The return to the French Quarter was as much fun as Mardi Gras World. Bucky had seen a walking tour guide in the gift shop, and the Lovebunnies used that to navigate through the old Algiers Point neighborhood. It was a pretty walk past Creole cottages and staely houses. Loie and Bucky stopped several times, chatting with the people in yards or on porches. One older couple told them about parades that used to go through the Point, with floats drawn by mules. Their tour of Algiers Point was the last real event in New Orleans, as the next day was their return to Lake Drive.
In the beginning of April, Loie and Bucky were at the garden store looking for herbs.
"It's way too early to plant herbs," Bucky had said. "I know," said Loie, "Not until after your birthday. But since we're in town I just want to stop and look. It makes me think of warm weather." Loie found a plant she thought Bucky might agree could go in in April. "Do you think we could plant blubbries now?" she asked Bucky. He just looked at her. Loie smiled and showed him the package. "See, that's what it says: 'Berkeley blubry.'" (Loie was pronouncing it as BLUB-ry.) And indeed that's exactly what was printed on the package.
"Oh brother," said Bucky. "Blubries, not blueberries, huh? Sure, they're pretty hardy. They won't get going until after any frosts." (The blubries have taken hold and are making a few berries apiece, little things blasted by the heat wave of June 2002.)
On the 27th, Loie returned home after an overnight trip to Rocky Gap for a conference. She had a tale of adventure to tell Bucky. The day before, she had had some free time in the late afternoon and decided to walk around the small lake next to the conference center. Loie had been following a trail map she found in the conference center. It looked pretty simple, and she was confident of finishing the walk before dark.
Several colleagues had told her they'd done the walk and that it was a snap. Loie followed a trail around the lake. It seemed impossible to get lost on the broad trail: just follow the edge of the lake. As she walked on in the late afternoon light, the resort receded around the other side of the little lake. Loie met few people, then none as she walked on. She was encouraged on by glimpses of structures, but found them shut tight. By this time the light was fading. The trail had been root tangled and wet for a while. The unoccupied buildings were by the side of a road that seemed to head off along the lake shore, and it was time for a decision. Continue ahead into the dark and unknown, albeit on a paved lane, or go back a long way over the rooty, wet trail? The possibility that a car might pass on the lane beat out the possibility of twisting an ankle in the dark.
After another quarter hour of walking along the lane, Loie saw a car and flagged it down. The family in the car peered at Loie, and when she asked them if they could possibly come to her aid and ferry her back to the resort, everyone's eyes got big as the two parents said in unison, "You walked from that hotel?" The whole family seemed impressed at how far Loie's expotition had taken her! The kind rescuers knew a short way back, and in a few minutes Loie was returned to her hotel in time for supper.
Toward the end of the month, preparations were underway for Bucky's 50th Birthday and Olive Oil Tasting Party. Little did the Lovebunnies know, however, just what some people were planning.
Loie's Aunt Dolores, the gourmet shopper, had given the Lovebunnies a lovely basket of olive oils for Christmas. She had called it a scientific experiment: testing the oils to see which they liked best. "I don't know," said Bucky. "I don't think I'll be able to remember the first by the time we get to the third. How's this going to work?"
"We'll just have to have a testing party," Loie said. So, for Bucky's birthday, he got to cook a nice Italian simple buffet, and have all his friends over to scientifically test which they liked best. The party and experiment were a great sucess. More than a case of wine was consumed with Bucky's buffet, and the rating system for the oils worked very well. The guests had decided that the winner of the test was a sleeper bottle of Tuscan oil brought by Shirley and Bob, who had been on vacation in Naples. Annie and Russ had astounded Bucky and pleased Loie by bringing prints of some photos taken of Bucky in 1970, when he and Russ were in college together.
"Whew," said Bucky. "I looked like a real geek." He laughed and thanked Annie and Russ for thinking of him.
"No," said Loie, "You look good enough just eat up, and you don't look a bit different today." Bucky smiled and said thank you, adding that at least today, his hair was longer. The party was in full swing at two o'clock when Audra arrived with her friend and colleague Jim DeArmey. They brought a beautiful chocolate cake as a birthday present. As Loie later wrote…
They roared in at about 2 pm, insisting that everybody come in for the ceremony. B squeezed behind the dining room table to light candles. We sang and he blew out the candles, then cut a thin slice from one end of his cake. I said OK, grabbed the cake and moved it to the smaller "dessert" table.
About an hour later, Joan said, "Loie! There's something wrong with this cake!" I went in and saw that it was being cut in a funny curve. Joan said, "There's something in that cake." I looked closer and saw plastic inside the cake. It was weird, something big. I poked it with the knife, and it was hard. I thought it looked like a bone—what the heck! How could a nice home made cake have a bone in it?
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