After breakfast we cleaned up, keeping our fingers crossed that our last bottle of propane holds out until we find a place that can repair our valve. Then we headed towards Abbeyville, LA, stopping on the way to check out a golf course off Hwy 89. I jumped out and got a scorecard to see if it was a course we wanted to play. It appears to be in pretty good shape. They were scads of people there since it was Saturday. The course is pretty long so it will be a challenge. We hope for periods of sunshine next week so we can give it a try. Monday is President's Day we realized so that won't be good. We're spoiled playing when everyone else is working:-)
We tried to find another course between here and Abbeyville but missed the road down to it so we took Hwy 389 to 14 to Abbeyville. We found the Tourist Center with no problem but it was closed. We can't believe the number of Tourist Information places that are only open 9:00 - 5:00 Mon-Fri. They are usually associated with the Chamber of Commerce and tend to keep banker's hours. Never mind that they should be catering to the tourist who might actually be there on the weekend. And then small-town America is always whining because their economies are drying up. I say "Wake up and realize who your customers are!" But I'll get off my soapbox. After all, I'll still be roaming around here during the week. But what about all of the poor working souls who have to recreate on the weekends? I speak on their behalf:-)
We cruised through the downtown area anyway but found it to be drying up. Many places were boarded up. There was a nicely refurbished Depot/Gift Shop but we didn't stop. Instead we headed back east on 14 to New Iberia. We found Main Street and walked up and down trying to find a place to eat. Nothing was open until evening on Saturday. There were some great cafes and eateries with nice write-ups in our brochures but nothing was open on Saturday afternoon. That seems weird to me. We stopped in a book store on Main Street. Bob found a series of books he was looking for and we bought a new Crossword Dictionary to replace ours with the cover falling off that is in three pieces. The lady who owns the shop directed us to Bonne Creole on Hwy 182 just east of downtown while I played 'fists and paws' with her cat who crawled up on the counter. This delightful feline walked across the cash register, causing her owner to ring up $1194.08. That gave us 'paws' for alarm:-)
We found Bonne Creole with no problem but the menu was entirely fried, as good Cajun food should be I guess. But we decided to watch our waistlines and left in search of more choices. Nothing else we tried was open until Saturday evening so we left New Iberia and headed back to Broussard to try Sicily's Ultimate Italian Buffet that we had scoped out yesterday. They are known for their 149 foot buffet line, homemade dough, fresh ingredients and handmade meatballs, sauces and gumbos. In fact, we may have accumulated fewer calories at Bonne Creole! But at least we tried to make good choices on the buffet line. My favorites were Spinach Fettuccini Pizza and Seafood Eggplant Casserole. The BLT Pizza was unusual resembling an Italian deli sandwich. We walked to Albertson's and then the Shell station in search of a paper. All we found was the Baton Rouge Advocate.
Back home we read and solved puzzles as the last rays of the day streamed through the windows. A young couple in a huge Holiday Rambler 5th Wheel backed into the slot across the circle from us. It looks like the RV Park filled up a bit while we were gone today.
It's 6:56 p.m. and 62.5 degrees.