The next part of our adventure could have come right out of
a movie script or a sitcom. From New
Orleans the plan was to travel about 3 ½ hours over to Pensacola, FL where Wendy’s
Aunt Budgie and Uncle Todd live. Aunt Budgie
is my mother-in-law’s sister and they have two grown up kids, Sara and
David. Budgie’s name isn’t her given
name which is actually Mildred, but Budgie hates that name with a passion so
she has always been called Budgie.
A couple of days before heading to Pensacola I get a text from
Wendy telling me that Budgie and Todd might not be a their house, because they’re
currently on vacation in Italy. That
seemed odd to me since about a month prior I had confirmed with Budgie that we
would be coming. I texted Budgie to see
if they were going to be around and sure enough, they were in Italy! Budgie got in me in touch with her daughter,
Sara who lives locally and Sara assured me it was fine to stay at their
house. As we were driving closer, Sara
let me know that she would probably be at the beach when we arrived, but
Patrick would let me in. Who’s
Patrick?! Sara texted me back, “You mean
Budgie didn’t tell you about Patrick?”
We finally arrive at the Budgie & Todd’s beautiful
corner lot house around 3:30 CST complete with a pool and stand-alone
garage. I called Patrick on his cell
phone to let him know we had arrived and an older gentleman with an Irish
accent greets us and helps me pull the camper into the driveway. I didn’t get the whole story, but Patrick
lives above Todd and Budgie’s garage. To
fill out the character of Patrick, he is accompanied by a one-eyed dog named Henry. Where am I and what is going on?!
Patrick let’s us into the house and I feed the kids left
over hotdogs and baked beans that were hidden away in Budgie & Todd’s refrigerator. Sara had just had a 4th of July party
so I was hoping that these were leftovers and not necessarily from before Budgie
and Todd left. Oh well, no one died
after we ate them. I tried reaching out
to Sara to see if we could meet up, but she was still at the beach. I told the kids to get changed so we could
head out to the beach. Drew really
wanted to swim in the pool and that’s when a random kid shows up in the back yard
and jumps in the pool. No adults in
sight, no explanation. I’m so confused.
We changed into our swim suits and another kid shows up in
the pool along with an adult. I go out
and introduce myself. Apparently Todd
& Budgie have an ‘open pool’ policy in which the neighborhood kids can come
over whenever they want to swim. They
know not to get in when a party is going on, though. Ha! All
I can do is shake my head.
The kids and I get directions to the beach from the random
neighbor so we head out. The sand is perfectly
white and the water was so warm and clear.
The type of warmth that you can just lay or stand in the water and never
get cold or uncomfortable. We swam a
couple of hours until Sara texted us so that we could meet up for dinner. Olivia’s eyes started to hurt from the salt
water so we headed back to the house to clean up.
Sara and her partner, Ryan, arrived shortly
after and we made plans to go out for pizza at a local spot that used to be hospital. Ryan said that his mom was actually born in
the hospital! We had some delicious pies
and some great conversation where we talked about the work Sara was doing
helping to provide voting rights to ex-felons in the state of Florida. Back in November, there was a public
referendum passed to allow ex-felons to vote, but recently the state legislator
and governor passed laws that basically stated that felons need to pay back
court costs prior to being able to vote which basically equates to a poll
tax. Florida and the south in general
have a very bad record at disenfranchising minority voters all the way back to
the Voter Rights Act. Very interesting
and very depressing stuff.
After stuffing ourselves with pizza we decided to head out
to a bar that was playing the Gold Cup (US vs. Mexico final in soccer). We met up a with some of Sara & Ryan’s
friends at the bar and enjoyed some local beer before heading back to the
house. I was surprised when we got back
to the house to see the friends we had just met. Apparently one of the friends was staying at
the house and needed to get her suitcase.
Sara mentioned that Todd and Budgie run a bit of a refugee camp through
their house for folks passing through or need a place to stay.
The Latshaws (Budgie & Todd’s last name) have huge
hearts and care deeply about their friends and family. They open up their home to everyone and
anyone which is so heart warming. From
the simple observer, though, it can certainly catch you off guard when the
hosts aren’t at home and all these different actors appear out of no where with
no explanation. Than you Budgie, Todd,
Sara, and Ryan for being wonderful hosts.
If not in person, but in spirit!
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