WE ARE NOW IN THE LONE STAR STATE


The  weather today was mainly cloudy with sunny breaks, a high of 72F. and the low last night was 46F.

During the drive over we continued to see a lot of  flat land covered by water. It did get a little more hilly as we entered Texas.

                  
                                   We crossed over the Mississippi again, this is a huge river!

                                                       Raised roadway over wetlands

                                    

                                            This is Atchafalaya Intracoastal Waterway.

                                                   We had to get a run at this bridge.

                                     

We arrived at our new location in Beaumont around 2 o'clock this afternoon and had time to look around, take a bicycle ride around the campground which appears to be about 70% full. They also provide a free breakfast every day. We are going to check it out tomorrow. There are a lot of Texan RVs  here but we noticed quite a selection of other out of state units as well as one from Ontario. Later in the evening a rig pulled in beside us and it was a couple we parked beside back in Mississippi.
(small world)

                                          Pool at the campground - don`t see any ice on it!!

We have noticed the price of gas has fluctuated a fair bit since we entered the states. The most expensive gas so far was 3.56 gal. in Louisiana and the cheapest here in Texas at 2.99.

http://goo.gl/maps/8O7So

MORE ON THE BIG EASY

Here are some more pics. from yesterday.

                                   Looks like Cathy found Santa's Sleigh - no, just the buggy we were on.

THE DRIVE OVER TO NEW ORLEANS

The drive over to New Orleans gave us a great understanding of the "Lay of the Land" or should I say "water" since there was water pretty well every where we looked. The one highway we were on for about 45 minutes doing 65 mph was actually a bridge as it was elevated by 30-40 ft. pylons from the surface of the water.

                                                                       Low and flat

                                               This is what we saw as far as we could see.

TODAY WE RODE DOWN TO THE PLANTATION AREA ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

We visited the "Houmas House Plantation."

 

                                          These lily pads would hold a good sized frog.

                                                                    Front of house

This a "Live Oak" or "Evergreen Oak" since it stays green all winter long. It is about 500 years old and can live up to 1000 years. It takes in about 2000 gallons of water each day, so the gardener told us.

                                                                          Side of house
  

This is the levee which runs adjacent to the Mississippi to help contain the flooding waters.

                                                  I would say it is about 60-70 ft. high.

             The road is on the other side of the levee and is called what else, but "River Road".

There were a lot fields of sugar cane in this area and we passed may trucks loaded with it cut into  6 inch pieces.
        

                                                            Sugar cane harvester

We are on the road tomorrow. Not sure yet where we are going.

WE VISITED THE BIG EASY TODAY!

The weather today was mainly sunny with a high of 18c and a low last night of 5c.

We drove down to New Orleans today to see the sites. We never thought it would be so hard to park a motorcycle but we drove around  for up to 1 hr. trying to find a spot. All the lots down town had lots of vacancies but as you entered there was a large sign stating motorcycles are not allowed. We could not find out why. We ended up going into the parking garage at the Hilton which was quite close to the French Quarter.

This train was passing after arriving at the Hilton it must have had 50 - 80 pieces of armed forces equipment on it.

We walked along the shore of the Mississippi and saw this tugboat at work.

We then went to the Cafe Du Monde which Cathy found on Google and is famous for its beignets ( a square donut covered with icing sugar and their Cafe au lait blended with chicory which Cathy said was good. I went for the reliable hot chocolate. This cafe was established in1862 and is still on the original site.

After our snack we crossed the street to negotiate a 1 hr. buggy ride which took us through the French Quarter and to the oldest cemetery in New Orleans "St. Louis Cemetery No. 1"

 "Mabeline" the mule did a great job negotiating the streets and getting us back safe.

Are journey took us past the St. Louis Cathedral with Jackson Square in front of it, named after Andrew Jackson who latter became a President.

We noticed a lot of construction in the city, getting ready Super Bowl 2013. On average they are closing three streets a day after finishing the previous three.


The cemetery was very interesting. This cemetery is dated back to the 1800's. It contains the crypt with the Voodoo Queen - Marie Laveau who was a re noun practitioner of Voodoo. It also has a crypt owned by Nicolas Cage the actor.

 

 The Voodoo Queen crypt with offerings and "X's" marked on it to indicate the wish came true.

                                                                Nicholas Cage"s Crypt
 Crypt is purchased by a family and when a person dies the body is placed into it and closing up. The crypt can not be reopened until 1year and 1 day. In this period of time the crypt due to the weather conditions will reach a internal temperature of up to 1000 degrees cremating the body. If another family member dies during this period of time they are placed in a temporary crypt. After the time frame is up the the original crypt is opened and the bones and ashes are pushed to the back and the other body is placed inside.

More pictures tomorrow.

TODAY'S UPDATE

Last Night we had some rain and thunder storms which stopped early a.m. The low last night was 16C.  and the high was 16C, feeling damp and overcast.

                                                     This KOA is ready for Christmas

 Ford Update

Called today and talked to their Customer Service Technician who said I can continue driving with the light on until the icon turns red, starts to blink or the coach starts to misbehave. So I will be staring at the light for awhile!

This afternoon we went to a near by store called Bass Pro Shop which is a chain mainly across the U.S. and one in Toronto. This place is huge with lots of different boats in the parking lot as large as any big box store has.

                                             The parking lot still went around the building

                                                      Artificial trees through out



                                              

                      This is a dead fish in a set of tongs being fed to Fred - see next picture.

Inside the store there were two levels containing rows and rows of  fishing rods, racks of rifles, cases of pistols and more rows of bows and gear to name a few items. There was two inside gun firing ranges and one bow shooting range with a deer target and a bail of hay to shoot at which were all busy.

                                                      Fishing rods all the way to the end!

We started talking to the store clerk watching over the ranges and said he would only need to see my driver`s licence to sell me a gun and that is only to confirm my credit card. That`s it!

                                           Aquarium right beside the see through elevators.

                                                                Sharp Shooter!

                                             Wow, a crossbow with a rifle stock and scope.


Take Care.

YESTERDAY WAS A GOOD DAY / BAD DAY

I plan on doing  a blog later today but wanted to do yesterday's now.

We arrived at the Ford Dealer early and they hooded up their code reader. The mechanic said everything was within the parameters and seamed a none issue.(Good) The code however indicated the left side was running lean and it probably made the computer unhappy, showing the code. (Bad)
He cancelled the code and we were ready to go. (Good) I had a great talk with him (Ralph) afterwards. He just heard from his son who is in training in New Mexico, after joining the Armed Forces for a 6 year term. He is going to be trained to work with the nuclear weapons which completely surprised Ralph as he said " I didn't know my sone was so smart, he couldn't even keep his room organised".

The day was pretty much cloudy with showers on and off which was ok since we were on the road.
It even got muggy with a temp. of about 20C.

We stopped for lunch in a parking area on the interstate and as soon as the coach started the engine light came back on. (Bad) I ignored it for the rest of the day. So we will have to call Ford again!(Bad)

When we entered Louisiana it was quit flat and of course low and wet (lakes, ponds, swamps and canals). The lady at the Tourist Centre said if you dig down 6 feet you hit water.

                              
                                                  The Brown Peligan is the State Bird 

                                              
                                                   Trees outside the Visitor Center


Along our way Cathy saw her first palm tree so had to take a picture.

                                                Lake Pontchartrain (very large)

All day long Cathy had been trying to book into a campground in the area know as the Plantation section and in fact was beside one of them but she could never get him pinned down to making a reservation. All he would say is to call back and he would be able to accommodate us. Looking back this should have raised some red flags but we followed the directions given. As it turned out, the campground we wanted didn't have a site for us. (Bad) But he owned another site just down the road with a site. (Good)  When we arrived at the new location we knew it would be very tight to get into but we gave it a try. I could only partially get in and then I could not back out due to the trailer jack knifing and the narrow entrance. (Bad) We then disconnected the trailer and pushed it out of the way so the coach could be manoeuvred to get out, took us 1 1/2 hours. We finally reconnected and told the campground manager we were not staying and left. (Good)

The pressure was now on to find a new place as it was getting dark now. (Bad) Cathy found a KOA near Baton Rouge so we headed for it. Another hour on the road to get there. We finally arrived at about 6:30 (Good) but it was raining (Bad) What was suppose to be a nice 3 and a half  hour drive took 8 hours. (Bad)

http://goo.gl/maps/7oxNB