DIRTY ROTTEN LAFAYETTE

The highway between Baton Rouge and Lafayette is mostly a raised road, basically a really, really, really long bridge. The reason for this is that we are driving across hundreds of thousands of acres of swamp and wetland. Lady D tells us that after hurricane Katrina, she was one of the bus drivers that volunteered to drive people out of the area. She says that there were over 6,000 buses lined up along this very highway, in a 15 hour line-up waiting to get fuel and their instructions from the military. She vividly remembers seeing people's furniture, appliances and personal effects floating in the water beside the road.

I am fascinated by the terrain. I have lived in the far north and on a tropical island, on the prairie and in the mountains, and am comfortable in all those places, but the swamps and marshes feel foreign and mysterious to me. A pair of barracuda or startled caribou are things I know how to deal with, I'm not sure I can say the same for a Water Moccasin or an alligator.

I am amused to see that the sign on the edge of the city says "Welcome to Lafayette" as well as, "Bienvenue a Lafayette". The Cajun presence is strong here. Brian tells me that a waitress in the restaurant has a Cajun twang powerful enough that he can barely understand her.

We are staying at a Hilton, which is usually a treat, but they seem to be having a problem with their service elevators, so all the housekeeping staff is using the guest elevators which means that you can either take the stairs (anywhere up to 15 floors) or wait a good 10 or 15 minutes for an elevator. Mike Donald and I try taking the stairs down from our floor and find that the stairs bypass the lobby level completely and eject you out onto the pool deck. Helpful. On the morning of check-out, I wait a good long time for the elevator doors to open and when they finally do, I see Mel & Allison sitting on their luggage. They have been riding the elevator for so long, trying to get to the lobby, that they are almost asleep.