Last Leg to the Florida Panhandle

We were up and on our way by 9:00 AM.  I know that is not really early but, please, with a 5 and 7 year old, it isn't bad.  Breakfast can be a time consuming affair.  We had no trouble getting back on I-10 and heading out.  The route goes over long bridges stretching out over one side of Lake Ponchartrain.  The route through Mississippi is pretty too.  There is a short stretch of Alabama to cover before you get to Florida.  We knew this would be our longest traveling day but we planned rest stops to stretch our legs and give the kids a break.  Okay, we needed them too.  Steve said he was really enjoying the motorcycle ride but the seat does get hard after a while.  Some times he rode ahead of us and sometimes behind.  Every once in a while, he would go past and wave to the kids.

 There are some nice rest areas along the way so you might as well take advantage of them.  The sky looked great in this picture but you can see the clouds in the distance.  The rain did hit us and pour hard for about 10 minutes.  Steve waved me over so he could give me the cell phone.  Once it quit, it didn't take long before he was dry because it was a hot trip.  It is 15 degrees cooler here than in Texas but it is so humid.  Once you cross into Florida, you start seeing so many tall pine trees and there are magnolias growing on the side of the road.  All of a sudden, "Hillary" said it was time to turn off.  Steve was ahead of me and I honked several times but he went sailing on.  I knew he was going to have to stop for gas again (about 130 miles per motorcycle tankful) so I made the turn onto 331.  After debating with myself on whether I should wait to see if he turned around, I figured he knew the way home and went on ahead.  We made it to Lynn Haven (next to Panama City) about 15 minutes before he did but pulling your house behind you means you always have a place to go.  Steve has lots of room to park in his side yard so we were just relaxing when he got there.

New Orleans - Day 2

The original plan was to stay for one night but, since we arrived at 2:30PM, we decided to spend the rest of that day relaxing at the RV park.  Then this morning we headed down to the French Quarter.  Although the park does have a shuttle ($5/person for the first 3 days, then free), we decided to drive so that we wouldn't have to match our schedule to the shuttle's--just easier with kids.  With a little help from "Hilary", it was easy to find our way.  There is a parking lot right next to the Jax Beer building that is centrally located for easy walking to everything in the Quarter.  New Orleans is one of Steve and Helen's favorite places.  So, we had a very light breakfast so we could head to Cafe du Monde for coffee au lait and beignets.

See the monkey?  I think it will be traveling with Steve and Helen so look for it in future pictures with them.  In case you have never been to New Orleans, Cafe du Monde is the place to go.  The beignets are french donuts, square and served in a dish of powdered sugar.  Steve told the kids not to worry about getting messy as it was something that happened when you had beignets.  The coffee au lait was great too.  Even if you normally drink it black, consider the "au lait" version as it is chicory coffee--very strong.

Next we strolled around Jackson Square, it was morning so it was still pretty tame.  The scenery gets a little flamboyant for kids in the evening.  We went in all the local tourist shops and met the locals.

The kids are all fascinated with alligators--in the store...

in the market place

but, so far, no live ones.

Cameron and Morgan posed in front of this motorcycle in the Harley Davidson store 

for their Grandpa.

Then Miss Morgan posed with her new friend.

Funny hats and masks are everywhere in the quarter regardless of whether it is Mardigras time or not.

The sky suddenly got black, I mean really black so we thought we were in for a heavy deluge.  It was lunchtime so we ducked under the covered outside of the ____ restaurant.  The kids split an order of chicken fingers.  A good thing too as the plate was more than big enough for an adult portion.  Steve had jambalaya which came in three big scoops.  I had half a muffalata sandwich.  When served, it covered half of the dinner plate so Steve helped me out.  Luckily, the storm passed us over without dumping more than a couple of sprinkles.

You should also go into the Cathedral in the square.  They welcome visitors to see the beautiful paintings on the ceiling and the stained glass windows as long as services are not in session.  We also saw a great paddle wheel boat which is real--not just for show.  There is a lot more to see but four hours was about enough walking for a 5 and 7 year old.

The buildings are not always in the greatest shape but the wrought iron railings and plants dress them up beautifully.

We still saw boarded up buildings as we drove back to the park as well as a lot of houses that were obviously new.  It is still a work in progress but the French Quarter is definitely back in business.

Back at the park, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool.  After dinner in the RV, we watched a kids movie and Steve got to work the computer again.

New Orleans - Day 1

Back on the road again only much earlier for the second day of our trip, we headed out through Beaumont, TX, at 8:30 AM.  It wasn't long before we were into Louisiana and headed towards the Achafalaya Bayou.  To all the WomenRV members who live in this area, I wish I could have stopped to visit while passing through but it just wasn't possible this trip.  I was definitely thinking about you as I passed the sign to Butte LaRose.

This is really an interesting area as you drive for miles on a road suspended above water.  There is a great visitor's center which I definitely recommend as a quick stop or even a longer one to anyone passing through.  They have a parking area for RVs which is separate from the truck area.  You can also spend the night there if you choose although it is pretty hot this time of year unless you have a generator for your AC.  There is an interesting museum and they have free coffee as well.  This was not my planned stop for lunch but the seven year old had an urgent need for a pit stop so we had lunch here instead.......

The sign was rather out of date as you can tell by the pricing.  I was a little worried about whether Steve would see us pulled off the highway as he was a bit further behind us but he did see us before he got to the ramp.  He found a shaded parking place for the bike.  We were off to the side out of the way while we ate lunch and walked around for a while.  Then we were off again.

"Hilary" our faithful GPS only failed us once, or maybe it was really me failing as the driver, as there were two exits right next to each other in New Orleans, and I picked the first one.  Hilary quickly rerouted us and we were back on track to Ponchartrain Landing, our Passport America pick in New Orleans.  This RV park is advertised as the only one on the water.  You kind of wonder what you are getting into as you travel through an industrial area to get to the park.  The park may have started as a marina but some enterprising person realized that it would also make a good RV resort.  It is gated and secure, you are given the gate code when you check in.  They have planted palm trees, palmettos, and oleanders between all the sites.  It is an RV park not a campground but there is decent space between the RVs.  Some are back-ins, some along the water, and some are pull-throughs.  The roads and sites are gravel but are nice and level.  They have a pool with an adjoining covered outside bar area and a hot tub (which wasn't very hot).  The price was steeper than expected as the rates have gone up since last year ($35 Passport America) but it is only 5 miles from the French Quarter.  They do have a shuttle service although there is a charge for it. 

The sites are actually further apart than they look with full hookups.  They also came by, picked up our propane tanks, filled and returned them while we were enjoying the pool.

We cooled off in the pool, had a great dinner, and walked around to see the rest of the park.  I think you could rent jet skis and some of the RVers had boats tied up to the pier next to their RV.  They had a small play area, a good sized dog off leash area, a laundromat, and shower areas.  Although not while we were there, they have some planned events like movie night outside on a screen, etc.  The wifi was free and worked very well although my computer was in constant use (not by me) after the kids went to bed.

Sunday-The Road Trip to Florida Begins

Some time ago, Steve asked me if I wanted to come to Florida for a good part of the summer while he has the kids.  His idea was to travel down with the RV and then spend time camping for part of each week while there.  He will have quite a bit of time off from work so it should be fun.  He loves to RV as much as I do and wanted to share the experience with the kids.  We picked the RV up from storage on Saturday and he was busy checking the tires, etc. that evening.  I started doing a bit of reorganizing.  Toting things out to the RV goes much faster when you have some big strong help to move it.

Sunday morning, the last of the clothes and extras went out.  We had already decided to hold off on a Walmart run until this morning and just load the food directly into the RV. 

Let's hit the road! 

I forgot to mention that Steve and his Dad did some trading which resulted in Steve having a motorcycle that needed transport to Florida.  Of course, the men in the family decided that this was the perfect time to get it there as there would be plenty of travel breaks.

Everybody ready to roll?

Suited up at Walmart and headed out!

We pulled out of the Walmart parking lot at 11:30AM and headed down the back roads to I-10.  Two hours later, we pulled into a rest area and made ham sandwiches for lunch.  Potty breaks for all plus a walk  around with the dogs to stretch the kids legs and we were on the road again.  We had an easy trip through Houston since it was Sunday afternoon and traffic was light.  Just as we were coming into Beaumont, TX, about 6:15PM, we pulled into Hidden Lakes RV Park.  The office was already closed but there were two envelopes with info for #30 and #31 pull-through spots taped to the door.  One of the other campers came up to see if we needed any help (and to ask if the motorcyclist was with me, hilarious as he certainly didn't look like a Hell's Angel).  We got set up in our site.  The propane turned up empty earlier in the day and we were hoping to fill up at the park but no such luck. We decided that we would have dinner out so quickly unhitched and only had to go a mile to find several places.  Cracker Barrel got our business for the night.  Back at camp, we found that we couldn't connect to the free wifi because it asked for a logon and password which was not in our packet of info.  There was not a lot for us to do at the park because the lake was definitely not one that we would swim in and we weren't into fishing.  The park was very clean and quiet though and had great individual bathrooms and a laundry room so not a bad place to stop overnight for Passport America prices ($17.50 plus $2 each for more than 2).  We were already to pull out at 8:30AM when the office manager arrived.  I told her it was fine except for the wifi logon and password we didn't get.  She seemed puzzled and said "you just enter your own" which is definitely not the norm.

Fun Arrives in San Antonio-Friday

I picked up my son at the airport last night and for once Delta was early instead of late.  Today we drove up to Brownwood to pick up his kids for the rest of the summer.  The handoff between parents went smoothly which sure made life easier.  So we spent a total of 7 hours on the road today going from San Antonio to Brownwood and back again.  Lunch was Dairy Queen in Llano, hamburgers are always popular.  Steve calls Dairy Queen the Texas stop sign.  This afternoon we had a nice swim in our neighbors pool.  It was beautiful and warm, very relaxing.  We all need an earlier night tonight because last night was a late one.

Cameron, Steve, and Morgan-Two Kids Very Happy to See Their Dad

The Texas Stop Sign Strikes Again

Birthday Party

The day didn't have the best start.  DH usually is a late riser so I figured I could fit in a trip to the store for last minute party supplies and get a good start on food prep before he got up; however...   This morning he was up at 7:30 so I just had to carry on with the store trip anyway.  After hauling in the goods, I spent the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon fixing potato salad, shrimp salad, coleslaw, and baked beans.  I also made a birthday cake and shaped about 40 hamburger patties.  Whooh!

The birthday party seemed to be a big success with lots of friends and neighbors showing up about 6pm. We are blessed with great neighbors in our cul-de-sac. The furkids even had a guest as our longtime friend Loretta and her son Bobby brought their dachshund Owen with them.  Owen is the brother of our Gretchen although you wouldn't know it to see them as Owen is about twice her size.  The dogs played and Harley entertained the crowd as usual. There was only one minor glitch--the camera battery gave up the ghost just as I focused on the birthday boy and his cake so I didn't get a picture.  Sorry! We had enough food for about 20 more people but that's okay; I would rather be prepared for more than not have enough to those who come.  Some of the neighbors graciously took home goody boxes and I won't have to cook for a couple of days so it all worked out. DH had birthday calls from friends and relatives throughout the day.   After everyone left, I tackled the cleanup with a little help from DH so bedtime was welcome.

Our daughter-in-law also shares this birthday so Happy Birthday Lorri.

Happy 4th of July

Have a Happy and safe 4th of July!

We are having a pretty quiet 4th of July this year but the flag is up and one of the local realtors came around and put a decent size flag at the corner of every driveway in the neighborhood.  Looks pretty nice.  They did it last year too.  There won't be fireworks in this part of Texas as it is just too hot and dry and we are under a burn ban.  It is a shame but I hope that people take it seriously as there have been too many fires across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  We are going to have a party tomorrow although my DH doesn't know it yet--it is his birthday.  By the end of the week, I should be heading out with Moby Dick and The Pholly (F250 Diesel and 299RLS Jayco 5th wheel) so a quiet holiday today doesn't seem too bad.