Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:  Fairview Riverside State Park, Louisiana

August 13, 2020

Temperature 79 Degrees

From Bad to Worse

Views Around The Park 

What’s the old saying If it is going to go wrong then it is going to go wrong.

It sure applies to us.  Today around noon time the thunder began to boom and shortly thereafter it began to pour.  It came down so hard you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face.

It was about that time that Barbara said What is that funny noise in the bathroom?  That funny noise turned out to be water coming in through our bathroom light.  I purposely made sure several months ago that everything on the roof had been re-caulked.  So what in the world was going on?   Unfortunately, until it stops raining I can’t get up on the roof to check it out.  And the rain is not supposed to stop for at least three days.  Hopefully, I’ll get a break in the weather early tomorrow, all I will need is 30 minutes.

Then I put the awning out a few inches to keep the rain off the slide since there is no slide topper.  Out it went without an issue.  Thirty minutes later I looked and it was back in.  Now what was going on?  I have no idea how it got in.  Furthermore, it now no longer works.

Wait it gets better.  Barbara went to take her favorite glass bowl out to mix something for lunch.  Yup, it slipped out of her hands and shattered in a million pieces when it hit the floor.

2020 can not be over soon enough.

OK, on another note following are some picture of this gem of a park.

All sites are back in and paved.  None are FHU.

Such beautiful green grass.

The trees are really tall.  That is what makes getting a DISH signal so difficult.  We were able to hook on to two satellites but not the third.

From what I understand most sites will be occupied this weekend.

Then there is this.

With a brand new window awning on the back window!

I can’t believe that this even runs.  Just think of everything that would fall off when it hits the first good bump in the road.  I really have to do a bit more investigating and find out what the story is behind this rig.

Here we are.  Yes, it is tight quarters.  Just enough room for Elvira and Little Graybeard.  By the way, we’ll be staying here since the sites we asked about will all be occupied this weekend.

Another day is in the books on The Road of Retirement.  If we have many more days like this I’m literally going to pull what little hair I have completely out.  Yes, I know that days and times like this go along with the full time RV life style.  I guess we’re just so spoiled because until now our life has been relatively incident free.  We’ll get through this and we’ll get everything sorted out.  It is just going to take some time.  I’ll say it again we are two of the most blessed and fortunate people on the face of the planet.

Thanks for your company.  We always appreciate when you stop by and we so enjoy your comments.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:  Fairview Riverside State Park, Louisiana

August 12, 2020

Temperature 87 Degrees 

Travel Day

I Fought The Tree, And The Tree Won

Our New Home

It was so nice not to have to get up at the crack of dawn this morning.  Our trip today would be an easy 3 plus hours so we were not planning on leaving until around 10 am.

Actually, we were up and ready to go by 9:30 am so we decided time to get rolling.

Like yesterday the trip was a little bit of this and that.  We had several sections of really horrible road, we had some construction backups, a few miles of Jersey Barriers right on the shoulder line, and we had heavy traffic in some spots.  It is obvious just by the increasing volume of traffic that we are definitely back East.  Yet, overall the trip was an easy one.

Last night I did catch one thing that made the trip easier.  Last night I previewed the route for today and was a bit nervous about the last section.  I didn’t like the looks of it.  Well, I happened to be going thru reviews on Campground Reviews and one reviewer said in essence if you are coming from the West, and you have a large rig, this is the way you want to go.  Directions were included.  I pulled the route up on the map and sure enough that was the way to go and that was the way we came in today.  It was so much easier than the route the GPS wanted us to take.

In due time we saw the entrance sign for the park.  A few twists and turns and we were at the park office.

This is absolute gem of a state park.  It is clean, well taken care of, the roads are easy to navigate and the sites offer good spacing between.

This is our new home.  It is a back in, reasonably level, paved, a bit short, but only offers water and electric.  However, we are having a deuce of a time getting any satellite reception so we hope to move tomorrow.  Time will tell.  Now for you eagle eyed followers you might have noticed that something is missing from the right front of Elvira.

While backing in to the site – to paraphrase an old song – I fought the tree and

the tree won.  I sheared the arm that attaches the mirror to the front cap completely off.  Believe it or not, I wish I had taken the mirror off instead.  The mirror costs a lot less than the arm.  Point of fact, I’m now looking for a part time job to pay for the arm!

Barbara called Newmar and we’ll have a new arm by Monday.  The fun is going to come in trying to reattach the wiring through the arm to the mirror.  I’m going to have to cut and splice.  Thankfully, the wires are color coded.

So what does one do when they really screw up?

If they love seafood you go to one of the best seafood market/restaurants in the area.  Actually, this is where Barbara took me.  She thought I could really use something special to sort of pick my spirits back up.

The one side of the store is the market with all kinds of tasty seafood for sale.

The other half of the store is the restaurant.

No concerns about social distancing since we had the whole place to ourselves.

You order at the window and when ready they bring your food to you.

Lunch is served!  Barbara had pot roast and I had a catfish platter with a bowl of seafood gumbo on the side.  The first few spoon fulls of the soup and I had already forgotten about the busted arm.  Well, almost.  The soup was so good I got a pint of it to go.

Back at the Park we rode over to section two to scout out other possible sites we could move to tomorrow.  We found three possible sites that would give us great satellite reception.  Tomorrow, we’ll see if we can move.

This is the Tchefuncte River (say that fast three times) that borders the park in section two.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. I do hope you had a better day than I did.  I’m so ready for 2020 to be over.  I really need to get back to my A Game if we’re going to continue to travel far and wide for the next so many years.  Let’s see, so far I’ve almost pulled out of a site with the electric still hooked up.  I almost left my best water regulator behind.  Now, this really major screw up.  This is just not me and I’m not a happy traveler right about now.

  Thanks for your company.  We always appreciate when you stop by and we so enjoy your comments.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

(We’ve Added A New Stop To Our Link)

Home Is Where We Park It:  Cajun Haven RV Park in Egan, Louisiana

August 11, 2020

Temperature 91 Degrees Feels Like 105 Degrees With Humidity

The Best of the Best – Motorhomes of Texas

Two of God’s Beautiful People

New T-Shirt

Travel Day

I have to say, getting stuck at Motorhomes of Texas turned out to be as my sister put it – a happy accident.

Those who work at Motorhomes are among the best of the best.  From our service advisor, James, to the tech, Sanson, who worked on Elvira as well as everyone else who works here they are absolutely fantastic.  They treat you like family, which means they treat you right.  They go out of their way to make sure you are satisfied and they take such pride in their work.  This is one shop that I simply cannot say enough good things about.  We are 110% satisfied with the work they did and gladly paid the bill because we knew what we had done was done right.  If you are ever passing through the area, heck, if you are within a couple of hundred miles of them and know you need work done on your rig by all means make the detour to Motorhomes.  It is one decision you will never regret.

In addition to all of that we were also fortunate enough – as I said yesterday – to meet and get to know two of God’s beautiful people – Lee and Michelle.  They were here for repairs on their Foretravel.  We had lunch and breakfast together and spent many delightful hours together in the waiting room getting to know one another.  We’re looking forward to seeing them again when we are in Florida.

Some have asked, Well did you get a new T-shirt?  Yes, I definitely did.  I also – sorry I forgot to take a picture tonight – a new hat from Motorhomes.  I will wear both proudly.  In fact, I wore my Motorhomes hat all day today.

And yes, the correct converter/inverter was installed today first thing in the morning.  Point of fact, it was an even better unit than what we were expecting.  And the price was right. They really did right by us.  I’ll say it again, this is the place to go to get quality work done.  We’ve had several shops work on Elvira and there is only one other shop I can think of that is probably as good as they are.  Motorhomes is just that good.  No, make that fantastic.

Work done it was time to get on the road.  The trip was a little bit of this and that.  We had rain, we had several sections of really horrible road, we had some construction backups, and we had heavy traffic in some spots.  Yet, with all that had been done to Elvira the past couple of days it was an easy trip.  The dash air was so welcomed.  The new shocks kept us from jumping all over the place.  The new inverter took care of the refrigerator.   Elvira is now, more than ever, a treat to drive.

 In due time we were at our overnight stop.  It’s called Cajun Haven RV Park.  There is a sign outside but it is so faded you can’t read it.  When we arrived we were met at the entrance gate by the owner who informed us that since we were staying here he considered us his friends and so he said Just call me what the rest of my friends do, Killer Miller.  He then led us to our site.

 .  This is our site, hard packed dirt, reasonably level, with FHU if we wanted to go to all the trouble.  We’re just happy to have a 50 amp hookup so we can run both AC units.  We learned from Killer Miller that the site had just been vacated by another customer, one who had been here for the last 15 years.  OK, we sure don’t plan to be here that long.

It is a nice enough place to spend a night since it is just minutes from I 10 and only costs $20.  However, there are some interesing sites here to say the least.  In addition to this delightful site right next to us we found trailers with corrugated metal roofs, discolored RV’s from the early 90’s come right down to it, you name it, it is here.

Then again, it is well taken care of, no weeds, no trash laying around, The road in and around is easy to navigate and the grass is cut and green.  If we were in need of an overnight stop in this area in the future we would consider stopping here again.

Finally, I picked these up the other day for my sweetheart.  She is a real trooper and definitely deserved them.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We will always remember our days at Motorhomes as some of our best days on the road.  Once again the good Lord brought us to the right place at the right time.  I’ve said it before and I will continue to say it over and over again: We are two of the most blessed and fortunate people on the face of the planet.  Now, if you’ll excuse me two really early days have caught up with me and I’m going to call it a night.  Hey, we can sleep in tomorrow.  Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Hope you had a great day.  Thanks for your company.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It:  Motorhomes of Texas, Nacogdoches, Texas

August 10, 2020

Temperature 96 Degrees Feels Like 100 Degrees With Humidity

Motorhomes of Texas – Upgrades and Repairs, Day Three

Oh yes we were leaving today.  We were going to get on our way.  Motor on down the highway.  Continue the journey.

But then came the big Oops!  More about that later.

They told us they would be coming for Elvira at 6:30 am this morning and they were true to their word.  So back into the shop our girl went.

Out came the old modified sine wave converter/inverter.

In went the new pure sine wave converter/inverter – or so I thought.

Out came the old remote control panel from the electrical panel up front.

In went the new remote control panel into the electrical panel up front.  It took a bit to get the new converter/inverter and remote to talk to one another but they got it done.

We were looking good.  There a few minor issues yet to be addressed, such as: clearance lights were not working; skylight over the shower had not been properly installed back in Yuma so had to be redone; and, a locker door was being stubborn.  In due time everything was addressed and corrected.  Still too late to leave today but nothing to keep us here tomorrow – or so we thought.

More about that in a minute.

Over the course of the morning we met two of God’s beautiful people in the waiting room – Lee and Michelle.  They were also here to have work done on their coach.

Since they had been here before and knew the area they invited us to go to lunch with them.  This is were we ended up.  Oh what a great place for lunch it turned out to be.

Lunch is served.  Ribs, sausage, baked beans, fried zucchini and an Arnold Palmer for me.  Oh was it good, really, really good.

Barbara, Michelle, and Lee at the lunch table.

Lunch over we returned to Motorhomes.  That is when I found the Oops regarding Elvira.  They had installed the wrong converter/inverter.  Now how about that!  I had asked to have a pure sine wave installed instead, they simply replaced the old modified sine wave with another newer one.  So, 6:30 am tomorrow we’ll be back in the shop to have the proper one installed.  Then we’re on the road.  I think we will be!

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  If you’ll excuse me, it is now time to take a shower and get to bed.  Yup, they hooked us up to city water tonight.  Oh, that shower is going to feel good.  With another early morning coming, and a 4 hour drive after that I definitely need to get to bed real early tonight.

Hope you had a great day.  Thanks for your company.  Catch you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!