Day 67 – My sister, Gayle, lives in a city outside St. Louis and we’d arranged for her to come to the campground to see the RV and meet the cats. It was around 30 minutes depending on traffic from her home to ours. She’d taken the day off from work so we had the entire day to visit with her, and it was very nice. She looked great and it was wonderful to see her.
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Day 66 – We got up at 6:30 a.m., not in a hurry to leave for our next campground because their check in time was 3 p.m. and our drive there was only 3 hours. We made pancakes (camping pancakes are the BEST) and sat around and relaxed. The girls were surprised when we shuttled them off to their bedroom travel area; they’d thought they were safe from driving since it was late when we left. It was easy to get them into the bedroom; they were very La-Ti-Da about it all.
Pixie
Java
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Day 64 – Onward to Missouri as Week Ten begins. We had to get up at 5 a.m. because we had a long drive ahead of us. We left Merrisach Lake at 7:05 a.m., 65 degrees and very foggy. The girls weren’t happy with the long drive and we took several breaks; the window however, fit perfectly and did quite well. Good job, Rob!
Monday, April 17, 2017
Day 63 – We took a morning bike ride because rain was threatening and we wanted to make sure we fit it in. We rode thru the loops of the campground and over to one of the dams built nearby. Our first priority of the day, though, was to find a place to get a large sheet of Plexiglass out here in the middle of almost nowhere. Rob located all the hardware stores/home stores in a 50 mile radius of the campground and started making phone calls. We found a store in Stuttgart, AR, about an hour away. We fed the girls and headed out, traveling through farmlands (rice is a major crop here) on small roads by tiny towns. We discovered that Stuttgart, AR is a decent-sized city and rice is KING.
Apparently Stuttgart, AR is famous for rice production and duck hunting
Sunday, April 16, 2017
Day 62 – Did you ever try to find a large piece of Plexiglass to replace a broken window on Easter Sunday in a small Louisiana town when you’ve just found out your credit card has been compromised and the account is now closed due to credit card fraud?
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Day 61 – Stormy Weather And The Locked Door.
It was supposed to rain hard beginning around noon so we did our scenic drives early. Humid and cloudy. We started with Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge. It was located in Rhinehart, LA and was about ½ hour from our campground. It was very pretty and we took pictures of flowers, bugs (don’t cringe), & scenery. Saw plenty of birds, too, but we already had those pics. Clouds were rolling in so we headed back to the campground, but first we stopped at Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge and drove through. This place deserves another visit when we have more time.
Lily, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Flower, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Flower, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Dragonfly, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Dragonfly, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Butterfly, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Lillies in bayou, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Bayou, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Bayou, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Flower, Catahoula NWR, Jonesville, LA
Bayou Cocodrie, Jonesville, LA
Friday, April 14, 2017
Day 60 – As Month #3 begins, we are amazed at how one day just folds into the next. We had to look at the blog to see where we were a month ago – searching for alligators in the swamp. It’s been such a great journey!
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Day 59 – A note regarding yesterday’s post: we forgot to mention one other cause of part of the flooding during Hurricane Katrina – there was a large pumping station in place at the 17th Street canal, designed to pump water OUT in case of a flood. This plan failed causing this important levee to break. Why did it fail? Because the personnel trained to operate this pump had evacuated and no one was there to operate the pump. Okay, that said, we move on to other topics.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Day 58 – The Day Of Bad Roads And Hurricane Katrina.
I had a hair appointment outside of the City proper over by City Park so we decided to be brave and drive our own car. Schedule was going to be tight because we had reserved a seat on the 1 p.m. Katrina tour, but it was the only day during our stay that we could fit it in. Since time was going to be at a premium we figured we should have a decent breakfast because there wouldn’t be time to eat anything until late afternoon. I don’t usually eat anything in the morning, so finding something that I’d eat is always difficult. Rob will eat breakfast (and lunch and dinner, LOL) with no problems. We found a place online located a few blocks from the hair place and hooked up the GPS. It took us through a nice neighborhood and we enjoyed the different scenery until we suddenly found ourselves on the worst roads we’ve ever driven on. Not only huge potholes but the streets would rise and fall and dip and slant. Some slabs of concrete in the road were sticking up and painted red. At least those gave us an advanced warning of what was to come. We were in the Honda CRV and it was like riding a bucking bronco. Many of the small neighborhood roads were this way and we’re talking decent neighborhoods. We were curious why and we found out later. And we’d thought the road leading to Pontchartrain Landing was bad!