A Day With Perry and Lep

A view of Lep and Perry's property. We enjoyed walking around and looking at the different trees and plants.

Meet Dixie and Tinker.

This is the shop building that they built that also has a living quarters inside. A good way to start out on some property if you don't yet have a house.

Jackson Rest Day

2/14/2010

Day 102

Ahh. How great it is to be staying with some wonderful Warmshowers hosts. We cannot even believe how lucky were are to have found Perry and Lep. Last night, we got to sleep in some extremely comfortable and clean beds in a warm and supremely dark room. We slept so well I don't think either Dani nor I even bothered to flinch when our usual 7:00am alarm went off.

When we finally did get up, Perry had brewed a nice pot of coffee and even had some half and half waiting on the counter. Did we die and go to heaven? I (Greg) love a good cup of coffee, especially with cream. Perry made some eggs and biscuits for breakfast which tickled us because we are not used to getting a hot meal in the morning.

After breakfast, Lep showed us around their property. They have about 5 acres including a nice little pond. Their piece of land is really beautiful and very lush, so when Perry said she might be thinking of getting some goats and chickens, we could easily picture it working out. Lep showed us their new trail camera that they have been using to photograph some of the local deer. Last night, however, it didn't get one. After we looked around the property and some of the surrounding area, Perry and Lep took us over to their neighbors house. Bucky, their neighbor, was a real friendly fellow and is in the process of building a house on his piece of property. He showed us some of his ideas for the place and also some of the trim work he has been working on. He also showed us some tables and benches he makes out of reclaimed cypress. These things are really works of art. If we weren't on bikes we would be tempted to buy one. His house was neat to look through. Perry told us it is a typical layout for classic Southern homes, but with a modern flair. When he finishes it, it is going to be a great house. The windows are huge and the floor plan is pretty open. The master bedroom had the biggest walk in closet I can remember seeing for quite some time.

After we looked around Bucky's place, Perry and Lep decided to take us into Baton Rouge and show us around a bit. Our first stop was the Whole Foods store. We love being able to go to nicer grocery stores, because many of the groceries on the actual southern tier route are pretty basic and sometimes even quite lacking. This Whole Foods was huge, and even had a nice area inside to eat some food for lunch. Dani had the salad bar and I had two ginormous pieces of pizza. Perry and Lep had some sushi and Perry had some great soup with lemongrass and lots of other great looking stuff I can't think of right now. Then we actually did some shopping at this store and got some really great stuff including a King Cake to celebrate Mardi Gras, but also Valentines Day. After Whole Foods they decided to take us to the Baton Rouge Cabelas so we could have a look around and maybe find something good in the bargain bin. Unfortunately, the bargain cave was very picked over, but we still got to look at some really neat guns in the gun library, and we left with six pieces of fudge. (You know how well marketing and chocolate both work on me).

After Cabelas, we went back to Lep and Perry's and ate a fine supper Perry prepared. We were so excited because it had venison in it! It was venison, rice, egg plant, tomatoes and what all else I am not even sure. All I know is it was a meal fit for a king and queen. After supper we had some King cake and decided it was time for bed. We had such a great day. Lep and Perry have made us feel amazingly at home. They feel a little bit like parents, but only in all of the best ways like fussing about keeping us full of food and warm and comfortable, but otherwise we already feel like we have made some great new friends. Relaxing and hanging out with Lep and Perry today was great.

Greg