Long drive to Texas

Thursday we spent over 12 hours from wake up getting to our new campsite - Potter' Creek Park at Canyon Lake, TX. The drive was pretty uneventful- except that we didn't quite avoid the Baton Rouge suburbia traffic. Why is it that 2 roads merging causes so many people to be so stupid? We sat in traffic coming into Baton Rouge- better yet, just for 10 miles where there are 2 merges onto I-12 at Denham Springs. We sat in that 10 miles of traffic a good 45 minutes and nothing was wrong- then we get past Denham Springs and sail through the rest of the morning traffic.

We arrived safely, got The Beast set up, the window shades on, the awning out and chairs set up- then we were ready to bring out our drinks and sit in the shade. What a night. Although this is another COE park, we are not on the water. Instead we are at a camp site across from the lake sites but have a nice view of it along with spying rights on the lake-front camp sites in front of us. Currently no one is at either of the sites in front of us, so our view is completely unrestricted, but since this is Memorial Day weekend and the park is sold out, I am sure that will change late tonight or tomorrow at the latest. The park is on a point on the northwest side of the lake and what appear to be expensive houses surround the rest, although we can't really see the whole lake. There is a beach but the water is down about 12 feet, so what would have been a camp site about 50 ft from the lake is now about 100 ft from the lake. Pictures and more info coming soon.

Fontainebleau State Park

What a find - this park is great. There are 2 campgrounds, a beach, fishing pier, lakefront cabins (fully furnished for $90/night and sleep 8) a small visitors center & museum along with the ruins of a sugar mill and for the very adventurous - tepees.


We have had a great time here, weather has been wonderful. Daytime temps have been in the 70s, evenings cool and waking up to 57 degrees is no problem for me. With Hazel, walking is definitely part of the program and I will bet I have done at least 10 miles over the last few days and Bruce even more.

We did not do New Orleans after all - decided instead to maybe go in early December and stay in the city. It will make walking tours (our preference) easier and we will not have the dog or cats to worry about in the motorhome. We did travel the 29 mile Causeway from the north shore over and back on Monday- and drove along River Road south of the Mississippi for awhile - but again have preferred the campground to most everything else.

Last night we did a wonderful steak dinner on the grill (continued eating of the defrosting foods) and tonight was supposed to be something grilled also, but when it defrosted I found it was beef again. Conveniently we had to try a local establishment - Louie & The Redhead Lady. It has been written up in several publications and its reputation is deserved. Very local, small, nothing fancy but the food was great. All these years I thought that I hated Lima beans, but that changed tonight as I had the best fried shrimp and limas I have ever eaten (no, not together as a dish, separately served - fried shrimp with the limas on the side) - what a change to past recipes I have tried. Bruce had the blackened grouper with sweet potato fries and the salad served is homemade slaw with garlic biscuits. We shared a piece of very delicious hummingbird cake for desert. neither of us left hungry. Bruce is disappointed we didn't try them as soon as we got here so we could have eaten there more than once. I am sure we will be making this park a regular stop on any of our westward trips with The Beast so will definitely be back to try them again. Another place we will try is La Provence - much more money, but it is a John Besh restaurant and some of the locals we spoke to say it is the the best French food in LA, Something to look forward to - and to bring clothes for also. We are not "fine dining clothes horses" and would definitely have been under-dressed if we had attempted it tonight.

We are leaving early tomorrow morning to hopefully get through Baton Rouge before rush hour gets in full swing, so have to quit to get everything in its place for travel. We are off to Potter's Creek Park in Canyon Lake, TX. See you there.

New Orleans - or at least we are pretty close....

We stayed last night in Robertsdale, AL. - a small campground called Hilltop. It was not the easiest place to get The Beast out of- but Bruce (the driver that he is) seemed to be able to make anything work. We left late for us (9:30AM CDT) and drove the short 4 hours to Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, LA. We are 5 miles from the causeway that zips directly over Lake Pontchartrain to New Orleans. The campground is OK, not a COE park by any means, but still nice. The sites are pretty secluded if you get one of the pull-throughs, but the water and electricity access must have been designed by a blind man, at least in site 4. To use the site as laid out you would need a 50 foot electric cord as well as water line. We are parked half on the pavement and half on the grass- seems that has happened many times based on the condition of this site. Bruce was touring the sites on a walk with Hazel (Wonderdog for short) and one of the other campers indicated they were just going home to get a long extension cord. Guess they really weren't that familiar with the loss of power you get with a longer cord. We need all of our 30 amps to run the camping necessities I can't do without (air conditioning, microwave/convection oven, fan, electric water heater, and last but not least- my computer) so we opted to move The Beast closer.

Once parked, leveled, electrified and watered, we immediately broke out the grill and decided to have standard camping fare (hamburgers) for lunch. We haven't had much success in the past few weeks with real camping type activities and again, because we are wimps and it too hot to eat outside, we ate our gourmet meal in the AC. After the inevitable afternoon rain Bruce finished setting up the site- chairs, rug, awning, and of course- the innovative outside thermometer stand.

We are now sitting outside (yes it is much cooler since the front is going over) sipping mango slushes made with the defrosting mango fruit (remember cleaning out the freezer?) and our ever ready SoCo and ginger ale. Stick blenders come in very handy. I am blogging and Bruce is reading- Wonderdog of course, is napping on her blanket. That dog is way too spoiled. The only real impediment to staying outside right now are the 2 yellow flies (one now dead) that decided we all need (including bothering Hazel) to experience all of the "pleasures" of camping in a swamp. Let's all remember, Louisiana is America"s Wetlands. Tomorrow should bring nicer weather and we are off to our first visit to The Big Easy!