Well we started off on early saturday morning (apr 24) and drove down to louisiana for the first leg of our adventure. We stopped off for a brief visit with Bryan and Evelyn, and got to see the new baby boy, and he is real precious. It was good to see Bryan and Evelyn again, and hopefully I will be back down that way again soon.
While in Louisiana we stayed 2 nights with my stepsister in Gonzales LA, and visited the French Quarter in New Orleans. I really enjoyed New Orleans as it had been 20 years since I had been there. Amanda wasnt too impressed though. While in New Orleans we walked down bourbon street, visited the Jackson Brewery Mall and also had Cafe au lait and beignets at the cafe du monde. We also eat at a cajun restaurant called the Louisiana purchase cafe, and also an old favorite of mine--Pancho's mexican buffet.
Well on monday morning we headed out to Texas to visit with country-girl for 4 days. We did alot of sightseeing while there and went to the Alamo, toured a cave, went to the hill country, Luckenback Texas, The riverwalk in San Antonio, and also a snake farm/petting zoo. We had a really good time visitng with her and her husband. Thank you so much for hosting us country-girl !!!!
Well we headed out toward Dallas on friday morning and made 2 stopoffs. The first one was in Waco where we saw the famous suspension bridge crossing the Brazos river, and then we backtracked south east of town and visited Crawford Texas, home of President Bush. We actually ate lunch in the very same restaurant that he eats in while staying in crawford.
Well we finally made it to Plano, and just in time to unload the car and go over to Kosta's restaurant for the Aposta-Dinner. The food was excellent, and Nina made a good suggestion. Im guessing there was about 12-14 people there at the table.
The next morning I took Amanda over to the shops of Willow Bend and she got to do some shopping at Saks and Neiman Marcus, mostly window shopping though.
We arrived at the Crawfest about 1:30 and several people were already there. The webcam was a great idea, and I jumped in front of it every chance I could. I dont know what the official count was, but a good time was had by all. I finally got to meet some people that I have wanted to meet.
Dragonlady76 was really cool, and her disgust for the WT Society rivaled mine, if she only lived closer I would be honored to have her picket with me.
I was also glad to meet Z-Man, he was from my hometown, and even though we didnt know that many people, it was really cool to talk to someone who was from my neck of the woods.
The food was excellent and there was plenty of it, I nearly ate myself into a stupor-LOL
I was so thankful that Shutterbug and his wife and daughter were able to make it.
We had to leave the party around 9:30 since we had to leave Texas early the next morning.
After leaving Texas we took the scenic route home and drove through the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma, it was ever bit as beautiful as I remembered it from last year.
I was hoping to meet up with BEM, but she must have been busy or sleeping on sunday morning. She lives very close to these mountains.
In Arkansas on top of the mountain there is a lodge with a miniature train that travels around the mountain and also a petting zoo, we rode the train together, but Amanda didnt want to accompany me to the Zoo, so I went by myself and saw the mountain lion, bear, rattlesnakes, and various other animals.
We topped off our trip by eating Dinner in Benton Arkansas at Brown's Country Store. Brown's bills itself at the biggest and best buffet in Arkansas. The food was delicious and I eat BBQ Ribs, Deviled Crab, fried chicken, and fried fish.
We drove straight on through and arrived in Knoxville around 4 AM. We had a good time and hope to visit Texas again.
Thank you all in Dallas for hosting the Aposta-Crawfest, but a special thanks to Big Tex, Nina, Elsewhere, Valis and his girlfriend.
Once again thanks to country-girl for hosting us.
See you all again soon,
Dave and Amanda