Author Archives: Charlie Hudson

About Charlie Hudson

Off with my combat boots and onto writing best describes Charlie my two careers. Born in Pine Bluff, Ark., and raised in Louisiana, I count myself as a military veteran, wife, mother, freelance writer, and author. What was intended to be a quick two years in the Army became a 22-year career instead, and somehow in the process, I discovered that I was an inadvertent pioneer by serving in several positions that had previously been held only by men. By the time I was in Desert Storm and later Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, women in leadership assignments was more widely accepted. My love of writing never left me though whether it is a short article that highlights an animal rescue group, penning the stories of a female police detective in the Florida Keys, or presenting issues about aging that Baby Boomers need to address, or working on a corporate proposal. When my husband, Hugh, also retired from the Army, we relocated to South Florida where we can both enjoy the underwater world in dive sites all around Key Largo. We do break away though to still travel, and especially visit the Washington, D.C. area where son Dustin is a professional dancer and lives with his wife, Samantha.

First Full Day, LA Trip….

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I did a FB post about the bakery/cafe, Geaux Fresh in Minden where I went for an early lunch after visiting the cemetery. The TV series Hometown has done some “Hometown Takeovers” where they select a small town struggling economically, but trying to revive. They do a few projects, one of which is revive a small business. This cafe was selected during the Minden “Takeover”.  It is very nice, excellent food, friendly staff and they seem to be doing well. As it turns out yesterday was shrimp day for me. I had the spicy Cajun shrimp wrap at lunch and more shrimp for dinner.

I decided to take a different route to Natchitoches and go on a slightly longer drive that I hadn’t been on in years. Not much has changed. I also decided to stay downtown at a B&B and I should have checked their website more carefully. Charming Victorian, nicely furnished throughout, and the Wifi connection is good. It isn’t that I mind third floor with no elevator. It’s the staircase to the third floor is quite frankly dangerous. I can manage, but have to be very careful. And there is no in-room coffee maker. Location is good, too though if you are a walker – and I am.

One of my favorite restaurants is being transitioned to what looks like it will be a nice Cantina and I erroneously thought my second favorite was closed. Turns out it isn’t, and I’ll remember that for next time. In all fairness, all the restaurants downtown are good, but not all are open for dinner.  Anyway, I actually did a “double” last night. That wasn’t my initial intent. I was at Mama’s Oyster House and had a cup of the shrimp and corn bisque, then a special appetizer of bacon-wrapped shrimp. I didn’t want a full entree, but that turned out to be not quite enough. Natchitoches is university town and it was a Friday night so things were getting a bit loud. There was a new place on the way back to the inn and I thought I could pop in there for another appetizer and glass of wine. But as I walking along at the Sushi place, there was a lit sign, “Bar in back” that looked intriguing. Natchitoches has a lot of New Orleans architectural influence, and this is one where there was a courtyard between the main restaurant and its second bar and dining room. The back was very quiet as only one guy in the courtyard and people at the one table were on their way out. I had my other glass of wine and the garlic shrimp skewer appetizer.

Louisiana Day 1

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The morning started well, and considering other travel issues I had in the past, things were okay. I made the mistake of thinking I would get one of the fruit and cheese plates they sell on the airlines now. That didn’t work out and I knew the connection was tight in Dallas, but if there was a place to grab a bite close enough to the gate, it could work. Except as does happen, my flight went out of the section of the terminal that had the least services. There was a small bar, but only those prepared sandwiches which are mediocre, but by that point it would have to do and they did have Miss Vicky chips – jalapeno of course.

I am in a hotel I haven’t stayed at before and I won’t be staying here again. It’s okay to an extent, but the “on-site restaurant” is not open at night and while I do enjoy a Sports Bar and Grill – the one open – let’s just say the limited menu was very limited. However, they were friendly – the whole staff has been – and the catfish was excellent. Served out of a Styrofoam container and the hushpuppies were jalapeno so that required food item for the trip is taken care of.

There may be a bit of an issue with the rental car, which means I will backtrack to the airport and talk with them. Not sure if it’s a setting that needs to be re-set or they need to swap cars. Hopefully, it won’t take long. Today is fairly easy on time, so that isn’t an issue.

Short Trip, Lots of Moving Around….

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Okay, if all goes well, I’ll check in late tomorrow afternoon after my day of travel to Louisiana. The hurricane did clip through both Houston where my sister lives and in part of where I’ll be traveling. Lots of down trees and power outages, but they are accustomed to such things. Since it occurred Monday, tomorrow afternoon should be okay.

Will be doing as usual and posting each day of the trip.

Lots of Fireworks……

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Quite frankly, this was a year with everything going on, I didn’t have the energy to try and put much together for Fourth of July. Hubby had to go shoot the event which meant arrive around 6:00 and stay until 9:30 and I simply didn’t want to spend that long at the event. Maybe next year. Or it’s like a three-mile walk so perhaps next year I’ll go with him, stay for an hour or so, and walk back before it gets dark. That would be kind of interesting. Anyway, we did have one of our neighbors over for lunch. Again, it’s been a hectic time so fundamentally, we went with grilled chicken (BBQ style), grilled corn on the cob, beans, Publix potato salad, cold slaw, and key lime pie, plus Marie Callendar frozen apple pie I baked. For appetizers I only did deli tray and little meatballs lightly sauced with BBQ sauce and those were also from frozen. I polished off a couple of leftovers for dinner and Hubby grabbed something at the event.

I have no idea how much the neighbors spent on fireworks, but it must have been quite a bit. I usually go out and mingle for a little while and even passed on that. Someone else behind us (perhaps in the adjoining neighborhood) also had lots of fireworks. A couple of times, there was the display out front and in back which made for a nice array. I had the Capital Fourth tuned in as well and cranked up the volume for the 15 or so minutes I watched that part. Hubby had skipped on pie after lunch so I stayed up later than usual and had my final drink of the night while he enjoyed his apple pie a la mode.

He had to go in for morning boat instead of getting to sleep late and I don’t remember what the rest of his schedule is for the weekend.

No Second Dive This Month….

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Ah well, June won’t be a two times out on the water after all. It’s a combination of things with extra commitments and tricky weather. It is the rainy season and so we are getting frequent afternoon downpours; some of which are severe thunderstorms. Several days ago one was so bad the museum had significant water intrusion and disrupted operations. While most of what had to happen was taken care of by others, there was a lot of back-and-forth about what was going on and those things take time. There have also been some issues with scheduling different events and coordination that isn’t going as well as I had hoped. Nothing drastic, merely time-consuming.

On the writing front I am pushing to get the first draft of Shades of Remorse completed before my trip so I can maybe do some editing while traveling. Even though I will be relocating every day, I am likely to have some stretches of time in motel rooms, too. My process for writing is I leave gaps in the first go-round in order to get the main plot and subplots where they need to be. That puts me at what I refer to as the seventy percent mark. Filling in those gaps, working out any disconnects in sequencing, plot, or character behavior takes me to the eighty percent level and ready for what is called Beta Read. That’s bringing in a fresh pair of eyes. Some authors use multiple Betas, but I’m fortunate in having my wonderful Hubby. This is the only time I print the manuscript. I then read it aloud to him; a few chapters at a time. We do this during morning coffee and while prepping dinner instead of watching TV. After that go-round, I edit those changes in preparation of sending it to the professional editor. Speaking of which, I have to email the editor I use for these books to see if she is available. They travel a fair amount. I have two editors; one foe scuba-related books and one for everything else.

Flamingo Point at Everglades…..

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We are fortunate to have two National Parks here – the Everglades and Biscayne. I’ve posted numerous times about both and of course, Hubby spends many hours in the Everglades with his photography. He also often covers different stories for the paper. One of those has been the saga of Flamingo Point. Everglades National Park is huge (1.5 million acres) and has multiple sections and entries. Once inside, there are also multiple places aside from the Main Visitor Center set up for walking and other activities. Deep into the Park – as in 42 miles – is the “end” of our section at Flamingo Point. There is camping, a small marina, and was a restaurant and hotel. Significant damage was done during Hurricane Katrina and in somewhat typical government fashion it took far longer to get back on track than one would expect. However, part of the delay was because they decided to build a new area with some extra facilities.

There is now a nice visitors center where the old motel and restaurant used to be and a new lodge and restaurant are close to the campground. Hubby has followed that entire process, but I hadn’t had a chance to go yet. He was unexpectedly off work Friday and we drove separately so he could stay after lunch and take more photos.

It does take an hour to drive and the thing is you don’t usually see much going through that part of the park. The spots for bird watching and so forth are off the main road. This time of year all the migrating species are gone, and noon to mid-afternoon birds and other wildlife aren’t active. In other words, the drive down and back wasn’t eventful. In keeping with elevation to avoid future storm surges, the new buildings are up approximately fourteen feet which does provide a partial view of Florida Bay. The restaurant is where you order at the counter and they bring meals to the table. They do have a full bar and the menu is mostly sandwiches, salads, and some soup as well as a few desserts. It is nicely decorated. I had a BLT wrap, Hubby had the grilled fish sandwich and they were both good. This is not really a place I would suggest as just to go for lunch – except once to experience it. To combine it with one of the walks will be pleasant though.

Ow! Memories…..

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A conversation about working under extremely uncomfortable conditions reminded me of not only those times in the Army when weather conditions were terrible, but also my boot issues. To start with, while I was a bit of a tomboy, that did not extend into being athletic. Going into the Army and being as small as I was did cause a number of issues. Actually, my first boot-related injury was while in ROTC. The single field exercise I went on included tromping through some swampy water. They had no boots to come close to fitting my size 4.5, so extra socks in the smallest size they had might have worked if I hadn’t a) had to wear them as long as I did and b) maybe if we hadn’t gone through the water with God knows what kind of bacteria. Anyway, multiple blisters that burst, then became infected was not fun.

Moving forward when I was at Fort McClellan for initial WAC training, they did at least have size 5. What none of us knew was women’s boots were not designed with the same support as men’s. In all fairness, we were among the first group of women who were expected to do more running. So, not liking to run anyway, when I began to experience pain in my ankle, I ignored it. Then it was both ankles and when I literally couldn’t walk down the hall without leaning against a wall dragging my feet, I agreed I needed to go to the clinic. Achilles tendons strained in both ankles; common for women. Had I known, I would have gone in immediately. They did later do away with women’s boots in favor of better support. And a number of years later, medical people finally convinced the Army running in boots was a really bad idea and proper shoes were allowed for physical exercise. Oh, it was running three mornings a week and alternate exercise two days a week.

There was another time I won’t describe, but you get the idea.

Not Fancy, But Good…

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While we ordinarily do an extra fancy dinner at home for celebrations, this is one of those times when it’s less so. We’ve been having quite a bit of steak and decided tonight will be game hens and use some of the leftovers for sides, although I will of course bake the small apple pie as that is Hubby’s favorite. I did get shrimp cocktail though and champagne which we will have while “chefing”. As I’ve mentioned before, Hubby used to do roasted game hens stuffed with the wild and brown rice mix, then switched to grilling years ago. Not sure what flavor profile he’ll go with tonight. It’s usually Italian or southwestern or he may come up with something else. He does grill two because we each have half for this meal, then do the rest for a leftover. For that we pretty much go with either the smothered type similar to what one does for quail with gravy and mirepoix (we prefer the classic onion, carrot and celery) or we go Italian with cacciatore. Both are delicious and just depends on our mood.

Speaking of grill, Father’s Day is all culinary-based this year as his current grill has been rebuilt at least once which means it’s time for a new one. He simply hasn’t decided yet if he wants to stay with the Charbroil brand or go back to the Weber. He has also gotten a pellet-fired pizza oven; something we discussed in the past. I’m not going to try and describe it as he does have it all assembled, but is waiting another few days to actually cook with it. He’s been reading up on it and I will post after we see how it goes. Needless to say, this is another item I won’t be touching.

One of Those Silly Things…..

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While I realize discussing  a hot tub as temperatures are now hitting the 90s may seem odd, there is a reason. When we had the hot tub and pool put in, I wasn’t aware the “how” of turning on the hot tub would be so complicated. I mean, you press a button, right? Actually, no. Valves have to be turned in a certain way first. Hubby can of course do it no problem. He’s explained it to me multiple times and even took a photo with the phone so I could see it. The problem is the valves look alike to me. One day I braved it and sure as the world did it wrong and basically drained some of the water out of the hot tub. Naturally, I haven’t tried it since.

It takes about an hour and a half to come up to temperature and so if Hubby doesn’t get home until after 6:30 – common if he has afternoon boat – that means no hot tub until around 8:30 which also means that’s probably the same time as something is on TV to watch. While we can record, and go relax in the hot tub instead, it’s been ages since we’ve done that. There is actually an issue with the hot tub that needs to be repaired. My plan is to talk to the experts to see if we can also retrofit a system to make it simple enough for me to handle. There might not be, or it might be prohibitively expensive. It is certainly worth asking the question though. I would love to be able to do this for myself.

More Snorkel Time……

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Although I missed going out in May, by going really early in June, as on the 2d, I might be able to get back out the end of the month, too. And to actually dive. I was on the tail-end of a cold and didn’t think I would be able to clear properly, plus I was still having coughing fits. Conditions were only a little bouncy, so no problem with snorkeling and visibility was decent. On the first site I saw a medium size stingray early and while nothing else big, I did see French and gray angels, plus enough other fish to enjoy and all the coral was looking good. Despite some of the “cherry picking” of data going on to claim the water is hotter than normal, the reefs are still at 77-80 degrees. There are always “hot spots” in different places.

Anyway, on to the second site. I was surprised to not see my bright blue chromis on either dive, but did have a pair of file fish and lots of barracuda. In fact, in one spot there were like fifteen or so, all different sizes, hanging out together. I hadn’t see that in a long time. Quite a few chubs came through and there were plenty of sergeant majors. Parrotfish, of course, even if I didn’t get my favorite of the midnights. More angels and some blue-head wrasses. The divers found a really big green moray, but tucked underneath as usual, so not something I would be able to see. I was in the water for about thirty minutes each time. The wind was up a bit more than predicted until the last several minutes of the boat ride back. Unfortunately, it was bouncy enough for the one woman to get sick and three other individuals to feel queasy. I continue to be grateful to not suffer from that. I also find it puzzling people are willing to put up with it and go out on the boat. On the other hand, appropriate medications do help. In the case of the two friends, they agreed they should have taken a dose the night before as well as the day of.

Scrawled File Fish on Reef