Archive for March, 2015

Blue Skies forever

Sunday, March 29th, 2015

We made it from San Antonio to Benson AZ in 1.5 days an it feels good to be almost home!  We have had sunshine and no rain for about a week.   Strange,  after having so much weather for the past 6 months.  Everyday I wake up and can’t believe that the sun is still out!  Yippee!

I don't care how hot it is!  Im wearing my boots!

I don’t care how hot it is! Im wearing my boots!

Tiny towns, mines and the wildwest is what it is all about in Southeastern Arizona.  Bisbee, the county seat for Cochise County, AZ  was a copper mining town in the 1800’s becoming the county seat in 1929, moving from Tombstone AZ which is mainly a tourist town now complete with gun fights, stagecoaches and saloons!

Bisbee is right on the Copper Queen mine which you can take a tour of now as they are no longer mining due to the expense of mining.  The towns population now is mostly for tourism, full of tiny shops full of local artwork, a coffee shop an a few B&B’s.

Main Street, Bisbee, AZ

Main Street, Bisbee, AZ

Local artwork

Local artwork

If you look in the lower left of this photo you see a smalll shelf.  It looked like a sale table or trade.  It was full of wierd miscellanous stuff – didn’t look like art to me!

The town is full of tiny homes built on the hills, one on top of the other.  Very quaint but I am sure originally they were so close as to be walking distance to the mine and supplies.

Tombstone is much smaller and is famously known for the gunfight at the O.K.Corral.  They say the fight was a block away but I figure somehow the cowbows spent alot of time in the O.K.Corral.  This tiny town had several saloons in it’s day and today there are still a few.

Saloon, where guns are O.K.

Saloon, where guns are O.K.

Ready to fight!

Ready to fight!

The street is closed to cars as they still have a gun fight or two!

Need a ride?  or want to rob the stagecoach?

Need a ride? or want to rob the stagecoach?

Right next to Bisbee, actually closer to the mine is the town of Lowell which today looks very deserted except it had the most interesting mix of memorbilia.

Gas station

Gas station

Main street, Lowell, AZ

Main street, Lowell, AZ

Lowell didn’t really seem inhabited although there was one saloon that was open but facades of buildings and the number of very old automobiles along the street made it very fun to drive along.

Roadside attractions

Roadside attractions

Often when driving in the desert you might see something like this.  This is a small temple of sorts, complete with several statues inside and places to place and light a candle for a blessing.  The post outside had a slot in it and a note that you could make a donation!  There was nothing for miles around but there were lots of lite candles inside.  Hmm.

 

The Grand Finale!

Sunday, March 22nd, 2015

Wrapping up Louisiana with a powerful punch, we found room for several more meals, happy hours and great music as well as a visit from my sister.  Karol joined us in Abbeville on Saturday and even spent the night in our spare room.  Having her come visit us helped us to stay on our timeschedule to be back in Arizona by Friday.

Karol made it to Betty’s RV park about 10 am and after catching up we headed to Cafe Museum in Erath, LA to enjoy an afternoon of music.  Apparently there is a museum but all we found is the Cafe (Bar)  and lots of very happy retirement age people having a grand time in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.

 

A little Zydeco Music

A little Zydeco Music

Zydeco Music   Usually fast tempo and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a “rub-board,” “scrub-board,” “wash-board,” or frottoir, zydeco music was originally created at house dances, where families and friends gathered for socializing.  Lots of good music and some dancing.  There was a couple of different groups that played, one was pretty much country and this man played most of the afternoon on his accoridan!  Lots of fun.

Erath is a tiny town with not much in it but they do have this museum, Saturday music and a very good spot to enjoy crawfish dinner during season.

Big Johns

Big Johns

Big Johns Seafood, not much to look at and about a mile out of town, plastic table clothes with the mayo already on the table along with trays for eating your crawdads.  We walked from the museum so that when we ate our 5lbs of crawdads we could know we had to walk home, about a 1.5!

Interior Design

Interior Design

When you sit down there is a menu to look at but the main attraction is crawdads,  3, 5 or 10 lbs.  We ordered 5 lbs to share as well as a pound of shrimp.  The table is set with large round trays that are for your individual pleasure of breaking the heads off and sucking the meat out of the tails!  On top of the trays are little cardboard boats and small containers of mayo.  You are suppose to apparently pour the mayo into the boat and add whatever you would like and make your own dip for the crawdads tails.

Yea right, no ones eats the corn!

Yea right, no ones eats the corn!

Karol saw what other tables were doing and proceeded to build herself a dip!  We never even ate the dip, the crawdads are plenty good all by theirselves.  I did put a bit of lemon on mine.  With your crawdads you can order a side of corn or potatoes but I think those are just to make you think you are having some vegetables!  They were just boiled and just took up space that could be filled with crawdads!

Paul doesn’t like crawdads or all the work so he ordered the pound of shrimp.  He had to work some because they came with the heads on!  Yuck!  With the heads removed these shrimp were still 6 inches long and very tasty.

That walk was needed after that dinner!  Sunday morning we were up and enjoyed a nice breakfast of yogurt so that we could go back to Suires Grocery for one last meal!  Again it was so good and we all bought some to take home so we can continue on our eating frenzy of wonderful cajun seafood, ettuffee, stew, gumbo and don’t forget the rice!

Laissez les bon temps roulez

Friday, March 20th, 2015

Laissez les bon temps roulez

A cajun expression meaning “let the good times roll”  conveys the attitude that prevades south Louisiana!

Crawdads, fried trout, fried, grilled and stuffed shrimp, gumbo, crawfish ettufette, more shrimp, po boys and some amazing fresh cut red potatoe french fries!  Not gaining weight is getting harder and harder.  Besides going out for all this wonderful food we also enjoy lots of local greats at the Happy Hour at the RV Park!

And great music too!

And great music too!

There is lots of great music in the area but we are so lucky that many of the RV residents also love to play!

The wildlife is really fun also other than the biting bugs!  There are owls, all sorts of birds, armadillos, turtles, lizards, squirrels all within a short walk of our campsite and we are in a town!  I think I even saw a small black bear in the woods.  Today on my walk I saw this cute little guy.armadillo

I’ll be sad to be leaving on Sunday but excited to be getting back west very soon.

Laissez les bon temps roulez

 

 

3 miles that felt like 200!

Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

Tuesday morning we had to prepare to move the 3 miles to Betty’s RV Park where we stayed on our last visit to Vermilion Parish and where we will finish our stay this trip.  About 11:30 we are deciding to pull out and the Airstreams start arriving!  There will be a rally of 27 Airstreams here this week, hence why we are moving out and they are arriving early.  There are lots of people scurring around, doing what they think is helpful to the arrival so we chat with the rally captain and explain we will pull out, wait for them to clear the road which is very narrow and about a 3/4 mile long and then we will get out of the way.

Paul pulls the rig forward and Airstreams are still arriving!  So much for holding traffic up or giving us a heads up when it will be safe.  Eventually, the captain waves for Paul to pull up so they can get yet another Airstream around the bend and past us into the the campground.  Paul starts forward and realizes he pulled to far off the pavement and is in a bit of mud!  Whoops!  He backs up and the tires dig in, all 3 of them!  Great!  we have an audience, a bunch of excited people arriving and several that seem to be incharge but not really!

Paul gets out, checks it out and tells one of the guys he is going to need some blocks!  The guy had no idea!  Really,  a campground and no one can share their blocks!  I start calling GoodSam.  A tow truck will be dispatched.

Paul finishes raising the RV using the jacks and his crew help put some wood under the tires as well as our porch carpet.  Paul gets in the RV, everyone thinking this will never work and then the back wheels start actually moving back instead of in!  Very slowly Paul backs 40ft of RV back out of the mud and onto the pavement!

We were on the road and into our next spot about 1 hour after he pulled out of our site!  That was lucky but now I just want to sit!!!  The good news is Betty’s is a great place to sit and relax especially with the happy hour at 4:30!  Tonight is even a potluck, Mexican on St. Patricks Day?  Hmmm.  It was delicious complete with Green Margaritas.

Tourist stops we pass on!

Monday, March 16th, 2015

Another day out and about, exploring Louisiana and we see a sign for Rip Van Winkle Gardens.  “Hurry, turn here someone told me about this spot”  I holler and then I am trying to  remember who and who is Rip Van Winkle!  I have no idea but we continue down the road.  We arrive and check out the gift shop- very ecletic and realize this is a tour of a garden and it is also a venue for weddings and other events as well as a B&B.  Looking through the brochure we decide paying to look at a garden is not what we want and continue to enjoy another sunny day in the rockers on the nice wooden porch.

Then there is this loud rustling and I look over the railing

The male peacock is making his desires known!

The male peacock is making his desires known!

peacock4

peacock1

peacock

He turns from us in the direction of the peahen!

He turns from us in the direction of the peahen!

The dance was very interesting.  We watched his dance for about 15 minutes and then it was time to head down the road!

 

Everywhere you look

Sunday, March 15th, 2015

We are in Crawfish country. Abbeville, LA is in the Vermilion Parish and we were here in 2010 .  We are back because we loved the area and loved the food! It’s all about the crawfish and good cajun food!   This morning while waiting for Paul to finish up some work I sat outside enjoying the sunshine and spotted an Owl in the trees.  He was huge but I never thought of trying to get a photo.  Then when he flew away I watched a woodpecker above also.  You will just have to believe me as there are no photos.  And,  the owls are very loud at night!

Saturday we took a drive around the countryside of Abbeville, very remote and you aren’t going to find any fast food chains!

crawfishtraps

Fields of crawfish traps

We were headed to a spot we had been to last time through here, Suire’s Grocery and Restaurant.  I can’t believe they have a website!  We couldn’t remember the name or where it was but I had a photo of the front of the place and we googled it and there it was!  Suire’s looks like an old gas station outside and inside is not much better but they have a few tables and a huge menu of cajun favorites!  I went for what I knew, the Shrimp Po Boy and it was every bit as good as I remember.  Paul couldn’t decide and asked the lady taking our order.  She recommended the Shrimp and Egg Stew which she said came with a piece of fish!  Pauls order comes, everything here is served to-go so it was in a large styrofoam box that weighed at least 3 lbs!  He opens the lid and on top of the foil cover is a large piece of deep fried fish.  I didn’t like the fish and figured it was catfish but being tourists we didn’t ask when we ordered.  Paul loved it.  Then he takes the foil off and he has a full meal.  Half of the tray was filled with a rice dish covered in a brown gravy full of shrimp and right in the middle is two hard boiled eggs!  It looked weird but the shrimp gravy was amazing!  It also came with a roll, potato salad and a small piece of chocolate cake.  We think we paid about $8  but we never saw it on the menu and I didn’t ask for a breakdown of the costs.  After Paul ate what he could he went up to the counter and asked a different girl what he just ate.  The look on her face was worth the whole bill.  She couldn’t believe he ate something that he had no idea what it was!  The fish was Catfish, which when she answered  she seemed like what other type of fish is there!  Later at home he googled shrimp and egg stew and actually found a recipe so I guess it is a real dish.

Another great experience in cajun country and today the sun actually came out and shined all day long!

Rain, Rain go away!!!

Thursday, March 12th, 2015

Wow,  it just keeps falling out of the sky.  We are near New Orleans this week and the sun has never come out!  It peeked Wednesday afternoon but it is just gray.  New Orleans is very damp and with the rain there are full drainage ditches and puddles everywhere as the ground can not absorb anymore.

On to more interesting things.  My favorite thing about Louisana is the food. Creole, Cajun or Southern fried it just doesn’t matter, they do it all perfectly.  Wednesday evening we drove all the way (40 minutes one way) into New Orleans just so we could go to Mother’s Restaurant for a roast beef Po Boy complete with Debris and au jus.

Debris \ˈdā-ˈbrē\ n. The roast beef that falls into the au jus gravy in the pan while roasting in the oven. A Mother’s original.

There is actually a Po Boy that is only Debris!  It is so yummy and so full of flavor.  We also enjoyed the seafood gumbo which Paul just loves.  I was hoping to splurge and get the Bread Pudding with Brandy Sauce but I was good!

We had been to Mother’s a few years back so we knew it would be good, not fancy but oh so good!  We were hoping to be able to walk along the Mississippi River to wear off some of that debris but the rain just would not go away so we traveled into New Orleans, found a parking space, ate our Po Boy and came right back to our home.  A long drive but well worth it.

Today I had to try another New Orleans favorite that I have not had before, Beignets and Chicory coffee from Cafe Du Monde.  The beignets are fried after you order them and served hot smothered in powdered sugar.  The coffee can come black or 1/2 and 1/2 with milk.  I chose black, thinking there are enought calories in the 3 serving size beignets that I didn’t need the milk!  These both are very tasty but I am not really a donut person so I probably won’t go out of my way to get those again.  And,  I love my latte from Starbucks better than most coffees so next time I will probably skip the donut and just get my latte!

Two tourist must dos while in New Orleans checked off our list and tomorrow we head further west to Abbeville to eat even more amazing cajun and creole foods!

More Beaches, interesting weather

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

We made it out of Florida and landed in Alabama just in time for a 1 day freezing weather day!  We have moved a bit inland along the Mobile Bay about 20 minutes from Gulf Shores where the condo’s and homes along the gulf are endless.  Gulf Shores was deserted as the wind was blowing so hard and the temps were barely 50 degrees but I was able to get a good sense that this is not my kind of beach town.

Along Mobile Bay is the town of Fairhope which is very small, quaint and lots of charm.  The weather was also much better on Saturday and we were able to get out and enjoy the area.

A beautiful view of the Gulf

A beautiful view of the Gulf

Spending the afternoon browsing in cute shops and then a nice walk along the gulf was lots of fun.  Fairhope is definitely an area I could get use to.  There are several towns dotted along the gulf that are old and charming and the fresh fish is very abundant!

Docks in the bay for viewing or fishing

Docks in the bay for viewing or fishing

Enjoying the view

Enjoying the view

Lots of cute homes along the gulf with cozy front porches

Lots of cute homes along the gulf with cozy front porches

Trading paperbacks right in your front yard

Trading paperbacks right in your front yard

Paul loved this!  We hardly ever read real paperbacks anymore but what a fun idea.  There were some good ones too!

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air

Always looking for the unusual, we found this statue in the tiny neighborhood park right on the Gulf!  Duke tried all the seats, this one worked the best!!

Where's Duke?

Where’s Duke?

This area is beautiful, spreadout and just the right mix of old, charming and big city,  I think we will definitely be back someday.

1st Birthday

Thursday, March 5th, 2015

Our RV is no longer a brand new baby!  It is very nice but like all new things that newness wears off.  There is dust in the crevises,  a couple tiny nicks in the paint, and most of the showroom has finally disappeared and it looks like “our” home!

Duke enjoying the "new" couch!

Duke enjoying the “new” couch!

We don’t even cover up the white couch anymore!  It took us awhile but we are quite settled in and loving the extra room.

We also left Florida today and are starting our trek back to California!  Florida was interesting, the weather was weird, we enjoyed it but I am ready to get to the west coast where you can count on the weather to always be great!

A few more days in the gulf, staying in Summerdale, Alabama and it was just gorgous and then today the wind started and now we have freeze warnings.  We did get out and checked out Gulf Shores.   A very busy beachfront town with lots of rental houses, white sand, condo’s and the mega, super stores where you can get any beach item you forgot!  I’m afraid I won’t be walking on the beach this week, although it is very beautiful and inviting, it’s just too windy and cold!

The most gentle of creatures

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015

Come along with us underwater to see the Manatee in their world.

Lets go see some Manatees!

Lets go see some Manatees!

We finally got the underwater pictures!  We purchased a throw away underwater camera from Captain Mikes so that we could get documentation that we really did swim with these magnificient creatures.  Because I was focusing on getting to swim in the crystal clear waters I didn’t even think of a camera.  So we got one last minute and all the shop had was a disposable camera with real film!  What are you suppose to do with that?  Well we found out you need a real camera shop unless you have time to send them out which will take a week!  We don’t stay anywhere a week so that was a problem.  We found a great photo shop in Fort Walton that took our camera and returned us digital images of what we filmed in 24 hours.  They are not great quality but fun no the less!

There were so many just resting along the bottom of the river near a spring.

There were so many just resting along the bottom of the river near a spring.

Going up for air

Going up for air

Hello there

Hello there

manatee7

manatee5

Up close and personal

Up close and personal

Lets see how close Denise will venture

Lets see how close Denise will venture

closer

closer

Ok, that is as far as I am willing to go

Ok, that is as far as I am willing to go

The closest encounter on film

The closest encounter on film

Just beautiful

Just beautiful

Those are some memories that will take a very long time to fade!