East from Austin

This was kind of a boring trip, in the early part. First night we stayed in Butt's Nub (Jennings), Louisiana. This is kind of a dead town with not much to recommend it. Following that we passed through eastern Louisiana, passing throught the Atchafalaya Basin early. There was a great deal of fog, giving the cypress trees in the basin a ghostly, beautiful look.

Then we passed through Alabama, seeing the USS Alabama in the same fog. The effect was also lovely.

We stopped for the next night in Pensacola, followed by Gainesville. That was our anniversary night (32 years)! We met up briefly with Bennie Smith, a graduate student from our years who came back to be a professor. We also saw Nic Omenetto, who post-doc'd with Dr. Winefordner during our time in his group. Nic also joined the faculty at University of Florida, giving up on his native Italy.

Since we had seen S on the way down to Texas, we thought of looking for our old apartment. S lived downstairs from us for a year or two. We had a missed attempt, but finally found 1309 NW 6th Street! It was just as I remembered it from 30 odd years ago.

The next night we were on to Orlando, in preparation for a wedding. On the first afternoon we went on to Cocoa Beach to meet with a former colleague of E's from Celanese. Then we went on to D's parents home to deliver presents and have a nice home-cooked meal. They live in a small development directly on the inland waterway. The house is really nice, with a screened pool overlooking the water. Apparently all manner of wildlife are evident here, including manatees. This was a really enjoyable day. It was good to get to know D's folks a little better. They are easy to talk to and a lot of fun. 

Then we returned to Orlando to meet up with Esther's relatives. More in the next post.