Exploring New Orleans

We arrived on Friday the 25^th after a relatively short drive from Livingston, La. Once again it’s not the best campground but it was available for the holiday weekend.  Since we are spending most of our time sightseeing it really doesn’t matter. The most important thing is electric/water/sewer connections!  Both the temperature and humidity have been record breaking!!

After making camp we drove down to Esplanade Ave. to look at the beautiful old homes lining the street and also to stop for dinner at Nonna Mia’s Italian Restaurant. It was recommended for it pizza and lobster pasta.  We chose the pizza and it was the best pizza I’ve ever had!

Nonna Mia's Italian Restaurant

Our table by the window

After dinner we headed to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street.  What a sight!  There were crowds everywhere. I don’t know if this is normal or due to the holiday weekend. The streets are narrow and one-way so maneuvering our truck through the area was a real challenge. We couldn’t find any place to park so we decided to come back another day.

Narrow streets of the French Quarter

On Saturday we drove out to take a tour of the Oak Alley Plantation and the grounds. It got it’s name from the 300 year old Virginia Oaks that form a quarter mile path from the Mississippi river to the front door of the house. It’s a beautiful place and they still harvest many acres of sugar cane. I had my first Mint Julep while sitting on the veranda.

Oak Alley Plantation

Our tour guide

Plantation entry way

Late Saturday afternoon we ventured back to the French Quarter and found a place to park.  We walked all the famous streets and stopped in the shops… including some of the Voodoo shops. We were told about a little hole in the wall restaurant on Decatur St. called Coops and went to check it out.  Unfortunately, a lot of other folks decided to do the same and the line was out the door.  I was absolutely melting from the heat & humidity by this time so we went looking for another place to eat.  It wasn’t as quaint but seats were available.

Bourbon Street

Add caption

Voodoo Shop

Later today we will be checking out some of New Orleans’s unique “above ground” cemeteries.  Tonight it’s back to just outside the French Quarter to check out some of the best clubs for Jazz.

Leaving tomorrow for New Orleans.

Lakeside RV Park

Our campsite

This has been a great campground, right on a lake, in Livingston, Louisiana about 30 miles east of Baton Rouge. We've spent a few days of much needed R & R after driving half way across the country.  If the temperature and humidity had been lower it would have been a perfect time but if you spend any time outside you start to melt... well, at least I do!!

I was having problems connecting to the Internet with my new iPad 3 so we went to a Verizon store for a new sim card and when that didn't work they sent us down to New Orleans to an Apple Store.  I'm not sure if I trust it to work correctly. I guess I'll find out when I use it on our trip down to New Orleans tomorrow.

Old oak tree

While we were at the Verizon store we saw this gigantic old oak tree next door and just had to take a picture of it. Some of the branches hung down so low that they appeared to be rooted in the ground...and maybe they were.

Once we get to New Orleans and set up camp we'll start exploring the area and plan on going on some Plantation tours among other things. More to follow...

On the move...

We've logged quite a few miles since I was last able to post to the blog.  

We left Brownsville on May 20th for Houston and a visit with Jim's Santa Cruz high school friend.  Once on the road we decided that was a bit too far to travel in one day and opted to stay just south of Houston in the small town of Columbus, Texas for the night.

The next day we set off for a nice campground about 20 miles north of Huntsville. Dennis, Jim's friend, is a professor of geology and geography at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas and Jim and Dennis spent the afternoon swapping stories about their adventures as kids growing up in Santa Cruz.  I found out that they, and several other friends, were holy terrors as kids which doesn't surprise me in the least!

On the 22nd we left for Louisiana.  Our trip, so far, had been uneventful but that all changed after we crossed the border between Texas and Louisiana.  I noticed that the tire pressure monitors on the trailer tires was indicating one tire was losing air.  We pulled off I-10 to check it out and discovered that we were losing air from the valve stem... or thought we were.  

We found a tire repair shop and they replaced the valve stem.  That didn't work... still losing air.  They tried another one without any success.  That's when we realized that we had a cracked rim!  The same thing happened up in Oregon on our trip to Alaska. As luck would have it they had a used rim that fit and once they mounted the tire on it we were on our way.  We will be calling Keystone, the manufacturer of our trailer, to see if they will replace the two remaining original rims.  The original warranty is long over but we can only hope they will. If that doesn't work we will try our extended warranty company to see if the rims are covered.

We are now camped about 25 east of Baton Rouge for the next few days.  We hope to explore the area between here and New Orleans.  And we just need some R & R since we've been on the go ever since we left home. The campground here in Livingston, La. is the best one we've been in so far.  It's right on a lake but we probably won't be spending a lot of time here with all the sightseeing we've planned. The weather has been hot and HUMID ever since we entered Texas! San Diego's weather has spoiled me!

I just found out that our new solar system is energized and is sending power to the grid!   We should be banking a lot of credit since we're not using much power while we're gone.

After a very long drive from Boerne, Texas we finally arrived in Brownsville, Texas Friday afternoon May 18th.  It's amazing how much this drive through Texas has reminded us of driving through British Columbia and Alaska... just miles and miles of nothing around but much hotter and humid!


We made camp and Aunt Mary Rose and cousin Sue called to see what our plans were and volunteered to take us on a tour of Brownsville the next day. It's been years (1969) since I've seen them and was anxious to find out what had transpired with my "long lost" family.

Sue, Aunt Mary Rose & me at Carino's

We spent a pleasant afternoon touring Brownsville, visiting at their home and then topped it off with a very good dinner at Carino's Italian Restaurant followed by a glass of wine at our campsite.  This visit is very special to me and one I wouldn't have missed for the world!

Top of the Hill RV Park - Boerne, Texas

I finally have a good WiFi connect so I've added some photos to the posts. 

Here we are in Boerne, Texas which is about 30 miles north of San Antonio. We were told today is the first day, in five days, that it hasn't rained.  Guess we brought the sun from California! Hope it stays that way since Jim decided to give the 5th wheel and truck a sponge bath to get rid of all the bugs.

We haven't done any sightseeing to speak of yet. Instead we're deadheading it to Brownsville, Texas for a few days and then up to Houston for a couple more.

 

Fort Stockton campground!  Yuck!

I'm not having a lot of success posting to the blog with this dang iPad but I'll give it a try anyway!

Yesterday we stopped for the night at a campground in Fort Stockton, Texas a little earlier than usual because we're on a stretch of road with a lot of empty country. Too bad this Passport America campground was so shabby... at least we had electric/water/sewer hookups!

There's not much between New Mexico & San Antonio. We're gonna see a lot of Texas before we head off to New Orleans! I do wish we could spend some time going down to Big Bend National Park as Fort Stockton is the gateway & I've always wanted to go there...maybe some other time. But now we're on schedule to be in Brownsville by Friday to visit my aunt & cousin that I haven't seen since about 1969.

 For those of you that would like to leave a comment to one of the posts you are able to do so without having a google account. It will show up as anonymous, so just include your name after you comment.

Arrived in Las Cruces late yesterday afternoon. 

The trip was relatively uneventful except for the long climb up the Continental Divide bucking headwinds.  

As we approached the campground exit we saw a warning sign that the exit was closed. I called the campground and we were told to go to the next exit and follow another road. Well... we ended up getting lost in Las Cruces.  After another phone call and a chat with several folks at the campground we found our way back to the freeway and returned to the closed exit from the westbound side. 

We haven't decided where our next stop will be but it will be somewhere in Texas in the middle of no where!

We're on the road!

We had a late start due to problems with our home phone. We waited for a repairman until 10:30AM.  When we found out no one was available until the afternoon we decided to leave and hope they would be able to fix it without access to the inside of the house.  It was almost 5:30PM before they got it working so all my worries were for naught.
  
We pointed the truck east and  headed for Casa Grande for the night.  It was very hot crossing the desert... 109* and still over 100* when we arrived at the campground.  Both Missie & Bella (the dogs) and Ellie & Keeker (the cats) curled up and slept most of the trip.  Thankfully, they are really good travellers!

I'm not quite sure where are next stop will be... maybe Las Cruces, New Mexico.  We're heading for Brownsville, Texas to visit with my aunt and cousin that I lost touch with many years ago. I'm very excited to see them again.

Part of my Mother's Day bouquet.

My birthday present.

I couldn't leave my flowers behind so they are now decorating the trailer.  Kurt, Kim, Syd & Jenna sent the flowers from Hawaii and Tim gave the orchid to me from my birthday. I have my fingers crossed that it will survive the trip.  The others are starting to fade already.

The count down has started!

Where did the time go??? Three more days left before we hit the road!

Jim cleaning the roof.

We've been busy cleaning the trailer and rearranging the contents. Most of the clothing has been loaded and some of the food.  Jim has tuned up the irrigation system and Joe, our gardener, will be on the lookout for any failures. 

The sheriff's vacation patrol will be checking on the house and Dyanne & Denise, the neighbors next door, will keep an eye on things.They're hosting a Bon Voyage party for us Saturday night. It's great to have wonderful neighbors!

I'm hoping to do a better job of making blog entries than I did for our Alaska trip.  Technology is much better now with smart phones that connect to the internet and better WiFi connections for the laptop and iPad.