A week in Austin Texas

We spent a week in Austin Texas visiting two of my sisters and so we could watch Chris (my daughter) run her first 10k race.  It was exciting to see the changes in her in the past year she has had weight issues all her life but she has found the way to a new and healthy lifestyle.  Kudos to her!!

The week in Austin was filled with lots of good food we visited the Oasis restaurant on lake Travis for a great meal and beautiful sunset then there was the shrimp and chicken stir fry with the side of crab legs that my sister Linda brought over one night that we barbequed and let's not forget the steak and Alaskan Salmon dinner.  Jan provided the steaks and I had the Alaskan Salmon.  Yes we did eat good last week.

The week was great but then we had to move on to San Antonio.....  

Wet night on Mustang Island

Well last night got interesting about 1am, Cherri got up and was worried about the storm.  There was still quite a bit of wind blowing still and I tried to reassure her that the weather radio was on that would alert us if the weather service issued any warnings and was certain that the local police would come down the beach on the loud speaker telling us to get off the beach.  I was just about to get out of bed and look for myself when I heard a horn honking, going to the door I was surprised to see that the water was up to the trailer and the person honking the horn was the local police.  I told Cherri to get things packed and how to bring in the slide out, I went outside and started lifting the stabilizer jacks and getting the trailer hooked up.   Starting the truck, throwing it in reverse and it will not move!  All the tires are about an inch from the rim in sand, four wheel drive and a little effort it finally moves.  I pull it to the front of the trailer and get it in position but should have made sure I was ready to hook things up because by the time I was ready which couldn't have been more than a couple minutes the water that was coming up to the truck made it difficult to line the truck up because the tires wanted to stay in that rut.

I finally hooked up and attempted to move forward, not going to happen.  I was able to backup a few inches but I didn't want to back up very much because the trailer tires were on my leveling boards giving me about five feet to get a little momentum.  Moving forward this time in four wheel drive low range and we are on the move to higher ground.  Once on stable ground I stop to thank the officer for coming down the beach and he advised us of a safe location.  He also told us that anytime this area gets a heavy rain this section of beach floods out, sometimes right up to the dunes so he wanted to check and make sure the area was clear.

The remainder of the night it was rainy and windy but we were high and mostly dry.

New Orleans

I have only been to New Orleans twice, yesterday and right after hurricane Katrina in 2005, I enjoyed yesterday a lot more.  I am sure there is still a lot of work to be done but from what I can see the city is looking good.  We were able to get a campsite at Bayou Segnette State Park just outside the city in Jefferson Parish.  This is a good campground especially for the area but you also get full electrical, water, wifi and free laundry all for $24.00 but we were only able to get one night here.  After we set the camper up and the air conditioning running to keep the dogs cool while we are gone.

The campground also gave me directions to the Algiers Ferry so for $5.00 parking you can take the free ferry service across the Mississippi directly to the downtown area of New Orleans.  The ferry runs every thirty minutes and we could watch the 4:30 ferry pull away from the dock as we walked up.  Once downtown it lets you off in the Riverwalk area which is only a few blocks away from the French Quarter or Burbon Street.  We walked Burbon Street sat in a overprice bar and had a drink, watched the street performers and then as we neared the end of the street I saw the spot where I had my picture taken in 2005 when the streets had to be patrolled carrying an assault weapon.  Now I had my picture re-taken only wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  Shortly after we found a cafe that had second story balcony so we could watch the street activities as we ate dinner.

We made an early evening taking the 8pm ferry back across the Mississippi

New Year, New Adventure!!

Finally finished with the Taxes, with the services from Eric Sloan and Business Accounting Group in Howell I was able to walk away with my shirt still on!!  Ahhh life is good.

So we were now ready to start a new adventure and travel a bit so with the trailer packed and on Monday March 5th 2012 we were doing the final preps which included turning off the water.  Who would know that by turning that valve it would delay us another day.  That brass valve which was only a few years old broke right off in my hand.  A trip to the hardware store and then make the repair.  By the time I was done I decide it was better to start on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday 9:30 am and ready to start everything is done and traveled to Nashville, Tennessee where we pulled into a Cracker Barrel to first adjust the hitch on the truck and then go eat dinner but it was then that I noticed that one of my tires were ready to fall apart, quite literally.  This was one of the original tires and it had some damage from when I had to have the axel replaced in Washington so it was not totally unexpected.  Tire changed, hitch adjusted and a good chicken dinner then with the permission of the manager we walked out to our trailer and went to bed.  Cracker Barrel is good to travelers and will let them stay in their lots, same as Walmart and a few other chains.

Thursday we made it down to Juniper Springs which is just north of Oralando, FL where we kicked back for three nights.  Very nice campground but I did locate two other campgrounds for half the price in the National Forest for half the price, as long as you are able to dry camp that is.  No hookups.  Next stop is a couple nights in the Everglades.  The highlight of this trip was one of the volunteers gave a talk about her 30 day paddle trip to Florida City and back to the Everglades that she does every year, solo and she is in her 60's.

Today we left the Everglades and met my sister and brother-in-law in Fort Myers, FL and had a late lunch, it was a nice visit.  Tonight we are at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, FL heading West and making our way to Texas.  Lots of family to visit.