So Long. Good-Bye, See Ya Later

Wow, our time at Betty's is done and, as always, it was filled with good music, food, fun, friends and of course, a great time with our wonderful hostess Betty.  Many people ask why we return to Abbeville so often and it is because of all of the above and the fact that there is so much to do in the area that we find new things to do on each visit.  Here are a few things we did for the first time during this stay; we toured Acadian Village, went to the Festival International, enjoyed the Crawfish Festival, took a boat ride on the canal to Vermilion Bay, did a couple of brewery tastings, found new places to eat and made many new friends.  And this is in addition to the usual things we do every time we are here such as the Cajun Jam Sessions, Zydeco breakfasts, Cypress Bayou Casino, many local eateries, seeing old friends (both RVers and locals) and without a doubt Betty's famous happy hours.    

On our last Friday we realized we had been here for almost ten weeks and had not been to Suire's, a great little grocery store/restaurant near Kaplan.  Don't be fooled by the look of the building with the menu written on the outside wall, this place has been written up in the New York Times.  I like to go on Friday because the turtle sauce picante is the special. Nanc, Merlene, John, Sharon, Betty and Dan all love the food and the atmosphere.  

On Saturday it was one last Cajun Jam at Touchet's.  It was Memorial Day weekend so there were not  many people to hear the music. 

It was time to say good-bye to our many local friends.  In the corner is Mr. Curtis, a jam session regular, with Joe, Kristy, Jim and Ollie.  We sure will miss seeing them.

Friends Wade and Elda also joined us at the jam.  We had not seen them very much because they have been off in their RV most of the weekends we have been here.

Other than Dan there have not been any musicians at Betty's lately, so on Sunday Dan invited Judy Bailey and several locals from Touchet's to come by Betty's for a jam and Memorial Weekend cookout.  Here the RVers and local friend Lloyd are enjoying the music.  The weather was threatening, but it blew by and we had a great day of music.

Dan and Kristy jamming at Betty's.

Joe always has a great time when he is playing.

Judy, Steve and Dave strumming away and singing a couple of tunes. 

Judy with Jim who we had not seen much on this visit.

We met Dave and Priscilla here many years ago.  They have moved several times, but always seem to return to Abbeville.  On their last move they rented an apartment so we had not seen as much of them.  They stopped by on Monday to tell us they were moving again.  I'm sure we will see them down the road or back in Abbeville as it seems they just can't stay away.

On Tuesday we had one last lunch at Dupuy's, one of our local favorites.  Bottom are John, Sharon, Donnalyn and Jim.  Top are Betty, Dan, Merlene, Nanc, and Jim.  We had Dupuy's wonderful oysters one last time.

We had planned to leave on Wednesday but several things kept us at Betty's one more day.  When we received our mail we had an insurance issue we needed to resolve, the weather was threatening, but the real reason we stayed one more day was Betty was cooking a big pot of her famous, which is much better than Marvin's, gumbo.  Everyone added a side dish and we had a great last supper.

A parting toast to all our friends at Betty's.

On Thursday our farewell group was pretty small as there were only four RVs left and Jim and Donnalyn were shopping in Lafayette. It was a sad good-bye from Ron, Sharon, Merlene, Dan, Nanc, Betty and John.  We already have plans to return next spring and I'm sure we will see many of our RV friends along the road.  The last few people will be gone soon as Betty will be closing for the summer to take a much deserved rest to get rejuvenated for next year.