FAVORITE ROAD TRIP

I was about 24 and my best friend, Lee Polar, and I had volunteered to drive his grandmother from her home in Sarasota, FL to visit her cousin in New Mexico. We were having a pretty good time, flipping through the radio dial, introducing Grandma Polar to all the "crazy music we kids listened to" while she entertained us with some great stories of episodes from her days as a Mail-woman delivering letters in New York City. We were on the leg of the trip that took us through Louisiana, when Lee's Grandmother told us she had to use the little girl's room. The first place we came to was a pretty rundown looking bar by the side of the road. We pulled over, and offered to go inside with her, but she said she'd be fine. It was the middle of the day, and there was only one car there - probably the manager's, so we figured she'd be OK. After about 15 minutes, Grandma still hadn't come back out, so we started to get worried and went inside to check on her. As we opened the door, we saw the place was empty but we heard the sweet sound of Cajun music in the air. We turned the corner and saw a 3-man band jamming away - with Lee's Grandmother sitting on the edge of the small stage humming away on a harmonica. As the song wound down, we clapped and yelled for more with Grandma smiling at us. We ended up hanging out there all afternoon, with Lee's Grandma and her new band putting on a fantastic show. Around dinnertime, the bass player invited us all back to his place for some Crawfish stew, black beans and rice. Some more of their friends ended up coming over and everyone sang and danced pretty late into the night. It was the highlight of great trip I'll never forget.