Kit and Carol on the Road

So why are we so fond of this RV park? The sites are narrow--just a bit of gravel and a concrete slab. There is no free wireless or free cable TV. We are a bit of a hike from the bathrooms (Kit always likes to choose a site as close to bathrooms as possible). But there is a wonderful pool and hot tub. Mostly we love it that the people are so friendly. And there are quite a number of folks here under 70. We have already met all of the people here who have a motor home like ours. And there is plenty to do--lots of activities and just about any craft you would care to try. I went out to play bocce this morning but I've gotten rusty. Last night there was a concert of banjo players here for a class--they are right now in a room next to the computer room where I am. Tonight we are going to the Irish dinner--with Celtic Music. Tuesday we have tickets for the locals variety show (an annual event). PLUS we have two wonderful grocery stores within easy walking distance--along with Kohls and Home Depot. Walgrens and the fabric store are not far away. And when we have our bikes we can take off in several directions. Enough.

We have not been lost although we have stayed mostly in State Parks since Memphis. But our computer has crashed for real. So we have not been able to blog for a long time. We came down on the interstate through Arkansas, with side trips to Little Rock (Central High National Historic Site) and Historic Washington state park.) In Texas we stayed in a lot of state parks and did a lot of driving (big state) Stopped in Fredericksburg for a shopping :) break. Anyway, now we are back in Tucson where it is finally warm (almost too warm) and we are looking forward to the pool this afternoon later. We are at Far Horizons where we spent the month of February last year and will be here for a week. If our computer ever gets resurrected I'll try to post some photos.

We left the Trace Parkway with the Paul Simon song singing in my head. Memphis Tennessee, I'm going to Graceland. As long as we were heading north anyway, we decided to spend a night in Tennessee and add it to our staTE list. So here we are at the Graceland RV park right next to Elvisville. We did the tour of Graceland, mansion AND museums this afternoon. I'll try to post some photos later. Now we are hoping to call the pink limo to take us out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. There seems to be lots to do in Memphis but it's cold here so tomorrow I think we are going to Arkansas (another new state for us).

Well, we never really got lost, but Louisiana is the hardest state we have ever had to find our way around. There are so many roads with numbers that the state map is really hard to read. And there never seems to be direct routes to where we want to go. Luckily we have Nellie, our GPS. The roads aren’t great but Louisiana State Parks are tops in our book. We pay only $8 a night for paved spots with water and electric, bathrooms with showers, and great ambiance. The one State Historic Park we have visited so far was FREE and included a guided tour of a Creole plantation house and an Acadian Farmstead. We have been learning a lot about Creole and Acadian (Cajun) culture. The Natural Park Service has 3 sites about Acadian culture (one was closed) which are also FREE. And we visited a recreated village/ museum as well.

(to Fred and Sue) We made a side trip for the factory tour of Tabasco. Not an exciting tour but we got to visit the store and taste lots of Tabasco goodies. It’s amazing how many things you can find to put a company name on.

We are now off on a detour heading east on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

Laura Plantation is a Creole Plantation outside of New Orleans. You can tell it's creole by the color. The Americans (unimaginative folk) painted their plantation houses white. This was a sugar plantation run by the same family from early 1800's to late 180's--always by women who had keen business sense and lived long lives.

Mardi Gras World is a huge building where all of the props from past parades and future parades are stored as well as some of the floats that are used every year. It's pretty amazing.

We are currently in New Iberia, Lousiana (the Bakersfield of Louisiana--no redeeming qualities) but last night at this time we were in the middle of a parade in the middle of the French Quarter. We arrived at the KOA outside of New Orleans on Friday. You can still see a lot of Katrina damage on the way into the city. The part where the KOA is was not damaged by flood--just by wind. Anyway, this KOA has a shuttle into downtown which we took on Saturday. We thought we arrived early enough in February to avoid Mardi Gras mayhem (the RV park was certainly uncrowded) but it turns out that the first parade of the season--mostly for the locals--was last night. So we spent the day wandering the city. Took a free ferry across the Mississippi to see Mardi Gras World where they create the floats for the big parades (starting next weekend). Wandered up Bourbon Street listening to live music in every bar (you can peek in from the street). And found a spot for the parade. It is impossible to describe this parade experience. The parade itself is described as "adult, satirical, and rauchy". It reminded us of Eugene Celebration. But the parade experience is totally different. We staked our spot about an hour early and people watched. Across the street people were throwing beads and things off a balcony which created a sensation among those just walking the street. There was such a mass of people the parade could hardly get through. I was within inches of the small floats and lots of marchers. What more can I say. You have to be there. (Once is enough for us). I am going to post this so we can look at our photos and see if we can post some.

Grayton Beach State Park before the rain. If you walk out to the ocean and look right or left--there are high rise hotels and condos.

We are sitting in the waiting room of the Dodge dealer in Pensacola. Ida was due for a 30,000 mile service. We have been here all morning and into the afternoon. It's too cold to go outside for more than a few minutes--yes this is still Florida. It was 28 degrees this morning and about 40 at noon but that chill cold wind is blowing down from the north and it feels much colder.

For the last 3 nights we have been at 3 different Florida State Parks on the beach. St. George Island had the best beach. Grayton Beach had the worst weather. And last night we were in Big Lagoon which had lots of great hiking (that we didn't have time for). Our plans for today involved taking a ferry --but the wind has cancelled runs this afternoon and in the morning the tide is too low for us. New plans will be formulated when we see when we can leave here.