March 9
Left Georgetown to start our Southeast trip for 2017. A stop in Elgin at Meyers BBQ for a shared 3-meat plate of ribs, brisket and sausages with sides of beans and coleslaw. Yum!
Arrived Houston and checked into the Traders Village campground for our two night stay.
March 10
Our day started with a stop at Tom's Ace Hardware to pick up some security cables and lock for our new satellite dish that might be inviting as it sits on the ground or tripod. Arrived at Churrascos in Memorial City to meet Bob's nephew, Ralph, and his wife, Judy, where we enjoyed some great conversation and fair food. Ralph is recently retired and is becoming acclimated to retirement. It was a fun get together. Back to the park for our final night in Houston. We are glad that we don't live there anymore. We thought the traffic was bad in 1987 now it is impossible.
March 11
Drove from Houston to Pat's of Henderson at Lake Charles where Iris enjoyed her favorite, crabmeat au gratin and Bob loved the fried catfish. We always stop here when going through plus they have easy access and parking for the Motorhome and towed car. Arrived at Baton Rouge after several detours and stop and go traffic jams on I-10 followed by new route due to long delays crossing the I-10 bridge routing us into Baton Rouge on US 190 after crossing the river well north of the usual bridge crossing. Our reservation was at the KOA that cost the same as a site in the Florida Keys on the waterfront. Guess the flooding last year put them underwater so they can now charge waterfront prices. Won't be staying here in future. Rained on us all day and then all night. Iris was up during the night checking that water was not standing around the Motorhome. Still jumpy after our flood in 1998 on the Guadalupe.
March 12
Got packed and had a fuel stop at Racetrack, parked at Lowe's at the Millerville Exit, extracted the car and drove to Bob's sister-in-law, Merleane's house. Then we all went to church at the First Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge. Inspiring service, huge attendance. Brunch was at Byronz Bistro, recommended by Dave and Nancy, and it was outstanding. Iris had crab cake with Canadian bacon and poached eggs, Bob had one egg Sardo and one Benedict, Merleane had "Back of the stove" chicken. Iris tried the milk punch and then tried another to be sure the ones at Green Pastures in Austin were better. Scientific experiment.
After getting Merleane home we hooked up the car and took off to New Orleans and got set up in the Bayou Segnette State Park on the West Bank. Very nice park completely rebuilt, since we were last here, after Katrina.
Ma ch 13
Minor setbacks along the way, the power cord for our TomTom GPS that we use in both the car and Motorhome died. TomTom wants $60 for a new one so off to Best Buy for a new one at $99. It was easy enough then to find Willie Mae's Scotch House, our chosen food experience for today. Amazingly we found a parking place then got in the loooong line, in our case about one hour, but the wait was worth it. We had fried chicken, best anybody's mama ever made, fried okra and cornbread muffins. Folks in line were from Houston, Virginia and Minnesota just around us. Our take away contained about the same as we ate. Needing a walk we drove to the area of the Church of the Immaculate Conception where we parked fairly close and walked there and then walked around the inside of this Jesuit masterpiece rebuilt in its current form in 1929 and it is magnificent. After another short drive, thanks to TomTom, we parked close to the old Jackson Brewery building and walked to the LA tourist information office on Saint Ann Street where a nice lady gave us a tip in order to avoid the long line at Cafe du Monde. Just as she said we entered another place in the building and were immediately seated and had our coffee and beignet in less than a minute. Lovely and tasty. Back across the river in order to beat the rush and we were back in our Motorhome just in time for happy hour.
March 14
Turned a bit cold today. Cleaning day, Bob off to do the laundry and Iris cleaning house. Light breakfast as today is Commanders Palace. We parked without difficulty and walked in the door at exactly 11:30 and were seated in the garden room. Quickly we had in front of us a $0.25 martini and a $5.95 glass of wine from very close to Roussillon in Provence, both enjoyed. Iris had the 1-1-1, sampler sizes of turtle soup, chicken gumbo and shrimp tomato bisque. Bob had the chicken gumbo followed by a wilted kale and sun dried tomatoes with fried oysters while Iris had oyster poboy. Dessert was bread pudding soufflé for Bob and pecan pie ala mode with chocolate and caramel sauce for Iris. All plans for the afternoon went out the window and we had a nice long nap instead. Watched some TV and ate leftover fried chicken for our dinner, wasn't quite as good as when hot but still tasty. Off to bed early and slept 10 hours.
March 15
Low 40's this morning, Bob away early to complete the week's laundry, free here. Late breakfast. Drove around in Old Algiers neighborhood looking for the old double shotgun house we considered buying in 1980 and while it has been fixed up some around it are still in need of renovation. So good decision as we would have missed Scotland and Norway. Crossed the bridge to find the brand new Walmart close to downtown, made a few purchases then drove Saint Charles and Carrollton area including cross streets admiring the houses and Loyola University with its old and ornate buildings. When we had enough of riding we parked on Saint Charles close to Superior Seafood and read our books until 4:00 PM when happy hour started with the 50 cent oysters and $3/glass wine. We enjoyed some wine and a dozen on the half-shell then bowls of seafood gumbo and flourless chocolate cake with ice cream. We were stuffed. Made our way back across the river in the rush hour traffic to our Motorhome then watched the President's address from Nashville and the Spurs get beat by one point. Slept really well again as it is really quiet in this state park.
March 16
On the road after getting up to 40 degrees. Really enjoyed our stay here. I-10 from NO almost to Mobile then north on I-65 to Montgomery South RV Park, nice park but only yards off I-65 so noisy and we didn't sleep well.
March 17
Continued our route from Montgomery to Atlanta where we found crawling traffic on I-75 around Atlanta finally arriving at our campground at Allatoona Landing, closest campground to our friends, Collyn and Helga. Arriving around an hour late (forgot time change to Eastern time), set up the Motorhome and then drove back to our friends' house where we had a long delayed catch-up. Helga had been our neighbor in New Orleans when we lived there in 1980. Had a lovely supper of orzo dinner salad and cake for dessert. Our visit was as if we had never been separated. Sometimes it was hard to know who was listening as we all wanted to talk at once.
After the nostalgic evening we drove back to the park to hear the trains, the track is right at the entrance of the park.
March 18
Rain, big time. Rain stopped just in time for is to unhook from water and electric and use the dump station before leaving the park. Back to adventures on I-75, not as bad this morning, Saturday. Only 91 miles today to get to Athens with a stop along the way at a closed restaurant with a nice big parking lot. Had our left-over Willie Mae fried chicken and most of a bottle of champagne left over from Georgetown that was still fizzy. Great pairing! Arrived in Athens and our GPS took us directly to the house of Randall and Carolyn. They had arranged a parking space for us close to their house, nice and level with electric hookup. Almost immediately we went to "Uncommon Gourmet" for a wine tasting including cheeses and spreads. Sampled about six wines, most very good. From here it was back to the house where preparations began for the dinner for six that included rack of lamb, potatoes, lima beans, wilted collard greens with garlic and bacon and copious amounts of Italian wine. A real feast and good company. Sleep came quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment