2010 March » tgif: let's RV

Winter 2009/2010 Trip Wrap Up

RV Day to Day Life, RV Destinations No Responses »

Mar 232010

OK, so I know I haven't posted to the blog for a bit. I got home on March 13th and have just been winding down and getting back to the old home routine. It was an awesome trip, at some times a bit tiring, but I haven't regretted one minute of it.

I put over 7000 miles on the truck. Considering over 2 1.2 months I spent 3 weeks in the Rio Grande Valley, 1 week at Big Bend National Park, 1 week in Alamogordo and 2 weeks on Mustang Island, that's a lot of time on the road. A quick breakdown shows I spent an average of $55.00 per day for fuel, campground fees, entertainment and other expenses that I normally wouldn't have, I consider that pretty good. Food is not included in this figure as no matter where I am I would have to eat.
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How Time Flies

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Mar 122010

I just realized today that I am going to lose two hours over the next couple days. First hour is for daylight saving time and second is a time zone change as I travel east. Not sure if I can take losing two hours in such a short amount of time.

I left New Orleans today and headed north. I was a nice warm 65 degrees and sunny when I left at 9am. Taking I-55 north I traveled the length of Mississippi and stopped just outside of Memphis. It was a longer drive then I normally like to do but there isn't a lot of campgrounds in the time frame I like to stop in so I just drove on to Memphis. Then I arrive, it's raining, 55 degrees and cold. Not sure what it is but 55 in Memphis sure feels a lot colder then 55 down south.

Driving all the way to Memphis also puts my driving schedule just about right to stop and visit my sister in Indy. I can drive about 6 hours tomorrow and get to Casey, IL or Terre Haute, IN for the night. Then it will only be two or three hours to Indy.

If all goes as planned I'll be back home in MI on Monday.

New Orleans Bourbon Street

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Mar 112010

Even though it was suppose to rain today I decided to head over to New Orleans and check out Bourbon Street. It only drizzled a little bit all day and it was in the 70's so I'm glad I went. I drove over to the Algiers Ferry to take it across the Mississippi instead of trying to drive into the Big Easy. The ferry landing is located in an old run down part of town. Many might even consider it a slum area but i found it interesting that I saw a very diverse group of people living in the area as I drove through it.

The ferry ride is free for people and costs $1.00 for cars. It runs every 30 minutes so you don't have to wait long to get across the river. The upper deck has chairs and is covered but I walked down to the lower deck where the cars are parked so I could a better look at the river and surroundings. During my trip there and back a number of tug boats and one big cargo ship went by.

A Harrah's casino is located at the ferry landing on the New Orleans side so I just had to go in and donate 20 bucks to their slot machines. It is about a 10 block walk down Canal Street to Bourbon Street. Canal Street kind of reminded me of New York city where you have little discount camera and other junk shops located right next to fancy high class stores. Continue reading »

Taking It Easy In The Big Easy

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Mar 092010

I made it to Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, LA which is just across the Mississippi from New Orleans. The drive here was pretty decent except for the rain I had all the way. It wasn't heavy rain, just enough to use wipers. But that was enough to trash the outside of the trailer, it looks like I've never washed it.

The park is really nice. It has electric and water hookups and the sites are huge with 50 foot or more between sites. The bathrooms/showers are immaculate and they even have free laundry facilities. There is also WiFi but it sucks so I'm tethering my Blackberry. No pictures of the park today as it was raining too hard to go out and take some. I'll post a couple tomorrow. I have reservations for 3 nights but since it suppose to rain for the next 2 days I may just stay a couple extra days to "investigate" Bourbon Street.
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The Long Trek Home

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Mar 072010

I've started my way back home to Michigan. First stop for the night is at Gulf Coast RV Resort in Beaumont, Texas. It is a pretty decent park that is right off of I-10. The park is really clean and it has nice facilities. But they pack the sites in pretty close with only about 12 feet between sites. One thing I did like was the washers and dryers only cost a $1 each, the cheapest I have found my whole trip. Cost to stay the night is only $17 with my Passport America membership. This is not really a place I would want to stay for more then a day or two but the easy off/on to I-10 and the low cost make it a worthwhile stop for the night.

The drive here was fairly easy. I did go through Houston and even though it was Sunday there was a fair bit of traffic. I'm sure glad I didn't try to drive it on a weekday. Tomorrow I have about a 5 hour drive to New Orleans. This will be my last destination before I turn north and head back home in earnest so I may stay for 3 or 4 days to enjoy the southern warmth one last time.

Can We Say Duh!

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Mar 062010

OK, so for 2 weeks I was figuring on leaving Port Aransas and heading east to New Orleans on Sunday. I figured that since today (Saturday) was my last day I would go out and treat myself to a nice seafood lunch. On my way back into the park about 2pm I stopped by the gate as normal and the lady staffing the gate asked if I was leaving today.

I said, nope, tomorrow. She then said, well, you only have a reservation for today and there are no openings tomorrow. Huh? My ticket says I leave the 6th. She says today is the 6th. What!!!! It's not the 5th today? Doh!

So, I head back to the trailer, pack up and head out. I think it only took me 30 minutes to get everything put away and head out. So now it's 2:30pm and I sure as heck don't want to drive at night so I plot a course to just north of San Antonio and pull into a park just after 7pm. Luckily they one space available for the night... I think. I got here after the office closed so I just found the only spot left and parked. No one has knocked on my door telling me to leave so I guess I'm OK.

It's really not that bad. I still have to head up to Austin tomorrow morning to pick up a solar panel setup I am buying and then I'd head south east with plans to stop at Beaumont, TX for the night. That puts me in about the same place I would have been if I would have left Sunday morning and I don't have to drive as far as I would have.

A little crazy for a bit but all is well now.

Laundry Day and High Tide

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Mar 012010

Just been chillin' over the past couple of days. It has been a bit cool but still enjoying the sun and no snow. Yesterday was nicer with a high in the upper 60's. Today was laundry day. I tried to put it off as long as I could so I could get away with not having to do laundry again until I got back. But I just plain ran out of clean clothes to wear so had to do it..... which also means I'll have to do it again one more time.

The laundromat in Port Aransas is pretty nice. Lots of machines in good shape, pool table, air hockey, video games, juke box and you can even order pizza in. Once I got the clothes in the drier I walked a block to the Rusty Jeep BBQ and had a chopped pork BBQ sandwich platter with beans and slaw. Pretty tasty!

By the time I got back to the trailer it was up into the mid 70's. Spud looked really sad that I had left him behind so decided to take a drive to the beach and walk him. As I drove onto the beach I noticed the water was up a bit more then it normally is. The waves were really crashing in so I figured it was just the high waves that made the gulf look higher. I looked down the beach and there were a couple of cars and a few tents as is normal.