order of four (4) whole chickens, and Wim, who understandably didn’t catch most of what Rosalie was saying, confirmed the order. As Rosalie began to punch buttons on her calculator, I thought that this would be a good time to lend assistance.
Touching Wim gently on the shoulder, I asked the two Dutch guys if I could help with the translation, since Rosalie’s eyes were rolling to the back of their head in a combination of confusion and elation. The boys readily agreed, so I spoke to Rosalie, and explained that because of the large order of 4 whole chickens, Wim and Piet would also probably want some sides. Rosalie’s eyes widened even further, and she glanced at the boys, who barely understanding what I said and only a fraction of what Rosalie was mumbling, nodded in strong agreement. I continued my assistance, informing Rosalie that since the boys wanted 4 chickens, they would probably need a gallon of mashed potatoes, a half of a tub of cole slaw, and the remainder of the bread pudding, which looked to about about the size of a sheet cake. (I added in the bread pudding, since it looked delicious, and I was hoping that the guys would let me have a piece, since it was likely they would have plenty to eat for lunch).
This additional information sent Rosalie into some mild convulsions, and she summoned over her husband and co-owner, Cletus, instructing him to get the axe and find a few more chickens to help satisfy what would likely be the order of the month for Hatfield’s Country Store. Finally, she lifted her head from her calculator, and told the guys that their total for lunch would be around $175.00, not including tip. This got the Dutchmen’s attention, who quickly looked at me in an accusing way, as if I was the one who had created this egregious error! Well, long story short, I decided that I had had enough fun for one afternoon, and explained that the boys wanted only two PIECES of chicken each, and just a small amount of sides. This seemed to let the air out of Rosalie’s sails, and she shot me a look out of the side of her eyes that let me know she didn’t appreciate the joke. Cletus seemed to be relieved, however, since his chore for securing additional chickens was canceled. So now, Cletus and I are close friends, however Piet, Wim, and Rosalie aren’t talking to me at the moment. I’m hoping that over time, these three will see the humor in the situation. Until then, I’ve decided to take a low profile, at least for the moment.
After this excitement, how could things get any better, right? Ah, you forgot that Kentwood, Louisiana is obviously the birthplace of Brittney Spears! So in a matter of a few days, we’ve gone from the “Greatest of all Leathernecks” to the “Princess of Pop”. Brittany is credited with influencing the revival of “teen-pop” music back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. She signed her first contract with Jive Records back in 1997, at the age of fifteen, and the rest, as they say, is history. Of course you all know this, but her first two albums, “Baby One More Time” (1999) and “Oops!….I Did it Again“ (2000) are among the best selling albums of all time, and helped make Spears the best-selling teenage artist of all time. The only thing disappointing about my visit is that I learned that the Brittany Spears Museum here is closed today, negating the possibility of spending the afternoon in Brittany Heaven. Oh well! Perhaps I’ll bring the family back for a week’s vacation here, where we can do the tour justice. However, I did, in fact learn that Brittany’s sister’s name is NOT Broccoli, and that Broccoli Spears was NOT named after her. See the things you learn?
Alas, our time here in Brittany-ville is short-lived. Tomorrow, we cycle 72 miles, across the Mississippi border to Poplarville, MS, where we will be camping at the Haas Cienda (get it?) Ranch RV park. This will be our sixth state, leaving only Alabama and Florida left. I’m trying to stay focused on the daily challenge, and not to think much about the end, which is only just less than 2 weeks away. For now, we keep our eyes to the road!
The Walking Machine 