When I head to my father’s house later this morning, I will have no regular connectivity. They actually do have a computer that they use for limited things, but it’s on dial-up and is simply not worth the frustration of trying to deal with. I usually slip out at some point in the late afternoons and go to one of the fast food places that has wi-fi.

The last two days were filled with catching up with family and friends, although on the family side, most of the cousins were not around. However, I saw them all during the February trip and it was nice to have the extended time with my aunt and one cousin. We went through some of the old family history – by old I mean back to the 1700s – looking in the wonderful genealogy notebooks my aunt has used over the years when researching family records from Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, until settling in Louisiana. There might have been a branch that came through PA as well and the immigration path was pretty much from England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. This is all on my mother’s side and my cousin who was around for this visit will be entrusted with the records once my aunt no longer wants to deal with them. My aunt, who married into the family, has equally impressive files on her side of the family. There are of course gaps where records were either not maintained or have been lost. Anyway, one of these days, we’ll decide where to stop searching and start writing.

I have been fortunate with weather and the extended forecast is good. The drive up to Minden is about an hour and a half, but it is Sunday and there are a lot of churches along the route with quite a few no-passing zones since it is mostly two-lane state roads for the rest of the way. The terrain is a mix of fairly low hills and woods with pastures and some agriculture. The farming is pretty much all family-size places although there are cotton fields for part of the way. Okay, I have had my morning walk, two cups of coffee, and enough trail mix to get me going.  Now it’s time to pack up and get ready to head out. I have to stop at the grocery on the way out of town to pick up Natchitoches meat pies.