Traveling through FOUR states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama & Texas

Monday December 2nd, 2013

We packed up, filled up with propane, had a discussion about our bill as the campground had only credited us with $50 of the $100 deposit we put down.  The manager wasn't there but they will look at it and let me know.  I make it that they owe me a few cents after the cost of the electric and the propane. I'm willing to forget about that but I'm not willing to give them any more money.  The lady was very nice and I don't think there will be a problem.  This is the second campground where I have had to dispute the bill, just goes to show that my finance skills are not totally dead!!!  We ended up leaving about 11:00am.
I started to write my blog as I hadn't done it for a couple of weeks and time went quite quickly.  Before I knew it we were crossing into Mississippi.  

Just after you enter Mississippi from Louisiana there is a rest stop at the John C Stennis Space Center.  

We had stopped here on a previous trip from Louisiana to Pensacola with Bryan's parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.  I remember that I saw a huge magnolia tree and was staring at it, fascinated by the huge buds that were on it.  Bryan's dad was really amused by my fascination with this tree,  he & Bryan were laughing at me and never let me live it down.

We were going to stop again and see if the tree was still there but we hadn't been on the road long and as we had a way to go we decided against it. When I look at the website for the Space Center we will definitely have to make this stop some time in the future.  In fact, we have already discussed coming back along this coast and spending more time along the way so we can explore more.  

Here's another long bridge...... whenever I go across these bridges and look over into the swamps below I always hope I might see an alligator but so far I haven't!!  This part of the bridge was before we got to the swamps.

Next we crossed into Alabama.  I nearly missed the sign, ha!! ha!! 

In Mobile we had to go through the George Wallace Tunnel.  We had been through here before in the car but not the motorhome so I was a little concerned.  Of course I didn't have to worry, Bryan had it handled, he really is great driving Lily.  Earlier today we had to fill her up with gas and he had to do a u-turn around the pumps, you would have thought he was driving a mini!!!!

Approaching the tunnel, our speed was good!!

Entering the tunnel

The light at the end of the tunnel

Coming out of the tunnel

and onto the bridge

We saw this on a bridge beside us, it looked like a small motorhome pulling a trailer.  We ended up following it for a while and it seemed as though it was a truck with luxurious living accommodation.

Gulf of Mexico

Then we followed this truck wondering again what it was.  It looked to me like a space machine, ha!! ha!!

As we passed it Bryan figured out it was a hydroseeder and was seeding along the highway.  Another mystery solved, although I prefer my version of a back to the future type of machine!!

We were getting closer to Florida and I saw these trees, they seemed really tall, although not as tall as the Sequoia's in California which I hope to see at some time.

And then we were entering Florida.

Soon we were driving into Naval Air Station, Pensacola where our campsite will be for the next month.

"Bitchin Betty" shows how close we are to the water!!

The red blob in the middle at the bottom is the motorhome, looks as though we are driving into the ocean!!!

As we drove onto the base, we were reminded of how much we like this place.  Our campsite is about 3 minutes walk from the beach and white sand.  I will post pictures when I take some but in the meantime, here are two from our last visit in 2008.

We dug a hole in the white sand and Ryan got in to show how deep it was

Bryan's mom & dad and us at breakfast

We covered four states today, driving completely through two of them. 

Goodnight, will be back with more tales..........  Take Care.........

Mom, The Shed,Thanksgiving & a Birthday

November 16th - December 1st, 2013

The last two weeks have flown by while we have spent time visiting Mom.  How time flies when you are enjoying it.  Most days we have spent at Moms and she has cooked some wonderful meals for us.  Thanks so much mom, now we have to get back to what shall we have for dinner tonight!!!

I'll try to show you some events in date order.

17th - Our eldest son, Ian, entered his first 10k Mo-Run  in Cardiff, Wales and completed it.  He grew a moustache and dressed for the occasion.

Well done Ian...... We are proud of you.

18th - 19th - I got some pictures of the trees outside the RV park when we left to go to moms this morning.

It was time to start dismantling Dad's old shed in the back yard at Moms.  

Before demolition started, clearing out inside.

 There were a couple of squirrels playing in the back yard and investigating.  We saw these squirrels most days.  Click video to see one of them, although you will have trouble finding it sometimes as I couldn't keep up with it.  I tried to get video of them jumping between the trees and chasing each other but it was impossible, they were too quick for me. Not difficult to be to quick for me, I'm not very good at the videos!!!!

The siding has to be taken off first.  

Siding is half off

20th - We left Bryan cleaning tools and Mom and I went to the hairdresser and I got my hair trimmed to about shoulder length.  The gray is really showing through now.  I will be glad when it had grown out completely and I can be a "little old lady" :)  A picture will follow.

21st -   More demolition.... Bryan took the remaining siding off and then we hooked a chain between the beams at the top of the shed and mom's truck and pulled.  After a couple of attempts it was completely down.

At the end of the day

23rd - 24th - Bryan worked on dismantling the roof and wooden frame over both days. He took the nails out of the beams.  We joked that Bryan's dad should have had shares in a nail company with the number of nails he used.  He certainly wanted to make sure the shed was not coming down.

Bryan in the middle of dismantling

Mom's neighbor, Ben, came over and helped and sorted wood, some of it was still usable.  The rest he was going to burn.  The metal we planned on taking to the scrapyard.

Mom went out to check on Bryan and her cat wondered where she had gone.

Where's my mom!!!

By the end of these two days, all that was left was the base, which needed to be broken up with the help of a chainsaw, which we would need to hire and the metal to be taken to the scrapyard.

The cat found mom!!!

 25th - Bryan was suffering and could hardly move today so he had a day of rest.  He has really been pushing himself this last week and had accomplished a lot but it was time to take a breather. It's at times like this that you remember why he had to retire early.

26th - 27th - Rain stopped play, because of the rain the back yard was too wet to work in and we couldn't risk mom's truck getting stuck.

28th - Thanksgiving Day - We are thankful today for the time we have spent with family and friends since we started our fulltiming lifestyle and for the opportunity of being free to do this and the friends we will see on our future travels. We are thankful for all our family and friends in the UK and have special thoughts of Mum who has been struggling with her health recently.  Get better soon, mum - we love you.
We are especially thankful to Mom for taking such good care  of us while we have been visiting and cooking wonderful meals.  Today was no exception and she spent a lot of time yesterday and today in the kitchen.  I helped as best I could, without getting in the way, and Bryan & I did dishes.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Sue's haircut!!

November 29th - Happy, Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby Bryan.  It was so good to be able to spend Thanksgiving and Bryan's birthday with his mom.  The last time we were here at this time was 20 years ago when I first came to the States and we were on our way to Las Vegas.  Bryan chose Longhorn Steak house for his birthday meal and we had some good food.  The service could have been better but we made the most of it. We watched the Garth Brooks show Live from the Wynn in the evening.

November 30th & December 1st - I took some pictures on one of my early morning walks with CoCo.  The temperatures dropped below freezing a couple of mornings. In these pictures you can see the frost and the "steam fog" rising from the lake due to the cold air.  We really like this campground it is well kept and we will return.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to clear the base of the shed and take the metal to the scrapyard this visit as the rain and time has beaten us.  This is a little disappointing but sometimes these things can't be helped.  We will be back through this way but Bryan's brother may beat us to it.  I have enjoyed helping mom with her washing up and learning some of her recipes and just generally chatting.
We were sad to have to say goodbye but once again it really is "au revoir" as we will return. Being on a time restriction sometimes really sucks!!!

Texas & Louisiana - Family & Memories

Friday November 8th, 2013

Today we remember Bryan's dad who died three years ago.  We miss you Dad/Pops, Love Kent & Lulu. xxxx

Bryan, Dad & Ryan

We got packed up and got on the road to Beaumont, Texas.
We decided to take the toll road around Houston as we didn't want to drive through the middle on a Friday afternoon.  As we hadn't been on a toll road for a long long while, and never in the motorhome towing a car, we weren't sure how it worked but knew they charged by the axle.
We stopped at the first toll, it was $5.25 so we thought Ok that's not bad.  What we didn't realize was that there were  another 3 toll stations before we had to get off the toll road and we had to pay $5.25 at each one!!!  I think it was about every 5 miles.  We were still trying to work out whether we needed to pay at each one or whether the first payment covered us for the whole trip.  I know, we were a little naive about this.
"Bitchin Betty" our GPS kept telling us to keep to the left when we approached the next toll station and so we were in the left lanes and once we realized we had to be in the right lanes to ask if we had to pay it was too late and we had to go through.  Oh well, we stopped at the next toll booth to get clarification.  The lady was very nice, probably thinking how stupid are these people, as she explained to us that yes it is $5.25 at each stop and we would get a bill in the mail for the one we missed as a camera records your number plate.  She also gave us a number to call if we wanted to pay by phone and told us another route we could go that would mean we would avoid the next toll.  We decided to take her advice and get off the toll road.  She was extremely helpful to us, she could probably tell how confused we were and how stupid we felt, ha!! ha!!
By avoiding the toll we had to go over this bridge, helppppp!!

It looked worse from a distance than it was, thankfully.  Remember we have a 38 foot motorhome towing a car.

We had a nice view from the top 

We arrived at Hidden Lake RV Resort in Beaumont.  It is a very nice campground and a lot, lot better than last nights, thank goodness.  On top of that, with our Passport America discount it is also cheaper than last night.  Bryan discovered that he had left the surge protector at the last campground and so I called them and they went and looked and found it.  They also had a key handed in which turned out to be our spare for the car that we had been looking for. Unfortunately, we will have to drive back to get them as we really need the protector and it was quite expensive.  We really didn't have a good time at that campground did we????   We will drive back on Sunday. 

We called Patrick to let him know we had arrived and he told us he would pick us up and take us to dinner tonight.  

Patrick, Karen and their daughter Taylor picked us up and we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant.  It was so good to see them again and we chatted and had a good meal.  They took us home and we arranged to see them tomorrow at their house for a barbecue.  Thanks for the meal and company we really enjoyed it. 

Saturday November 9th, 2013

We didn't do much this morning except go to Home Depot looking for a tap (faucet) for the motorhome which we didn't find.  We went to Patrick's this afternoon.  CoCo came with us so she could have a run in their back yard.  Needless to say, she thoroughly enjoyed herself playing in the yard.  We sat out chatting while Patrick barbecued and Karen's parents came over to join us. It was fun catching up and seeing CoCo enjoying herself.  We had a great meal and cake made by Karen's mom. All too soon our visit was over and we left for our little house on wheels.  Thanks for the good food and company.  Unfortunately, I was very bad and didn't take any pictures!!!  It would have been good to have some to remind us of our visit.  I guess next time will have to do.

Sunday November 10th, 2013

Today, we had to go back to Wharton, Texas to get our surge protector and key that we had left behind.  It was a four hour round trip in the car, we avoided the toll road this time and the trip was uneventful.  

I got a picture going into Houston. It looked as though we were headed into the ocean but I think it was actually the smog hanging over Houston!!

Monday November 11th, 2013

We were supposed to leave today for Louisiana but decided to stay an extra day because of our drive yesterday. 

Today is Veterans Day.  Thanks to all who served or are currently serving, including our youngest Ryan. 

We thought about taking advantage of one of the many restaurants offering free meals for veterans but decided against it as we didn't want to battle the crowds.  We did a little shopping before returning home.  Patrick came to visit and say goodbye.  CoCo had been sulking all day, probably because we were out most of yesterday and she missed Patrick's back yard.  She wouldn't even wag her tail.  As soon as she saw Patrick she jumped up to say hello, tail wagging!!!!  She definitely has a new best friend.

Tuesday November 12th, 2013

We got on the road as as early as we could as we have quite a long drive today.  At least, long for us.  

We crossed the border into Louisiana.  A lamppost got in the way of the welcome sign!!! 

We went on the Seven Mile Bridge on the way to Baton Rouge. 

And then crossed the bridge in Baton Rouge.

We arrived at Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, Louisiana.  This park is even nicer than the Beaumont one.  Hooray, two nice parks back to back. 

We got settled in and called Mom to let her know we had arrived.  She had made a roast for dinner and so we headed over to the house.  It was so good to see her again and we are looking forward to spending time together.  We had a wonderful dinner, thanks Mom & chatted a lot.  Her house always looks so immaculate and she has a wonderful knack with her decorating.  I just love it.  All too soon it was time to leave but we will be back tomorrow.

Wednesday November 13th, 2013

We got Mom and went to Camping World to get a new tap (faucet) for the sink to replace the one that I broke when we left Kingsville.  We had fun looking at all the different things in Camping World.  Got a couple of bits of shopping and then went for BBQ at Voodoo BBQ in Denham Springs.

Thursday November 14th, 2013

Bryan started to clean out the shed at his Mom's today.  His Dad had every sort of tool imaginable and the last time Bryan was here, him & Patrick had sorted a lot of it out.  He is determined to get it finished this visit.  We were reminiscing, as Mom & Bryan remembered his dad as they found different tools and bits and pieces.  

By the end of the day there was a keeping stack, a stack for the neighbor, a stack for scrap metal and a trash can for things that were no longer any good.  Bryan felt as though he had accomplished something.  

We had dinner and spent some time chatting again and looking at old houses on the computer.  

Friday November 15th, 2013

 We spent the morning trying to sort out insurance bills and paying the toll fee that we missed in Houston.  

Then we went to Moms.  Bryan sorted out his box of tools and parts that he had put together from his Dad's shed and I started to write my blog while Mom worked on her computer and we chatted.

Mom & Bryan

We had dinner and it quickly became dark and we realized that we had forgotten to leave a light on for CoCo, so we left Mom to have a quiet night and went home.

Ryan was awarded a NCM (Navy Commendation Medal) today.  I haven't spoken to him yet and so don't know what he received it for but here is a picture of the group that received them.

Way to go Ryan & everyone.  Hooyah!!

That's it for now.  Take Care everyone. xxxx