Lafayette to New Orleans
We had a wonderful holiday week with our Judice Family in Lafayette. We wished we had time to visit all of our old friends in the area, but family takes priority on these visits, when time is limited. When you have 30-40 family members, it’s an intense visit! We both feel like our parents need the most time on the ‘home visits’ so we try to spend the most time with our folks and branch out from there as we can.
Thank you Ronnie and Yvette for welcoming us and T'Chat with open arms for the week. An especial thanks to Remi and Lisa for opening their home (twice!) to the whole family to gather and enjoy each others’ company. I was so glad we got to spend a little extra time with dear Karen and Alina, 'Dis Robin, and some of our nephews and nieces. Visiting Father Louie, Carm and Paul was another special treat.
We pulled out today and headed to one of our favorite cities in the United States, New Orleans. Join me as I share a few snapshots from our stay here.
Lafayette, Louisiana!
Smooth traveling on last day to our Judice Family.
Worked out at the Schulenberg Anytime Fitness, stopped for coffee next to the Polka Museum, and Kolaches at the Kountry Bakery. I’m always suspicious of businesses that change their spelling from ‘C'to 'K.’ Except Krispy Kremes, of course.
Kolaches ~ bread, cakelike thing (like a cinnamon roll without the cinnamon), topped with cream cheese, cherries or other fruit. I wasn’t impressed, but maybe Kountry Bakery didn’t have the top-notch kolache.
The excitement of the day was driving through Houston. Not as scary as when I drove our old Magic Bus RV through New York City, but still required my full driving attention.
We were so happy to arrive at Ronnie and Yvette’s this afternoon. It is great to be home. They treated us to a good homecooked meal tonight. Now for 8 days of family visiting and Christmas festivities.
Merry Christmas all!
Junction to Schulenburg, via San Antonio
Alternate Title: Real Men Wear Hot Pink.
Still in Texas. Could be a Groundhog Day thing. I don’t know.
Anytime Fitness is our friend. We drove an hour to get there, worked out, showered then headed to downtown San Antonio. Our first time on the Riverwalk there. So lovely. Made me think of an adult version of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean. Only my pirate wore a pink shirt.
We had lunch outside on the river, in spite of drizzle. YUM, tableside prepped guacamole. Smoked tomatoes took it up a notch. Prickly pear margarita. Blue crab tostada. Our first meal ‘out’ since we left Bend. It was good, but the waiter made it even better. He was from Honduras (15 years in US) ~ very thoughtful, and helpful with ideas for San Antonio (our next trip).
Made it a short day for travel. Foggy and rainy driving, and we are tired. Schulenburg RV Park tonight.
El Paso to Junction, TX
Teeeeeexxxxxxaaaaassssss. It’s one looooong state for driving.
We practiced saying Junction, Texas in our best Matthew McConaughey voices for 6 hours. That’s how long it was.
It was so long that T'Chat started getting angry she hadn’t had dinner yet. She tapped Ross on the face with her paw and meowed for the last hour of the drive. Are we there yet?
We are here. We are safe and sound in the North Llano River RV Park and Resort. Even the park names are long in Texas.
T'Chat has been fed.
Off to bed. Love you all!
Tucson to El Paso
We know Tucson doesn’t get much rain, but WOW! What a doozy of a thunderstorm last night! We thoroughly enjoyed the show from the safety of our RV. Rain continued throughout the day today, but was not troublesome. We are glad we diverted to a more southerly route, as we’re hearing reports of snow and ice in the northern Arizona mountains ~ our original route.
We worked out/showered at another Anytime Fitness in Tucson, then met up with a friend of a friend who is selling her Tiger brand RV. Ross is always looking at alternative adventure vehicles (his hobby) and this one intrigued him. We loved meeting the owner, a retired college professor and poet. The RV didn’t meet Ross’s needs exactly, but we were glad for the view and visit.
Onward!
Today’s RV-Driving podcasts: (Me) Bakari Sellers (a Democrat’s Democrat from South Carolina) interviewed Tim Scott (one of only three black U.S. Senators, a Republican from South Carolina). The interview was enlightening. It helped me appreciate Scott’s frame of reference and appreciate him as a human being. It helps to understand someone’s back story, to understand the choices they make in their life.
(Ross) You Are Not So Smart ~ in today’s world of divided political loyalties, a psychologist gave his take on how to communicate with someone on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Hot Takes on the Southwest: *Magnificent architectural designs of nature…in stone, sand, sage and cactus. Look in the old Crayola box of 64…take all the yellow/orange/brown hues and you can create a fraction of the colors you see in the desert.
*Everyone is on the move! We counted dozens of small pickup trucks with furniture piled high, looking ready to topple over if there was a gust of wind. Where were they all moving from and to?
Landed tonight in Franklin Mountains State Park, El Paso. Other than a tent camper, we are the only ones here! (The Ranger tucked us in and locked us safely into the park.)
Las Vegas to Tucson
Whatever T'Chat DID in Vegas stayed in Vegas. She’ll never tell.
After partying hearty with our buds (Ross till all hours in the hot tub with Billy…another story altogether) we somehow managed to get up early and hit the gym. I signed us up for Anytime Fitness memberships before leaving Bend. It’s a traveler’s secret. You get a key to all their gyms around the country (open 24/7) and they all have nice clean showers. So we got our workout AND a shower, even though we weren’t in a campground last night.
On the drive we both listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about MacDonald’s french fries ~ a great listen if you’ve never heard it ~ from this last season of Gladwell’s Revisionist History. Then we listened to an excellent interview by Dr. Rhonda Patrick with scientist Erik Verdin from the Buck Institute (they study all things aging). Fascinating research about the benefits of fasting, ketogenic diets, and NAD. We highly recommend all of Dr. Rhonda Patrick’s interviews ~ her website and podcasts are both named Found My Fitness.
The kicker? After listening to all this French Fry and Healthy Science, we decided to stop at In and Out Burger and blow all the health out the window. We’ve both always been curious about In and Out…people love it. Our take? Cheerful people and environment, food seems fresher than MacD’s and that ilk, but overall it was very bland. Can’t wait to have a good old oyster po-boy from Old Tyme in Lafayette. That’s MY kind of fast food!
I drove most of the way today (300 of the 370 miles). I quite like driving, as long as I’m fresh. Don’t like to be the late-afternoon driver.
Found a lovely state park outside Tucson for tonight.
P.S. HI LEIGH! Thank you for the follow! I’m tumbler illiterate, so I followed you but can’t figure out how to reply. We send our love!
Lone Pine, CA to Las Vegas, NV via Death Valley
This’ll be short tonight, because I’m typing with one finger. I’m not a millennial, so it takes me 29.5 minutes to type a sentence with one finger.
Left early.
Saw a great sunrise.
Thought we lost T’Chat in Death Valkey, but found her in the cabinet under the sink.
Had morning coffee in the desert. Nothing better.
Spent this evening with dear old friends Billy and Jennifer O’Donnell at their Vegas condo. Camping tonight in their secured parking lot.
Speeding out tomorrow early, toward Phoenix/Tucson, to avoid bad weather due on Sunday.
Standish, CA to Lone Pine, CA
Woke up to 17 degrees in Standish. Actually we were awake much of the night, as the heater did little to dispel the cold. No insulation in these RV’s!
We packed up and left the campground at sunrise ~ as quickly as we could chip the ice off the inside of the windows.
Passed into Nevada and got the replacement part for the toilet at a little RV store in Reno. Stopped for breakfast (our green blended smoothies) at a lake in Nevada. And T'Chat took a walk (see video, above).
Then passed BACK into California…again through an Agricultural Quarantine Station. This time, the same lemons as yesterday actually had to be hand-inspected by the agent. When he saw that the lemons were harvested in California (originally), he gave them a pass. Something about citrus diseases.
We stopped in Bishop, CA for groceries and to pick up a sandwich at Erick Schat’s Bakery. We ate there in 2016 when we camped in the Sierra Nevadas…such good homemade bread!
Ended the day in Lone Pine at Boulder Creek RV Resort. As with the bakery, we stayed here in the spring of 2016. A nice campground with good wifi, clean showers and a safe place to exercise.
We took a brisk 2-mile walk to shake out our legs. Ross (Super Plumber Man) fixed the toilet. We are back in business.
Tonight, I’m feeling a little sad. The last time we were here we had Mr. Spock with us. He was such a trouper, traveling in the teardrop trailer. We both have been reminiscing about him and miss him a lot right now. Peaches too. Lucy too.
Bend, OR to Standish, CA
Pretty low-stress day, considering we packed up ourselves, closed up the condo and drove 5 hours to start our 2, 3, or 4 month getaway from the winter. It was a beautiful, uneventful drive out of Bend to 395 South. We love the 395 drive through western California.
T'Chat had her ritual vomit about one hour into the drive. It happens every trip on the first day, then NEVER after that! Now we prepare; the towels and cleaner were at hand at the start of the trip.
Covered 315 miles today. We split the driving. I, Robin, like to take the first leg every day, as that’s when I’m freshest.
We both put our earbuds in and listened to podcasts along the way.
Me: Two Crime Writers and A Microphone ~ hilarious Scottish guys interviewed Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham and Eva Dolan. Stay Tuned with Preet Bharaha ~ who interviewed retired Russian chessmaster Gary Kasparov. You are Not So Smart ~ On how immersive storytelling can change one’s thinking about a topic.
Ross: Rhonda Patrick, PhD ~ interviews with Dr. Judith Campisi (cellular senescence), Dr. Satchin Panda (circadian clock and food), sauna benefits.
Plusses: Gorgeous sunset! Didn’t get in trouble for carrying our citrus fruit into California. We admitted to carrying in 3 lemons at the border and were cleared to carry on.
Minuses: We seem to have sprung a leak in our toilet. Luckily it’s in the fresh water intake side…nothing icky. We’ll work on fixing it at our next destination.
Dinner: Homemade split pea soup and homemade chicken salad over spinach! Plus (my first sugar since before our fast) ~ one Seeley mint chocolate piece.