WE IS NOW IN LOUISIANNA

Remember Ron, 90%!
Hey, Chari and Ron have looked after us big time! We don't need to eat for the next week and a half. Sure had fun partying with these guys - in and around Derby - near Wichita, Kansas.

Fill 'er up thanks, and give me some coffee please. This coffee cost me 43c (US cents!) There's enough coffee in this cup for the day!

Not a bad mug eh? I mean the one I'm drinking from! That'll be able to feed the whole Sussex Inlet tennis team on Monday mornings!

You need the right maps, preferably some experience and above all else, a very good navigator! I have a brilliant navigator! Today we are going to drive 637 miles (over 1,000 km) in what turned out to be 11:30 hrs of driving. First on I35 (interstate 35), then onto 380 before we got into Dallas, briefly onto the 75 (which is also the 121), then ring road 635 E (make sure it's an E), and then I20 E. Another important thing is watching the exits - they're all numbered. (Just passed exit 552! Yes, the bride is having a drive right now. Yes, the bride, the brilliant navigator, is actually at the wheel.)
Left Derby at 7 am. Arrived Natchitoches in Louisianna about 7:30 pm. Natchitoches is about 50 miles south of Shreveport - a city of 200,000 that neither Fay nor I had ever heard of. If you can pronounce that name (Natchitoches) then I'll shout you out in New Orleans! I still can't pronounce the name of the town.
Even with my exceptional map reader, we got a bit lost today - momentarily. Finally we found Cabelas. What a store! See below. Fishing, hunting, boating, archery, sporting clothes, ... did I miss something? Heaps of stuffed animals and...

...opportunity for kids to shoot animals via TV shooting games. (You'd be good at this Pete!) Gotta train 'em early they reckon.

Don't know how this bison got there, but he looked pretty much in charge.


The moose is still one of my favourite animals. He is huge! I only found 2 fully stuffed moose in the shop. I lost track of the number of deer and elk. Only found one caribou. Staff are great. It's a fun store, even if you don't buy anything!
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Tomorrow we head into New Orleans.... meanwhile, we'll enjoy Natchitoches!
[It's now just a week since the deadly tornado in Joplin!]