#19: Heading Back to the Dock

Louisiana Bound (2008) Part 19 of 40 - Heading Back to the Dock Well, the excitement was mostly over for me. We headed back to the dock taking a different route. It was less direct, so longer than the route which got us to the bridge and It started after that 270 degree turn was complete. For a while we motored parallel to the I-10 bridge. Then the boat angled left and the swamp began to close in on us. The winged creatures were closer now and there was plenty of them. Many signing talks occurred at the front portside of the boat. Mostly the misty rain was stayed and a person could just relax, maybe organize his or her thoughts and enjoy the trip. One of the earlier stories was told during this part of the ride. That was 'the rescue in the storm story'. Every so often my stomach rumbled, as if to say, "Don't forget about me." Melanie and I were starving, not having had any solid food all day. But a more urgent need was felt from my bladder. It can only be patient for so long before it inflicts warning signs. How uncomfortable those warnings become the longer they go unheeded. And if a person waits too long, well, who knows, we all have our ways. Flashes of past bladder release emergencies bleeped through my mind. "No thanks," was my mental reply, "I had enough of those embarrassing things." We ended up past the area we started out from maybe an hour earlier. Captain, 'just had', to point out a houseboat which had some strange occupants. Captain said, "They do their business out in the open." I'm thinking, "No! Not right into the swamp." I might have hid that information myself. But Captain he was both serious and comical. This is my version from what I saw. At the back of the boathouse was a throne. Nothing unusual about it. It was your typical porcelain, shiny-white, twenty-eight inch high version. Whether the front (the side facing the land) had a door or not, it was hard to tell. Maybe it did. The back end was air-conditioned from a nice breeze which comes off the swamp. Now the way I figure it, such a facility could accommodate many types of family members. Those who like to display themselves in public had some leeway. Others who liked to gamble, could take a chance when no water vessels were in the vicinity. Can't you hear them, "I just know I can make it before a sightseeing boat comes around the corner!" Yeah, those are the gambler types. And those who will not be put off, they tell a family member to grab a towel and hold it up, but not to turn around. "I don't care who is boating out there." is what they might say. Myself, I wondered why the authorities hadn't shut them down. Could it be that it was all for show? I wonder! There was also a boathouse tavern on the banks of the swamp. Can't you just picture patrons, slightly on the tipsy side, coming out of the tavern and falling into the swamp. Or undesirables being bounced! Where to? Onto the street! No, what street! Yeah, into the swamp! We were almost ready to dock. Captain, through others, informed all to be seated. Sometimes docking was bumpy. It took a while for most to get the message, but all were at least partially seated by the time we entered the narrow open dock area. Would there be a rush to the washrooms? I thought so, I was heading there quickly! Written by Harvey A. Bond

 

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