Island Retreat RV Park

On Thursday we are settled in for six nights at Island Retreat RV Park in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Gulf Shores is on the Gulf of Mexico. This park has 171 sites and is full of RVers from everywhere. We were welcomed by our neighbours within an hour of us getting set up and informed about the weekly jam session to happen at 7 pm. We attended and were amazed at the quality of music and vocals by these retirees who seemed to have known each other for years. Apparently this park is home for these folks every winter who come down from various northern US points.
We decided to try out the Dutch Oven placing charcoal underneath and on the cover. It is truly amazing how this traditional pioneer method of campfire cooking works so well.
On Friday we took a drive to check out the local beaches. Paul talked to some local fellows surf fishing and was intrigued by the fishing tackle.
The area is well serviced with numerous seafood shops with shrimp of various sizes, and crawfish being the big sellers. Atlantic lobster, snow crab, king crab, salmon, catfish fillets, clams, scallops, etc are all available.

Later…..

More Mardi Gras Parades!

Sunday we decided to go to Mass at St. Martin de Tours in St. Martinville. This church was built in 1765 by missionaries from France. It is still authentic with box seats for individual families. The choir sounded beautiful with guitar accompaniment, the psalms very similar to St. Alexis and St. Mary’s.
We enjoyed the “Newcomers Mardi Gras Parade” on Sunday afternoon in St. Martinville with all participants being African Americans.
We just sat around on Monday and Paul took advantage to go catfish fishing, taking home six for a total weight of twelve pounds. He discovered that catfish are hard to hook as they suck in the chicken liver bait and you think you have it set but not in all cases as he had fourteen strikes altogether. We now have catfish fillets in the freezer.
Tuesday was the big “Fat Tuesday” parade in Lafayette, two of them in fact with the second one totally African American! It’s really fascinating how people get caught up in the excitement of catching beads being thrown by the float participants. There were many beautiful floats commemorating Mardi Gras.
Paul was intrigued by a peanut roaster, on the side walk, being run by an 88 year old gent who explained that the roaster was 105 years old, and was originally a coffee bean roaster. He was buying big bushel bags of raw peanuts from New Mexico, then roasting and selling them for $2.00 per little paper bag. He had visions of his father.
We found a location to watch the parade where a young very friendly family was set up. They were very welcoming and accommodating, offering their lawn seats, etc. Faye, Heidi, and the two little girls managed to catch bushels of beads while Paul and Randy looked on amusedly!
Between the two parades, we walked to see St. John’s Cathedral but the doors were locked. We took pictures of a 500 year old huge live oak which was fenced off for its protection. This tree is massive!
Before leaving today, Paul drove up to Lafayette to check out this famous hardware store started in 1933 where he was told he would be able to purchase an original cast iron Dutch Oven. Lo and behold, they had a number of sizes so he picked out the 6 qt. model and is looking forward to try out some of the recipes in a Dutch Oven cook book purchased in Nevada!
Crawfish is very popular in these parts as evident by the few farms raising them throughout the area. We hope to purchase a few for a meal as we had tried one sometime ago to supplement a stir fry. Paul tested a few drops of “Debbie’s Hoo Ya XXX Cajun Heat” a Habanero Pepper which was extremely hot in this stir fry. We had to add a couple cups of rice to minimize the sizzle!
We drove to Covington, Louisiana today passing through a vast swamp area called Atchafalaya. The four lane highway through this swamp is built on stone piers.
Along the way Paul spotted a huge Outdoor World, Bass Pro Shop so had to stop and take a look while Faye caught up on some reading. Wow!! Everything for hunting or fishing could be found in this place! We finally got set up at Land O’ Pines RV Park outside Covington. Awesome pine trees here throughout the park.
Tomorrow we will drive to Gulf Shores in Alabama situated on the Gulf of Mexico hoping for some sun, beach and surf weather.

Later...

Mardi Gras in Louisiana

The Mardi Gras Parade in Lafayette Friday evening included many marching bands, gaily costumed women and large floats. We were early to get a good parking spot and spent time walking about town. We dropped into an antique store, a warehouse with thousands of antique articles. Then we mixed in with the locals at a bar called “Artmosphere” overlooking the street with exciting anticipation. People, young and old, families with little children were all very friendly especially when they learned we were from Canada. The parade itself was not a disappointment. There is this tradition called bead throwing where the parade participants throw beads at the spectators! Faye is now the “Mardi Gras Bead Lady” as she really got caught up in the excitement and everyone very generously shared beads with her!
Today, Saturday we took in La Grande de Boucherie in St. Martinville. What an event! Hundreds of people were milling about in a carnival atmosphere, drinking beer and eating Cajun food, listening to a live band and dancing in front of the bandstand. Craft and Cajun food booths were everywhere in this park.
A novel to us was the Cajun microwave, a unique stainless steel cooker with the heat source being hard wood charcoal. The guy cooked a whole pig spiced with garlic salt and dished it out piece by piece. Awesome taste! Check it out at www.cajunmicrowaveS.com.
Paul watched and took pictures of the “boucherie”, a gruesome event whereby this live pig was slaughtered as a demonstration of the traditional festivities associated with Mardi Gras. However, the animal was not cooked on site due to local health inspection regulations so was quartered and iced up and packed in a cooler.
A huge quantity of pig cracklings and boudin balls were being cooked up all day to feed the hungry crowd. Boudin balls ingredients are ground pork with rice,spices and deep fried resulting with hot after burn which is easily remedied by cold beer! Lots of other Cajun food, all of it deep fried, was available in the many food booths.
We bought a couple of $2 raffle tickets on the Cajun microwave but were not lucky, not sure how we would get it home anyway. It is quite an appliance which would come in handy at any summer family reunion event!

Mardi Gras in St. Martinville, LA

Today, Feb. 19th we had already booked into Catfish Haven RV Park located just outside St. Martinville, LA. Our goal was to check out the Acadian history here in Louisiana from after the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island in the middle 1700’s. We were impressed with the similarities between the historic interpretation of Grand Pre, N.S. and here in St.Martinville. There are several museums downtown and in the Evangeline State Park. The Acadian Memorial detailed the names of Acadians who settled here after surviving extreme hardship. They settled here with the largesse of the Spanish government who had title to Louisiana at that time.
The Acadians were given some land, tools, and livestock and rapidly became adapted to the Louisiana environment settling down and prospering.
We didn’t find any Gallants on the wall but did find a number of Hache names which as history tells us are the name of Michael Hache dit Gallant.
The Acadians became known as Cajuns or in the local dialect “Coonan”.
We are here until Feb. 25 to experience the Mardi Gras festivities in St. Martinville, Lafayette, Baton Rouge during the coming week until the grand parade on Tuesday. On Saturday will be La Grande De Boucherie, a long held local tradition where a large pig is butchered, disembowelled, quartered and roasted on the spot.

Later….

NASA at Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas, Feb 17, 2009

Tuesday, February-17-09, we headed north on I-45 to the Johnson Space Center on NASA Road 1 just south of Houston, Texas. The tour explained everything about the space program since its beginning up to the present. The tram tour took us to the original Mission Control. The narrator explained that present day Mission Control was in the very next room and the orbiting space station control was one floor beneath us. We saw the mock up area housing a replica of the orbiting space station and the Canada Arm. This is where astronauts practice the skills they need for space travel. Then we moved on to a huge building holding a full size replica of the Saturn VII, including the rusted original nosecone. After returning to the main building, we toured the area and saw an IMAX movie highlighting the history of space travel from the beginning with the Russians to the present orbiting station. The next step was a tour of scenes and more mock ups, ending with a walk through a space ship. We actually got to touch an actual stone from the moon. Paul then tried his hand at landing a space shuttle, a simulator and was successful after crash landing a few times!

Later….

Lazy Days RV Park & Galveston, Texas - Hurricane Ike

On Sunday, we unwittingly thought getting into an RV Park somewhere south of Houston would be a cinch. Not so. Monday is President’s Day in the US which means a long holiday weekend. Also a large influx of workers and displaced home owners, as a result of the devastation of hurricane Ike last September, are occupying these parks. After stopping at five places and making a number of calls we found a site at Lazy Days RV Park in Hitchcock, Texas, about 40 miles south of Houston.
In these parts, the gas stations want their money before you can fuel. Paul was so focussed on finding an RV site he drove away from a gas station after paying $20.00 without pumping, only realizing his mistake a few miles down a very busy freeway………. Embarrassing and frustrating to say the least!! He’s not sure where this item will fit in his trip log spreadsheet, stupid or miscellaneous!
Today, Monday, we visited Galveston. We drove by amazing southern mansions, now museums which escaped the wrath of hurricane Ike. The downtown architecture is obviously southern, original and beautiful.
The destruction from Ike was obviously massive - huge downtown buildings standing empty with no windows, siding missing from houses, many smashed boats on the wharf, complete buildings in ruins, and piles of garbage from the cleanup. Landfills were being dug for all the debris.
But the rebuilding is in full swing. We drove through Tiki Island where many homes were already repaired and construction workers were everywhere working on others. This is obviously a well off area. All these well landscaped houses are on stilts of a sort. This bottom space is put to use as garages for cars and boats and storage. The homes all have frontage on the water, the shore or a canal. What a contrast to the wreckage!! Evident everywhere were billboards by law firms advertising to process insurance claims.
On the way back, Faye enjoyed a visit to Macy’s to get her shopping fix.

Later….

USS Lexington and State of Texas Aquarium

A very interesting Valentine’s Day spent touring the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier Museum and Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Wow! From the tours and artefacts one gets an actual sensory perception of what it must have been like doing battle at sea in the Pacific during WWII. Awesome portrayal of life aboard such a huge ship! Neither of us had the stomach to try the flight simulator of a fighter plane. The tribute to Pearl Harbour was sobering. We did enjoy watching two IMAX movies. Fighter Pilot followed a young pilot as he learned the ropes of training for war. Lewis and Clark re-enacted the epic voyage of these two heroes as they explored the Missouri River to its source in order to lay claim to the surrounding lands for the United States. Interesting to note, they hired French Canadians for their crew and used a female native to help with interpretation.
We had lunch at Black Beards, a restaurant on the quay… local deep fried seafood promoting a sense of déjà vu to Platter House and Ship Wreck Point memories.
The Texas State Aquarium was equally interesting… lots of hands on visuals and glassed in views depicting different indigenous fishes including a twelve ft shark, leatherback turtles, moray eels, etc.!
The landscape close to Corpus Christi on the Gulf shore is dotted with miles of industrial oil refineries, pipes, storage tanks and all the associated supply services. The homes near the water looked like they had seen better days, no doubt a result of hurricanes. Pockets of poverty were everywhere. Nicer homes were either well hidden or near the cities.
It was quite a day and we were tired by the time we got back to the KOA RV Park.
This evening was prep time for departure early in the morning heading towards the Houston Space Centre.

Later….

We took it easy today (Feb 12) driving only 300 km to Balmorhea State Park, still in Texas. The sun was shining and it was fairly warm. All 300 km. was desert landscape with brown mountains off to the sides. At one point we had to drive through them but there were no steep parts – just a gradual grade up and down. Balmorhea State Park has a huge walled swimming pool fed by the San Solomon Springs at the rate of 22-28 millions gallons daily with a temperature of 74 F. when we went swimming. This 77,000 sq. ft. pool is one of the largest natural pools in the US. In early days these springs were important watering places for buffalo, Indians and pioneers. Today this area remains the centre of irrigated farming supplied by this watercourse.
This evening we lit a camp fire with two bundles of wood previously purchased in Nevada. We then invited two neighbouring couples, Jim & Eileen Hansen from Kingston, Ontario and Kent & Sharon Hoover from Minnesota. The Hoovers are full time RVers having sold their home in Minnesota. Once again it was a very interesting conversation comparing life stories, families and ailments.
From Balmorhea we drove to Junction and just slept over, without unhitching, at an RV Park so we could leave early morning. We finally left the wide open spaces of desert behind us. Mile by mile the bushes and shrubs grew larger and trees appeared. The air is moister and quite warm. Grass is turning green and some deciduous trees have their leaves. Last night the furnace did not come on once and today we had to use the air conditioner to cool off the trailer.
We noted numerous windmill farms dotting the higher bluffs, hundreds of windmills all swinging their massive blades.
We made it all the way to Mathis (Friday the 13th) booking into Lake Corpus Christi KOA Park. This lake is just north of the Gulf Coast. Lots of RVer’s here with the majority staying for months at a time. People were fishing and on our walk by the lake we watched a woman casting a net for bait and a catfish filleting process on the shore. People sitting outside their trailers were all sure to say hello. Everyone is really friendly and talkative. The couple next door from Ontario grill their meals outside on mesquite wood giving meat a nice smoky flavour. They along with others here are camp workers paying for their park fees in this manner. We enjoyed hearing stories of "beep beep" road runners (remember wily coyote) eating rattle snakes!

Later…..

El Paso, Texas

A snowstorm in El Paso!!!! That’s what the local weatherman called it. We called it light flurries. They didn’t even make it to the ground. We did however experience very brisk winds with lots of blowing dust and that’s why we stayed put for another day and night at the Mission RV Park in El Paso.
By lunchtime we were bored and set out to go shopping in the Golden Loop. That’s what the local merchants call it because one end is the entrance to and exit from Mexico. Mexicans come across the bridge to shop here and vice versa. After walking most of the square, we realized prices were cheap but so were the goods. We didn’t buy a thing.
We set the GPS on ‘local’ to go back to the Mission RV Park and had an eye opening tour of the city. The US government is erecting an 18 foot high, double mesh wire fence to stop Mexicans coming in illegally.
Across the valley below, we could see huge dust storms and were really glad not to be in it. We saw the homes of the rich and poor but it is evident that America is a rich country.
Paul has been astounded with all the industrial sites, business parks, and huge box stores along every through fare in almost every town and city since leaving Canada along with large scale residential housing developments. One has to wonder where does the money come from to support this massive infrastructure?

Later…..

Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park, Arizona

After leaving Williams and the Grand Canyon at over 7,000 feet we dropped down to 3,000 feet heading south on I-10 towards Phoenix. We eventually booked into Valley of The Sun RV Park in Marana, Arizona situated near Tucson. We stayed there two nights and visited the Desert Museum in Saguaro National Park on Sunday. This museum is very unique as 90% is outside depicting all facets of desert flora and fauna, very interesting.
Today we drove for five hours across mostly desert landscape, finally reaching Mission RV Park on the east side of El Paso.
While fuelling up Paul detected a sewerage smell and assumed the other RV at the gas was the culprit. Then just around the corner along the way there was a huge cattle feedlot, about 2 km in length with thousands of cattle. As they say in Texas…….
Noticeable since coming into US are very long freight trains, some of them double deckers. Tractor trailer traffic, bad as it is now, would be unbelievable if those trains were not in service.
We had to drive through horrendous El Paso four o’clock rush hour traffic but the necessary lane changes were easy due to plenty of notice on signs. This park has a heated swimming pool and hot tub jacuzzi so we were able to ease out the tension from driving.
The weather continues to be in our favor with sunshine every day and the occasional rain at night.

Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Toot! Toot! We booked into the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams, Arizona yesterday evening after driving all day through the mountain passes from Laughlin, Nevada. The climb hauling the RV really put the Dakota to the test but we were careful and took our time. An alert gas attendant, somewhere along the way, strongly advised we install new shocks on the rear of Dakota as the right side was blown so we had heavier shocks installed which caused a 3 hour delay.
This morning around 8:30 we picked up our tickets for the Grand Canyon Railway train. Prior to the train leaving at 10:00, we were treated to a cowboy show , including a shootout., with guys that looked like real cowboys. They perform every day except Christmas, weather permitting. No wonder they seemed authentic.
We boarded at the Williams Depot and two hours later arrived at the Grand Canyon Station at 12 noon. What a magnificent sight! We walked along the south rim trail about two miles, stopping to take many pictures, to an observation deck and spent time at the interpretive centre, gazing out on the canyon. A bus took us back to the El Tovar Hotel where we had drinks and window shopped. We also visited Hopi House which sold Native American products, but we had already spent our allowance for this stop. While we waited for the train, Paul enjoyed sitting in the lobby of the hotel near the huge stone fireplace which was aflame with real logs. He even nodded off for a bit.
On the way back to Williams, the same cowboys from the morning held up the train demanding cash, rings, etc. They were given token $1.00 US bills. One even had the gall to refuse a loonie being offered by a fellow Canadian traveler……but it was all in fun. Because we were so tired from the day, we ate dinner at the “world famous” Rod’s Steak House, “on Route 66 since 1946’ - as old as Faye. The steaks were delicious.

Later….

Gambling, Cowboys and Donkeys

We decided to bypass Las Vegas. There was just too much traffic zooming by and everyone seemed to be impatient to get somewhere else. We did stop at the Lucky Strike for lunch and a few minutes at a slot machine. It took no time to lose $10. Paul had a quick nap and we headed east. After climbing over yet another mountain pass, we booked into a pretty nice RV Park called AVI Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. Tuesday night we went to the casino. Faye really enjoyed playing the $2 blackjack table while Paul spent time on the 25 cent slot machines….and both quit after losing our agreed max of $20. The casino restaurants were offering prime rib dinners at $4.99 to get people in the door so that was payback time!
Wednesday morning, Faye did the laundry and spent about two hours listening to and chatting with four other women. They and their husbands all had a litany of illnesses and they were comparing doctors and treatments. Laughlin is apparently a good place to be ill. Wednesday afternoon we drove about 50 km through open range to Oatman, a small original cowboy and mining town up in the mountains. This town has recreated the cowboy gunfights and have wild burros (donkeys) running about the streets freely. Board sidewalks with hitching posts are on both sides of the short main street. There are old time saloons, and numerous authentic local craft shops with unusual décor and names. The whole place looks like a dusty rundown old town. Originally, it was a gold mining town and today serves as a tourist destination and holly wood movie site. The shops had everything marked down. The store clerks were desperate to sell and cut even the sale prices. Yahoo Faye!!!
Back at the park, our neighbours, Dan and Linda Olsen from Minnesota, dropped in for a visit. Dan is a retired boiler maker and a Viet Nam vet while Linda was a cosmetologist. We had an interesting evening comparing notes about our families and careers. They have a lot of RV experience and were happy to share it.
Today we drove all day to reach the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in the historic town of Williams, Arizona. Tomorrow we take the train tour up to the Grand Canyon.

Later…..

Valley of Fire State Park is a very unique combination of desert and jagged rock formations rising to spectacular heights. There is plenty to see and study in the Visitor Information Centre situated in the park and in the museum in the neighbouring town of Overton.
We spent Sunday exploring the park by first visiting the Visitor Centre and then driving to see Mouse’s Tank which is the spot where a famous Paiute Indian outlaw hid out for six months from the law. He had killed two people in a conflict and ran into the desert. Six months later he was noticed in a local woman’s garden, reported to the authorities, chased down and killed. Then we drove to White Dome witnessing the awesome landscape along the way. Pictures may be worth a thousand words but cannot accurately capture the majestic splendour! We then drove into Overton to have a look at the museum and the guide told us about a wireless location at a very friendly café.
Monday Paul went into Overton to get the new tires (purchased in Calgary) installed and a slightly overdue oil change. Rear studded tires are rare here so created a little stir.
Our park is located adjacent to the top end of Lake Mead, the huge body of water backed up by the Hoover Dam. There are many side roads leading down into the lake with marinas and beaches. A side road into Callville revealed a huge marina with many house boats. On the way in Faye spotted a small herd of big horn sheep.
We then drove to Hoover Dam to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening, taking in the power plant tour. This mega project, completed in 1935, controls the flood plain of the upper Colorado River draining a land mass 1/12th the size of continental United States (Fred C. would love to be the watershed coordinator for that baby!) In addition to the Hoover there are five dams above and another five below, all controlling and distributing water into the fertile plains and valleys below. At present Lake Mead is only half full due to an extended drought. The lake was full in 1983 which is evident by the bleached water mark all around the lake.
We drove back to our RV site at Valley of Fire State Park via north Las Vegas through horrendous fast moving traffic and were pleased that the GPS unit was able to guide us safely back through some missed turnoffs!

Later….