New Orleans

Sat, Nov 7, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Returned from New Orleans this morning tired but content. Stayed at the Chateau Lemoyne in the French Quarter. We got there around noon on Thursday too early to check in, so we had a drink on the pool deck and then walked around the French Quarter for a while. A beautiful day—warm and sunny. Checked in around 4:00, unpacked, and had dinner at Desires on Bourbon St. Got an early start on Friday with breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to the WWII Museum on Magazine St. A long day (12 hours) but really interesting. We were able to see and explore a PT boat they’re completely restoring to full running condition which they’ll have in the water by December. We also toured the fourth floor where over 10,000 items are stored, such as American, British, German, and Japanese uniforms and weapons, medals, plane props, a piece of the Arizona that was sunk at Pearl Harbor, a treasure trove of taped interviews between Stephen Ambrose and WWII vets, and on and on. We got to go inside a Sherman tank (I did not). And we had dinner and a show at the Stage Door Canteen where a group of very talented singers and dancers put on a typical USO show the likes of which Bob Hope and his entourage did so many times. The museum keeps growing and is the #1 attraction in New Orleans these days. They opened a new building since we were there last—the Freedom Pavilion. Back to our hotel and had another drink on the pool deck (still 80 degrees!) before crashing. Out early this morning in a light drizzle. Back to our site, unpacked, had some lunch and then did the laundry. We’ve never done the laundry here before. It’s not a great laundry room (two washers and two dryers), but it’s free. So, that’s out of the way. Sat outside reading my new Grisham book and listening to the rain drops on the awning. Tomorrow we leave for the KOA at Milton, FL. We’ll be there for three days.

Jammin' on Jackson Square. These guys were good!

We tried to find a place with some Zydeco music. Nothing. Where's the Zydeco? It is New Orleans after all.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square.

View from our table at Desires. A guy walked by in a black leather vest and short shorts and fishnet stockings. He looked vaguely familiar...

The guys from our group checking out the machine gun on the Sherman tank.

Mike climbing out the turret hatch. He was brave. The only one to  go inside. This thing held five men. Can you say claustrophobic?

Mike still working on getting out of this thing.

Our guide set up a step ladder to climb up onto it.

The Freedom Pavilion is new. It houses some historic aircraft and exhibits from the European Theater. The exhibits from the Pacific Theater will be open next year. 

The talented band at the Stage Door Canteen.

Fairview-Riverside

Thu, Nov 5, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Another beautiful morning. Really humid though. Went for an early walk and had some breakfast. Started packing for New Orleans. After lunch we’re heading in for a couple of days. Going to get a docent tour of the new wing of the WWII Museum. Looking forward to walking around the Quarter and some shrimp creole. Not taking my laptop with me, so no post for a couple of days. As they say in New Orleans…Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Tchefuncte River

Fairview-Riverside

Wed, Nov 4, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Beautiful morning this morning—sunny and warm, birds twittering away outside, and a gentle breeze stirring the pines. I did some cleaning and tried out the central vac system. Works pretty well. Later in the morning we drove into Madisonville to run some errands. Back to our site and sat outside reading for a while. Had some dinner at Rip’s on the Lake on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. A pretty area of really nice homes. Love the architecture in this area, and the beautiful flora. 80 today and mostly sunny.  

Hard to keep my mind on my book with the pretty view.

View from our table on the deck at Rip's on the Lake.

Reflections on the Tchefuncte.

What a CF!

Tue, Nov 3: Movietown RV Park, Canton, MS, to Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  An uneventful drive today. Except that I drove through Jackson, MS. I HATE driving through Jackson. Stopped at a Love’s truck stop and I got my Big Mac fix at a McDonalds there. We arrived at Fairview-Riverside by 2:00. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the site we reserved in the “premier” loop because of flooding. They put us in site 25 and we had a terrible time getting in. There were three trees giving us a problem, and the paved driveways are so narrow it’s hard to get the wheels right on the paved part—at least for us. After at least an hour and much gnashing of teeth, we finally got it in. Then Mike tried the auto level thing and it got all screwed up. Many phone calls later he finally got it leveled. I said to just leave it with the front jacks down, but he wouldn’t give up. So I had a drink, went for a walk, came back and he was still obsessing. Had another drink. Finally he got it leveled. Walked over to the loop we were supposed to be in and saw no flooding. I think they told us they were expecting more rain this weekend, so they had the whole loop closed off. It’s the prettiest loop because it’s right on the beautiful Tchefuncte (Cha-funk-ta) River. Oh well, we’re going in to New Orleans for a couple of days anyway. 77 here and cloudy.

Our site.

The beautiful live oaks dripping with Spanish moss in the "premier" loop on the Tchefuncte River.

Docks in a slough off the "premier" loop.

Wonder what these plants are?

W. Memphis to Canton, MS

Mon, Nov 2:  KOA, W. Memphis, AR, to Movietown, Canton, MS:  An uneventful driving day today. Except when I was on the I55 bridge in Memphis a Fed Ex tandem truck passed me on the bridge. Freaked me out. But we made it okay. A short driving day today too. We left W. Memphis at 9:00 and arrived in Canton, MS, and were set up by 1:30 or so. Not unhooking again. Tomorrow we leave for New Orleans and the Fairview-Riverside SP. 70 here and cloudy.

A large Fed Ex tandem truck passed me while going over this I55 bridge at Memphis. Freaked me out since our new fifth wheel is wider than the old one.

STL to W. Memphis

Sun, Nov. 1:   St. Louis, MO, to KOA, W. Memphis, AR:  Left this morning right on time at 9:00 a.m. under a clear blue sky. Stopped in Sikeston for food and fuel. The Denny’s there was slammed—we were there for an hour and a half. After Sikeston the landscape gets pretty bleak. It’s flat to begin with, and the fields are all fallow at this time of year. All the cotton has been harvested and the rice. They used to harvest the cotton into these huge bales. One bale would fill up a semi flatbed truck. Probably had to use a crane to get them on the truck. Now they’re harvested into these tight rolls—like hay—and covered in heavy plastic. I wonder how they harvest rice? Anyway, we arrived in W. Memphis and were set up by 4:00. Not unhooking. Out again tomorrow morning. It’s cloudy here and 65.

Our brand new truck and fifth wheel.

Too good to be true...

Fri, Sep 11, Newark:  Knew it was too good to be true. Our British Airways flight from Orly landed just a little bit late, but Newark was really socked in. We went through customs and then we had to pick up our luggage and go through security and recheck our luggage. Then up to American Airlines to get checked in, get something to eat, and wait for our flight. We had a three-hour layover here—had being the operative word. At the AA desk we found out our flight to Chicago was cancelled because of weather. The only thing we could get was a 5:00 am flight through Charlotte on Friday morning. So, we booked that and went in search of our luggage. That took a few hours, but we finally got it. Took a cab to the Marriott right there at the airport and crashed for 4 hours. We were back in St. Louis by 8:30 a.m.