April 8, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time in N’Awlins

Lee and I are not really “big city” people, but through our lives we have visited most of the major ones with the exception of New Orleans. So when we changed out plans to meet up with Dave and Sharon in Bayou Segnette State Park, 30 miles away from the city, we knew we would take at least one day there. I had heard about the park from Kelly and Bill who in turn learned about it from Deb and Steve and wow, was it a great choice. At $28 a night it was a little on the high side, especially considering there’s no sewer hookup (there IS a dump station) but the park and campground itself are very nice. They have free Wifi (pretty weak signal), large sites, and numerous other features including free laundry, wave pool (opens after Memorial Day), nature walks, marina, and bath houses. Since it was only 1 hour from Pat and Bridget’s we arrived pretty early, dumped, and settled into our site (130) which backs up into some swamp. This time of year the weather has been absolutely beautiful, high of 80’s in the day with cool nights and relatively low humidity so we sat outside and listened to all the noise on the bayou. Crickets, cicadas, frogs and tons of birds chorused us in the mornings and at nights and after hearing lots of rustling in the trees behind us we discovered a beautiful nesting pair of Yellow-crowned night herons, which we spent quite a bit of time taking pictures (through pretty dense foliage) in our “back yard.”

Night herons live in the trees during the daytime and come down to feed at night

Looks like a totally different bird with the neck elongated (Lee’s pic)

And they look different again when they “puff” up (Lee’s pic)

Sunday, we spent the day in the park just hanging out and it was immaculately tended with the only exception being our fire ring. Once again we had some trash in it (two beer cans and a piece of rope) and unfortunately when I reached in to pick up a beer can to clean it out the beer can was full of fire ants which swarmed me!! I have been VERY careful about fire ants as we travel, meticulously avoiding their dirt mound nests, but I just didn’t see them on the can. So I was bit, several times, which was a first and for those who haven’t experienced it…not fun. They are tiny, bite hard, and some of the bites quickly form a small blister which itches and hurts. Luckily, I got most of them off me quickly, but did end up with some swelling on my hand and a particularly nasty bite on the top of my foot which was still slightly swollen three days later. I called Bridget (who taught biology and chemistry and lives in the area) and she told me the quick swelling was normal and to use a topical analgesic to help with the itchiness and stinging. She also made sure I wasn’t having too severe a reaction (which I wasn’t), since occasionally people do. Anyway, I was fine, but wanted to mention it since if you are from the north (like we are) it is probably not something you are very familiar with. The thing to look for are mounds of dirt or sand with teeny, tiny red ants in them or in this case, be careful of trash lying on the ground.

We planned our visit to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) very carefully on Sunday. There is a ferry that crosses into the city, not that far from us, and most people park there ($5 on regular days and more during special events), ride the ferry ($2 per person), and then walk or take the trolley once they hit the city. We could have taken this route, but instead chose to drive. (I think if I went again I would take the ferry instead, since everything you want to see is relatively close together and the experience of the ferry and trolley would have been fun in and of themselves.) Knowing parking would be a challenge, we decided to leave early Monday morning in the hopes that it would not be a busy day. It was a good call. We got downtown around 9:30 and found some free parking on the street in our first stop, The Garden District. It is unlikely though we would have found that parking, especially for our truck, later in the day. Then we moved the truck down closer to the french quarter and again, because it was early, found a spot but it cost us $25 for 9 hours. Not terrible by big city standards but not cheap either.

The ferry looked really nice and fun

The trolley was cool

The parking lot we ended up being in. There were still several spots around 10:30 but it was completely full at 2 when we went back to get our truck

The parking lot we ended up being in. There were still several spots around 10:30am but it was completely full at 2pm when we went back to get our truck

We wanted to start at the Garden District rather than just hit Bourbon street, because I wanted to see the area Anne Rice had written about. We have visited many places our favorite writers used as backdrops over the years, Bangor, ME (Stephen King), Prince Edward Islands (Anne of Green Gables series), and more recently Charleston, SC (Pat Conroy) and it rarely disappoints. A good writer can really make you feel like you know a place already and I felt like I knew the Garden district through her writing. Since Anne Rice writes about vampires, the very first thing I wanted to see was one of the old cemeteries. I wasn’t particular about which one, and with sheer dumb luck we ended up parked on the street right next to Lafayette Cemetery Number 1 right outside the garden district. We have visited numerous graveyards during our travels, but I have never felt as unsettled in one as I did in New Orleans. They are extremely old, above ground, and the walls surrounding them have bodies in them as well. Let me just say I am glad we weren’t there at night. Everyone should see them at least once, but we didn’t linger.

Each square in the wall contains remains

I was happy to see some of the older graves were being restored by SOC (Save our Cemeteries)’

And a few of the oldest ones were in amazing condition still. Generations of families are often buried in these crypts.

After the cemetery we walked around the Garden District. I definitely recommend it, but it was nowhere near as cool as Charleston, even on the side streets which we spent most of our time on. Many of the older homes on St. Charles have been torn down and replaced by condos and what it was really missing was the elaborate gardens of Charleston. Still it was a pleasant walk and we did get to see Anne Rice’s old house which is now owned by a convent.

Here is an example of a small house that was sold and the sign shows what they are replacing it with

I did like the wrought iron fences

A few of the old homes had historic plaques with who lived there, but again much less than in Charleston. If you really want to get into the history you need to take a tour or do some extensive research

One of the few houses that had a large garden

The oak trees were beautiful and as you can see have done some damage on the sidewalks. Wear good walking shoes.

One of the coolest things we saw was this bird attack a cat! Never seen that before and it’s not a great pic but this bird was not messing around. The cat was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, but did move away

After finding parking, we started to aimlessly wander heading vaguely towards Jackson Square. Normally I do a ton of research, but since I was just trying to get the feel of the place intentionally did not. Plus from the way people talk about it it’s all good food and good music. I would say this was not the best approach. I wish I would have been more targeted about what I wanted to see, because it was a lot of walking and the different sections of the French Quarter are very different. I also think I missed a whole chunk with this approach, which kind of bums me out since I don’t think we will be in a hurry to go back anytime soon.

Jackson Square itself was great though. Tons of street artists, a beautiful catholic church which you could go into, and lots of shops and restaurants. We liked it early in the day, but when we returned later in the day it was uncomfortably packed with people. Cruise ships are landing in New Orleans now and we saw lots of big tour groups along with so many visitors for a Monday! Still I thought it was neat and liked the vibe.

Jackson Square statue

The flowers were pretty

Cafe Du Monde where the line was super long throughout the day with people waiting to get beignets.

Lots of fortune tellers in the square

This guy was talking about how well trained his bird was and right on queue it bit him. Cracked me up

This guy was talking about how well trained his bird was and right on cue it bit him. Cracked me up

A Popeye’s chicken commercial was being filmed in Jackson Square which was cool

Cool little shops with unique items

I loved the masks they were beautiful

I bought this magnet because it made me think of Pat and Bridget

Loved the street art

St. Louis Cathedral and the square

The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continual use church in the US

The St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest continual use cathedral in the US

The ceilings were amazing

Beautiful wooden pews

Loved the pulpit

Statue of the King of France

The stained glass was some of the best I have ever seen

Beautiful statue of Mary

I lit a candle for our grandmothers and Bridget’s Mom. Bridget told me later that when her Mom was sick she watched mass daily on a local broadcast from the cathedral

After seeing the square, we wandered off down some side streets and some of them we really liked. The alleys are narrow and most places have second story balconies so there is always shade and lots going on. We saw several street musicians, mostly young kids, but none of the classic jazz music I had heard about. Could have been the time of day, where we were, or the proximity to the music festival, but it was definitely not what I thought it would be. Research would have helped in this case, but it was fun and I like the flowers.

Lots of narrow streets

Some of the hanging gardens were beautiful, but most were not well kept

Street musicians

I almost bought a shirt that said this

But chose this one instead :). It says Bourbon Street on the front

Ah Bourbon Street. Well first off let me say if you visit New Orleans and go straight to Bourbon street and then leave you are really doing yourself a disservice. I really didn’t like Bourbon Street at all. It’s a particularly narrow street and the smell of garbage, even on a relatively cool day, was over powering. I can’t imagine it jam packed with people, because my claustrophobia really kicked in. It looks and feels like a bar street in a college town and it’s really not our thing. The only thing a little neat about it was a couple of “Voo Doo” shops, but we spent as little time on that street as possible.

Had to get a picture of the sign

Funny guy at a Voo Doo shop

This boss doll cracked me up

By this time we were hungry but the section we were in didn’t look like it had places I would want to eat end. I had read you can’t eat a bad meal in New Orleans but that really isn’t true, and we should definitely have researched a place to eat lunch. We ended up back in Jackson Square and ate at Monty’s on the Square.

The table was nice with a view of the square

The fries were ok. Bacon was great, roast beef unnecessary. I liked the plain cajun fries much better

Lee’s roast beef sandwich was a huge disappointment …no flavor at all

My deconstructed bacon wrapped shrimp was both pretty and delicious. It had a bourbon jam that was good and was on a fried biscuit

So the New Orleans meal I had been wanting to eat did not live up to it’s press. The service however was outstanding and you couldn’t beat the location and at $40 it was reasonably priced for a city meal. Definitely worth a return visit at some point to one of the better reviewed restaurants in the area, but I would definitely go with someone who ate there frequently. After lunch the streets were really getting busy so we decided to wander back to the car. Huge crowds are definitely not our thing and turned the charming features of the narrow streets into a bit of a claustrophobic mess. As we were walking out, we went up on the hill behind the square and looked into the water. That was pretty and we saw New Orleans Famous Beignets which did not have a huge line. Have to do it right, and boy are we happy we did. It was cash only, $3 for three big beignets and they were hot and really delicious. Watching Lee eat them was a food porn experience and one of the best parts of the day 🙂

The little place we stopped at. They also had beignets stuffed with sausage for $3

The lady yelled Order (old school) which was awesome. The staff was really nice

Really, Really Nice Beignets. And yes Lee did share them, but watching him eat them was half the fun

So we left by 2:30pm and were done with the town. Not that we wont ever go back, but it will definitely be with someone who knows the city or better armed with specific things we want to do. We would never go during Mardi Gras, and have no interest in going at night, but hey that’s just us. However you decide to visit the city , I do recommend doing some research before you go.

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April 7, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

March 2016 Budget

This month looks worse than it truly was from a budget perspective because of two major purchases. We finally broke down and bought good hiking shoes (after I sprained my ankle) and those ran about $250. We also had to double pay our insurance in March as we transitioned to a new policy and had to pay $309 upfront to make sure there was no gap in coverage. So if you take those two purchases out of the equation we were only $100 over which was pretty great considering how much activity we crammed into March. See below for the details.

Campground Fees – We did great in this category because we stayed in less expensive campgrounds out west. Look for this to shoot up as we head east and then settle to nothing as we start our work kamping job.

Groceries – Really happy with groceries as we ended up about $100 under. We did a great job of managing those costs when we were with Cori and Greg and we focused on cleaning our our freezer (needed defrosting) for the rest of the month.

Dining Out – We were over by $180 but $100 of that was our big meal in Texas which was a deliberate splurge. The $72 in eating on the run continues to be a challenge, but not for lack of effort on our part. Travel days we tend to grab food more frequently and it’s simply not practical to pack a lunch everywhere you go. We talk about this a lot though and continue to work on it. We found these great $1 Bumble Bee Snack On The Run at Wal-Mart that Lee really likes and that is helping, but I really need to find an alternative to peanut butter and jelly.

Truck Fuel – We were over by $210 which was a bit of a surprise for me since the gas prices are so low. We are filling up the truck every other day on travel days and that does add up. Expect this to get worse before it gets better and I am very curious what happens when we are work kamping in Alaska.

Gifts – I splurged and bought gifts from Mexico for my nieces and nephews we will be seeing in April. What is the use of having a traveling Aunt if she doesn’t bring you cool stuff once in a while.

Equipment – One of our relatively new Rhino sewer hoses got a leak in it and had to be replaced and Lee installed another 8′ vinyl fence post cover for storing sewer hoses and accessories to get them and their associated odors smells out of the storage compartment. I also bought a ton of magnets and those add up. Anyway, we were about $60 over in aggregate.

So not to bad, will see what happens in April.

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April 5, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time “Mooch” Docking

First, I’m going to apologize to Bridget for using the term “mooch docking”. She feels (and rightly so) that the term “mooch” is the antithesis of hospitality, and I totally agree. I did decide though to put it in that context in the hope that people who are doing research will find this post and use it as a guideline for exactly how to open your home to someone who is a full time RVer.

We met Bridget and Pat briefly back in 2014 at the RV-Dreams rally, and then again at the 2015 Reunion Rally. Because Bridget’s mom was ill, they were staying close to home in Louisiana, but were very much looking forward to spending more time on the road. When we determined our route back east would take us near them, I reached out to see if we could stop by. Two reasons; first and foremost I wanted to see them again, and spend more time with them, but I also had never been to Louisiana before and really wanted to learn about it from people who grew up there. Unfortunately, about 10 days before we were due to arrive, Bridget’s mom passed away and I was very uncertain about what to do. After some soul searching, I decided I wouldn’t make her choice for her and reached out. Not only did she still want us to come, but she was grateful for the visit. Anyone who has been through it knows the grief process when losing a parent is a long and difficult process and she was happy for the distraction. So we made arrangements to stop for a couple of days with them and headed down route 90 into the bayou.

From the moment we arrived they were absolutely amazing. They have a longish driveway on a somewhat busy street, so they both stopped traffic so we could have the time to back in. The angle was a little tough, but we pushed up against their garage and then Pat hooked Lee up to 50amp electric and water. Just so you know, 50 amp is not required. Most full time RVers can stay on a property for a couple of days with no services at all, but having access to electric and water was a nice bonus. Both Lee and I felt a little uncomfortable that we were taking up so much of their driveway, but they really couldn’t have cared less, and were so excited to see us that we felt more comfortable about the imposition.

Tucked into the driveway

It’s important to note here that as long as you have a driveway or piece of land long enough to fit the camper (and local regulations don’t restrict it) people can stay with you. We don’t mind if you don’t mind, and are always grateful for a free place to stay. Once we settled in we got a tour of their home and wow is it amazing. Pat is a retired State trooper and Bridget was the principal of the local school, and after several years of marriage they built a beautiful home on a piece of Pat’s parents land. My favorite part of the house was the kitchen which was huge and full of handmade cabinets and furniture that had been created with reclaimed wood from both Pat and Bridget’s parents old homes. Out of respect for them I didn’t take tons of pictures of the home, but I couldn’t resist the kitchen. Bridget retired after 32 years in the school system, and then started a small home kitchen cookie business, Cookie Clutter. Her cookies are not only beautiful, but absolutely delicious, so what started as a hobby has turned into a 20-25 hour a week job, and she has the kitchen to support it.

Serious pantry envy

Bridget’s cookies

I loved loved her commercial stove

We spent the first evening touring the house and grounds, catching up, and talking. They had a lot of questions about how life has been on the road and we had a lot of questions about living in Louisiana. Plus Bridget cooked an amazing dinner of Shrimp and Crab corn chowder and Shrimp and Crab cakes. She walked me through how she cooked as she did it and what can I say other than crazy impressive. You hear about southern hospitality and southern cooking, but to experience it in someone’s home was a very special opportunity for us. I have read in cookbooks about certain techniques, but the opportunity to see them in action from someone who has been cooking like that her whole life was on a whole different level. She also wasn’t at all possessive about the kitchen, which was nice. There was no expectation, but if I wanted to jump in and help she was all for it. They also are incredibly generous people. Many people say “my house is your house” but Pat and Bridge take it to a whole new level. Oh you were looking for local rice, here take this bag. You think this wine stopper would work in your camper, please take this extra one we have we aren’t using. I could go on and on. Let me just say in all seriousness I have never received this level of hospitality in my life. No disrespect intended for anyone who was ever kind enough to let us stay with them, but this was a whole other level. It was funny though when I took them at their word and after dinner got up and started to do the dishes. We have a rule that whoever cooks doesn’t clean up and when Bridget fussed at me a bit, I said you wanted me to feel at home, and to her credit she sat and talked to Lee and let me do them!

Excited about my new wine stopper

The next morning though Lee and I woke up and felt slightly uncomfortable. The very last thing we would want to do would be to take advantage of anyone and it sort of felt like that. So when we went over in the morning we sort of stumbled through explaining how we were feeling and asked for them to please not go to any trouble. To their credit they listened patiently and then kindly dismissed everything we had just said 🙂 Well alright then, let’s just go with it. They weren’t sure what we wanted to do during the day, but I just asked for them to show us the area as locals. I think they thought we would be bored initially, but as we went through the day and they saw how excited we got they understood. The opportunity to see and experience a place as the locals do is a rare opportunity when traveling. Unless you have gotten to know someone in the area, you often end up doing the more touristy things, which is fine, but not nearly as rich of an experience in my opinion as “going native.” So we visited local stores, saw where Bridget and Pat worked, and went down and toured the bayou…and what an amazing day.

Since I love to shop locally we went to a local meat marker

Loved the history of the place and the “miracles in meat” tagline

I bought andouille sausage (pronounced “ahn-do-ee”

This is a picture of the summer sausage that Pat makes himself, wow was it good

Then we went to a small seafood store

Where we bought a bag of live crawfish for that nights dinner

Shopping for dinner the same day is something I enjoy and because the seafood is so plentiful, everyone here buys it as fresh as they can and then cooks it right away. Next we drove down to the bayou, where Pat fishes frequently, and ate lunch at Schmoopy’s and toured the area a bit. Almost all of the homes are built on stilts due to hurricanes and flooding and it is a mixture of modest homes and much nicer ones right next to each other.

Next was lunch at a restaurant down on the bayou

The shrimp boats and water were right outside

My kind of place.

This made me smile

And I loved this spoon hanging on the wall

Bridget and Pat with their Po’Boy. Sorry Bridge I caught you mid bite!

At lunch we grabbed the check and poor Pat (who is a true southern gentleman) was extremely uncomfortable. Bridget, sweetheart that she is, put her hand on his arm and said let her do this. Very, very sweet. Next we checked a box of my long time bucket list. I adore gulf shrimp, think it is the best in the world, and I have always wanted to buy it fresh right from the docks. So we went to Martin’s Fresh Shrimp, where Lillie helped make that happen. When Lillie found out I had never done this before, she spent a ton of time explaining the process and gave me a little extra, explaining the Louisiana concept of lagniappe. We ended up getting 4-1/2 pounds of shrimp (caught the night before) for $20. Amazing and I loved the whole experience. Pat brought a cooler with ice and after making our purchase we headed back to their house.

Houses along the bayou

Martins Shrimp and Crab …yummy

Modest stand but super fresh product

One of their fishing boats

Not on the menu that night, but these looked amazing

Pat held up a beauitful blue crab for me

Pat held up a beautiful blue crab for me

Lillie weighing out my shrimp. She taught me Lagniappe which is the Louisiana word for that little bit extra

Along the way though we started talking about geocaching and Lee felt the best way to explain it was to do it, so we all found a geocache on their local college campus.

Lee showing Pat and Bridget the geocache app

Getting close

Found it!!

Once we got back to the house, Pat and I sat outside on chairs and cleaned shrimp. I had never cleaned shrimp with heads on before, so asked for some plastic gloves, but after we did a few it was pretty easy. Then Pat used his commercial vacuum sealer to make us some beautiful little packages of shrimp. He also froze them in one of his big freezers so the next morning we could just load them in ours. Then Bridget took us into their orange and lemon grove and we picked some fresh oranges and lemons and we went over to her mom’s house to look at books. Bridget knows how much we love to read and since she is planning on donating her mom’s books anyway, wanted us to take what we wanted. As a side note most full timers use Kindles but we still like paper books and after reading them we drop them off in whatever local town we are in at the library or campground. Plus, Bridget was giving me a bunch of old, local cookbooks..so yeah, I was excited. On the way back to her parents house we were looking at the pond and I got to see my very first wild alligator. It was about 4 feet long, and just hanging out. I went back to get my camera and told Pat there was an alligator. He said, “Ok I’ll take care of it when my son gets here.” Naively I asked what taking care of it was and he looked at me kind of strangely and said, “We will catch it and eat it” Well, sure, why not? I have no issue with people hunting and fishing if they eat what they take and it’s not like they are rare down here or anything.

The commerical vacu sealer. Wish we had room for one of these

Hooray shrimp

Soon to be dinner alligator (Lee’s pic)

Alligator (Lee’s pic)

Lee's pic of a slug at the pond. They are really kind of beautiful the way he shot this, but Bridget says they are a pest

Lee’s pic of a group of snail eggs at the pond. They are really kind of beautiful the way he shot this, but Bridget says they are a menace

Lee’s pic

Pat cleaning the crawfish

These ones are on the small side

All the fixins for the boil

Cooking crawfish is serious business\

My plate of crawfish was a very small portion

Getting ready for my lesson

Lee is getting into it

The carnage after the meal which all goes on their compost heap

So here are my thoughts on my very first crawfish boil. The veggies were spicy, although you can control that with what you put into the boil, the meat on the crawfish was sweet (sort of a cross between lobster and crab) and tasted great but it’s some work getting to it. Of course Bridget and Pat were much faster at it than I was, so that would probably improve over time. Most of all it was totally fun. You only eat the tail part and the head gets thrown away (or used later for gravy) so the grossness factor was much less than I expected. Plus it is a true Louisiana experience and a must try at least once for everyone. Oh and they used Zatarain’s Boil mix for seasoning and Bridget’s Go To Cajun seasoning for almost everything else is Slap Yo Momma . She of course gave me generous portions of both to take with me. And she taught me about Kary’s Dry Roux which is a fat free alternative to traditional roux and much easier.

After dinner we sat around and talked until very late, when Pat and Bridget’s daughter arrived. She is a beautiful and sassy 23 year old and I thought she was terrific. When we went to bed finally we realized it was 10:45pm!! What?? I never stay up that late, but the company was so good the time just flew by. Do you ever talk with people and cover 50 topics in an hour, but the conversation flows easily? That is what it was like for us. It was conversational magic and later Bridget said it was exactly what she needed to help “shake her out of her fog.” The next morning, they packed our freezer with fish, shrimp, gumbo mixture, and sausage while I made us a big mid-western country breakfast. It wasn’t fancy, but they seemed to like it and I loved cooking on that amazing stove. We are so very grateful that our first experience staying on someone else’s property was a positive one and they set the bar pretty high for future experiences. It was such a great weekend that I suggested they package it and sell it as “The Louisiana Experience”, but Pat says they will be too busy traveling the road themselves 🙂 Glad we came for the visit in while they are still there. Next up New Orleans and Dave and Sharon of Two Lanes Of Freedom fame. I really can’t believe this is my life!

Recipes

Bridget’s Maque Choux Corn

1/2 stick Butter
2 TBL Flour
1 can Rotel Tomatoes Mild
Sweet or bell peppers (optional)
1 large onion, cut into small pieces)
1 stalk celery (thinly sliced)
1 clove garlic
3 cans Green Giant Niblet corn or 16 oz bag Green Giant Niblets frozen corn (fresh works the best if in season)
1 packet Splenda (use with canned or frozen corn to sweeten, not necessary with fresh)

Melt butter in pan
Saute garlic, onions, peppers, and celery in butter until slightly soft
Add flour, stirring constantly until thickened
Add Rotel tomatoes and stir constantly until warmed
Add corn
Add 1 packet of Splenda to sweeten the corn and stir
Let simmer on low, stirring frequently until “smothered” in the sauce.

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April 3, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

Rick, this post is for you.

Next on our whirlwind tour of seeing people as we headed back east were my work friends Rick and Laura. Since Rick self-admittedly only reads the beginning and end of each post and looks at the pictures (he is not alone in this tactic by any means) this is a special post just for him.

Went to Tomball, Tx.

Saw Rick and Laura.

Ate Chinese Food.

Went to Louisiana.

There you go Rick, now you can just look at the pictures. Sorry, I couldn’t resist!

For everyone else (Laura included) here’s the rest of the story. Many years ago Rick and I worked on a major Oracle software implementation. For five years we worked night and weekends and traveled frequently and probably spent more time together than we did with our families. Luckily we really liked each other. We were both transplants to the New England area (Rick from Texas and me from Ohio) and really bonded about our cultural similarities in comparison to the Northeast. Plus we were both totally devoted to our respective families and he made work traveling fun and relatively easy because he is a true southern gentleman. Arguably he knew me better during that time period than any non-related person and to be honest I was a little worried about what he would think about all of this RV “craziness”. I feel different than I was in my previous life and since we no longer have the work thing in common would we still be close to one another. Turns out I worry too much…big shock there right? When people really care about you, that stays regardless of whatever changes you make in your life and our conversation was easy and extremely comfortable, but let me back up a bit.

We had heard about a free city campsite, Spring Creek Park in Tomball, TX from both Cori and Laura and decided to try it out. There are 8 sites in a row in a nice city park with beautiful brand new full hookups. Unfortunately somehow we missed the fact that you would need reservations, despite the fact that it is free, and when we found out (after we set up in an open spot for the night) it was a bit stressful. We got extremely lucky for Wednesday night and were able to stay, but it was booked on Thursday so we had to move on. We ended up at Corral RV Park, which was well cared for and had extremely large full hookup sites, but was $40 a night. Yikes. Well, as my grandma used to say, beggars can’t be choosers, and I felt a little better about it since the night prior was free. First time we have ever made that particular mistake though.

The view behind us at Spring Creek Park

The beautiful full hookups

Lee finally figured out how to hookup our grill up to our rig propane so no more little bottles…hooray!

After we moved and set up again on Thursday, then we went to Costco. Lee and I decided we were going to try a Costco membership and there was one close by. We didn’t live near any big box stores in New England so this was new to us, but after checking it out with Cori and Greg I feel pretty confident it will be cost-effective, but only under certain conditions. We bought the Premier membership for $110 which gives 2% cash back at the end of the year. When you get the check at the end of the year if it doesn’t cover the additional $55 over the basic membership price Costco will refund the difference. We chose Costco because of the deals they have on car rentals, insurance, etc, and mainly because the queen of the internet Cori compared Sam’s Club to Costco and thought Costco was a better deal. We decided to get the membership mainly because of their deals on meat. I can get great deals on dry goods and we travel and we prefer fresh produce from local farms when available but meat continues to be a challenge. Since we have limited freezer space we can’t stock up on the good deals, so we are often at the mercy of whatever is on sale that week. Costco has high quality meat on sale pretty much continuously and we ended up buying Ribeye, chicken thighs, and hamburger for great prices. They also have some wonderful deals on great quality frozen fish (another hit and miss item at local grocery stores) and I got a packet of Atlantic Cod. Everything else though you really need to watch the prices and quantities. Will you eat it all before it goes bad and do you have room to store it are big questions when shopping at a box store, so we were super selective in what we bought. Still we ended up spending $200, but I have a full freezer and we will see how the economy of the whole thing plays out over the next year.

As a side note I kind of get why Rick would skip the section above. Laura said they would “kill each other” if they lived in that small of a space together so it’s not really relevant to him. He has a huge pantry and can Costco it up to his heart’s content! Still a little pantry jealous obviously.

After Costco we chilled for a bit and then went to see Rick and Laura’s house. Eight years ago Tomball was a rural suburb but as Houston has grown so have they. It’s a great house though with a huge kitchen and as we got the tour I had serious pantry envy!! We sat and talked for 2 hours and time just flew by and then we all jumped into Laura’s car to go to their favorite Chinese buffet. Getting good Chinese food on the road has been a real problem and it was great to have their recommendation to go by, plus Rick generously bought us dinner, which was really nice. The China Bear was huge, seriously, the largest building holding a Chinese buffet I have ever seen, and had lots of regional specialties on it, including crawfish. The food was good, company was even better, and the price was definitely right!

Huge Chinese restaurant and gift shop

Laura, Lee, and Rick who is recovering from neck surgery …hence the brace

Really nice gift shop

Big buffet

Afterwards we went back to Rick and Laura’s and saw their son Jeff. Now 27, Jeff works in IT for a local college and is all grown up. It’s been 8 years since I have seen him and what a nice young man he has grown into. Plus, when he said he read my blog, well I was super excited. The fact that a millennial (who is not one of my kids) finds my blog interesting was a huge ego boost. We chatted some more and caught up on his life and then left around 8:30 to get ready for an early departure the next morning. Since Texas is one of the few states where we can spend the winters we know we will definitely see them again and it really was wonderful to renew the connection. Since this is in the middle and I know he’s not reading it, I can say I absolutely love Rick and adore Laura. They are wonderful people and getting to see them is another one of those great benefits that goes along with the travel lifestyle.

me and Jeff..whose all grown up!!

We had a 7 hour travel day scheduled (which is our outer limit) in order to make it to Pat and Bridget’s house in one day and knew we would have to deal with Houston traffic on top of that. Luckily Tomball is on the northern edge and there is an outer outer belt you can take that is so new it doesn’t even show up on Google maps. Unfortunately it is a toll road and only accessible if you have a TX pass, which of course we didn’t have. We weren’t sure what route the GPS would take us, so when we woke up at 4:30am to heavy rain we decided to get an early start. We got out by 6:30, which is highly unusual for us, but I am glad we did. Traffic was slow even at that hour and suddenly we found ourselves GPS directed to the toll road. We use an RV specific GPS and almost always use it because of height and weight restrictions so despite the signs saying violators will be prosecuted we decided to risk it and take the toll road. The traffic was MUCH lighter on that road and we were making good time when the one policeman we saw pulled out behind us. He followed for a while and we were sure we would be pulled over, but apparently decided to give us a break and didn’t.

Here’s my opinion on the whole thing. We were guests in the state, pulling this monster rig, and we followed our GPS. If you are going to have a major toll road then have a way for people from out-of-town to pay. It’s not like we were trying to break the law, we just really didn’t know what our alternative was. Plus it’s a great section of road and probably saved us an hour on the way out of Houston so everyone should have access to it. If they send us a bill for the $5 in the mail, we will definitely pay it or maybe they will just let it go. We will see. Once around the outer belt we hit a wall of traffic on I-10. It eventually cleared up about 10 minutes outside of town but it took us about 30 minutes to go 5 miles. And this was at 7:30 am so I really do recommend an early or late start when going through Houston.

We took I-10 through Texas, which was not the nightmare I had heard. Yes it’s rough in some spots and there is traffic, but it wasn’t awful by any means. I drove most of it and appreciated how flat it was actually. When we hit Louisiana we switched because this was my very first time in Louisiana!! My first impressions were it was very pretty. Super green, lots of water in the rivers and creeks, and comparatively very little trash. Eventually we turned on 90 and hit big swamp sections and it was even cooler. The highways are raised in many sections because you can’t build in swamps and we were surrounded by cool old trees and moss. I saw numerous egrets and other birds along the drive and I was fascinated. 90 though is a really rough road comparatively and we were seriously getting bounced around. Bridget had warned us though so we just took our time and tried to have a good attitude about it. I thought of it as a training course for our trip to Alaska!! Every truck stop along that road has an attached casino and they are relatively small, but we did find a place to stop and eat. It was real Louisiana countryside and I enjoyed it…bouncing aside.

My very first view of Louisiana swamp was really pretty

So next up is our very first experience at “mooch docking”, which is staying at a friend’s house and our wonderful visit with Bridget and Pat. I swear I am trying to get caught up here, but there is so much going on!! Thanks again Rick and Laura for your hospitality and can’t wait to see you guys again!!

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April 2, 2016 by Lee and Tracy

First Time Meeting Jim and Diana

OK, everything isn’t perfect in Texas. The weather is indeed unpredictable and we got snow. Not just a little either (although it is a pittance by New England standards) but a couple of inches with some ice rain thrown in for good measure. Thankfully we had a pretty short travel day scheduled on Easter Sunday and could take our time in the morning waiting for it to thaw. We don’t even own an ice scraper anymore, so around 10am Lee broke down and went up on the roof to clear the roof and slide-outs with a broom. The truck windows were thawed by turning the car on and the ice on the stairs that stopped them from being closed…well, Lee got creative and used our metal grill spatula. Have to say it did a nice job. So we didn’t roll out until 11am, which is extremely unusual for us, but I have to say I found the late morning way more relaxing. I may have to talk Lee into more of those.

The stairs in the morning; pre spatula’d

The drive itself was largely uneventful, especially once all the ice/snow melted off the hood of the truck. It was long stretches of farm land with thousands of windmills in the fields. We also saw some oil rigs and despite what I have heard they didn’t bother me at all. I give huge credit to the farmers who grow crops, raise cattle, and harvest energy via either oil or solar on their fields. The wind in particular I find impressive and good for them for finding a way to make a family farm profitable. It’s smart 21st century farming and makes me hopeful for our future as a country.

Lee had picked Abilene State Park for our overnight stay and our GPS took us on a weird route waaay off the interstate to get there. We did get to see more of the countryside (including my first amazing Longhorn Steer with HUGE horns), but it ended up making for a longish day. I was tired when we got to the park and very annoyed when we discovered that our $18 a night campsite was actually $28 because Texas parks charge a $5 per day per person fee whether you are camping there or not. I really, really don’t like that, especially because Reserve America doesn’t tell you that when you make the reservations. If you live in a state or have camped there before you just know it, but we have been caught by that more than once. I was also pretty under impressed by the general state of neglect of the park, culminating in our fire pit which was full of trash and even a piece of cooked chicken. Totally gross. For $28 a night I expect better. The site itself was very nice, large, wooded, and nice space between you and your neighbor but for an overnight stay I didn’t think all the extra effort to get there was worth it.

They did have very cool heated yurts for people to stay in

This is where Lee and I (and many others) disagree. I think State Parks in general are over rated and not the end all be all of our stays. Lee, along with many of our friends, would always pick them as a first choice because the sites are so nice and there are no people right on top of you. I think they generally aren’t worth the hassle for an overnight stay and are usually not the cheapest option. I think that’s why Lee and I love City/County parks so much. In general, they combine his love of a more roomy site with my love for a good deal and relative convenience. Of course, this is only for overnight stays, if you are staying in a place for a while and can take advantage of the trails etc many state parks are a good choice, but be careful about hidden costs when booking them. Either way, I really hate paying for a site that isn’t clean. Whether private or government the campsites and surrounding area should be free of trash and this park is definitely a disappointment in that category.

One bright note though was we did do our first geocache as a couple. We downloaded the app back in Texas and haven’t done much with it, so I was pleasantly surprised when Lee found a geocache .10 miles from our site. We wandered over and found it pretty easily and Lee really liked the treasure hunt aspect of gecaching. Plus I finally got to drop off a trackable I picked up in Arizona so felt pretty good about helping it towards it mission of finding someplace colder. I think the snow we experienced this morning definitely qualified! (Trackables have a unique number and a stated mission. They aren’t that common so the fact that I found one on my 2nd geocache experience was cool. It also is some pressure though because you need to help it accomplish it’s mission and I was glad to get it out of the glove compartment and on its way).

Geocaching in the State Park Side note: The couple who created this geocache emailed me after we logged we found it, because they saw it was our very first one and they had just become full-time RVers 1 month ago. How cool is that?

The next morning we had a short drive, but wanted to be on our way so we left around 9:30. I did stop and tell the park ranger about the chicken leg. She explained (with a bit of an attitude) they had 3,400 guests over the weekend and were two rangers short. Although I appreciated the explanation I was not crazy about the lack of an apology. A simple “I am sorry that happened” followed up with an explanation goes a long way with me. Anyway, we drove to Junction, Texas, through the small town, down some side streets to Morgan Shady RV Park. The older woman who runs the campground was not there when we arrived and the sites are not all clearly marked. But after pulling up the map and doing some detective work we found our spot. It had a great view of the river and full hookups and although $30 was on the steep side, I really, really liked this park. Tons of birds on the river and hardly anyone else there, plus the lady was very nice. It is a little gem of a site and I guess she’s been unsuccessful selling up, but someone really should snap this park up and spruce it up. Anyway, no sooner had we setup then Lee wanted to go geocaching and one short walk turned into driving around town and 2 hours later he had found 4 of them. I loved his enthusiasm and it was fun to log them, but I really was getting hungry!

The owners home and parlkoffice at Shady Morgan

The owners home and park office at Shady Morgan

Our site, OA

The river

The view upriver

Lee playing with the two baby goats

Lee found his first geocache

Look how happy he is

Lover’s Leap

Nice view from Lover’s leap of the town

Geocache #2./ This was a hard one as the description was not that good

Number 3

And finally number 4 which took forever because it was a special geocache container made to look just like a piece of wood. Lee found it though

The next day we had talked about going to the The Texas White House (President LBJ’s family ranch), because Mary one of our blog readers had recommended it and is currently volunteering there. We loved the river so much though, we were seriously tempted to take a float. The campground owner gave us the names of two different people. One wanted to drive our truck back…Lee was like nope, but the second was only $20 and said she would meet us at the campground at 10am. Since all three types of kingfishers (which I have never seen) are on the river, we couldn’t pass it up. It was a cloudy morning with a 20% chance of rain, but we got up and got all our gear ready. Then waited and waited, at 10:15 Lee finally called but received no answer and at 10:25 am we called it and went back to Plan A of the LBJ ranch. We drove out to the park through this great little town of Fredericksburg which is in Texas wine country. The town was founded by Germans and has tons of restaurants and cool gift shops. We couldn’t stop though because we were already behind schedule, but I definitely want to go back and check out that town.

The LBJ ranch is a little confusing because there are actually three different historic parks in three different locations and none of these are the Presidential library which is located in Austin. The ranch itself is in Stonewall and is one of those places that is part State and part Federal. You stop at the visitors center/gift shop, which is run by the State Park system, to get a free parking pass, then drive down a road to the ranch which is a National Park, which has its own gift shop…weird. I asked at the State Park if they had heard of Mary and Ron, but no one had. Then when we did the auto tour of the ranch we stopped at the barn and I asked the Ranch Manager, but he had a couple of Ron’s working for him and no idea if they were married to Mary. Despite not being able to find Mary the auto tour was very cool. When LBJ donated the land he stipulated that it stay a working ranch and they have a herd of long horn cattle there. Lee had a long conversation with the ranch manager about volunteering there, as he as always wanted to work on a ranch, and I wandered down to the pens and took some picture with one of the big bulls.

State Park sign

The Texas wildflowers in bloom were beautiful

The one room school-house where he started school

He signed some major education into law right here on this bench outside the school-house

LBJ was a teacher right out of college and very committed to education as a means of prosperity. He signed over 60 education laws into being, more than any other president

The ranch manager was very nice and answered my many questions about cows. He seem a little perplexed at first by why I was so interested, but I explained I spent a lot of time looking at cows out the window as we traveled and since they were raised in all kinds of terrains had some built up questions that needed answering. He did confirm that different types of terrain could support more of less cows and he taught us that the Bull Texas Longhorns had wider but shorter horns than the Steers which had the really super, long ones. Then we had to talk about the difference between a Steer and Bull (Steer’s are essentially castrated) and it was a very interesting conversation. Although we might not be able to volunteer there since it doesn’t pay anything, it does renew my interest in finding us a ranching job in the summer of 2017. So if anyone hears anything please let me know.

They raise mainly Hereford cattle here. They are huge

Some sheep and goats

They also have a herd of Texas Long Horns. Here’s the Bull I went to see. The Steer I mentioned in a previous post had horns twice as long

The middle of the fields also had a small air strip so this is Air Force 1/2 that they used to fly him back and forth to the ranch

The middle of the field also had a small air strip so this is Air Force 1/2 that they used to fly him back and forth to the ranch. He spent a ton of time at the ranch

At the end of the auto tour we reached the house and paid $3 for a tour of the first floor (the grounds and auto tour are all free). I decided to ask one more time about Mary and hit pay dirt. The Park Ranger went out a door and grabbed her and in she came. At first she was a little confused (she said the accent threw her as I don’t write with an accent lol), but soon we were chatting away. Mary and Ron have RVed for years but just became full timers in January. They are from Texas and took this work kamping gig to give their kids and grandkids time to get used to the transition (super smart in my opinion) and in the process she said she has really enjoyed herself.

Mary and I

I told her how grateful we were for the recommendation and she is the first reader I have gotten a recommendation from, gone, and met. We took an instant liking to each other, but she said she had to leave and give the next tour. Well guess what we had already booked that tour!!! How awesome was that. She did a really good job by the way, especially for a self-proclaimed introvert and she said the whole experience has helped her get out of her comfort zone. Unfortunately, there are no pictures inside the house because of the families deal with the park service, but I absolutely recommend it. It is definitely a home that was also transformed into a presidential working environment. Fascinating.

Mary giving the tour. It was funny and informative. Great job!!

Teh secret service headquarters was a small house they moved

The secret service headquarters was a small house they moved

Where the pilots hung out

LBJ routinely used this wagon for BBQ’s

The side entrance to the house. The original structure was made of limestone, a common building material in Texas.

The most interesting thing was this 300 year old oak tree under which he routinely had cabinet meetings. Major decisions were made under this tree

One of the most interesting thing was this 300 year old oak tree under which he routinely had cabinet meetings. Major decisions were made under this tree

They added onto the original house twice. The right hand side was the two separate bedrooms they amde after he became president because she didn't like waking up to strangers in her bedroom. I don't blame her

They added onto the original house twice. The right hand side was the two separate bedrooms they made after he became president because she didn’t like waking up to strangers in her bedroom. I don’t blame her

Beautiful view from the front windows

Ladybird lived in the house until she died and swam regularly for exercise.

This is a picture of a picture but it shows the TV in the wall of his office which I though was ahead of its time

His car collection. The corvette was a gift to his daughter. Nice car

This car was one of those aqua cars that also worked in water.

As soon as he got to the ranch he drove himself (because he could) and the white convertible had mud tires

Regardless of your politics I highly recommend seeing this. I wasn’t a big fan of his going in (like him a bit better now), but either way the historical significance of the place cannot be denied. Because of his love of the land he and Lady Bird worked together to create 60 new federal parks and we are all reaping the benefits of those today. Yes his role in Vietnam was pretty awful, but he was also a man thrust into a situation no one expected and how he handled it (basically by running the country from Texas) is interesting. Thank you again Mary for recommending it and it was such a pleasure meeting you. I really hope we see each other again down the road.

After the tour, we left and headed back to meet Jim and Diana for the first time. Jim and Diana are fellow graduates of the RV Dreams class of 2014, but we had never met because they went to the Fall Rally. Jim and I became acquainted on the RV-Dreams forum and I started reading his blog because I really loved their story. They RVed for years and decided to sell their house, getting the call for the sale while they were at the rally. They went ahead and sold and then moved into their rig, but stayed in Michigan because Diana needed to be close to ailing mother. What’s very impressive to me is that they spent the entire winter in Michigan. He did an amazing job of winterizing their rig and when the rest of us were all running around, they stayed and took care of family first. Impressive. When Diana’s mom passed, the went down to Florida and as sad as I was for them for the death I was very happy that they were finally able to start their travels. Jim is a history buff and writes about the history of every place they visit and they also find little known places in their travels. I love the blog and as you often do felt like I knew them. He really won my heart though, when he sent me a private message after Lee put regular gas in the diesel tank. It was so supportive and so caring, it almost made me cry. So when we were happening to cross each other on I-10, Lee and I changed our plans slightly so we could meet them.

When we arrived at the campground after the long drive, they gave us a few minutes to get settled then came over. I only knew Diana though through Jim’s writing so it was very fun to really get to know her and since Lee doesn’t read their blog or do the forums he was new to them both. There is a danger when you finally meet people you have read about for so long that you jump ahead because you think you know them. You may know parts of them, but certainly not the whole story, but I think we were all careful not to fall into that trap. They got to hear Lee’s version of several of our stories and we got to learn more about them. We talked a lot about blogging and of course we talked about full timing. We swapped stories, shared RV modifications, and in a very short time we truly bonded. Although it was a short visit, I absolutely know we will see them in the future and it was wonderful getting to know more of our RV-Dreams family. Oh and on a side note, Lee (who is always a little tentative about meeting “the internet people”) liked Mary, Jim, and Diana very very much. Since both instances were such a great experience I think I will have more luck getting him to open up to more of these meetings in the future.

Lee telling Jim and Diana one of his stories. They seemed pretty entertained

Jim and Diana hanging out on my couch

Lee, me, Diana, and Jim

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Camper Chronicles

Travel Tales from Working Full Time RVers

Month: April 2016

First Time in N’Awlins

March 2016 Budget

First Time “Mooch” Docking

Recipes

Bridget’s Maque Choux Corn

Rick, this post is for you.

First Time Meeting Jim and Diana