Back "home" to Louisiana

Back ‘home’ to Louisiana and “Camp Dusty”. Dusty Pony was happy to see us.

We had a typical Cajun week—dinner at Lynn and Dan’s. Lynn is the "Martha Stewart" of Louisiana - everything was perfect from the wine to the food to the table setting. And, she makes it look so effortless!

We got to see Alton and Coochie's gorgeous "camp" (the Cajuns may call these houses on the water "camps", but some of them are luxury homes) and enjoy the Superbowl with LOTS of food and great company.

We spent Friday in New Orleans – a depressing visit – seeing the lack of progress on rebuilding from Katrina 6 months later.

Keep Austin Weird

We were off to Austin – a city that everyone told us that we would love. And, they were right. We got into the campground and immediately took off for a look at downtown Austin. We grabbed a burger at the Waterloo Ice Bar Restarant – then took a walk through Whole Foods across the street. What an amazing place. Covering a full city block- on two floors, it was filled with every possible food and drink. The produce section was a work of art with every fruit and vegetable artfully displayed. There were fresh meat and fish counters going on forever, a full wine shop and a walk in cooler for every imported beer known to man. The bakery had well over 20 different kinds of fresh baked bread (4 versions of sourdough). And, interspersed throughout the store were little places to pick up prepared foods- everything from Italian pasta stations to organic food markets to salad bars to international food bars.

Wanting to get a better sense of the Austin community, we took a half day private tour on Sunday. The guide, a public radio host and “good ole boy”, Howie Richey-The Texas Back Roads Scholar, showed us the best of Austin. We got a tour of the State Capitol building, the LBJ library and the wonderful parks around the city. After that introduction and our discovery of the excellent restaurant scene, Austin became another return destination for us.

Remember the Alamo!

Monday morning we took off for San Antonio with Brenda and John. We pulled into the KOA mid-afternoon and within no time, we were on the city bus heading for the Riverwalk. We walked up and down looking at the river and the restaurants and settled on dinner at Rio Rio.
With only a few days to see the city, we hit it hard on Tuesday. We saw the IMAX theater movie, Alamo, which gave us a bit of historical perspective on the Alamo- although it was definitely a case of the victors writing the history. Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie and the rest of the rebels came across as freedom fighters – fighting for Texas independence from the cruel, heartless Mexican General Santa Anna.

From there, we took a trolley tour which took us to 2 of the missions- San Jose and Mission Concepcion- and around the city for a general orientation. We stopped for drinks in the Menger Hotel – a beautiful old hotel directly across from the Alamo. The bar was reminiscent of a British pub and was evidently the hotel where Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders.

Our package tour/IMAX experience also included a Boat Trip down the Paseo del Rio through the Riverwalk area. It was THE way to see the river. The city has a European flavor – and the Riverwalk restaurants are packed – every day of the week. We tried to have dinner at the Buckhorn Saloon- but got there just as it was closing. The manager let us in for a look-see. What a bizarre place- filled with animal heads—a taxidermers delight. We walked through the Esquire- the “longest bar in Texas” (the bar top can hold 5,973 longneck bottles of Lone Star beer). It’s also the oldest running bar- open since the end of Prohibition. But it was smoky and filled with a lot of the locals. We stopped for dinner at Casa Rio- the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk. We got a table right on the river and had a great and cheap dinner with excellent margaritas.

Rally in "The Valley"

After a quiet New Years Eve celebration- a bit too much wine and an overnight at Mom’s, we spent New Year’s Day recovering from a hangover. We opted to extend our stay in Florida to mid-January to give us a bit of plunk time.

After our VW fiasco in December, we had hoped that our car troubles were over. No such luck. John took the car to get a newspaper one morning—and the gear shift stuck. So, we called Royal VW and they arranged for a tow truck to take the Jetta back to Orlando. Fortunately, they also got us a rental car so we had some means of transportation while the VW was in the shop.

We were due at the January Cruisin Cajun Rally in Patterson, LA on Thursday, January 12th, but the car part didn’t arrive until Tuesday. So, on Wednesday, we made the trip to Orlando to pick up the car (2 hours out and 2 hours back). We got back in time to return the rental car and meet Mom and E.D. for a Bratwurst dinner. After dinner, we invited them back to the coach for a glass of wine. When we got there, about 9 PM, John tried the keypad to unlock the door…no luck. So, I pulled out the keys. Again, no luck. Our last chance, we tried the key fob. No luck. At this point, we told Mom and E.D. to head home while we carried the picnic table over to the emergency exit window. Fortunately, our emergency window had been left unlocked. So, John slid the screen, opened the window and released the emergency lock on the window. He crawled through and I went to the door expectantly. I heard him trying to move the lock back and forth- and realized that we were not only locked out- but John was locked in. So, John pulled out the dining room chair- passed it to me out the window and I climbed through the window. After some fiddling with the lock, John finally got it to open from the inside.

The next morning, our first call was to the factory. They arranged for us to stop in Pensacola at Leisure Tyme to have them look at the lock. Our plans for a Thursday arrival at the rally were crushed. We headed out and made it to Pensacola at 5 PM. They got us a hook-up for the night and got the lock fixed the following morning. By the time they finished the lock, the skies started to pour- torrential rain and winds. Rather than head out on the road, we opted to spend the night and get an early start on Saturday.

We finally got to Patterson- a one night rally for us. It was great to see everyone again. And, the one night rally worked out pretty well, since we were heading to the Valley on Sunday for a week of Cajun-Mex festivities. There were two groups leaving on Sunday- those departing at 5 AM and doing the entire trip in one day – and our group- leaving at a more reasonable time and driving to Edna, Texas the first day. The drive was LONG. I-10 in Louisiana is probably the worst road in the country and we were bounced and jostled for the first few hours. When we hit Texas, the roads improved. We made it through Houston with no traffic jams or problems and got onto the best roads we’ve seen in a long time. No people, no houses, no businesses- but brand new two lane highways, smooth as glass. A long string of influential Texas pol’s in D.C. evidently got a fair amount of federal highway funds.

We got to Edna and pulled into the RV park. We were in a long string of motorhomes waiting outside the office. Turns out that someone had called and cancelled our reservations- and the park was full. So, the owners let us dry-camp for the night. We got settled and went to the function hall for a pot-luck dinner.
In the morning, we headed for Mercedes. There were about 75 coaches at the Encore Park and we were all put together in the park. We got settled and immediately headed for the Mexican border. It was only a 10 minute drive to the International Bridge. Parking was $1.50 and entry into Mexico cost 25 cents. The bridge crossed the Rio Grande River and you could hear the calls for money coming from the people standing under the bridge. The tourist part of the town of Progresso was only a 4 or 5 block long section of stores, bars, and street vendors.
Every other business was a dentist or pharmacy. The influx of snow-birds from the north has spawned an industry providing cheap medications and medical care. We stopped at Pharmacia Progresso – and met Linda, the pharmacist. The Cajuns have been coming to Linda for 15 years and she had virtually every medication possible- all with no prescription required. We got some basic meds– for a fraction of the cost you could get them in the States. Unfortunately, they didn’t have Tamiflu….

On our first afternoon, we resisted the temptation to shop- and instead tracked down our group. They were in a bar hidden in the back of a large department store. They were already several rounds of margaritas ahead of us and tried to get us to chug our frozen beauties. Brain freeze stopped us from doing a total chug. (Note- Cheryl got into the spirit- dancing on the table!)

After a few rounds there, we walked down the street to another bar in the Galleria. This bar had a larger dance floor- something essential when Cajuns are present.

On Day 2, Peaches had a get-together at her coach- with seafood jambalaya. Everyday, someone would sponsor a dinner and the entire group would pitch in with pot-luck.

Day 3 and we headed back to Progresso for some serious shopping (John and John had margaritas and made friends with a young shoe-shiner.). From there, we went to Pepe’s – a bar/restaurant on the Rio Grande river. We arrived to find that the Cajun’s had taken over the dance floor once again.
We closed the bar down (they quit playing at 5 PM) and went back for another pot-luck jambalaya dinner at the park.

On Thursday, Mary Jane had arranged for a one day tour into Mexico. At 7:15 AM, we were on the bus and heading west through McAllen to the Mexican border town of Roma (where the movie, “Viva Zapata” was filmed). The tour company owned a restaurant as well, so we stopped in Miguel Aleman for breakfast at their place. It was a strange combo of Mexican puffy bread and mini-tacos.
Back on the bus, we drove to the town of Ciudad Mier. We got a bit of history on the town- the site of the Black Bean Battle of the Mexican American War. The town also had a family owned boot factory. With the Cajuns and the Texans on board, this was destined to be a long stop. We got a tour of the factory- got a tutorial on the various skins used (eel, ostrich, snake, cow, cow entrails, even frog), and saw the boot making process. And- of course- there was the “shopping” experience. Imagine 90 people in a small shop area all trying to find the perfect boot. Huey came out with new ostrich boots.

We finally got everyone back on the bus and drove to El Sainal, Mexico’s smallest national park. It was filled with 800 year old Cyprus trees. The look was reminiscent of the bayous of Louisiana- but the trees were gargantuan. Next to the natural beauty were the miniature replicas of the “Seven Wonders of the World”…well, sort of. It looked a bit like a miniature golf course transported to the park. The 7 Wonders included an igloo, the Golden Gate Bridge, a mosque…not exactly the historical 7 Wonders. The tour company served a au-natural lunch of something they called fajitas, a watered-down margarita and micro-beers. The only edible part of the lunch were the tortillas.

It was ‘back on the bus’ and another drive on two land roads designed to handle one lane of traffic. The trucks and cars passed dangerously close to our bus. With little comment, we were driven into a limestone quarry. The group had been told we were going to a mine- the women, hoping for a silver mine and small gift shop. Instead, we drove through what appeared to be an extremely large gravel pit. With the limestone dust flying through the air, there were only a few takers to get out of the bus for photos. Katie got out and got a rock. After all of the excitement of the quarry, it was back on the road to head back to Mercedes.

What luck- we were re-tracing the same roads. It was about a 3 hour drive back to the campground. We got to the border and were told to expect anything. As we sat in line with the other cars and trucks crossing, we noticed 3 small boats crossing the river just down from the bridge we were on. As we waited, each of the boats quickly made it across and unloaded their human cargo of illegal immigrants. It turns out that the Mexicans had timed their crossing to coincide with the shift change of the border patrol. Meanwhile, they made our entire bus of senior citizens get off the bus and started to examine all of our bags! Once they determined that we were no threat to the U.S – no drugs, guns, bombs – they let us get back on the bus. But, they weren’t done with Raul, our poor bus driver. They questioned him for 30 minutes, reviewing all of his paperwork, licenses, etc. We were livid—watching our “Department of Homeland Security” letting illegals cross the river while they tormented a bus of seniors. We got back to the campground about 7 PM and the Romero’s had saved their spaghetti and meatball dinner for us.

On Friday, lunch was a fish fry for the group complete with band. As we stood in line, it was funny to see this group. It was a bit like the scene from The Full Monty when the guys were waiting in the unemployment line and started doing their dance steps to the music. As the music played and the Cajuns stood in line, they were all doing a little dance step in place….they just can’t help it. After eating- again- it was back to Progreso for more dancing and margaritas at the Galleria.
Saturday was our last day to cross the border. It was a dark, rainy day, but that didn’t stop us. Brenda and I headed over with our shopping bags and sent John to meet the group in the Galleria. With a 10% savings negotiated by some of the other women, we met with Caesar and started shopping. Brenda did some major damage- about $260 worth of pewter and dishes. Caesar volunteered to carry the box back to our car-so we did a double border crossing.

On Sunday, we opted to ship mass and enjoy our Sunday morning. We met everyone at Pepe’s in the afternoon. With $2 margaritas and no lunch, I was pretty looped. We called Jean in Scotland and had a great time dancing and drinking. Monday morning- things were a bit slow in mudville!

Happy 80th!

Mom's 80th Birthday!! It's hard to believe that she's 80. She looks and acts years younger! We decided to try a new restaurant, Old Town. We were pleasantly surprised. Run by a Romanian couple, they are only open seasonally and had great food. Mom and I had stuffed grouper, E.D. had prime rib and John had weinerschnitzel. It was all wonderful. We gave Mom her birthday surprise- an Alaska Cruise!

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve but were so exhausted that we opted to open presents the next day. On Christmas day, we made the Cajun turducken (turkey stuffed with a duck then stuffed with a chicken).

Mom and I got a chance to shop and spend time together and it was nice to have some relaxed time. Seems like when we lived at TGO, things were always so compressed. Living this close has made it easy to get together on a moment’s notice.

Back at "The Great Outdoors"

The next morning, we got our 6 AM wakeup and took off on the familiar roads back to TGO in Titusville. Hard to believe that we had just left the factory and already we had problems. This time, one of the 3 new air conditioners (all three replaced at the factory in November) had failed. Knowing that Mike at Eagle’s Pride could handle the repair or replacment, we met with him and they diagnosed a replacement necessary. After pleading with the factory, they agreed to air freight the replacement. Even so, we were going to be at TGO for a while. With no car and the motorcycle rule in effect, we rented a space on Sunset (close enough to walk to Mike’s to pick up the motorcycle and drive outside the park. Mike loaned us his truck so we made a major grocery run.
We called Bob and Janet and before we knew it, we were meeting for drinks with the two of them and John and Pat. After dinner at the Roadhouse – steaks and lots of wine, we drove back to Pat and John’s for more drinks and to meet the new dog.

A week later, we were ready to leave TGO. After a week there, we were definitely ready to leave and most definitely not regretting our decision to sell.

A Cajun Thanksgiving

How does one describe a Cajun Thanksgiving? John called it “Brenda Ann’s Train Station”. Coming from our typical Yankee Thanksgiving with 2-4 people and a 12 pound turkey, we walked into a house filled with 40+ people (almost all related) and tables upon tables of food. They had 4 turkeys- baked, smoked, fried – salads, stuffings, and two tables of desserts. A number of the people there were from New Orleans and we got an earful of stories about Katrina and the aftermath.

After the craziness of Thanksgiving, we had a chance to drive into New Orleans to see the devastation of Katrina. It was truly horrifying. It is impossible to describe the damage and destruction of this storm. 3 months later and there are huge areas of the city still uninhabitable. The French Quarter has some life and appeared to be trying to make a comeback. The Uptown and Garden District looked fairly unscathed, but the debris was still everywhere, piled on the curbs. We drove to the Lakeview area and through the 9th Ward area. It was hard to imagine these areas ever coming back.

On Sunday, EJ and Sharon invited us all over for dinner. It was another family dinner- and Sharon made a killer gumbo. It took her two days of cooking to make the gumbo.

After our wonderful Thanksgiving with the Cajuns, we were heading to the Cruisin' Cajun Christmas Rally. What were we thinking? We had volunteered to be the Emergency Coordinators for the Rally! We had to arrive at the rally on Thursday morning. They had our front row parking spot ready for us. We picked up the buckets of supplies- a suitcase of medical supplies, the AED, walkie talkies, cell phone, etc. We had Bert give us a golf cart ride around the property so we’d understand the lay of the land. We frantically pulled out our notes from our Red Cross training session- trying to recall how many breaths and how many compressions, when to use the AED.....

As emergency coordinators, we were on 24/7 and the responsibility was weighty. No drinking, no leaving the premises. On Saturday, as everyone got “happier and happier” and they announced “Open bar”, we started to look at all of these seniors out there dancing and started praying for no accidents. Sunday morning and the end of our duty couldn’t come soon enough for us.