Blogs from Al & Brian

Monday, July 30, 2007

hi im al and i dont like airports or airpeople, not only do they lose my bag but they almost lost my sister....but thats ok bc both jus showed up. ya so yesterday i woke up early and was gonna go to the airport but quickly learned that i was gonna have to wrangle my bro into the car. within minutes dad and i had quite the snazzy suitecase packed for pat that was garunteed to keep him fashionable (for a 5th grader). throughout the sharade dad and i made attempts to talk to pat but eventually learned that pat was the only person who knew where his ID was so after that we said forget him ZAN needs to get to the airport bc he hates them but needs to get goin. my trip thru the airport was fairly uneventful and i made all my connections etc on time, yet while fiddling on my cell during my time of travel it started to look more and more like i was gonna be the only person that was not only actually going, but that i might be the only person that would even make it due to sped storms and sped airport people....did i mention how i dont like airports and airpeople? i was ok with that though bc i figured i could always just meet up with bear as planned and i would jus go check out some local bars and music. after talking with bear when i had just met him at the baggage claim he sounded like a knowledgable person on local music so at that point i was kind of hoping that no one else would show up so that that way diana, bear and i could just go see music shows all week. that sounds like a nice vacation doesnt it, a week of music, yes but anywho my cuzs and the rr peeps did show up, tho not all together. oh ya and NEITHER DID MY DANG BAG! i hate airpeople... so ya we went on a drive to the place where i am at now and we got to see some of the city on the way here and this place is nice. the hotel is like an older southern plantation style house with a great cook and an interesting owner...and a chill lil dawgie.but ya not much happened last night but today we went on a tour of the city in a van with bear telling us all bout all the katrina incident and it was nice to learn about the city and also get to see what really happened bc although there is still much work to be done there are still nice parts of the city that are not as damaged. it also was a good tour bc bear has grown up in this city so he actually knows something about the area and how to get around. and so after we drove around a while we stopped for lunch at a sweet bar that had delicious samiches that i want more of. and then after that we came here for meetings where spags showed up and she even had managed to pick up my bag for me hip hip hooray! so ya i dunno i think ima go inside and see if that katrina video is over bc im thirsty and wanna go find a beer...that is all...for now...ok byeps if i get lost, just follow the sounnd of the roaming brass bands, im trying to go find them.ok bye now
Posted by RRTC 2G at 2:11 PM 0 comments

You know it is going to be a long trip when...(7/30/07)
Of course a trip gets much more interesting when you encounter delays at the airport, and when you have people flying from 7 or 8 different locations it gets REALLY complicated. It all started when I got to the airport and my bag weighed 53.8 pounds, and the lady told me I would have to take something out and carry it on with me. I really didn't have anything easy to carry though so I had to take out a pair of shoes and she said that that was close enough. So she puts the tag on my bag and tells me to carry it around the corner to the TSA check point. I start bringing it around and notice that there is a large divider between where she is sitting and where I am standing, seeing this opportunity I repack my shoes back into my bag and give it to the TSA guys who don't say anything.After standing in security forever I finally got through and got a call from Lisa asking how the hell do you get anywhere cause the trains don't move. She finally figured out she was in terminal C and could just walk to the gate we were at. So we meet up and are waiting and then we hear an announcement that the airport was closed down. We think oh great this should be a ton of fun, and we wondered if Cat was circling us in the air right then. Turns out she was and our next flight was delayed quite a bit. Cat met up with us then and we then had to move gates all the way down to the other end of the C terminal. We finally get on the plane and of course my worst nightmare comes true. I get to my seat and the man behind me says he has the seat next to me, I take one look and think oh sh.. He must have weighed 400+ and took up a good portion of my seat. I didn't say anything though and sat in my seat and got hit in the shoulder and elbow any time a flight attendant walked by.After what seemed like the longest hour I have ever spent on a plane we finally arrive in New Orleans and make it back to our bread and breakfast, where Jean, Randy, Christy, Pam, and Alexander are all waiting for us. Problem is that is two Beers two short. Adrianna made an honest effort to get here and should be arriving very shortly today, while the youngest decided he needed to take a vacation from 2G this year and will not return any of our calls. Anyways after a late dinner Xander and I head to our room and alas it has 1 bed and a pull out couch. Well since he had been there for hours Xander had claimed the bed and I said aight then and prepared to get on my pull out couch. I have slept on some pull out couches before and they aren't they greatest thing in the world, but this one....oh man. I think I still have a mark from where the center bar is on my back today. Lets just say one of these nights I will be taking the bed so I can get a decent night of sleep.Another very interesting thing about the room that Xander and I share is that we have a very large jacuzzi tub with no shower. I don't know when the hell the last time I took a bath was, but I sure as hell took one this morning rubber ducky and all. After coming out of my bath refreshed, but still a little sore in the back, we had a tremendous breakfast, which I hardly ate any of because I don't eat breakfast, but just ask Catherine about it. After breakfast we loaded up into our Econoline Van and Bear, one of the Rustic Pathways guys gave us a driving tour of New Orleans. There was this one part where he said there used to be hundreds of houses, but now it is pretty much open fields and he said the houses were just floating away. It was insane, another part of town you could see where the water line was on the houses and it did not look like it was a good situation. After driving around and learning more about the different neighborhoods, we stopped at Cooter Browns and I got to sample a Muffaletta or something like that which is apparently a staple here in New Orleans.After lunch we got back in our van and made our way back to our very interesting little bed and breakfast and worked on some personnal finances, and here I am blogging. So after one night it has been far from uneventful, Adrianna just arrived, and I don't know what the hell it is, but I think I might just have to take a pull off that strange bottle of liquor in my room so I can makeit to sleep tonight.