Thursday March 27, 1997 – Shreveport, Louisiana – Warm and overcast
We drove up
here from Houston.
Starting off on a really ropey freeway, which was being worked on, we branched
off onto a secondary road discovered by Rab which turned out to be a lovely
one. We drove through lovely green, wooded country so unlike anything we had
expected. Not that we thought Texas
was all desert, but we thought it would be pretty dry and dusty. On the
contrary, parts were almost like an English country scene with small copses of
trees in green pastures and fat cattle grazing on lush grass dotted with Spring
flowers. And everywhere was wisteria in all it’s colours from deep purple to
white: climbing trees and cascading down; wound into bushy shrubs; along the
fences. Simply tremendous!
Lots of
azaleas too and, when we got to the thick woods, dogwoods shone through showing
off their early blooms. Some prunus and pears/apples were in blossom too. And
there are so many colours of green in the trees. It certainly is a lovely time
of the year to drive through the countryside.
It was very
good to get on our way after a bit of an emotional week, for Rab especially.
The examinations which G arranged were exhaustive (and fairly exhausting)
and I must say it will be very pleasant not to have the prospect of another DRE
(Digital Rectal Examination) for the next couple of months!
G and
J were so very good to us. It really underlines the essential goodness of
people. They didn’t really know us, apart from two meetings twenty years apart.
Yet they offered their house to us – and what a magnificent house – and made
all arrangements from getting a cabbie to meet us at the airport to getting all
but one of the specialists to waive their fee. They say it is because people
were so kind to them when their younger daughter was killed in a motor accident
two or three years ago, but I think they are naturally generous people.
Anyway, here
we are in Shreveport
at the Holiday Inn which we finally found after circling the building through a
series of one way streets. At $59.40 for the room it seems reasonable to us. We
had a very nice meal – blackened catfish fillet and a shrimp etoufee – which we
shared. Rab has found a TV channel to watch amongst the fifty or so – a ghastly
true story about a mob killer who worked for twenty five years as a hit man.
Such is fame in the US of A – and just what she likes.
An so to
bed, hopefully to sleep well now that our position has been resolved as far as
possible for the moment. No doubt we will be talking and discussing our options
for months.
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