How I came to discover Louisiana

Back in 2010 I was living in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. I was 62 years old and had been involuntarily retired due to the economic slump of the time.

For the first time I had unlimited free time and so I took to the internet, a relatively new experience for me at the time. An internet friend who lived in Louisiana jokingly suggested that with my personality I would probably get along well with a friend of hers. She told me that her friend was a redhead and that piqued my interest.

We met online and after a few days advanced to telephone calls. Within two months I was invited to visit her and planned a five day trip. After that came another longer trip and another and yet more. By the time that a year had passed I came to the realization that "we" were not meant to be but I had fallen irretrievably in love with Southern Louisiana.

I moved on to a couple of other relationships but Louisiana never left me. I found myself going down there repeatedly over the next seven years, sometimes for a week, sometimes two. Sometimes by myself and sometimes with a girlfriend.

For several years I had been working at a post-retirement job that started as part-time and then became almost full time. One morning I woke up from a dream about New Orleans. It stayed with me that morning and, as the day progressed I thought about it repeatedly. I was now 70 years old and found myself wondering why I wasn't living in my favorite place in the country. I considered it for a few more weeks and then made my decision.

My children were, understandably, somewhat upset, particularly my two daughters. My two sons were far less concerned with my life.  I explained to them that I had given up several opportunities to advance and/or relocate because of them. As a single father I had not wanted to uproot them. But now it was my turn to live the life that I wanted. Two days later I received a call from my younger daughter. She had discussed it with her sister and they had decided to support me in my choice.

So I called U-Haul and arranged for a U-Pack (6" X 7" X 8") to pack the items that I was moving. I planned to rent a house and furnish it inexpensively from Wayfair and other online sites.

At first it was my plan to stay in a residential hotel while I looked for a home but then I was looking over Zillow online and found a house that I already knew. It was on the same street where the young lady that I had first gone down to meet had lived - two houses down. In the flood of 2016 (a 100 year flood) my new house had been flooded up to 46" on the first floor and had been totally redone with a beautiful interior - two bedrooms, 2 baths, large walk-in closet, front porch, 30' X 40' poured concrete patio, carport, 3 car wide driveway, nicely fenced-in backyard and a new, large garage. I loved that they had retained the metal roof, which sounds so soothing in the rain.

Any thought that living there might be awkward was obviated by the fact that the flood had ended up destroying my old friend's house and that she had moved on

And so it was that on September 10th, 2018 I left New Jersey for the drive southward. The total distance was 1400 miles and I planned to complete it in three days. The first day I was excited and eager. I ended up driving 752 miles through the Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains enjoying the beautiful weather and countryside.

Up bright and early the next day I thought that I could complete the drive in one day but as evening started approaching so did the rain - torrential downpours. I realized that the blow-up bed I had ordered for the first week wasn't going to arrive until the 12th and the real estate agency that had rented me my house wasn't going to be open for me to get the key, so I reluctantly stopped my journey with less than 100 miles to go.

On the morning of the 12th I crossed over the Mississippi-Louisiana border under a bright blue sky with a few white clouds. I was almost home.  Less than 90 minutes later I pulled into the driveway of my new home.

It was there, right next to the door that I met my first friend, waiting on the exterior wall to greet me. His name is Louie Lizard (pronounced Li-zard - you know, the French way).

I was home in Denham Springs, Louisiana and already had my first friend.