Steve's Blog Spot

to Shreveport. Man, that's a long drive! 760 miles! Anyway, it was good to visit my brother and sister and their families. On the way over, the temperature never got above 32 degrees, then on the way back, it did not get under 70 degrees until I hit Atlanta! I LOVE winter in the south! Brought home a "CARE" package - items I can't buy here locally. Of special note: Slap Ya Mama! Cajun seasoning, sort of like Tony Chachere's, except less salty and more peppery. Mmmm, good stuff! It's made in Ville Platte, LA, so they know Cajun! Took a side trip on Tuesday down to Natchitoches, which is the oldest settlement of the Louisiana Purchase - 1713. Some will remember that the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed there. Not my taste in movies, but it's a quaint, historic area. I had wanted to visit the library at Northwestern La University to verify the existence of my family's bible. I had several relatives tell me of it and that it was now in the college's ...

I'm back! Drove home today from Baton Rouge - 10 hours and 683 miles! I'm beat! Glad I decided to take tomorrow as a vacation day, too! Shreveport, Houston, south Louisiana - overall, I drove about 2,500 miles, plus kept up with my walking! This was one of the best vacations I ever had, and it has sped by at an unbelievable pace. I spent some really quality time with many of my relatives and gathered a lot of family history information, from both my mother's and my father's sides of the family. Now to figure out a way to manage all the information, add to it, and make it available to other family members. This is going to be an early night, however. Later...

this a.m. on my wondrous 2008 vacation. Don't know if I'll be able to post anything while I'm gone, but if I happen to come across a computer, and if I'm so inclined... Well, who knows? I'm outta here!

A thought struck me (I'll wait a minute to let the laughter subside) that perhaps a driving reason for my vacation choice of visiting family members, as opposed to the beach or some such activity, could be the recent deaths of Tim Russert and Tony Snow, only 58 and 53 years, respectively. I have always admired and respected these two men, Tony Snow especially, and their untimely demises have bothered me. All the cliches have more meaning now - life is too short, live while you can, etc. - and has caused me to reflect more on what is important in life. I find that work does not rank high on that list, except as a matter of necessity, although I do enjoy what I do, whom I work with, and the company I work for (hey, I'm not complaining!). But I have always worked since I was a teen, and sometimes to the exclusion of those other, intangible things in life, one of which is exploring your roots and knowing your family better. (Or is that 2 things?) Thus I set off to go visit relative...