That’s What I’m Talkin About!

If you’re a gate guard in Louisiana, you know what I’m talkin about!

If you’ve spent much time on the Louisiana bayou or if you watch the History Channel, you know what I’m talkin about. The problem was, I was a gate guard in Texas and I didn’t know what anyone was talking about and now I know why.

The majority of the guys on Lantern 16, our initiation rig, were from Louisiana. They sounded just like Troy in this video except you need to add some chew to listen around.

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And they thought I had a Canadian accent? Really? I’m not even from northern Iowa. 😀

No wonder all that time I spent listening to CD’s on How to Speak Cowboy and reading hints on deciphering a southern drawl didn’t help a bit. I’m such a Yankee, I didn’t even know that you could travel just one state to the east and be in both an entirely different world and hear an entirely different dialect. Add to that, the guys who weren’t from LA were from Texas and Mississippi. Carrying on a conversation was like channel surfing each time a different truck came in.

If I’d watched Swamp People, even once, before we took our first job I might have known what the guys were saying! Until I happened to catch an episode last fall, I had no idea that it wasn’t the southern drawl that had me stumped, it was Cajun.

It also explains why our time with 16 was so different from any other group we’ve been with since they went back to Louisiana in June. The guys were always proudly proclaiming how they could live off the land, and clearly they could … and do.

They caught wild hogs night after night right outside my window. They hung the snare on this branch.

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It was weeks before I found out why the pigs were squealing all night long. I thought that was just what they did in Texas.:D

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The guys would skin the hogs and cook them and cheerfully share their bounty with us. They hunted squirrel and rabbit and quail. They also shared tarantulas and snakes and scorpions and frogs and anything else they could catch 🙂 (Just for show and tell, not to eat)

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We expect to be in this business for quite a few more years, and I’m sure we’ll work with a lot of fine folks. I’m also sure we’ll never meet any guys quite like these bayou guys. When they said we were family, they meant it.

That’s what I’m talkin’ about! 😀

Eat at Joe’s

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.  ~Fran Lebowitz

Have you ever had your lunch watch you eat? That happened to me yesterday, not for the first time, but it’s still a little disconcerting. We’ve had some interesting lunches in the 14 months we’ve been in Texas. Until  this week, the catch of the day ranged from squirrel/ rabbit / quail stew …

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… to  wild hogs, snared right outside the RV window.

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And then roasted and delivered to our door step by our good buddy, Jimmy.

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And there were the tarantulas delivered up in a crock pot by Ron, our driller.

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I passed on those. 😀

Since the RV repair work is being done in Houston, we took the short drive to Galveston Island to wait for the call that all that was bent is straight again and the lavender window has been refitted to match it’s mates. This isn’t so much a planned vacation as it is a mandatory work break. But if I’m not going to be working, my heart’s pull is always toward the ocean.

With no paychecks coming in, we’ve been living on peanut butter and jelly and pretzels and cheese, but yesterday we did something radical and went to a restaurant on the gulf.

I found the sign floating in the water.

This immediately sent my jukebox brain back in time to Suzy Bogguss and Eat at Joe’s. 😀

So we did: Eat at Joe’s.

Heidi, who loves the sea but not the food that comes from it, settled for a Chipolte Hamburger which was clearly dead.

I chose the Grandaddy Lobster Crab Pot which kept it’s eye on me while I ate it.

Today it’s back to peanut butter and jelly that doesn’t watch me eat and the free Ferry boat ride that doesn’t go anywhere! Life is Good! 😀