Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Saturday, February 22, 2014

And then there was Sunday & Louisiana

Sunday was one of those days we don't want to happen very often and wish we could have a redo. We were up early, we wanted to get across Houston early to avoid the traffic, well that didn't happen.

Our first inkling it was going to be a bad day was when we got our first ouch in the new rig. All set to go and we were getting the rig hitched up when I heard cracking, what we didn't realize or take into account was the canoe on the big truck and the new rig set further over the hitch, end result a small unnoticeable unless looking for it crack in the gelcoat. At least Dave is a handy guy and will work on it when we get somewhere for awhile.

Ah but the saga continues, we headed out the drive onto the frontage road and Dave says there's a problem, seems the hitch and the trailers king pin plate were not working together, back to where we had just left. Our neighbors Sharon & Jim were sitting outside and very surprised to see us back already. We soon realized our hitch used a special capture plate, thank goodness they never moved the old rig into the gated yard, we were able to remove the plate and with Jim's help eventually modified it to fit our new rig. 3 hours after our expected departure we were on the road again, thank you Sharon and Jim for your support both physical and mental-we hope to see you down the road again one of these days.

About 50-60 miles into our journey near Winnie TX we got caught up in traffic, something had brought it to a complete halt. After a few hours I called a nearby RV park just in case, they informed an 18 wheeler had jacknifed, they did have room in case we decided not to drive all the way to LA. About 4:30 after 3.5 hours sitting we finally got going, we opted to head on over to Breaux Bridge LA, we arrived around 6pm way later than we ever like to arrive but there was still a bit of light. So that was our Sunday, so glad it finally ended, what a day it was. Through it all though we were able to keep our cool and worked well together. 


Monday we took our time getting the day started, we were in no hurry to do anything. We decided though we wouldn't stay at Pioneer Acadian Village RV Park the whole week we planned, went and checked in and said we'd be leaving on Thursday. The park is right next to I-10 so lots of noise, it is a great place though for an overnight or two, good Louisiana crawfish, boudin & cracklin nearby. 



Monday afternoon we headed into the town of Breaux Bridge to see what was around, we ended up at Lake Martin looking at birds and taking a short walk along their levee.
We were also scouting out places to do some canoeing. Dave spent some more time working on the hitch a bit, finessing things for a better fit. Dinner was at Crawfish Town USA, Dave liked the crawfish better at the hole in the wall in Houston we ate at.


Tuesday late morning we decided to canoe the Bayou Teche, while most of this area has houses on the route we decided to head out anyway. We drove one truck about 10 miles down the road, came back to the rv park where we could put in at their dock. The owner of the park actually saw us off taking pictures for her website. We had an enjoyable ride, birds, dogs and cows were our wildlife sightings for the day no matter how much Dave tried calling for the gators. 4 or so hours we found where we had left the truck, while not the most scenic it was nice to get out on the water, haven't been in the canoe since November at Elephant Butte.





















Wednesday we headed to New Iberia where we took a tour of The Shadows an old home on The Bayou Teche. No photographs were allowed inside and the house was having its roof redone so no picture of the home, it was a nice home to visit though I don't know if it's quite worth the $10/person but it does go to preserve and maintain the old home. The home was owned by the Weeks family who had sugar cane plantation in the vicinity, the home has survived the civil war, hurricanes and time, it was in the family for four generations before being donated.









Afterwards we headed to Avery Island, home of Tabasco and Jungle Gardens.We enjoyed a free tour of the Tabasco factory and browsed through their country store where a few things found their way home with us.



















Jungle Gardens were started by the McIlhenny family, founders of Tabasco, as a sanctuary for migrating birds, they also have some resident gators and flower gardens which I'm sure are more impressive during their blooming time. We enjoyed a few hours wandering around the grounds and thought the admission was well worth it.








Thursday was our next travel day, with a bit of trepidation we got ready to hitch up, success on the first try, looks like his finessing the other day has paid off. We arrived at Buccaneer State Park with out incident, just my kind of travel day. We are here for two weeks, hopefully the bugs won't be too much of a problem. Spent the afternoon getting stuff together for our closing next week on our property at Gulf Waters. Need to get some stuff notarized and in the mail next week and we should be set.

Until next time...




15 comments:

  1. I'm finally getting caught up with blogs after being sick. Look forward to going back through your posts. Wow, a new rig and the first oops. With that out of the way, it should be smooth sailing. We're at Lake Pleasant and thinking of you guys. You might enjoy this spot as well. Safe travels :-)

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    1. Hopefully that's it for oopsing, we might just have to try Lake Pleasant next winter when we are in the area. Glad you're feeling better, so far knock on wood neither of us have been sick this trip.

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  3. Boy do I hate stressful travel days. So glad yours turned out fine in the end. You've been very busy in an area of the country I know nothing about. We always seem to drive through Louisiana rather than visit Louisiana. Glad your second travel day was smooth sailing and you'll have some time to explore the area. If you get near Ocean City in MS, take a look at the Walter Anderson Museum. The special rooms are pretty amazing.

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    1. We'll keep it mind, haven't done much but hang around the park or go for bike rides. Getting some nice down time after the craziness of Houston.

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  4. Glad you worked out the problem with the hitch. We enjoyed Avery Island when we were there several years ago. Glad you like it, too.

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    1. Stressful couple of hours, glad they're over. We really did enjoy Avery Island and some of the goodies we picked up there.

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  5. I hope the bugs at Buccaneer are not as bad as they were when we stayed there last year ... Mui looked like he had chicken pox. Sorry to hear about the ouchie ... but these things happen to all us RVers at one time or another; we just got a ding in one of the basement doors fixed at a local body shop.

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    1. The bugs are a hit and miss thing for us, at night though they seem to have gone away. Hopefully Dave can take care of the ding when we are settled in VT for the summer.

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  6. With that first ouchie out of the way, you should have smooth sailing:) I hate driving through Houston under good circumstances! Sorry your day was so stressful.

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    1. Fingers crossed we are done with dinging the rv, we avoided driving through Houston as much as possible even when the GPS wanted us too.

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  7. Hopefully you are early on the bugs....I'll have to pull up the map and see where you are at. Sorry about the oops...been wondering when we begin to move again how things are going to hook up and move down the road! Have fun this week....see lots of rain here this week. Hopeful it all moves out the first of March for your visit...

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    1. So far the bugs aren't too bad, glad they're gone when we have our fires at night. I was apprehensive when we left VT after sitting all summer, this was just a matter of hitch differences.

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  8. Love the name of your blog. I'm looking forward to reading some of your past posts.

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    1. Thanks Merikay, comes from Dave's heritage, welcome to our blog.

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