Feb 2007

Our cat is adjusting to life on the road. He stays hidden under the covers on Joe's bed while we're traveling, but here is his favorite seat when we're stopped:

He would NEVER be allowed on the table at home, especially during a meal. We're just glad to see him out of his hiding place, so we've been letting him on the table. I've tried to get him to look out other windows, but he keeps coming back to this one.

We get up early and actually leave the campground by 8am, the earliest exit so far. Jere wants to get to Houson for the 2pm tour of the Astros ballpark since it's the last tour til Monday. We park the RV at the Houston KOA and head into town.

The tour guide was excellent and helped make it an interesting tour. The ballpark has their American flagpole in the back of centerfield, so a player can actually hit an incredibly long home-run ball, but if it hits the flagpole (which is technically part of the ballfield) and bounces back on the field, it's a fair ball. Very strange.

We're all tired and hungry so we head back to the RV for an early dinner and homework and laundry duty.

Interesting sidenote: I was in the laundry and talking to a guy and he says, " You talk funny. You're not from around here, are you?" I didn't have a Texan accent.

We pack up and leave New Orleans. We sit in traffic on the I-10 bridge that was damaged by Katrina, while they have only one lane open during repairs. We arrive at the Tabasco Factory Tour and Museum (at Avery Island) in the afternoon and take their tour and learn all about making tabasco sauce. Did you know they ferment the peppers for 3 years in oak barrels? It's an interesting stop. Though we were disappointed that the jalapeno ice cream machine with free samples was broke :-)

Interesting sidenote: Avery Island has a 15-20 foot long bridge to get onto the island that they charge $1 to cross. Some guy actually sits in this little shed to collect the toll. We thought it was a joke when we first saw the sign, but there was a guy in the little wooden booth and he said "$1 please".

We continue on our long drive towards Texas and stop at one of the Passport half-price campgrounds that my father bought for us. There've been several billboards for Cajun restaurants, so we decide to try to go out for dinner, Cajun food. Well, the two places within walking distance of the campground were dives, BUT there was a Cajun meat outlet across the road. Jere's hesitant, but I tell him I'm going in and check it out. They had many kinds of Cajun meat, but we settle on buying the Cajun alligator burgers and Cajun sausage. We go back to the RV and I fry the burgers -- they're hot hot hot, but good. Joe ate leftover spaghetti :-)

Rain! Started to rain overnight and we had our bedroom slide out, which means that the raindrops were hitting the aluminum roof a few feet above our heads, so did not sleep well. Next time we go back to putting the slide in if rain is in the forecast.

After being so busy with Mardi Gras activities the last two days, we relaxed in the RV most of the morning. (Joe was not bothered by the rain and slept til 10).

During the middle of the day we went over to the Stennis Space Museum for their tour and then looked at the museum there. Nothing too exciting, but it was interesting at times. They test the engines for rockets and the space shuttle there, plus it is the headquarters for the Naval Meteorogy and Oceanography commands.

We make a stop at Wal-Mart before heading back to the RV for some schooling and dinner. It's a math day for Joe....we've been taking one day each week to focus on his math. We take about two hours in the RV to cover a chapter and then the next day he has a set of problems to complete to make sure he understands all the concepts of that chapter.

Since we're in New Orleans, we watch a 2 hour History Channel movie on the War of 1812 (last battle of the war was fought in New Orleans). It was actually very interesting and well done. I had recorded a bunch of shows from the History Channel before we left to use on the trip. Some of them relate to what we're visiting and others are simply interesting shows.

Of course we have to finish homework and the History Channel tape by 9:00, when LOST is on TV...TV shows are an hour earlier now that we're in the central time zone...which I discovered Sunday night wwhen I turned on the TV at 9 to watch Desperate Housewives, only to find it airs at 8pm in this time zone :-(

After the late night last night, we left later than planned for the New Orleans Mardi Gras parades. We were concerned about where we were going to park since we were told at the visitors' center that we should park by 6am and someone else had told us the night before that we should be there by 7am. BUT we arrived at 11am and found a parking lots with a spot for us :-)

We are parked at the edge of the French Quarter, so we decide to take the 'scenic' route to the parade - through the zaniness of Royal and Bourbon Streets on Mardi Gras Day! Both streets were crowded but walkable. There were a few drunks already, but mostly tourists and lots of people in crazy costumes. Even before we got to Bourbon Street, there was a small impromptu parade of a small band and costumed walkers--this is going to be an interesting day! All of the costumes were creative and definately home-made. A few were adult-rated, but most were fine for Joe and we felt very comfortable taking him through that area. It was early in the day -- we did not attempt to come back to this area, full of bars and voodoo parlors, later in the day.

We walked to Canal Street and watched the end of the Zulu parade and caught one of the necklaces with a Zulu medallion for a souvenir. We sat on the curb and ate our sandwiches and talked to the people around us for the hour til the next parade and then realized they were waiting for the Truck parade, not the Rex parade that we were waiting for, so when we saw the Rex parade turn the corner in the distance, we quickly walked two blocks south on Canal and watched the Rex Parade. We only missed the first few floats. By this time, we realized that the baracades that the police put on Canal street to control the crowds mean absolutely nothing and we stood with the crowd in the street, yelling and waving our hands to throw beads and trinkets. Joe had a ball! It really was a lot of fun, with the interaction between the crowd and the people on the floats. There was a lady standing beside me with a upside down cut-out gallon container on the end of a 6 foot pole -- she would hold it up and try to catch things in it. I forgot she had come and went up to catch a bag of beads one time and this bucket came out of nowhere and caught the beads right above my hands. I looked over at her in surprise and she said, "Here. These are for you." I said she could keep them and she explained that she's just out there helping people catch things. She was having a lot of fun.

Did I mention that as we were sitting on the curb eating our sandwiches between parades, I looked around and realized that the crowd where we were standing was 98% African-American? When I realized this, I wondered for an instant if they thought we were trespassing. But I had been talking to some of the people around us and they were all friendly, so I decided it didn't matter.

Anyway, as soon as the Rex parade finished, the Truck Parade started. We weren't sure what the Truck parade was, but it turned out to be even more fun than the Rex parade. It was 90 tractor trailer trucks decorated for Mardi Gras by families or groups. They each had about a dozen riders throwing out more beads and lots of trinkets. By the end of these 3 parades, there were families who had filled 3 large bags of trinkets to take home. The kids love these parades!!! We had initially started watching this parade behind the police barracades, but Joe and I quickly learned that if we wanted any of the trinkets, we needed to go out in the street with the other kids. I did hear on the news the next morning that a number of people went to the first aid station when floats ran over there feet -- I'm not surprised.

The parades were over around 4pm, so we walked to the end of Canal Street to the Riverwalk to go get more beniets (sp?) and coffee au lait at Cafe du Monde. It felt so good to sit down!!!! We sat there by the river for about an hour.

We walked along the edge of the French Quarter to our car and got back to the campground around 7pm. We decided to end our Mardi Gras with a visit to the casino's buffet. For me, it turned out to be an 'all you can eat' crab legs -- and I had A LOT!! with an ear of corn and a piece of cake. Good end to a great day!!!