A Weekend Getaway Gone Awry ...

Skyline, Shreveport, Louisiana

Last week I mentioned our "weekend getaway to Shreveport, Louisiana," and had planned to follow up this week with a post about our trip. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted a lot of my pictures while transferring them from my laptop to a thumb drive so I could copy them to my computer at home.

I hate that sinking feeling you get when you realize that you've lost something like that ... pictures that you worked hard to get, of things that you can't go back and take again. Like the pictures I took of the "quaint and peaceful little town" of Jefferson, Texas, where we had planned to spend a nice quiet Saturday morning browsing antique shops.

Jefferson, Texas {This is not one of my pictures -- I "borrowed" it from the Internet}

Before we went, I checked online to see if there were any festivals or anything going on that would bring a lot of people to Jefferson, and the only thing I found was a "Boo Run," which I assumed was some kind of a mile-run related to Halloween, or perhaps a community fundraiser. Boy, was I wrong!

We should have known something was wrong on our way to Jefferson when we passed ... or more accurately ... when we were passed ... by about 500 motorcycles going the same direction we were going. By the time we reached Jefferson, it didn't take us long to realize that the "run" wasn't for people runners," it was for bikers! I have never seen so many bikes in one place at the same time.

After getting over the initial shock of 5,000 rumbling motorcycles and 10,000 bikers swarming the "quaint and peaceful" brick streets of Jefferson, we decided to make the best of the situation and stay for a while. My husband enjoyed seeing the bikes (there were some beautiful ones there!), and I went in a few of the shops ... so it wasn't a total loss.

One of the shopkeepers told me that "Boo Run" is a motorcycle rally/fundraiser to benefit the Percy Johnson Foundation and Louisiana Burn Camp for Children, and they were expecting 18,000 bikers there for the weekend. Even though it was for a good cause, we didn't really want to stay around to welcome the other 8,000, so we left Jefferson and headed back to Shreveport.

Since it was after noon by then, we decided to eat lunch at one of our favorite restaurants -- Herby-K's, which was Southern Living's 2006 "Best of the South" Editor's Pick for Best Seafood. After lunch, my sweet husband drove me all over downtown Shreveport so I could take some special pictures for my blog (the ones I deleted), then we went back to the hotel to get ready to watch the LSU-Florida game on tv. Unfortunately, LSU didn't show up to play ... and Florida won 51-21.

We had a fun weekend anyway, though ... in spite of our trip to Jefferson not turning out the way we had planned and LSU being disgraced on national television. The trip home on Highway 80 made up for it ... especially the eagle! I am so glad the pictures I took of him were still on my camera and weren't deleted with the others, because that was probably a "once in a lifetime" experience. I hope you will read about the eagle in my post called Scenes from Old Highway 80 ... Where Eagles Dare.

As a postscript, I encourage you to visit Jefferson, Texas, if you are ever in the area ... it is really a pretty little town. One word of advice, though ... call the Chamber of Commerce ahead of time to be sure they're not having another "run."

Sincerely,