A Rainy Day in Cajun Country

Thursday February 11, 2021

We had great plans for today. A tour of an offshore oil rig at the International Petroleum Museum sounded perfect after a rainy morning. So after a dismal day of homeschooling yesterday (yes, it happens! and when it does it’s truly awful with kids screaming and mom looking into private schools and questioning her sanity and most of her life choices, lol), we started our basics (which we consider math and language arts) during breakfast- and aside from Ben refusing to do most of his work with me and instead preferring Hope to be his guide- it really worked out great for us.

Then the rain came down. And when I say came down, it really came down - in buckets and lightening flashes for hours. And hours. No tours of oil rigs in the rain, they said. So we tried to do that ever elusive pivot that is the buzzword these days. I called the Alligator Farms in the area that offer tours and they said they are all closed today because of the torrential rains. No pivoting to that. So what did we do? We ran across the park to the game room and library where Aaron set us his office, and where the internet is free and fast. And watched the storm. And watched Netflix. Not what I pictured for today, but we will make the most of it. Each moment can be an adventure, even if you don’t leave your trailer.

So when it finally stopped raining, we investigated the worms in the puddles (that looked more like leaf stems - if they weren’t moving we never would have known they were alive!), and walked along the border of the sugar cane fields and talked to the men doing training for a Mississippi river company and learned about how they tie barges together and tow them down the river. We ate authentic Cajun Potato Chips. Then we stopped at the post office for postcard stamps and found that the only worker in the tiny Convent, Louisiana post office is best friends with the lady who did the tour at one of the plantations on the other side of the river that we visited two days ago. And then? More Netflix, of course!