Winter 2009/2010 Trip Wrap Up

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OK, so I know I haven't posted to the blog for a bit. I got home on March 13th and have just been winding down and getting back to the old home routine. It was an awesome trip, at some times a bit tiring, but I haven't regretted one minute of it.

I put over 7000 miles on the truck. Considering over 2 1.2 months I spent 3 weeks in the Rio Grande Valley, 1 week at Big Bend National Park, 1 week in Alamogordo and 2 weeks on Mustang Island, that's a lot of time on the road. A quick breakdown shows I spent an average of $55.00 per day for fuel, campground fees, entertainment and other expenses that I normally wouldn't have, I consider that pretty good. Food is not included in this figure as no matter where I am I would have to eat.


I figure I actually saved money on food as I ate in most of the time where I normally eat out at home. I also saved money on utilities at home as I had the heat turned down to 50, used no water and little electric. I also suspended my Dish Network which saved. Those 2 1/2 months equaled about $400 in savings. This would bring my grand total of extra expenses to less then $50 per day. That's one hell of a vacation for a bit over $4000.00 total.

I created a map of my travels just in case you would like to see where I traveled to and what routes I took. You can find it here.

Now it's time to do a few updates and upgrades to my trailer. I bought a used solar system that I need to install, a new A/C converter for battery charging and I want to strip off some peeling strip decals and put on something new in their place. With that done I'll be ready for more adventures this summer. Stay tuned for info on the updates and things I am doing this summer.

How Time Flies

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I just realized today that I am going to lose two hours over the next couple days. First hour is for daylight saving time and second is a time zone change as I travel east. Not sure if I can take losing two hours in such a short amount of time.

I left New Orleans today and headed north. I was a nice warm 65 degrees and sunny when I left at 9am. Taking I-55 north I traveled the length of Mississippi and stopped just outside of Memphis. It was a longer drive then I normally like to do but there isn't a lot of campgrounds in the time frame I like to stop in so I just drove on to Memphis. Then I arrive, it's raining, 55 degrees and cold. Not sure what it is but 55 in Memphis sure feels a lot colder then 55 down south.

Driving all the way to Memphis also puts my driving schedule just about right to stop and visit my sister in Indy. I can drive about 6 hours tomorrow and get to Casey, IL or Terre Haute, IN for the night. Then it will only be two or three hours to Indy.

If all goes as planned I'll be back home in MI on Monday.

New Orleans Bourbon Street

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Even though it was suppose to rain today I decided to head over to New Orleans and check out Bourbon Street. It only drizzled a little bit all day and it was in the 70's so I'm glad I went. I drove over to the Algiers Ferry to take it across the Mississippi instead of trying to drive into the Big Easy. The ferry landing is located in an old run down part of town. Many might even consider it a slum area but i found it interesting that I saw a very diverse group of people living in the area as I drove through it.

The ferry ride is free for people and costs $1.00 for cars. It runs every 30 minutes so you don't have to wait long to get across the river. The upper deck has chairs and is covered but I walked down to the lower deck where the cars are parked so I could a better look at the river and surroundings. During my trip there and back a number of tug boats and one big cargo ship went by.

A Harrah's casino is located at the ferry landing on the New Orleans side so I just had to go in and donate 20 bucks to their slot machines. It is about a 10 block walk down Canal Street to Bourbon Street. Canal Street kind of reminded me of New York city where you have little discount camera and other junk shops located right next to fancy high class stores.

I got to Bourbon Street and started to walk down it. I really wasn't sure what to expect. The street are very narrow with barely enough room for two vehicles side by side. All of the streets are one way with parking one side. I think I seen 50 or more beer trucks unloading during my mile or so walk. The whole street is nothing more then restaurants, bars and souvenir shops. There are also a few strip clubs sprinkled in among everything else. There may have been a few upstairs apartments sprinkled in there but you could hardly tell. All of the bars shops have their doors wide open to make it easy enter. Most of the bars are no more then a long bar and maybe a couple of tables. Daiquiris and Hurricanes seem to be the drink of choice and many bars had rows of daiquiri slushy machines lining the wall behind the bar with 20 or more flavors.

The area is a bit run down with many of the buildings needing paint or other repairs. There were also missing bricks and stones from the sidewalks. About half of the buildings had balconies that we all see on the Mardi Gras pictures and on TV. But then the run down look didn't really bother me much as I imagine that the storm damage they have had plus the heat and humidity that must be present most of the time must take it's toll. I defenently can see how this could be a party place with many places having Jazz & Blues bands and when I found drinks 2 for $5 or Daiqiris, all you can drink for $20. I had to drive back to the park so all I had was a beer.

Royal Street is one block over and there are many art shops and other local craft shops there. I found a lot of nice paintings and jewelry on display as I wound my back to Canal.

Overall it was an interesting day. If I ever get down this way again I will make it a point to find a hotel to stay in one night so I can see just how bad they really do party down there.

See a few more pictures of New Orleans.

Taking It Easy In The Big Easy

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I made it to Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, LA which is just across the Mississippi from New Orleans. The drive here was pretty decent except for the rain I had all the way. It wasn't heavy rain, just enough to use wipers. But that was enough to trash the outside of the trailer, it looks like I've never washed it.

The park is really nice. It has electric and water hookups and the sites are huge with 50 foot or more between sites. The bathrooms/showers are immaculate and they even have free laundry facilities. There is also WiFi but it sucks so I'm tethering my Blackberry. No pictures of the park today as it was raining too hard to go out and take some. I'll post a couple tomorrow. I have reservations for 3 nights but since it suppose to rain for the next 2 days I may just stay a couple extra days to "investigate" Bourbon Street.

A few things I have noticed that are interesting. To get here I used I-10. During part of the trip it goes over swamp land.... lots of swamp land. One part of the highway was actually an 18 mile bridge built up over the swamp. Watching local news there is still problems with abandoned homes damaged by Katrina. There are still 50,000 homes that have not been repaired or tore down. Lastly there is a oil executive that turned  up missing last Friday. His last known were abouts was walking towards the river from Bourbon Street late at night. Guess I'll have to take some precautions on my visits there.... but then I have already heard about how to safely visit that area.

Update on the missing guy. Looks like he was drunk and fell into the river. Haven't found him yet but from security cameras it looks that way.

The Long Trek Home

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I've started my way back home to Michigan. First stop for the night is at Gulf Coast RV Resort in Beaumont, Texas. It is a pretty decent park that is right off of I-10. The park is really clean and it has nice facilities. But they pack the sites in pretty close with only about 12 feet between sites. One thing I did like was the washers and dryers only cost a $1 each, the cheapest I have found my whole trip. Cost to stay the night is only $17 with my Passport America membership. This is not really a place I would want to stay for more then a day or two but the easy off/on to I-10 and the low cost make it a worthwhile stop for the night.

The drive here was fairly easy. I did go through Houston and even though it was Sunday there was a fair bit of traffic. I'm sure glad I didn't try to drive it on a weekday. Tomorrow I have about a 5 hour drive to New Orleans. This will be my last destination before I turn north and head back home in earnest so I may stay for 3 or 4 days to enjoy the southern warmth one last time.

Can We Say Duh!

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OK, so for 2 weeks I was figuring on leaving Port Aransas and heading east to New Orleans on Sunday. I figured that since today (Saturday) was my last day I would go out and treat myself to a nice seafood lunch. On my way back into the park about 2pm I stopped by the gate as normal and the lady staffing the gate asked if I was leaving today.

I said, nope, tomorrow. She then said, well, you only have a reservation for today and there are no openings tomorrow. Huh? My ticket says I leave the 6th. She says today is the 6th. What!!!! It's not the 5th today? Doh!

So, I head back to the trailer, pack up and head out. I think it only took me 30 minutes to get everything put away and head out. So now it's 2:30pm and I sure as heck don't want to drive at night so I plot a course to just north of San Antonio and pull into a park just after 7pm. Luckily they one space available for the night... I think. I got here after the office closed so I just found the only spot left and parked. No one has knocked on my door telling me to leave so I guess I'm OK.

It's really not that bad. I still have to head up to Austin tomorrow morning to pick up a solar panel setup I am buying and then I'd head south east with plans to stop at Beaumont, TX for the night. That puts me in about the same place I would have been if I would have left Sunday morning and I don't have to drive as far as I would have.

A little crazy for a bit but all is well now.

Laundry Day and High Tide

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Just been chillin' over the past couple of days. It has been a bit cool but still enjoying the sun and no snow. Yesterday was nicer with a high in the upper 60's. Today was laundry day. I tried to put it off as long as I could so I could get away with not having to do laundry again until I got back. But I just plain ran out of clean clothes to wear so had to do it..... which also means I'll have to do it again one more time.

The laundromat in Port Aransas is pretty nice. Lots of machines in good shape, pool table, air hockey, video games, juke box and you can even order pizza in. Once I got the clothes in the drier I walked a block to the Rusty Jeep BBQ and had a chopped pork BBQ sandwich platter with beans and slaw. Pretty tasty!

By the time I got back to the trailer it was up into the mid 70's. Spud looked really sad that I had left him behind so decided to take a drive to the beach and walk him. As I drove onto the beach I noticed the water was up a bit more then it normally is. The waves were really crashing in so I figured it was just the high waves that made the gulf look higher. I looked down the beach and there were a couple of cars and a few tents as is normal.

Parked the truck up close to the dunes and headed out for a walk. Got down the beach a hundred yards or so and I could see a state park truck driving down the beach. You usually see them once an hour or so as they patrol. As he got next to me stopped and asked if that was my truck down there. Told him yep and he advised me it might be a good idea to get it off the beach as the tide was really going to be high today and they really didn't know just how high it was going to be. He pointed over to the day use area were there were about 3 cars and told me they were already trapped in the day use area and couldn't get off the beach. took his advice and got off the beach and parked in the paved parking area.

Once I got on the beach in the picnic area I looked down and could see that the other couple of cars and tents that were pitched had packed up and were leaving. Still went for a walk and in the the hour or so I was there the waters had come up at least to where my truck had been parked. The water had eaten up at least 80 foot of the beach and I had never seen it even close to that high before. Sure glad that park truck happened by when it did!

Now at 8pm, it still is fairly warm out but the winds have really picked up with 35mph winds, gusts to 40mph. I really like this area but I'm not sure I could take these winds day after day after day. They say it's not as bad in the summer but I still wouldn't want to have to put up with it for even a couple of months.