We left our home about 8 pm on Oct 31st to spend the night at the Flying J in London, ON. (A truck stop so no electrical hookup to run the furnace) It was cold that night -- to the extent that the alarm went off on our fridge at 12:14 am saying it couldn't get any propane. Bev got up and shut the fridge off since the weather was cold enough to keep the food properly. With no furnace running, we just close the door to our bedroom, snuggle under the blankets and cover our head so only our nose is out in the cold! We need to start leaving earlier in October!
From London we drove to stay with our family in Indiana. We visited and shopped for a few days. While there we saw 3 deer cross the lawn -- what a sight -- 2 females plus a male who had 4 point antlers!
Our next stop was Effingham, in southern Illinois, to shop for our favourite whole wheat pancake mix and a few other items at the Hodgson Mill Retail store. We parked overnight at the Walmart nearby and disconnected the car to drive to Il Forno, an Italian restaurant with delicious entrees. We had a glass of wine, soup and entree each for a total of $35!!
From Effingham we drove to Memphis and continued on Hwy I-55 south to Enid Lake. We stayed overnight at the Corps of Engineer campground there. The site had sewage, electric and water hookups. The regular price is $18 with seniors over 62 paying $9 per night. The photos below shows how roomy the sites are.
This year we decided to address one more item on our bucket list with a visit to New Orleans. We found a campground in Pontchartrain for $44/night thanks to our 50% discount through Passport America. The campground offered a shuttle into the French Quarter for $6 for the day. The weather was rainy but the first day we managed to do an airboat swamp tour at Jean Lafitte and a visit to the WWII Musuem.
That day we drove our car in to the French Quarter and paid $20 to park for 5 hours while we were on the airboat tour. Luckily we had driven into town as we had to drive back out to the campground after the swamp tour -- we got soaking wet from a heavy downpour towards the end of the tour! Yikes!
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| after this photo was taken of Vic in his wet clothing, he purchased a new t-shirt to wear something dry! |
The airboat tour was great -- our guide was very knowledgeable and shared much information. We saw about 6 alligators which he said was unusual as the older gators were already digging themselves into the mud for the winter thanks to a cold snap the week before we arrived.
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| Our guide |
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| ear protection -- the engine was loud!!! |
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| starting up the side channel |
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| Spanish moss on the trees |
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| gator about to snap up the marshmallow |
The guide stopped in one channel to visit a "crack head" gator -- one that will come close to the boat to be fed marshmallows! They are so addicted to eating marshmallows, just as if it was crack. This one swam a 100 metres toward to boat to get a treat.
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| A stop to discuss the vegetation surrounding us |
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| a bald eagle's next |
We spent time in the afternoon at the WWII Museum. When it closed at 5 pm we were once again greeted but a heavy downfall of rain so were stuck in the building for a while. Lucky for us it was Happy Hour and the bar just happened to be just inside the museum door. The rain subsided enough for us to dash 2 blocks to our car. We tried to go out to dinner that evening but we couldn't find a parking spot due to flooding of the streets. We even spotted a man-hole cover dancing and bobbing over its hole while the water squirted out from beneath.
The second day we took the shuttle into town for the day. We visited the Aquarium first. Not as impressive as the one in Toronto or the one in Atlanta Georgia.
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| up close to a penguin |
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| there were many tanks with sea horses |
From the Aquarium we took a trolley car (for the cost of 40 cents for seniors) to the west side of the French Quarter to visit the Mardi Gras World where the floats are built. It was a great place to visit! The characters were sculptured out of layers of foam, then covered in paper mache and painted
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| a jesting Victor! |
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| trying on costumes |
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| an owl in the making |
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| painting in progress |
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| CNC machine can sculpt giant piece of |
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| A bare float ready for decorating |
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| a photo of a tiger for our granddaughter Megan |
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| A dragon chomping on Papa |
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| Giant blocks of foam for the CNC machine |
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| Hey! There's the Cat in the Hat. |
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| Note the scorpion is circled in the drawing and the gal below is gluing the tail pieces together |
Next we took the trolley car to the east side of the French Quarter to meander through the French Market (dodging raindrops from time to time). We stopped for an afternoon break at Cafe du Monde to try their Beignets. Sorta French donuts covered in powdered sugar. Delicious! Here are a few photos from our meandering around the French Quarter:
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| typical building in the French Quarter |
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| Canal Street boulevard lined in palm trees. |
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The Steamboat "Natchez" docking after a luncheon cruise.
Yes Warren...the paddle wheel is in reverse. |
The shuttle was due to pick us up at 8 pm so we had an early dinner at Oceana in the French Quarter. The food was delicious. We had an appetizer of gator bites!! Interesting. Could be described as a cross between chicken and calamari.
From New Orleans we headed west on Hwy I-10. We stopped at Wharton TX (south of Houston) at a Walmart. We arrived at Lemon Tree RV Inn in Mission on November 10th where we plan to stay for almost a month.
FYI - The price of gas when we topped up our tank as we travelled south:
Oct 31st - $1.05/litre at home, $0.95/litre in Woodstock and London, ON -- CAD $
Nov 1st - $2.03 USD/gallon in Port Huron, MI
Nov 4th - $1.88 USD/gallon in Gilman, IL
Nov 5th - $1.90 USD/gallon in Marston, MO
Nov 6th - $1.89 USD/gallon in Hazelhurst MS
Nov 9th - $1.84 USD/gallon in Iowa, LA
Nov 10th $1.86 USD/gallon in Wharton, TX
