Jan 30th - New Orleans

Actually we aren't staying in New Orleans, we are at Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, LA, across the Mississippi from New Orleans.

I didn't realize how far New Orleans is from the Gulf of Mexico, nor how the Mississippi river snakes it way around New Orleans, nor that Lake Pontchartrain is so large.

As I said above, we are in Westwego, which is in bottom left of the photo below. Notice the way the Mississippi snakes its way through the area.

We arrived here mid-day yesterday after an uneventful trip from Alabama.

We stopped at the Louisiana Welcome Center on Interstate 10 to have lunch. It was a very nicely done rest area. As you can see the weather was beautiful.

 

 

Our campsite.

 Camper at rest. It was cool in the evening.

 

 

This morning we drove to the Algiers ferry, parked there and took the ferry across the Mississippi to New Orleans. $5/day to park and $4 for the two of us to ride the ferry both ways.

 

The Mississippi from the back of the ferry.

When we got off the ferry in New Orleans the first thing we saw was a huge Harrah's casino.

 

 

We bought tickets for the Hop & Go bus that runs a figure 8 route around the main tourist area of New Orleans. The pass is good for 3 days and you can ride as much as you want and get on and off at any of the stops. We got off in the Garden District first and had lunch at the Rum House. I had a Cuban sandwich and Kathy had a Crab Salad sandwich. They were awesome.

 

 

We walked from one side of the Garden District to the other. What a bunch of magnificent houses. These were 2 of the larger ones. We were surprised to see several Magnolia trees in bloom.

 

We got back on the bus and rode to the French Quarter. We stopped in at the Café Du Monde so that Kathy could get a beignet and we could both get cups of chicory coffee. She thought the beignets were okay, but not as good as the ones at Joe Patti's in Pensacola. We both thought the chicory coffee was good, but it wasn't nearly as strong as we had been told.

 

Café Du Monde is an open air café. Less than half of it shows in the photo below. It was so full that people were waiting in line to get a table.

 

One interesting factoid we learned today, when we were going by the New Orleans Superdome. We all know about the incredible attendance at Super Bowls. When New Orleans held WrestleMania at the Superdome the attendance was higher than when the Super Bowl was there.

We saw the following sign while in the French Quarter. One of the lines you probably can't read says "Let our Repair Apostles perform a Miracle on your iPhone!!!". I wondered if this were a sign about Mohammed if it would be a basis for bombing the establish. I thought it was a cute ad. In hind sight I wished I had gone it to talk to them to see if they were Christians.

 

Looking at the Mississippi from the New Orleans side.

 

Back on the ferry and heading back to Algiers and then on to the campground.

 

It was a full day and we are pooped.

 

May God bless you and yours.



Jan 26th -- Back in Alabama

We arrived back at our motorhome around 2PM today. Our trip was enjoyable, and without problems. We sure enjoyed our time with Lydia and Kelsey.

We went to Centertown Baptist for church yesterday and then stayed for a potluck dinner. We had partially loaded things before going to church. By 1:30PM Sunday we were on the road headed south. We had light drizzle for the first several hundred miles, but it wasn't a problem. Traffic was light and the lowest temperature we encountered was 36 degrees. The routes we took got us here in 760 miles. Only about 100 miles was interstate but a lot of it was 4 lane divided highway.

We drove a little over 400 miles Sunday afternoon and then spent the night at a motel in New Albany, Mississippi. On the way to the campground we stopped off and picked up my work boots that we had left to be re-soled. They look good, but I haven't tried them on to see if they feel much different.

This afternoon we walked over to attend the 4PM information meeting at the clubhouse. There is a lot going on, especially with Mardi Gras coming up in a few weeks. I almost hate to leave here Thursday, but we should have some interesting times in New Orleans.

Across the street from us is a couple and a young adult traveling in a 5th wheel. I had noticed that Ivan, the young adult, had some physical limitations when watching him get into their pickup. I was sitting outside this afternoon, enjoying the 60 degree, sunny afternoon, and he came over and introduced himself. His parents were off doing something and he decided to hang around the campground. He is an interesting young man. Some years ago he was hit by a car, he "died" and was resuscitated. He was in a coma for 8 months. He is paralyzed on the left side, due to massive head injuries, but he manages to walk without crutches or a cane. He earned his Boy Scout Eagle Scout standing after the accident and is quite proud of that accomplishment, as he should be. His Dad is a Post Office retiree. They are now full time RV'ers. They "workamp" most of the year but will be here a couple of months, between "jobs". Last summer, and again this summer they will work at the Manistee National Forest in Michigan. We get to meet a lot of interesting people while RV'ing.

Good evening. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 22nd - Still in Missouri

We have been enjoying our time with Lydia. She will soon be here this morning and I figured I had better post this now, because I would get a LOT of help with the keyboard once she is here.

My new phone arrived early, a Huawei Ascend Mate 2, and the guy at Best Buy got it connected in a matter of minutes. So far I really like the phone.

We had lunch with Kelsey and Lydia the day Kelsey left for Washington DC, to participate in the March for Life. She made it to DC safely and is scheduled to return on Saturday.

I had breakfast with 3 guys from Centertown Baptist Church yesterday, a couple of them have been meeting regularly on Wednesday mornings while I have been gone. I thoroughly enjoy meeting with them and discussing how we as Christians should act and view current events. Kathy is having lunch today with a lady from the church.

Lots of wildlife here while we have been here. We have seen turkeys up close to the house a couple of times and had 5 deer grazing out behind the shed. There are 2 of the 5 in the photo below.

We can hardly keep the squirrels off the back deck. They stay right there, pigging out on bird seed, even when you walk up to the patio doors. You have to open the door before they even take notice.

The weather is cooling off here, but it is still very mild for January. I'm pleased with the performance of our new heating system. The heat pump keeps the house at 68-69 degrees (the thermostat setting) until the outside temperatures dip down into the mid/low 20's. While we were gone we left the thermostat set on 50. Our electric bill for last month was less than $70. I checked the propane tank on Dec 1st and it read 77% full. I checked it yesterday and it is 72% full. If the thermostat was at 69 or 70, as it would have been if we had been here, we would have used a lot more electricity/propane but so far it looks like things are working well.

Today I'm taking my log splitter to a place to have them work on the engine. It won't start because there is no spark. I'm sick spending an hour working on it for every 2 hours I use it.

Have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Jan 17th - Centertown

We drove from Crossville, TN to Centertown, MO Thursday. We arrived here around 6PM, unpacked and then went over to Kelsey & Andy's to see them and Lydia. It was good to see them. All things at our house seemed to be in order after our 6 week absence.

Yesterday Kelsey went to the ATT store with me so that I could add my phone to her plan and get a better monthly rate. Kathy's iphone is already on Kelsey's plan. After 1.5 hours the ATT tech finally got my phone number ported to ATT but he never got my phone to received photo attached to texts. I have used the phone on both Net10 & Consumer Cellular, which use ATT's system, and had no problems. I finally told the guy that I was going to get a new phone (I am having battery problems with mine and the battery is not replaceable) so I didn't want to waste any more of Kelsey's times.

We (Kathy, Kelsey, Lydia & I) had a good lunch at Chili's and then Lydia went home with us while Kelsey went to a hair appointment, she had the day off. We stopped at Best Buy and I ordered the phone I want. It is supposed to be here no later than next Thursday and I will take it back to Best Buy to get it set up on ATT. I'm confident that their tech people are better than those at the any of the phone places.

Today I'm over at K&A's to pick up Lydia. While here I 'm on their WiFi updating my laptop and blogging. I had our Internet service cancelled while we were gone.

FOX IS BACK ON DISHTV, YAH!!!!

May God bless you and yours.

Jan 13th - In Tennessee

I haven't been posting because not much has been happening and I have been having phone problems, I use my phone to connect to the Internet and post.

Took this photo of a guy over on the next street. I'm not sure what he was looking at on his roof, but he had an interesting step stool.

A few nights ago we attended the Flatulent Fest. Many, maybe 2 dozen, people brought up some type of bean dish for us to sample. Kathy is sampling someone else's bean dish in the photo. She made some type of split pea soup, close enough to beans. One guy brought cup cakes with a jelly bean on top.

Yesterday was probably the nicest day since arriving in Alabama. It was 75 degrees and mostly sunny, just a beautiful day.

When we left Alabama this morning, about 8:30, it was 56 degrees. When we arrived at our place in Crossville, TN, about 4:30, the temperature was 32 degrees. Not to much traffic but very heavy overcast and occasional light drizzle most of the way.

My great brother-in-law had our heat turned up and the water heater turned on so everything was ready for our arrival (thanks Tom).

We went down and visited with Tom, Mary Lou, Merv & Dean for a couple of hours and then headed back up to the "cabinet".

Tomorrow we spend the day here and then on Thursday morning we head for our place in Missouri.

May God bless you and yours.

Jan 8th - Not Frozen but Close

We stuck around the campground all day yesterday. I went over and started caning a 3rd chair in the morning. I was supposed to work with another guy who was having some problems, but he never showed up.

It got COLD here (REALLY COLD for the Gulf Coast - I think it has something to do with global warming, and it is Bush's fault) last night. Wind chill was in the single digits and actual temperatures got down to 18 degrees for about 3 hours. The highest we saw today was 36. The campground shut off all the water at 4 yesterday. The hose connections are not frost proof and the couple that I tried the morning were frozen, I couldn't turn the handles. They had warned us about the shut off and I had filled our water tank the day before. We have enough on board water to easily last us 3 days, if we are a little cautious about how much we use when taking showers. It is supposed to be below freezing the next 2 nights. I talked to one of the guys at the office and they aren't sure when they will turn the water back on. It would not surprise me if they turn it on for a couple of hours tomorrow and then turn it back off for the night.

We only had reserved a spot for a month, our month ran out today. A couple of weeks ago I tried to extend our reservation but they had no more openings for sites with 50 amp electrical service. This morning we moved to a spot with 30 amp service, where we will be parked for the next 3 weeks. Doesn't sound like a big difference but the difference is 50 amps on TWO legs of 110v service versus 30 amps on ONE leg. basically only 30% of the amount we had. We can get by with that, we just have to be careful about not running to many electrical appliances at the same time.

This morning I walked over, when it was a windy 19 degrees, and worked on caning again. Dick, the guy who I was supposed to help yesterday, was there when I got there. He had issues with his satellite service yesterday and was tied up all morning with a service guy. He brought the 2 chairs we are working on with him from Van Wert, OH, where he lives except during the winter. I don't know why he had been having problems earlier, he did great today.

We did get out some today. Kathy had heard a good report about a Mexican restaurant over in Daphne, about 15 miles from us, so we went over and tried it out. It was GREAT!

After that we went to a boot place that was only a couple of miles from the restaurant. They were supposed to have wide boots but they only had 2E widths in stock, I need 3E or H's. During the summer I had melted parts of the soles of my safety shoes, walking in coals when I was tending piles of brush that I was burning. I never felt the heat. I was shocked when I noticed how much I had damaged the soles. The place has an on-site cobbler. He is going to replace the soles for me, it will cost an arm and leg, but a lot less than the cost of a new pair.

We thought we remembered that when we went to Mobile last year we went through a low headroom tunnel, one that our motor home would not fit through. We thought we remembered that trucks had to take another route. We drove to the west side of Mobile but didn't see any low clearance tunnel. We did go through the tunnel under the bay, but it must have 16 or 17 feet of clearance, they don't even have a maximum height sign posted.

Then it was back to the park for the rest of the afternoon.

May God bless you and yours.

Jan 6th - At the Beach

It was a sunny day. Overnight low was 32, high was officially 57.

I finished caning my 2nd chair this morning. Chair bottom looks much neater than the 1st one. I have a couple of knots under this one, but most of the strand splices were friction splices.

 Chair seat.

 

 

Finished chair.

 I'm going to start another one tomorrow.

After caning it was off to the Oyster House for lunch. It was our first time their this year. (So many places to eat and so few mealtimes.) Kathy had blackened fish tacos. She could only eat one of them because they were so big.

I had a fish basket. It was okay, but no better than the fish they have at the Chinese restaurant, but I'm not a seafood eater.

 

Then it was off to the beach for a walk in the surf. It was breezy but nice with the bright sun. Some other walkers were wearing tee shirts and shorts while others were wearing jeans, big coats and hats.

It was an enjoyable walk.

We may not get another chance to walk on the beach here, before heading back to MO for a week. Temps are on there way down for the next few days. We are supposed to get a "hard" freeze tomorrow night. The weatherman described a "hard" freeze as one that might damage pipes. Tomorrow nights forecast is for a low of 23.

 

May God bless you and yours.

 



Jan 5th - BURRRH!

Okay, I am rubbing it in a little for those of you who live in the north. It got down to 37 last night and only into the mid 50's today. The day was sunny and it felt nice out with only jeans, a long sleeve shirt and light jacket. Tonight it is supposed to get closer to freezing. Wednesday night it is supposed to get down into the low 20's. YIKES!!!

Sunday we went to the 9 AM service at Liberty Church again. I don't enjoy the LOUD contemporary music but I do enjoy the Spirit in the place and the preaching. They are starting a program of 21 days of fasting and praying. As part of Pastor JP's message he explained that "fasting" was not limited to abstaining from food. The key was to give up something that you valued and every time you yearned for whatever you gave up you spend that time with God. Some people might choose to give up food, or a type of food (snacks), while others might choose to give up a TV program, time on Facebook, etc. It was a good message. He did run really long. He message lasted almost an hour. We sat in a different place and I noticed a count down timer in that back that showed him when he was supposed to finish. He ran almost 20 minutes over. His message was good enough that it was not a problem listening to him for that long, but I'm sure it made it tough for the staff to get us out and the 10:45 service in.

We chose the Chinese buffet for lunch rather than going to Ryans for a 3rd Sunday. It is good, the service is good and it is so cheap; $13 for both of us for Sunday lunch.

Today I did more caning. One more strand of cane and then I will be ready for the binding, the final step. I found out they sold 38 chairs at last years auction, but the guy I talked to didn't know how much money they raised.

I felt a little puny at lunchtime so I stayed home while Kathy went "junking". She had planned on doing it tomorrow but since it was not something I not interested in she went today. After lunch, and a short nap, I felt better and did get out to clean and lube the roof and seals on one of our slides.

After supper Kathy went over to the clubhouse for a seminar on sewing machine maintenance. She said she learned that she had a Neanderthal sewing machine, because it is so old.

Tomorrow, even though it is only supposed to be in the 50's we plan on heading to the beach. We haven't been there yet and it is supposed to be Sunday.

May God bless you and yours.

Jan 3rd - Saturday

I forgot to mention that I met one of my goals for 2014, I read through the entire Bible during 2014. In 2015 I plan on using Oswald Chamber's "My Utmost for His Highest" for a daily devotional and I've started re-reading Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God".

We haven't done much exciting the past couple of days. Yesterday we went down to the Fish River Grill for lunch and it was disappointing. It is highly recommended and we had a good meal there last year. The swamp soup appetizer was OK and my Redneck Reuben was good. Kathy's shrimp & oysters was disappointing. I took a 2.5 mile, 45 minute, walk around the campground for exercise.

This morning I went to the clubhouse for pancakes, sausage, orange juice & coffee. One of the couples at the table were originally from El Paso, where he was a cop. The other couple at the table had lived in Vermont prior to retiring. The guy from El Paso told tales about the Texas Rangers. Discussions moved to current events. Basically all 5 of us (Kathy doesn't go over for Sat AM breakfasts) were in agreement that politicians are currently preventing cops from enforcing the law, and that the judicial system is way to lenient with those who break the law. After breakfast I took a 3.25 mile, 60 minute, walk around the campground.

Today we went to the Summerdale Diner for lunch. It was our first time there. Food and service were good. I had a chicken fried steak and Kathy had breakfast! She ordered the pork chops, eggs & hash browns. Mine was good, hers was awesome. If we go there again I will be ordering the pork chop breakfast. She brought one of the chops home & I ate if for supper.

At one of the campground meetings we had heard that one of the local RV places would detail your RV for only $250. There is a guy who lives at the campground who will wash and chemical was your RV for $50. Over the past couple of days we stopped at 2 places to see what they offered. One place will do the wash and chemical wax for $250 and clean the inside for another $200. The other place does a hand wash and wax for $15/foot of RV length, $600 for our motorhome. Guess we will take care of our own washing, waxing, & cleaning<grin>.

Weather has been changeable. It was supposed to rain last night, but didn't. Then it was supposed to rain today, but it didn't. One of the guys in the campground noted that they thought about turning on their electric blanket two nights ago and then last night they considered turning on the AC. Today's high was 73. It was mostly cloudy but the sun peaked out occasionally. We are definitely supposed to get rain tonight and tomorrow. time will tell. It just started raining. Must be a lot of heavy cloud cover because the satellite TV just went off the air for a short while.

May God bless you and yours.

Jan 1st - Happy New Year

We stayed "home" on New Years day. I went on 2 campground "walk abouts" that totaled a little over 5 miles. Kathy walked some and cooked a lot. We had our traditional New Years day pork & sauerkraut dinner. She also baked several pies. She handed out pieces of pie to several neighbors.

One full-timer couple, who travel with their home schooled, teenage son, came over and we had a nice visit. They are originally from Pueblo, CO.  The son will "graduate" from high school in a few months and plans on going back to Colorado to live with his sister's family while he studies welding. They will be leaving here in a few days and will move down to an Escapees campground in Bushnell, FL for a month.

I finished my fix on the piece of countertop that goes over the cooktop and put it back in place. I don't think my epoxy repair job is going to work, I may have to come up with something else, or maybe a different epoxy.

New Years day weather was breezy, cloudy & cool, high in high 50's. That didn't stop 10 people from getting into the unheated swimming pool for a "polar bear dip". Most, including Kathy, just stood on the steps but several "old farts" actually jumped in the deep end. Water temperature was reported to be 55 degrees.

You see all types of rigs at the campground. Some are old and have seen better days and then there are setups like this

My guess is that just the 5th wheel unit cost $150-200,000. It is a triple axle unit, probably close to 40' long. The tractor appears to have a sleeper on it. The Mercedes van looks like it might also be a camper model. It must be there "around town" vehicle.

May God bless you and yours.