Surrounded by water!

Tuesday we had planned to drive up to Baton Rouge, BUT all the weather reports indicated high winds, and rain. Didn't sound like a great day to go site seeing, so we decided to stay home and read. I had been trying to finish "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemingway, but had been distracted each day recently by other things. So I opened the book on my Kindle in dove in. According to the Kindle I had read 75% of the book....I have no idea how many pages that is, nor how many I had left, but it took me the better part of the morning to finish that 25%. For those of you who have read this novel you know that the first 75% is repleat with detailed, in depth dialogue and character development. By the time you get to the last quarter of the book you know each of the characters in amazing detail. There are really no questions left in your mind about the characters, or what motivates them. The only thing you are left with is who is for whom is the bell going to toll. By the time I finished the book it had become clear that the rain was not coming yet, but it was very, very windy. For those of you who have not read this book I will not spoil the ending for you.

I went back to my home page in the Kindle and found a Louis L'Amour book I had not yet read, and so dove into Borden Chantry. What I love about his westerns is that you can read them in an afternoon, and you know the main character will prevail in whatever struggle he, or she is engaged.....good win out. I have yet to read one of L'Amour's books that I did not enjoy, and have read many more than once.

By the time I finsished my second book of the day it was after 5pm, and the day was just about done....and still no rain.....but lots of wind.

It wasn't until about 8am this morning (Wednesday) that the rain came, and it came with a vengance. Take a look a the video I have uploaded . Not apparent in the video is the lightning and thunder that accompanied the torrential down pour.

I don't know if I have mentioned before, but Elaine and I applied to Amazon to work in one of their fulfillment centers this fall/winter from mid October to December 23rd. We can make good money during that time...enough to pay for a couple of years of diesel, and travels. At any rate we had submitted our applications back in January. We had gotten an e-mail a week ago, or so which indicated we would be called soon for our phone interviews, and guess what? That day was today at 8:30am.....we had just poured ourselves a cup of coffee when Kelly (a guy) called from Amazon to do the phone interview. They want to be sure you are aware of the physical nature of the work, and are up to it, so they ask you a lot of detailed questions about your physical abilities, and explain in graphic detail the responsiblities of each position. At the end of the interview we were advised we were accepted to work in their Campbellsville, KY center. The hourly pay is decent, and if you complete your contract you get a $1.00 per hour worked bonus per person. In addition, they pay for your RV spot, and utilities. The only thing we are responsible for is our propane.

There are 3 fulfillment centers Amazon recruits workcampers to: Fernley, NV, Coffeyville, Kansas, and Campbellsville, KY....we chose Kentucky as we felt the weather would be the most moderate compared to the other two locations. So, we are set and have about 6.5 months of freedom before we begin our stint at Amazon.

Our plan after Amazon is to head down to Florida for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by!!

The Big Easy

Business 90 bridge over Mississippi River into the Big Easy

Today (Monday) was the day we decided to drive into New Orleans for the day. Our intent was not to do and see everything there is to do, because that would require several days. We wanted to get the "lay of the land" so to speak, and see, on our first trip in, what was important to us. There will another time.

We took Highway 308 to Highway 90 and into New Orleans. The trip took around and hour and a half. We drove down the length of St. Charles and back to Lee Circle for starters and enjoyed the many magnificent mansions along with the street cars, and Tulane University. After our round trip up and down St. Charles we found a parking lot near the National WW 2 Musuem. Since we were already there we decided to take some time and take the tour. We spent about an hour and a half in the museum, but we could have taken 2 days! There is a lot to see in this museum, and it is well worth your time.

St. Charles

After the museum we decided to walk to to Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. It was probably about 8, or 9 blocks. We stopped off at Lafayette Square to take a picture.

At last we came to Bourbon Street, which begins at Canal Street one block over from St. Charles. My first impression of Bourbon Street was the on again, off again smell of what smelled like the gray water I dump out of my holding tank once a week. The second thing I noticed was the large number of strip clubs....in fact the first thing you see when you enter Bourbon St. is the Hustler Club. We walked the entire length of Bourbon Street where you could still see some party beads left over from Mardi Gras hanging from the balconies. At every restaurant entrance stood people holding the menu for that restaurant in front of them, and asking you to come in.

Of course, everwhere is the typical French period architecture. If you have ever seen video of Bourbon Street this is what you remember, but with thousands of people hanging over the balconies.

There were various clubs offering the different genres of music, and a lot of bars.....most full at mid day on a Monday.

Just after we reached the end of Bourbon street and walked over to Royal to walk back to Canal Street we found this nice little coffee shop were I got a Mocca Frappuccino and Elaine a coffee of the day. Nice break after a long walk.

Our walk back up Royal (turns into St. Charles) was actually more enjoyable.....there were a lot of street musicians, antique shops, and the Louisiana State Supreme Court. Very pretty building!


We spent about 6 hours in the Big Easy, and really just scratched the surface of what there is to see. When we got back to Canal Street we caught the St. Charles Trolley back to our parking lot. It was a very nice day, and we will return.

We got home about 5:30pm, and I immediately checked to see if the paint was dry in the engine bays that I had applied that morning. It was, so Elaine helped me cut the rubber mats to fit, and we installed them. This finished project exceeded my expectations!

The dry paint

After new rubber mats!!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's OK to watch basketball ALL DAY

Our view the past few days.....getting ready to change it again.

I always enjoy the first weekend of March Madness NCAA mens basketball.....there are wall to wall games to watch. I watched 5, or 6 games Friday, and then Saturday evening watched probably parts of 8 games, but yesterday, Sunday, the TV was on ALL day and into the night...the last game finished a little after 11pm my time! What a great day of basketball....a couple of upsets, which is what March Madness is all about. Since there are no Pac-12 teams still in the tournament I have spent my time rooting for the underdog schools.....you know, the small schools that never get any attention until they knock off Duke. Anyway, that's how I spent most of my day.

Before basketball started up I got busy washing the last of my rolling stock, the trailer. It is really the easiest to wash, and it always looks so great to see it sparkling white again. It had taken on a dingy gray tone from all the drizzle we drove through out of Padre Island, and Palacios. It only took parts of 3 days to get the coach, 'Bird and trailer clean.

Since I have everything out of the engine bays on both sides of the DD due to the radiator cleaning that went on Saturday I decided to prime, and repaint the metal floor of each, and put in new rubber mats. The original owner had fabricated a wood platform in each, but the wood had rotted out over the years, and it was time to rip it out. The Rustoleum gray primer went on Sunday, and the Rustoleum gloss gray finish coat will go on this morning. Then I'll cut the rubber mats to fit the space.

Primer is on!

The old rotted wood "mats"

The new rubber mats!

This is one of the nice things about being able to park in one place for 5-7 days....I can work on projects, and get them finished before we move on. When we were in Austin I was able to replace the 110 AC fan behind the refrigerator (helps exhaust the hot air in the "chimney behind the fridge, which helps the fridge stay cold), which I could only use when the inverter was on, or when we were plugged in. I replaced it with a similar size fan, but 12 Volt DC, so now I can run the fan on hot days while on the move, or dry camping without having to turn on the inverter. The old AC fan had to be manually plugged in, but I installed an on/off switch on the new 12 volt fan to make it easier to turn on and off!

Other than the run over to Lowe's to get the Rustoleum and rubber mats we didn't do much, other than watch basketball (OK, Elaine didn't watch basketball, she read), and take a short swim in our host's swimming pool to cool off....it got up to 85...the warmest temps we have had on our trip! Looks like we're in for a few days of rain starting Tuesday and running through Thursday, so we'll stay put until that passes, and then we'll change the view out our front door again....we'll be moving on to Mississippi, and then Alabama.

Today we're heading into the Big Easy for the day, and then up to Baton Rouge tomorrow to do some more site seeing.

Thanks for stoppping by!

Zydeco

My day ended yesterday with the Newell half washed.....well, a little more than half, because I washed the roof, the driver's side, and the front....so 60% done. This morning I decided before I would finish washing the coach that I would clean the massive radiator first, and, of course, if I clean the radiator I have to clean out the engine compartment, too. That is a messy, gunky, 2 hour job, but very necessary....I had noticed the last couple of travel days that the engine temps were running about 10 degrees higher than normal. A Detroit Diesel 2 stroke operates at 180-185 degrees under normal conditions.....mine had been hitting 195+ the last couple of days. Once that was done, then the rest of the Newell was done in about 15 minutes.

Thankfully Elaine had turned on the A/C a few minutes before I came in to take my shower, so the air was already dry inside. Which reminds me.......I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt today that said "SWEAT, RINSE, REPEAT"....that pretty much describes life in the deep south. The humidity is ever present. I was telling my sister this evening that when the humidity would get up to 61% in Ontario I would notice, and fuss about it. When the humidity gets down to 61% here in Louisiana I notice it, and am grateful......all a matter of where you are standing at the moment.

After I made myself presentable again we headed over to Nicholls State University (just a few miles from where we are parked) to attend their annual Swamp Stomp which features Zydeco bands for 3 days. We spent about 5 hours there enjoying the fun, upbeat music along with a cool breeze, cloud cover, and low humidity at the aforementioned 61%.

From Wikipedia: Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music. The rural Creoles of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas still sing in Louisiana Creole French.

Zydeco combines elements of an even older American musical style which began in the late 1700s: Cajun music, which comprises French fiddle tunes, Irish Celtic fiddle tunes, German button accordion, Latin rhythms, and Appalachian styles.

Zydeco music was born in the late 1860s as a blend of Cajun music and two other "new" American music styles: blues and rhythm and blues. Haitian rhythms were also added, as Haitian natives moved to Louisiana to help harvest the new cash crop - sugarcane.

On the way home we stopped at Bubbas II Sports Bar to have some crawfish and shrimp.....yum!

We got home around 6:30pm......I was expecting a SKYPE call from my sister, Jill, in Michigan at 7pm. We talked about 40 minutes just sharing life, and what is happening in each others lives......SKYPE is sooo cool. An hour later my brother, Philip, from California called and we talked with him, Jeannie (his wife) and Dani (his daughter) for about the same length of time. As I have said more than once, SKYPE makes it a little less painful to be away from family for long periods of time. Just a couple of nights ago my youngest daughter, Sharon, called me out of the blue on SKYPE to ask me what I thought of Derek Fisher being traded by the Lakers to Houston......wow, I was really out of touch....I had not even heard that news yet!

Also was able to watch the ends of a few NCAA basketball games today. There have been some great games this year so far.

Well, there you go....another day in our life on the road.....and what a nice life it is.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friendly Deep South

The one thing I have been noticing as we have traveled further into the south is how friendly, and laid back people are down here. A great example was today over in Houma....about 15 miles southeast of our current location....I was returning the HUMIDifier we mistakenly bought at Home Depot in Lafayette and asked to see their DEhumidifiers, which they don't carry. The young lady we talked to at Home Depot suggested I visit LMF RV Accessories a couple of blocks over, and guess what? They had exactly what I wanted for $59!

As you will recall I arrived in Thibodaux with a bent tongue jack (I call it landing gear) on my trailer. I emailed our host, who is on his own Newell trip up in Utah, and he gave me the name of a local trailer supply just a few miles from our location. I went in and they had exactly what I needed for $25, so I bought it and installed it in 5 minutes....one of the easiest mechanical fixes I have had so far on this trip.

The new 2,000 lb. tongue jack

We also stopped off at the local Academy Sports.....kind of like Sports Chalet, or REI, and I bought a couple of new pair of shorts......my current supply has worn down, and is thread bare.

About an hour after we returned "home" a couple of Newell owners who live in this area (Houma and Raceland) stopped by to talk for a couple of hours. Both of these guys are Cajun....I love that accent. At any rate they gave us the names of some good local eateries where we can sample the local fare such as boiled crawfish, and frog legs.....everyone I talk to says I will LOVE frog legs....so we will see. They say they taste just like chicken....so I'm thinking, why not just get some good blackened chicken? We're also going to run up to Baton Rouge tomorrow and do a little site seeing, then Sunday over to Nichols University to listen to some Zydeco bands at the annual Swamp Stomp, and then on Monday we'll drive into New Orleans.

One thing I have to admit is that I am slowly adjusting to the higher humidity levels....I'll never like humidity, but why let it spoil your day, right? I just change shirts more often, and take more showers....by the way, our new DEhumidifier is working wonderfully.....lol!!

Late this afternoon I began the task of washing the road grime off the coach again....after all the hard work in Corpus Christi we drove through two more days of drizzle, and it is worse now than it was on Padre Island. I got up on the roof and brushed and washed off the grime, and salt, and then got the front (a virtual bug annihilation occurred over 3 days) and drivers side done before I called it quits for the day. Tomorrow the passenger side, and back, and then the trailer. I used to pay someone to do this work, and it is hard work, but now that I have a lot of time on my hands I'm happy to do it myself again....it is actually good exercise, although climbing on the roof is not high on my "FUN LIST".

Well, that was our day.....I didn't think I did that much today until I sat down to write about it...haha!

Thanks for stopping by!

Avery Island

I can get used to these sunny days! It seems no matter how hard we try, we usually don't get underway until 9:30, or 10am. But, really, I don't think it matters. We don't drive that many miles on travel days, so even with a mid morning start we are usually at our destination for the day by 2:30, or 3pm. Since we are going to be camping without a sewer connection for the next 5 days I completely emptied both the black, and gray tanks. We will have access to water and 50 amps of electricity. We are once again utilizing a courtesy parking opportunity about 60 miles west of New Orleans. We will probably head in this weekend to Bourbon Street.

In the mean time our first stop of the day was a Home Depot to buy a DEhumidifier. Seems like a simple concept, right? Well we walked in and asked one of the associates where their DEhumidifiers were....keep in mind, it never occurred to us that anyone in Louisiana would be looking for a HUMIDifier......just step out side if you need some more moisture. So, he shows us a couple of models...we're looking for a small one to use in our coach. We pick the $29 one, and check out. Later today we went to plug it in and realized we had bought a HUMIDifier.....DOH! So, we'll drive over to Houma tomorrow and exchange our HUMIDifier for a DEhumidifier.

Our one site seeing stop for today was Avery Island. Two things you need to know about Avery Island...it isn't really an island, and this is the home of Tabasco sauce. Avery Island is actually the largest of 5 salt domes in Louisiana....because the land sits on a salt dome it is elevated above the bayou, and thus, from the air looks like an island.

Avery Island from the air......

Avery Island is a short 7 mile drive south of SR 90 on Avery Island Road. You have to pay $1.00 per vehicle to enter the island.....very reasonable. You have to, however, cross 4 enormous speed bumps as you pass through the entrance gate. There was a nice turn around for buses, so we chose that area to park our large 62' long behemouth. The tour was very enlightening. Edmund McIlhenny was given seeds of Capsicum frutescens peppers that came from Mexico or Central America, and he first planted them on Avery Island, Louisiana, over 140 years ago.None of the peppers used to make Tabasco are grown on Avery Island, but in South America. They do plant about 50 acres in peppers on the "Island", but these peppers are used exclusively for their seeds. Members of the McIlhenny family (who own the entire "island") personally inspect the pepper crop each year and choose the peppers to be used for seeds. The seeds are in turn shipped to their plantations in South America to be planted and harvested. When those peppers are harvested, they’re shipped back to Avery Island for the next step in the process.

After the peppers are picked, they are mashed and then mixed with a small amount of Avery Island salt extracted from the salt mines that lie beneath the Island. The pepper mash is placed in white oak barrels, and the wooden tops of the barrels are then covered with more Avery Island salt, which acts as a natural barrier to protect the barrels’ contents. The mash is allowed to ferment and then age for up to three years in the McIlhenny warehouse. The white oak barrels are purchased used from Jack Daniels after they are through aging their whiskey in them....who would have thought?

If you are in Lousiana you must stop by Avery Island.

The lovely Elaine

The Tabasco bottling plant puts out 700,000 bottles a day.

Apparently when I hooked the trailer back up yesterday in Galveston I did not crank up the landing gear all the way....I discovered this at the end of today as we were "dropping" the trailer....fortunately, an easy repair....off to the trailer supply place tomorrow!

This is our site for the next 4-5 days. We are couretesy parking on the property of a fellow Newell owner, who is, ironically, also on a multi year trip exploring America....they are currently in Moab. We have access to 50amps of electrical power, and water....will have to watch those tanks closely.

That's my story for today, and I'm sticking to it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunshine!

In line to board the Galveston Ferry

Rolled out of bed this morning around 7am to sun showers...that's right....no fog, no overcast, no rain.....just pure, unadulterated sunshine. Had a couple of cups of coffee while I read several blogs that I follow daily. Once the Lovely Elaine was up things moved fast.....we were hooked up again to the trailer and pulling out by 9:40am on to Seawall, and then on to Texas 87 to the Galveston Free Ferry....that's right, a FREE ferry. If this were Washington State it would cost close to $35 to put my coach and trailer on one of their ferries for a 10 minute ride.

On board....wow is this tight!!

Stopped along Texas 87 to enjoy the sea view

About 20 miles up the Bolivar Penninsula we stopped to take in the sea view and breeze. This is a great road, and very uncrowded. Smooth pavement! After our stop we continued north on 87 to Beaumont and I-10. Just after we got on I-10 we spied a Cracker Barrel Restaurant, and what do you know, it was just striking Noon.....pulled in and got lunch...they were packed, but we sat down in less than 5 minutes, had our food in 10 minutes, and were back in our coach 30 minutes later....now that is service!

Our destination today is/was Duson, LA.....we had to cross a very tall bridge in Lake Charles....bridges like this are not big favorites of mine, but when they close one lane each way and make the remaining lane narrow it is just more excitement than I was looking forward to today....lol! I know there are more challenging bridges to come, so I'll keep my whining to a minimum and save it for when it really counts.

We arrived at our destination, Frog City RV Park in Duson at 3pm, and were promptly shown to our site (#11) that could handle our 62' length with a few feet to spare. This park has 62 sites, and 44 are pull throughs...they can handle up to 65'! I highly recommend this park....I really hate dropping my trailer....I really do.

After we got set up we rode our bikes over to Champagne Market (about 2 miles away) to buy a Porterhouse steak, some wine, and a few other goodies. Getting ready to BBQ that Porterhouse steak, and open a bottle of Pinot....there is a chance a cigar will be set on fire tonight, too.

Thanks for stopping by!