Cajuns in Vegas!!

John and Brenda called while we were in Tucson. They had just driven to Idaho to baby-sit for their oldest son while he and his wife were looking for their new house. Amazingly, John and Brenda drove in their car all the way from Louisiana to Boise, Idaho (about 2300 miles!) to baby-sit for 3 days. So, not wanting to waste all those miles and days of driving, they decided to stop in Las Vegas- so we left Tucson a day early and joined them in Sin City.

Cajuns love to gamble - and John and Brenda played tour guide to "The Strip". I put $20 in a quarter slot machine at Bellagio--and walked away with over $150! I wanted to keep going, but John said "Absolutely not--take the money and run". (We did figure out the system however-- at $7 for a glass of wine at the bar, all you need to do is sit at the slots, put in $20 -and suck down free drinks. Worst case, you're out $20 -but you save yourself mega bucks in drinks....)

Las Vegas was an experience not to be missed.. Our original thought was "too tacky, too gaudy, too horrible" for a visit--and it's all that and more. WIth the Cajuns as guides, we saw it all - from the giant gold lion at MGM, theEgyptian pyramid and a sphinx at Luxor, the Statue of Liberty/Brooklyn Bridge/Ellis Island at NY/NY, the Eifel Tower, Champs de Elyse at Paris LasVegas, the Forum, the Colliseum at Caesar's Palace, St Mark's Square, the canals at The Venetian....it goes on and on.

We stopped to see the fountains at the Bellagio that do a "water ballet" every hour and watched the roller coaster flying through the lobby at NY/NY. The gaming rooms are beyond belief--they stretch for what seems like miles-with the sound and flashing lights of the slot machines going 24 hours a day. It's a shrine to greed and extravagance and the best people watching you'll ever find!

And, of course, with Brenda at the helm, we met EVERYONE! As we often say, "Brenda will talk to a rock" and we met people wherever we went.

When John and Brenda left, we continued the exploration- stopping at the Little White Chapel (where you can opt for a wedding in the chapel- or at the drive-thru window. They've married Michael Jordan, Joan Collins- and Brittany Spears (her first, but abbreviated marriage). You can even renew your vows...

We took a tour of the city - which ended at the "Elvis-a-Rama Museum" complete with Elvis impersonator!.

We loved Old Las Vegas-Fremont Street is truly tacky!

John even managed to get his face on a magazine cover!

From Texas to Tucson

Looking at the map of Texas (880 miles across the state1) and realizing that we still had the bulk of the trek ahead of us, we got an early start from Austin and headed west. The drive was remarkably scenic- not your typical stark western scenery. We drove through the Hill Country again and made it to Van Horn, Texas by the end of the day. We stopped at a KOA just off the freeway (with an ostrich farm in the back) and settled in for the night.
The following day, we drove through New Mexico and got into Tucson and Beaudry RV Resort. What a pleasant surprise! In addition to the service center (Lazy Day’s major competitor), where we had a scheduled appointment on Monday AM, the RV park was gorgeous- large concrete pads with a concrete patio with furniture and lots of space between the sites.

We set about exploring Tucson. At 7 AM on Saturday morning, we were at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. With shades of our Australia desert museum experience (and having learned from that experience that a desert museum is best experienced in the early morning-rather than mid-day), we headed off with our tour guide. A good idea- since temperatures were in the 100’s and the sky was cloudless. The museum had over 300 native animals and 1300 plant species. 90% of the exhibits and enclosures are constructed of artificial rock. We walked the two miles of trails- seeing prairie dogs, coyotes, coatimundis and hundreds of varieties of birds (including a hummingbird aviary).

Everywhere was the flowering Saguaro cactus. These cacti are very slow growing- by the end of a year, the seedling only measures ¼ inch. After 15 years, they are barely a foot tall. At about 30 years, they begin to flower and produce fruit. By 50 years, they can be as tall as 7 feet. At about 75 years, they spout their first “arms”. By 100 years, they can reach 25 feet. They may live as long as 150 years and can tower as high as 50 feet. They are the largest cacti in the US. We took a drive through the Saguaro National Park to see the cacti in bloom.

On Sunday, we drove north to see the Biosphere. The structure was built and completely sealed off from the "Biosphere 1" (the earth). It's a 3 acre glassed dome that has five different "biomes"- a rainforest, desert, savanna, marsh and ocean. In 1991, eight 'bionauts' entered for a 2 year tour of duty. They were physically cut off from the outside world- and had to grow all of their own food. It was a bit of a disaster (the dome leaked gases)....and really never had a clear purpose. It was operated by Columbia University for a few years- and they bailed out. Now it appears that it's going to be sold to land developers and dismantled. It's too bad—it was really a fascinating place.
When we returned, we were having a glass of wine when we heard a loud booming noise. Always curious, we headed out with our wine (along with all the rest of our neighbors). As we walked across the street, we walked were stunned to see E.J. come around the corner of his motorhome! E.J. and Sharon were only a few motorhomes away from us – and the sound of his airbag exploding brought us together. Time for wine!

On Monday, after dropping off our motorhome to the service center, we went to the Tucson Missile Musum. It was a little bit of the Cold War preserved for generations to come (of course, most of them haven't a clue that there ever was a Cold War). We actually got to see the nuclear warhead- and go down to the underground launch site.

It was a very "Dr Strangelove" moment....

Our last day in Tucson and John wanted to take in the Pima Air and Space Museum. I knew I was in trouble when I saw 4 huge hangars and what looked like 1000’s of aircraft-old planes, helicopters, bombers, cargo planes, seaplanes- parked outside. We had to be back at Beaudry by noon, so we could only take the outdoor aircraft tour – a 45 minute tour in an open trolley car. The guide, an helicopter pilot who was in Vietnam, was extremely knowledgable – but after 30 minutes of driving VERY slowly in 100 degree heat in an un-airconditioned trolley -past every aircraft – complete with a description of almost every one of the 160+ planes, I was at the end of my rope. I handed a note to John saying, “you owe me”.

Dinner with E.J. and Sharon – margaritas (too many of them) at el Charro Café in downtown Tucson –excellent food…excellent company!

The Crawfish Rally!

Our two months went all too fast. We left a week before Mom and E.D. were heading back to Wisconsin. On Thursday, we arrived in Rayne for the Crawfish Rally. We got the catbird spot- just outside the main hall – on concrete! It was great to see everyone again- and sad to know that we wouldn’t be back until ’07.

This is always the best rally of the year- and this was no exception!

The crawfish were huge and we're actually getting to be fairly adept at keeping up with the Cajuns (although, we still don't suck the heads!).

And, Huey got the crawfish racing!

Mary Jane and Sis always manage to put together the most amazing entertainment- this year, the theme was "American Bandstand" and all the "stars" were there!

After the Crawfish Rally, it was goodbye to Louisiana and we headed to Austin and the start of our summer adventure. We decided to venture into the “Hill Country”. It was amazing to believe that we were in Texas – beautiful hills, wineries and an atmosphere that was definitely not cowboys and rednecks. The little towns were originally settled by Germans and are still known for their German cuisine. We stopped for a tour at the LBJ ranch and had lunch in Fredricksburg.

Back in Austin, we ate our way through the city – Korean, Thai, Mexican – with frequent visits to Central Market and Whole Foods.