New Orleans - Days 30-33

Wow - well, I think I am over my infatuation with New Orleans!  This is the 4th time we've been here.  The first was 4 months before Hurricane Katrina hit.. and it was a week after Mardi Gras.  The place was crazy, booming with businesses, beads left over from Mardi Gras hanging from every tree, sign post and light post.  It was just the coolest place.

The second time we came was in 2008.  The damage from Katrina was still very visible, but the recovery was in process.  The people had such a great spirit about them.  On Bourbon street, probably half of the shops were still closed, but those that were open, and the restaurants and bars - many seemed to be run by people that had come to help rebuild.  Everyone was so friendly. Totally loved it still.

This time, well, I don't really know what was different.  Bourbon street was "back in Business", but it just wasn't the same.  It was dirty and smelly.  Lots of kids 'tap dancing' trying to get money.

We stayed at Pontchartrain Landing RV Park.  I would definitely stay there again if I were to go back to New Orleans.  That park was nice and clean.  Getting to it was an interesting experience - the road leading into it was enough to shake your teeth out, but the park itself was very nice.  It even had a resturant/bar there.  There was a pool, decent showers and laundry facilities.  They also did shuttle runs 3 times a day to Bourbon street.  It cost $6 per person per day for the shuttle.  You could catch it going into town at 10:30, 3:45 and I think 7:45, and you could come back at 4 or 8.  If you took the last shuttle at 7:45, you were on your own to get back.  The rate to stay there was less than half of what it would have been if I had stayed at that park that was closed to the French Quarter

I barely even took any pictures. 

View in front of the cathedral

Young Entertainers

Inside Cathedral of St. Louis

We had lunch at the Gumbo Shop.  The food and drinks were very good.

Where we had dinner

Inside the Gumbo Shop

And this is why I would NEVER drive my car into the French Quarter!

Crowded street

We did get Beignets at Cafe Du Monde (doesn't everyone that comes to New Orleans?) and we walked around the French Market.  But mostly, we just relaxed at the RV park.  I didn't even take may pictures there, even though it was a very nice park, right on the lake. 

And about that -  the RV park is build right on the lake between the lake and the levees.  I thought that kind of strange, and asked the shuttle driver.  He said that the park was planned prior to Hurricane Katrina, but wasn't actually built until after.  He also said that the entire area of the park had been under water during Katrina.  I asked why they built it anyway, and he said "I guess that is what insurance if for.".  Ok, then.  Well, it was a pretty nice park (too bad I didn't take pictures) and I'd stay there again, just probably not if I was there during hurricane season.

Lafayette, Louisana - Days 28-30

We've been on the road for 4 weeks today.  Time flies.  I doesn't seem like it could possibly have been 4 weeks already.  It seems like it was only a week ago that we were still packing up getting ready to leave.   And yet, here were are, pulling into our site Frog City RV Park just a little ways outside of Lafayette, Louisiana.   The RV Park is nice - best shower rooms I've seen anywhere so far!  Private rooms with a combined restroom/shower.  Very clean.

Casinos right next to gas stations - Lucky Duces was within walking distance.  We had walked to the gas station to get ice (they were out) and decided to check out the casino.  We got about 10 feet in when they asked for ID.  I didn't have mine so I had to leave.  Apparently, you have to have an ID on you to be in a casino no matter how old you are!

Next day, I worked in the morning, and then we decided to go to the Tabasco Factory (based on the recommendation from the staff at the RV park).  It had been raining all morning, and it was over an hour drive to get to the Tabasco Factory, but we decided we might as well try it.  The other places I wanted to go to weren't open on Monday.  So, off we went.

The Tabasco Factory is located on Avery Island.  Tabasco sauce has been produced there by the McIlhenny family since 1868.

They had a museum that gave the history of how the Tabasco Factory came to be, and they also had a gift shop (of course!) that had all kinds of Tabasco items.  They had more 'flavors' of Tabasco than I even though imaginable.    They even had samples of Tabasco ice cream and Tabasco soda!  Too bad I didn't get pictures of those!

It was a self guided tour through the various operations.  To get to the greenhouse, which was the first stop, we had to pass this sign.

 After the peppers are crushed and mixed with vinegar, they are put in barrels to age.  The tops of the barrels are covered in salt.  This was to keep any impurities from getting into the barrels.

Mixing barrels

That's a lot of bottles of Tabasco sauce!

After we finished at the Tabasco Factory, we continued the tour at the Jungle Gardens.  Jungle Gardens is a 70 acre garden of semitropical foliage and lots of wildlife along Bayou Petite Ans.  It even has a centuries old Buddha statue (that I wasn't able to get a decent picture of.  boo.).  The Gardens were created by Edward Avery "Ned" McIlhenny around 1920.

There is a self-guided driving tour through the gardens, with stops that had signs telling about that area.  It was just so peaceful and so beautiful.

Bird City

Big spider!

When we got back, we were hungry, and didn't really have much left to cook.  Based on decent Yelp reviews, and due to the fact that it was really close to the campground, we decided to have dinner at Cajun Claws. What a disappointment!.  It was not at all what we were expecting.  We got fried pickles, which I love, and they were pretty good, and they gave you a lot of them. We also got the fried shrimp baskets, with onion rings.  They just weren't very good. It seemed like everything just tasted like the breading.  Definitely not the Cajun food I was hoping for.

On Tuesday morning we went to the Acadian Cultural Center,  which is part of the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve.  We watched a 35 minute film "The Cajun Way: Echoes of Acadia"  that told the history of the Acadian People.  It was very interesting.  It also hosts a museum that we also found very informative.


Right down the street from the Cultural Center is Vermillionville.   The first thing we did when we got there was go to the little restaurant and eat lunch.  The Ranger at the Cultural Center had told us that it was always pretty good, and with really good prices, as well.  It was called La Cuisine de Maman. It was excellent! For about $10 we got the plated lunch - blackened catfish, crawfish etouffée, corn on the cob, a biscuit, and then either a piece of chocolate cake or bread pudding for desert.  It was amazingly good. That's what we had been hoping for the day before!

Here's some pictures of the various buildings and such in Vermillionville.

Moulton House

Acadian House 

Boucvalt House

Beau Bassin House

Attakapas Chapel

School room

The same ranger at Acadian Cultural Center that said the food at Vermillionville was good had also told us about a place called Taco Sisters.  So, we decided to go there for dinner.  They had brisket tacos and burritos that were amazing.

Well, that's about all I can remember at this point! 

Colorado River RV Park - Days 25-27

Our next stop was Colorado River RV Campground in Columbus, TX.  This is another Thousand Trails campground about 70 miles west of Houston.  We chose site D23.  It was a full hookup/30 amp site.  It was a good size site, with lots of trees for shade (which came back to haunt us when we decided we wanted to hook up the Dish for TV - yeah, that didn't happen!).  Plenty of room to put up the screen tent, too, which we needed, since there were mosquitos, being as close to the River as we were.

Shortly after we got there, I went to take the dog for a walk, and there was an armadillo just sauntering through our site.

Only time I've ever seen an armadillo was in a zoo, so that was pretty cool!

If we looked toward the back, this was our view:

And if we looked toward the front, across from us, we often saw deer.  They weren't as social as the ones at Medina Lake, so they didn't really come close, but you could watch them, especially as it got closed to evening.

Just a little ways behind our site was a boat ramp for the river.  We walked down to it to look at the river.

The restroom/shower house was a bit of a walk from our site, but the showers were clean and nice.  Last year, Hurricane Harvey totally flooded this park.  There is still a section by the river that is baracaded and blocked off, that used to be RV sites, but the bank of the river at that section was gone.  This sign is up by the bath house, which is up a small hill from the section by the river (even from where we were).

The laundry room was cute - it was in an older small cabin-like building.  There were chairs on the porch where you could wait while your laundry was washing or drying.  It was also right by the pool, so you could also swim, I guess, while you waited.

There was a small, fenced in dog park that was nice, but it was so far from our site we'd have had to drive the dog there!

We arrived on Thursday, and I worked on Friday.  I had planned to really explore the park, hike on some of the trails, maybe check out the pool, on Saturday. And they were having a pancake breakfast for on Saturday for Father's day.  However, on Friday afternoon, the door lock on the RV broke, and we got locked inside!  Well, we could get out, but had to climb over the seats to get out the doors of the truck.  We had to remove the lock from the door.  There was a Camping World in Katy, which is a little west of Houston.  I called them on Friday afternoon to see if they happened to have the lock in stock, and luckily they did, but we couldn't get there on before it closed, so we had to drive there on Saturday morning, as they were holding the part for us. It was about an hour drive each way.  By the time we got back it was too hot for hiking.  Not sure why I didn't go to the pool, probably  because I didn't want to go alone.  Instead, we did laundry (such fun!)

We did enjoy sitting in the screen room in the evenings.  It did the trick to keep the bugs away, but we could listen to all the noise that insects make!  It was really loud!  So many crickets, and I'm not even sure that else makes that noise.  Maybe cicadas?  And something else.  It seemed like there were 3 very distinct sounds.

This is another park I would love to come back to and stay a while.  I really enjoyed being here.  It was very peaceful (other than the broken lock!).

Next, off to Louisiana (to gain back any weight I had lost with all the walking)