Yesterday we drove around some more looking at the different areas between here and Austin. We went southwest this time and checked out Halletsville, Shiner, and Gonzales (where the first shots of the Texas Revolution were fired). They were nice areas but not really places I could see myself living, mostly because they were miles from anywhere. We did look at another house along the way and it wasn’t bad but to get to it we had to drive a few miles through other folks’ trashy gardens and driveways – it wasn’t anything I wanted to be looking at everyday.
Today we were supposed to be off again in another direction to do some more fact finding but I didn’t want to go so we stayed home. Mike thinks I get defeated too quickly and no doubt he’s right but I haven’t really seen anything in the last few days that makes me think I want to settle down in Texas, at least not in this part of the state. We’ll keep looking, it is a big country after all.

Mike: Remember the Alamo!!!!!!!

Off to look for a new home this morning; well first things first we are actually looking to see if there is an area around here that we like the looks of. We started off going northwest towards Austin and passed by several small towns; the first one we came to that we explored further was Bastrope. It’s a really cute little place, quite old looking but very well kept with lots of little boutique-like stores. We drove through town and out the other side to check out a house that was for sale. It wasn’t bad looking from the outside although it would be necessary to get in it to find out how much work needed doing. The only problem we could see from the outside was that it is right on a rail track – could be noisy! On the way further north we passed through the newer part of town and it looked ok too.
We headed into Austin after driving for a while and it’s a really neat city. It wasn’t too busy getting in today since it’s the weekend and we were able to drive around quite easily for the most part. The city is quite compact for a capitol, and has lots of cool shops and restaurants, and the capitol building, which is taller that the US Capitol, is easily visible from all sides of the city. The city sits along the Colorado River and there are lovely walking areas along its banks, and we saw lots of people running and walking there. We did hit some traffic coming back through the city, everyone was trying to get to Wholefoods – I guess there are lots of healthy people in Austin. There was also a football game happening and there were longhorn fans everywhere – they are easy to spot in their orange and white – which did cause us a little delay when leaving Austin, but nothing Mike couldn’t handle.

Mike: Austin is nice, lots of upscale shopping and healthy stuff!




After stopping for lunch we took a different route home along the 290 and visited Elgin and Giddings, but nothing in those areas took our fancy. I guess we’ll look some more tomorrow.

It was a little chilly this morning as we were getting packed up to leave; I’m glad Mike gets to do the outside stuff while I stay nice and warm inside till the last possible minute. While he was putting all the hoses and things away he got chatting to our neighbours. We hadn’t seen them since the first day we got here and it turns out they had been in the hospital for the past two days as they suspected he had had a stroke. They were going to be heading out today too to be closer to their family till he got better. I hope everything turns out well for them.
We had a nice ride to Columbus this morning and arrived at the park in good time. Mike was happy as soon as he spoke to the ranger as there's TV and wifi throughout the park so the next four nights should be good ones. We drove around looking for a spot and met the resident deer population when we drove past a woman who was feeding them cheerios – not sure that’s the best food source for wild animals. We finally picked a spot after a little disagreement or two and got set up without any more. It is possible that we might get a visitor in the night as there are hundreds of mole hills around here; Tal-y would love this place, she wouldn’t know which one to dig first.

Mike:Lots of Deer, Dear!!!!!





We drove into Columbus for lunch and got some ok Mexican; it’s much more difficult to eat even Mexican in Texas when you’re vegetarian, the waitress looked at us like we were a little odd when we told her we didn’t eat meat. Afterwards we headed home and took a walk around the campground. As well as seeing the deer again we also spotted several armadillos that were out snuffling around looking for food. Since they can’t see too well, as long as you’re quiet you can get fairly close to them – just look out for those claws.

Spent the day yesterday checking out the area of Willis and Conroe and discovered that there’s not too much in either place besides shopping which we did a little of. Today was a laundry and chore day. I went off to do the laundry while Mike got stuff fixed in the trailer and got ready for us to leave tomorrow. At the laundry I got talking to a nice lady who, with her husband has been full time RVing for 8+ years – not sure I’m going to make it that long but we’ll see. It was nice to talk to someone who’s been doing it for so long and I learned lots of useful information from her. Time sure does fly when you’re chatting though as Mike came looking for me; I didn’t realize that the laundry had taken me almost three hours. Apparently, his stomach thought that his throat had been cut, although I can’t imagine why since I didn’t take the cooker or the food with me. In spite of not being able to make food for himself he had finished all his chores so I figured he deserved some lunch.
We are all set to take off in the morning now, we managed to get mats and the awning put away before the rain started so we should be able to get out of her fairly early.

Mike: It's a bit much when I have to search for my food!

We drove about an hour from the campsite to Houston this morning; well mostly we skirted Houston as we didn’t really want to go into the city. Our main reason for heading south was to visit the Ikea there as we needed a new shade for our lamp which has been split since probably this time last year; and since Ikea is foreign, lamp shades from anywhere else don’t fit their lamps. So off we went and had a wander round Ikea. It was fun checking out all the furniture that we have no place to put – maybe one day. We did manage to get a shade for our lamp though, the exact same one as it came with, so now it looks spiffy again – just because we live in a box there’s no reason to live like trailer trash!
We stopped off to have lunch, at a Mexican restaurant of course, and for the first time in forever we were asked whether we wanted a smoking or non-smoking table. I had no idea that there were still places that you could smoke inside, you can’t even do that in a pub in the UK anymore; both Mike and I stopped for a second wondering whether we’d heard right. The food was good, well we were at On The Border so we knew it would be, but we have to remember to ask whether the beans and enchilada sauce have meat in them, cos here in Texas they seem to put meat in everything.
We stopped off at the lake when we got back to the campground and it was a really sad sight; it appears to be down at least 15 feet from where it should be. Much like the rest of Texas that we’ve seen so far the drought is doing damage here too; they won’t be launching any boats from this dock in the near future.

Mike: I think there's more water in Death Valley than there is in Texas!

On the road again today, although since we drove half the original distance from Many yesterday we didn't have too far to go today; only about a two hour drive to Willis, TX.
The drive was fine, no flat batteries, flat tyres, or anything else thankfully. We got to the campsite and before we even got through the gate Mike was happy as the ranger told us that we'd have no trouble getting TV and internet anywhere in the park - that's a good start. We got to pick our space so we drove around for a while before going back to the spaces that the ranger had recommended; they were definitely the levelest in the park, and there weren't too many people around. Mike started backing the trailer in (I have to get out of the truck at that point), and I noticed our neighbours sitting outside their trailer. They were very friendly, also from California, and they complemented us on how efficiently we unhooked the truck and trailer - dude, it's not like we haven't had lots and lots of practice!
After lunch we took a drive around the park and checked out some of the permanent homes that are for sale here, before heading back to the trailer to a relaxing afternoon.

Mike: Finally, an easy day!

Well Mike still felt the same way when he got up this morning so we packed everything up and headed out of Many. There was no one at the office when we left, as we'd been told, so we left our payment in an envelope and hit the road. Mike had called around this morning and got us booked into a the Double Heart RV park near Jasper, TX so the drive there should have taken about an hour and a half. I said should have because we didn't get to the park until about 5 hours after we left Many. The drive started out just fine, it was a beautiful Sunday morning, the roads were quiet (cos everyone was in church) and the road surfaces got a lot better once we crossed into Texas. We'd been on the road about 40 minutes when we went through a little town. As we were heading out of the town Mike managed to nudge the curb and we heard the thump; a few hundred feet down the road, I looked in the side mirror and noticed the smoke. We pulled over to find that the passenger side front trailer tire was flat, and the rim was a little buckled - so much for just nudging that curb! We have roadside assistance so Mike got on the phone with them. Two and a half hours after stopping a guy finally arrived and changed out the wheel for us. It wasn't fun sitting on the roadside, but at least we had food, drink and the toilet with us. Mike passed the time pumping air into the spare as it was way low after not being used for so long, and I just hung out and watched. All in all, besdies the wait, it wasn't too bad, we both stayed calm and even managed to smile now and then.
After the tyre was changed we drove the rest of the way to Jasper.



We got checked in and set up; again we didn't unhitch as we are leaving tomorrow. After having lunch we strolled over to the lodge to see if anything was going on. mike flipped on the TV as we don't have any at the trailer and the rugby world cup final (recorded) was on so I settled in to watch it while Mike went back to the trailer. I was just getting into the second half when a man named Ken from Louisville Kentucky came in and proceeded to talk to me through the rest of the game - I wish I wasn't so polite sometimes! Actually he was nice, maybe a little lonely I think but nice anyway so I talked to him for quite a while. When I was getting ready to leave the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. I waited a while but it didn't look like stopping so I made a run for it. It rained for a good while longer before clearing up. Texas could really do with the water as everything is really dry here. The rain shower I'm sure was a welcome sight for a lot of people but they are going to need a whole lot more before they notice any difference.



Mike: How to make a long day out of a short one!

We were leaving Abita Springs this morning after being here for a week and we had an almost 5 hour drive ahead of us to get to Many in north west Louisiana so we got up quite early. Everything went smoothly with the packing up, even the hitching up of the trailer was easy, and then we were ready to go. I put the address in Nell, Mike turned Serenas key, and click, click, click. Bugger, Serena had a flat battery even after starting first thing this morning. We have a battery charger thing with jumper cables on it that mike set about attaching to Serena but that battery was flat too. At this point I got my book and left him to it, it’s easier than trying to help. After about half an hour I heard Serena roar to life, Mike had used the battery on the trailer to jump-start her, and off we went.
Even though we had a long drive we decided to stop at a Walmart and get a new battery put on Serena. The guys there were really helpful and swapped out the battery in no time flat, and I think Serena is happy to have a new lease on life as she hasn’t complained all day.
The rest of the drive was uneventful, just lots of freeway and lots of water, at least till we turned and started heading north, then the terrain changed and we saw hardly any water and it was much less flat. We finally got tot he park in Many well after 3 o’clock to discover that there was no one at the office to check us in. A notice on the door said to go find a space and pay the next day, so that’s what we did. Since we were only staying two nights we had decided not to unhitch the trailer so we needed a space that was long enough for both it and the truck. We eventually found one after driving around the park half a dozen times, the only trouble was the space was definitely on a grade and try as we might, even with the one side of the trailer up on three blocks, we couldn’t get her level. In the end we just got her as level as possible and left it at that; we are so unlevel we’ll probably wake up in the morning all scrunched up against the window at our feet.




The parking of the trailer was slightly stressful to say the least, there was yelling and some tears and maybe a swear word or two. To make matters worse the park is awful with a capital A. There seem to be a lot of permanent trailers here that don’t look fit for habitation. We took a walk around this evening and it seems to be really run down. We don’t have TV here so we asked a maintenance guy where the lodge was and he showed us but then informed us that it’s never open, great. He also told us that there would be no one here till Monday either so I’m not sure how we’ll pay if the office isn’t open when we leave. We didn’t spend too long walking around, we just headed back to the trailer and locked the door. Mike spent the evening watching movies and I have been reading. He’s talking about leaving tomorrow as he is so disappointed with this place, can’t say I blame him.

Mike: Only the 2nd bad park in a year and a half, not bad!

We have spent the last couple of days exploring the towns along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain including Covington and Abita Springs; there’s nothing too sensational about the area, there are just a number of small towns all running into each other. We wanted to stop in Abita Springs since we’ve driven through it everyday this week to get to some place else and we wanted to see what was here. The streets in and out of the town have some nice well kept houses along them but as it turns out the town itself is just what we’ve seen on our drive through. There is a nice park here that is ringed by some restaurants, and even a pub; the pub makes sense since there’s a brewery just down the road that makes Abita Springs beer.




This afternoon we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. When we walked in there was no one else in there, never a good sign, but as it turned out it was some of the nicest mexican food we’ve had. The owner was from Acapulco and had just recently opened the restaurant and he went out of his was to prepare our lunch, what with us being veggies and all. He made us vegetarian empanadas and some of the nicest pico de gallo I’ve ever tasted. He even gave us sangria, on the house; I had to lie down when we got home!




Mike: The mexican food has been the highlight of the New Orleans venture so far!

We headed into New Orleans this morning for what we thought would be day one of at least two days of visiting the city. We left quite early so we could have all day there; the drive took us back across Lake Pontchartrain and into the city from the north. Seeing as it is a major port city we didn’t encounter very much traffic this morning and with a little pre planning we found the parking garage with ease; and unlike some cities we have visited parking was dirt cheap at only $5.00 for 10 hours.
We started out walking down Canal Street before cutting onto Bourbon Street. Since it was only mid morning there wasn’t too much activity along Bourbon Street even though some of the bars and ‘gentlemen’s clubs’ were open. We walked along for a while past bars and souvenir stores before we had enough and headed towards the river. Possibly Bourbon Street is more exciting at night but I have to tell you that the smell of stale alcohol and puke doesn’t make it a great place to visit during the sunlight hours.
We made our way to Jackson Square and visited the St. Louis Cathedral, which is described as one of the oldest and most photographed cathedrals in the country. It was fine as cathedrals go, but I think Mike and I have been spoilt by some of the places we’ve visited and this cathedral did not strike us as particularly photo worthy. The square itself was a nice place to hang out and get up close and personal with Old Hickory, General Andrew Jackson himself, while being serenaded by street musicians.






We crossed over Decatur and got to view the Mississippi from some place other than the top of a bridge. The banks of the river as far as it is possible to see and full of activity. After a stroll along the river we visited Café du Monde and had café au lait and beignets; translation, chicory coffee with milk and fried, sugar coated doughnuts. The coffee was good and I wouldn’t say no to the doughnuts again either.




We wandered some more around the French Quarter before deciding to take a cemetery tour. We just signed up in time and had to boogie to the meeting place to meet our guide, Mike. There were two others on the tour, a woman from Kentucky and a Canadian guy and they were both as weird as they come and neither one stopped talking for longer than it took them to take a breath. We visited St. Louis Cemetery No.1 and learned all about above ground burial. The cemetery opened in 1789 and if you own a vault there you can still be buried today. The process is kind of grisly; you get put in a coffin and then sealed into the vault. Everyone has to remain in their coffin in the vault for at least a year and a day (it’s a city ordinance), if after that time there are no more dead people waiting to go into your vault you can stay where you are. If another family member has died within that time, then once your year and a day are up you get taken out of your coffin and whatever is left of you (not much at that point since the temperature inside the vaults are ridiculous) gets put back on the slab of your vault and swept to the back. The goop and bones then fall down through a gap to the bottom of the vault and you spend the remainder of forever there, sloshing around with the rest of your long dead relatives. If a person dies and another family member is already occupying the vault and hasn’t been there a year and a day, then the body of the second dead person has to ‘rent’ a vault until the time has passed, then their year and a day starts from the time they are placed in their vault. It’s a bit like musical coffins! The cemetery is about a city block in size, and our guide told us that there is probably upwards of 100,000 people buried there. It is supposed to be the final resting place of voodoo queen Marie Laveau and we saw three tombs which could contain her remains; they were easy to spot as they have stuff left as offerings and xxx marked on the walls of the tomb. According to our guide however she is buried in a different cemetery altogether; it’s unlikely that it’ll ever be figured out which tomb her remains are in.






After the tour we headed back to the car. Mike swears he saw a drug deal going down while we were walking back to the garage. I can’t say I saw anything but since I’m oblivious to most stuff of that nature I probably was looking right at it and still managed to miss it. We took a drive to the Garden District after leaving the French Quarter and checked out some of the huge old antebellum houses that cover every inch of this area. They are beautiful houses although they are so close together these days that you could barely walk alongside them. Right on the edge of the Garden District we stopped to get gas. It’s weird to have so many wealthy homeowners living only a few blocks away from a place where I wanted to lock the car doors while Mike pumped gas. It was a little scary, lots of guys with wife beater shirts and no teeth.
This was only the beginning of the poverty as we left downtown New Orleans and headed towards the lower ninth ward; this was the area that got hit the worst by hurricane Katrina. As we got closer to it we could see lots of buildings that are abandoned with lots of damage; a lot of the people who left during the hurricane have still not come back. The lower ninth ward does show too much of the devastation anymore, there aren’t falling down houses everywhere, but there are lots of open spaces amongst the houses that have been rebuilt. The rubble has been removed but the house pads are still there and it’s easy to see how many people have not returned. Looking at the position of the area in relation to the water it’s easy to see how so much devastation was wrought, there really is nowhere for the water to go once it gets into this area – definitely not the best place to build a home.
New Orleans seems to me to be a really sad place, very touristy, sleazy, and poor. I was expecting to see a vibrant city alive with welcoming people but it was nothing like that at all. I can see why our guide from the swamp yesterday (who is a born and bred New Orlean) that locals never visit the French Quarter – why would they?
When we headed back over the lake the wind had really picked up, the water was crashing against the pillars of the causeway. We had intended to go back to New Orleans tomorrow and spend another day exploring but we saw everything we wanted and needed to today so somewhere different tomorrow I think.

Mike: I feel really bad for the people of New Orleans, not just for the devastation of Katrina, but for who they have turned into. I can't imagine any normal people still living here! It's a sespool!

These early mornings are killing me. We had another 6 o’clock wake up call today, but we didn’t go to Waffle House, we had breakfast at home for a change. This morning we headed off for an almost three hour drive to Avery Island, the home of Tabasco.
There sure is a lot of water in this state, everywhere you look there’s a lake, a river, a swamp, or a canal. Most of the roads we have been driving on are up on pillars and all that’s below us is water. No wonder this place gets flooded so often, there’s just no getting away from the water, and adding a hurricane to the mix can never make things better. This is a really pretty area, but I don’t envy the people who live here at all, they can keep Louisiana, I like my ground above the water table. Perhaps the only thing that is as abundant as the water is sugar cane; there are fields of it everywhere all at different stages of growth.



Anyway, after driving for a long while, and going through the largest swamp in the state, heck in the US, the Atchafalaya Swamp, we headed south onto Avery Island. The McIlhenny family has been making Tabasco sauce here since 1868, and it is on this island (which is actually a salt dome) that all the Tabasco Sauce in the world is produced using salt from the island. Mike was really excited about going to visit this place and it was cool to learn about how it’s made and to see the bottling process in action. They gave us little sample bottles to take home with us, and at the country store we got to sample all the different sauces they make, as well as Tabasco ice-cream which was just ok. We bought a couple of bottles and as a gift we were given a jar of pickled okra – what the heck am I going to do with pickled okra?
When we came out of the store it was pouring with rain; I think this is only the second time we’ve had rain since getting back here. We made a run for it to the car; that rain was cold and we got soaked but Mike didn’t care as he had his sauce.





We headed back north along a different route than we had taken this morning through a number of small towns, trying to stay ahead of the storm that was trailing us. We stopped along the way for Mexican but ended up leaving before eating, as it was too expensive. I object to paying $12.00 each for tortillas, beans, rice and cheese – am I being cheap, I don’t think so. We stopped off at the Croc store again, as one new pair of Crocs just wasn’t enough for Mike, and finally got to eat lunch.
We didn’t dilly dally on the way home, just hit the freeway and headed east; there are only so many run down towns I want to look at and there are not so many along the main traffic routes.

Mike: Yeah! for Tabasco! Yeah! for Croc's! Boo! for Tabasco ice cream!

Happy birthday mam, have a lovely birthday.
We had booked a swamp tour in Sliddell for this morning so the coffee pot went off at 6 again and we were at Waffle House even earlier than yesterday. After nourishing ourselves we drove the short distance to Crawford Landing. We were a little early so we paid and then sat on the porch to wait for everyone else to arrive and chatted to the tour guide. Just before 9 everyone was there and off we went. We all piled in to a flat-bottomed boat, carefully balanced to ensure we didn’t tip up, and then we set off for a trip down the Pearl River. The guide told us that the gators in the swamp wouldn’t be awake until late morning so he did the tour back to front and we went along the river first. It was a beautiful journey along a gorgeous river that was so quiet and peaceful; when he stopped the engine of the boat the only sounds we could hear were the birds and insects.




There were a number of structures along the river bank, some were houses were people live year round, and others were camps that were used for short periods of time when hunting and fishing – it wasn’t difficult to spot the difference. We didn’t see anybody in the camps, but there were some guys out on their little boats fishing for catfish. I guess at that time of the morning everything was just waking up as we saw lots of turtles sunning themselves and even some snakes; one still in the water, and another already stretched out along a tree branch. There were numerous birds, great blue herons, egrets, kingfishers and even some birds of prey. The river was ride was very cool, especially when we ‘caught some air’ and the guide sped us through the water. The river was very calm and it appeared still. Looking at the reflection of the trees in the water it was difficult to tell where land stopped and the water started. As calm as it was today, it’s hard to believe how much damage the river can and has done. We were told that during the flooding many of the houses were severely damaged even though the water rose and fell within a matter of hours. The clean up is still going on but there have done a great job of it.






After the boat ride we left the river and headed along a bayou into Honey Island Swamp. Our timing couldn’t have been better, as no sooner did we get in there than we were watching the daddy gator of the swamp pulling himself out of the water and onto a mud bank. He had just gotten up after spending the night on the bottom of the swamp and he was massive. His name is El Guapo and he’s about 70 years old, 15 feet in length and he weighs a good few pounds. He wasn’t at all bothered by the boat, he just lay there looking at us looking at him without a care in the world – I guess being the boss of your own swamp can give you that kind of peace.



The swamp was pretty cool, not at all smelly and with absolutely no bugs; although we were informed that at night the mosquitos come out in force and it’s not a fun place to be. It’s really interesting ‘terrain’ (not sure that’s the right word), with the trees and other vegetation surrounded and immersed in water, but I guess that’s what a swamp is, a flooded forest.





As we set off deeper into the swamp we saw El Guapo’s wife numero uno just sticking her nose above the water. The guide tried calling to her to see if she would come to the boat but she didn’t move so we headed away from her. The call did attract another gator though, Jumper who is wife number two. She was swimming towards us with purpose as we set back off. The guide pulled the boat up and she came right alongside us as he called to her. She was really aggressive coming at the boat as people got closer to the side, and especially when the guide started feeding her hot dogs on a stick – she liked those.





After being entertained for a while we left Jumper digesting her dogs and headed further into the swamp. The trees all have high water marks on them and apparently the swamp can rise that far over night, amazing. Further in the guide beached the boat in between some trees and answered questions, and as he was doing so we were visited by two smaller female alligators who he also fed with weiners and marshmallows; they like the marshmallows as they think they are turtle eggs because they float. While we were there we spotted Jumper swimming towards us, and when she got near us we saw a gator ‘fight’. She dipped below the water and headed straight for the lesser female. The little one took off and Jumper went after her, below the water, then came shooting up out of the water at her. The little female didn’t get too close after that and Jumper got more hotdogs while keeping a close eye for any people in the boat that got too close to the edge and hence in reach of her mouth. The interaction between them was very cool to watch, the pecking order is well established and everyone in that order knows their place.








We hung out for a while before heading back. We stopped off to visit El Guapo one more time, and when we got back there he had dried out almost completely. I suppose he was going to spend the rest of the day just lazing in the sun as he doesn’t need to eat for a few months (he couldn’t digest it as it’s too cold) and by getting back in the water he would cool back down. A day long siesta it is then, what a life!

Mike: That's why they call me "El Guapo"!