Life on the Refuge

We are really enjoying our stay on the refuge.  Last Sunday we had Chinese after Mass again and then drove across the river to downtown Shreveport.  There were some interesting buildings there, it is a real mix of some new buildings with a few old abandoned buildings and some older ones still being used.  Monday was a federal holiday so there were no paid workers here at the refuge.  I opened up the visitor's center and worked around the building and parking area picking up trash.  Some other volunteers came and opened the gift shop, so Janice and I rode around on the trails in the Ranger and picked up trash.  It has a really bad overheating problem, so we spent more time stopping and waiting for it to cool down than we did working.
Tuesday we went down the the boardwalk stores along the river here in Bossier City.  We visited a few stores and had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.  We ate too much!  After some more shopping there we went out to the community college here for supper.  The culinary class there serves a buffet on Tuesday evening and we wanted to try it.  We were still pretty full from lunch, so we got ours to go and saved most of it for the next day.  Wednesday was laundry day at the laundromat.  After we got that done we went out to a huge pawn shop that we had seen the night before and a used bookstore.  Thursday, I worked on cleaning in the office and visitor's center and Janice helped them prepare for a teachers seminar for Friday.  Friday, Janice helped with the teacher's seminar and I helped one of the workers here change the oil and filters in the mower and then we took the Ranger apart and removed and cleaned the radiator completely.  Today I was working at the boat ramp.  There was a kayak fishing contest on the lake plus the usual other boaters.  Janice came down and we ate our lunch there and watched the kayaks come in.  Later this afternoon we took the Ranger out around the trails and it worked great with no overheating.  The Mardi Gras parades are starting here now, maybe we will get to see one.  The weather has been really nice here for a few days, it feels good to go out without a coat on.