“February 28th 2015
I did a little backtracking today, and I’m happier for it.
I left New Orleans yesterday (2/27/15) and made it to Gulfport, Mississippi for the night. The problem was that I didn’t get my Louisiana flag switched out before leaving. I hadn’t forgot. I just got lazy. It takes some effort and time to find a flag. Explaining my trip and my flag swapping plan is not super simple. At the root of the matter is fear of putting myself out there for rejection. They feel awkward, I feel silly and we just shuffle away from each other.
So anyways after asking a few places in New Orleans and the hostel I stayed at without any luck, I resigned myself to moving on to costal Mississippi with my original flag. This morning however, I decided that getting a flag from Louisiana would never be any easier than right now, and that if I went back with the single goal of getting a flag, it wouldn’t take more than a few hours.
I jumped on I-10 and motored west to the border town of Slidell. I checked into two fire stations. One didn’t fly a state flag and the other said they would have to check with managment. A police station and a preschool had flags that were too small, and the Slidell City Hall flag was too faded for me. Later I came to a house just down the street from the Saturday farmers market.
Lucky for me a gentleman named Thomas was there to answer the doorbell, and luckier still, he liked my flag collection idea and welcomed me to help him lower his down.
A veteran of the Army (I think he said 35 years), he offered me coffee and showed me the shop he had out behind his house. He had a 287ci late 60’s Ranchero. I told him about the ’72 El Camino I sold before leaving on this trip. I regret not staying there to talk for a while longer. But the sense that I was dawdling around Louisiana for too long pressed on me.
So thank you Thomas, if you end up reading this. And if I do get back in Slidell for whatever reason, I’d buy us both coffee at the diner you recommended.”
Gloomy day in Mobile, Alabama today (3/1/15). Never easy to find wi-fi on a Sunday either.