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| Ken and I and cake on fire!! |
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| Bill (Bea's husband) Mary (our sister in law) |
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| Jim (Ken's Brother) Bea (Bill's wife) |
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| Mike & Bonnie, Alice, Ken & I, Dru |
Well, we spent our last week in Texas, just visiting and
relaxing. On the Friday we gave a small
cocktail party for the new friends we are leaving behind. A few drinks and nibbles,
a story or two – just like real people!!!
On the Saturday final dinner with Jim and Mary and then on Friday, Mike
and Bonnie had us over for a BBQ.
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| Bonnie & Mike |
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| Jim & Mary |
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| Dinner with Chef Mike |
We left Monday morning the 23rd with goodbyes throughout the
park and a tear or two – will be keeping in touch through email with them all.
After a great month in Mission TX spending time over
Christmas, New Year’s and my birthday, we are back on the road travelling
again. We are heading to Galveston, TX
just because I want to see it.
We have arrived at Galveston, later in the afternoon and
drove around the island to check out parks – we chose the City one which was
right by the Gulf where we could back on to the water and hear the waves
crashing during the night – music to my ears!
We went to the Visitor center the next morning to see about
what was available and booked a tour for the afternoon with a local. The person
at the Visitor center was very informative and gave us recommendations for a
restaurant. We drove around on our own
for a while to see what was around and get the lay of the land. We went back to be picked up at 1:00 pm.
The tour guide had a large golf cart type machine but bigger than that was we were driving around the city in it, as there were just the two of us, it worked out well.
Hurricane Ike in 2008 is the one the hit them and took a toll on the city. Where we were on the Gulf side was not even where the damage was, it was in land – the hurricane brought the surging waters to the other side of the island and the main downtown was flooded. Several of the buildings have small plaques on them showing the different hurricanes that have caused floods and the heights. The waves surged over the Sea wall – this is where we are now staying and went to the lower sloped down areas of the city and this is where most of the damage was sustained. There are still quite a few places on the island that have not been rebuilt or restored. The historical society is doing some restorations as well as some people have purchased homes and is in process of restoring. These must be done according to the historical society rules to be same as before.
The tour guide had a large golf cart type machine but bigger than that was we were driving around the city in it, as there were just the two of us, it worked out well.
Hurricane Ike in 2008 is the one the hit them and took a toll on the city. Where we were on the Gulf side was not even where the damage was, it was in land – the hurricane brought the surging waters to the other side of the island and the main downtown was flooded. Several of the buildings have small plaques on them showing the different hurricanes that have caused floods and the heights. The waves surged over the Sea wall – this is where we are now staying and went to the lower sloped down areas of the city and this is where most of the damage was sustained. There are still quite a few places on the island that have not been rebuilt or restored. The historical society is doing some restorations as well as some people have purchased homes and is in process of restoring. These must be done according to the historical society rules to be same as before.
They also lost quite a few trees, and there are tree sculptures
throughout the city, both private and by the city that are amazing. We had similar sculptures when we were in
Hope, BC.
After the tour, we went down to the docks to and walked around. They had an oil rig that was set up as a Museum that we thought we would go back the next day and look at. We had a drink on the wharf then went to dinner at Gaido’s that was recommended to us, was very good – we had seafood of course!
After the tour, we went down to the docks to and walked around. They had an oil rig that was set up as a Museum that we thought we would go back the next day and look at. We had a drink on the wharf then went to dinner at Gaido’s that was recommended to us, was very good – we had seafood of course!
We had plans to do some more sightseeing the next day, but
the weather went nuts, storm warnings, flood, tornadoes, good old weather, there were advisorys not to go out if not necessary so we
sat it out in the trailer following the news – took some pictures, but they
don’t show nearly all that was going on.
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| Day of storm |
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| Large waves |
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| Trying to show water pooling on ground |
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| Morning after 1 |
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| Morning after 2 |
We left the next day heading east to New Orleans, LA – the
Big Easy
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| Rice field |
Stayed at nice park outside New Orleans, Slidell, which was
about ½ north east so drive down was pretty straight forward. All of the park was decorated for Mardi Gras - decorations on everything. The Park people gave us a detailed map and
directions and that worked well.
We drove down the next morning as we were going to see about
booking a driving tour and paddle boat tour.
The paddle boat we wanted to book was in dry dock so could not get them
and the other one that was running, did not have its booth open at the time we
went to the wharf.
We walked along the River walk for a while, could see the
cruise ships on the docks – they have a few that leave from New Orleans; that
would be a great way to do one as you could get a hotel the day before right by
the wharf, do sightseeing either on way in or out.
We started walking through the French quarter, walked along
the main area, went to Café du Monde for Beignets – icing sugar coated deep
fried doughnuts – WOW. We shared though,
did not want to pig out too much! Even the statues downtown had Mardi Gras beads on them. Walked
the boardwalk, went up along Bourbon street; anything goes on this street –
bars open early, can walk anywhere in area with open drink – sell them outside
their bars, quite similar to in Vegas. We stopped at an outside park for a drink
at at Jackson's Square, and listened to singer - she was pretty good. Every other store front is a strip club of some sorts, graphic pictures
as well – no we did not stop.
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Street performers were everywhere, everyone advertising to
get you into their stores or bars. The
whole area has restaurants and bars galore.
We did walk down some side streets off the beaten track, still downtown but not really busy, then decided we should get closer to crowded areas. Again a great people city – even though they have one of the highest
crime rates in the states. At this
point, 27 days into month, they have had 23 murders.
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| Fats Domino, Ken Moore, Al Hirt |
Again, the downtown area was not hit as hard as outlying
areas – the worst was the 9th district and everyone said not to go
near that area. These are all inland but
in very low lying areas and of course is the poorer section, they apparently
are still waiting for FEMA money and not getting very quickly.
We left downtown around 5:00 pm and headed back up town and
went to restaurant that the park had recommended – Copeland’s – it was packed,
which is always a good sign – there was a small line up to get I when we
arrived but as we were leaving, they were out the door waiting. We had a coupon for free entrée from park as
well so we had lots of food and leftovers for the next night – great way to
cook!
The next day, we went back down town – Comiccom was on at the
convention centre so we did see a few aliens and space people – the invisible
man walked right by us so that was kind of neat.
We took our tour of
the Mississippi on the Cajun Queen paddle wheel boat out and stopped at park
-------- where the battle of Louisiana was fought and did a quick tour. While on the boat, they pointed out the 9th
district and the levy’s that they have now rebuilt – but we were behind one on
the tour and does not look that great to me.
The damage is caused not by the gulf waters themselves in these places
but by the waters rising and not being held back as they should be.
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| Mardi Gras statue and Creole |Queen in background |
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| Creole Queen |
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| Skyline |
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| Skyline and river walk |
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| Levy up Mississippi river by battlefield |
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| Cruise ships |
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| Skyline |
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| Skyline |
The temperature while we were there was in the mid to high
60’s (16-17 C) which is actually great for touring.
Glad we stopped here, this and Galveston were on my list of
things and places to see so worked out well.
We left here in morning and headed towards Tallahassee, FL. All was going well until a fellow pulled up
beside us and started honking his horn waving at Ken to pull over to
shoulder. Ken got out and there was a
big bulge on the side of the trailer tire.
Thanked him and asked how far to the next intersection and he said about
five miles, so I told I was going to put on my 4 way flasher and drive slow to
get off the highway as there was no room to work. He said he would follow with
his flashers on as he was also getting off at that intersection and told me
there was a gas station there.
Ken could see this huge bulge in my mirror and when I turned
on the ramp I hear it pop, but drove slowly down ramp and over to the gas
station. He got out went back and kicked the tire and it was still inflated, he
could not believe my eyes.
We made it and went inside and this young lady called her
boss and got a guy to come and change the tire from spare and put the other
back on the rack. One and a half hours
and $45.00 later, we were on our way. As
we were quite a bit behind, we only ended up getting to Milton, FL and staying overnight
there, stopped and had dinner.
The next morning, we started driving to see how far we could
get, we left highway 10 and started down along Hwy 19 – just drove for the day,
nothing exciting happened and staid in Perry FL overnight – only problem was it
is a pulp and paper town, but the notice they gave us with their maps told us –
“since our major employer is the pulp company, what you smell, is the smell of
money”. Which actually is familiar to me
as we had that in Pembroke and the Eddie Match Company was there as well so on
certain days, with wind coming certain way, you got a whiff of “potage” as we
called it.
Road along here had several rice fields as well and bayou along the way - as could mostly see trees, no real pictures taken.
Left there in am and have now ended up in Palm Harbor, FL
just south of Tarpon Springs. We are
going to stay here for a week, do a few tours that we did not get to do when we
came to Hudson, FL back in 2006.
Second day here, and there is already a Happy Hour group –
go figure….
Stay tuned!
