Mardi Gras Parades

Saturday: (03/02) We had leftovers for breakfast. I scheduled our first Lyft ride. I checked and Lyft was only ⅔ the price of an Uber ride to downtown. We were dropped off near the Central Grocery and Deli and Dawn and I shared half of a muffuletta sandwich. At just ¼ of a sandwich eah we were still both stuffed because the whole sandwich would have been 12” diameter and 2 inches thick. We then explored part of the French Quarter before making our way to Canal Street to watch much of the Tucks Krewe parade then the Endymion Krewe. That kept us busy until after 2200. We called our driver and returned home. It would have been nice to spend some time on Bourbon Street, but, there were literally wall to wall people in the street, and we had so much swag from the parade throws that we could barely carry it. Dawn intends to use the beads in her crafts. We had some burgers and fries from McDonald’s for dinner as we watched the parade.
(GPS: 30.0248281,-90.0346937)

 

Alligator on the menu. The old Central Grocery and Deli, home of the original  muffuletta sandwich.

 

 

 We watched the Tuck and Endymion Krewe parades.

 

 

The weather was pretty nice.

Sunday: (03/03) Lou made pork chops with home fried potatoes and eggs for breakfast. We watched a movie in the resort activity room about hurricanes and the bayous. We had a fairly nice morning but the afternoon had high winds and rain. Not great for the parades today. We opted to not go downtown to see the parades, We did take a drive through the neighborhoods and eventually arrived at a big mall and had lunch there. We returned  home later in the afternoon. Lou and Dawn had crawfish stew for dinner, I had ramon noodles and wieners for mine.

View from our bedroom window.

Monday: (03/04) I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast. We headed off early to go to the Post Office to get our mail. Just when I thought the Post Office was getting their act together they prove me wrong. The package arrived Saturday per their website , when I checked it. That part is good. The bad part is that many Post Offices, seemingly on their own prerogative, limit the hours and set special times for General Delivery pickup. No info about those particulars are available online. The limitations, in most cases, seem to only be in place to discourage use of General Delivery. Here in New Orleans downtown location the hours are 0600 to 1000. I arrived at  1015 today. There were three clerks in the main windows with no customers. General Delivery was only supported at a tiny window at the opposite end of the building. Is it just me or shouldn’t they be able to handle General Delivery at the main windows at all open hours like many other offices. I know, but continue to test out the use of big city Post Offices for GD which is so often not recommended by reviews. We will return tomorrow. We then went to Costco to get more blue towels. They have the best price. We then returned downtown, found a parking place about three blocks from Bourbon Street in the French Quarter and walked around there. We had lunch at and Irish Bar courtyard on Bourbon Street. We shared jambalaya, red beans and rice, and another muffuletta sandwich. We finished up our walk about 1700 and returned home for grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner. A cold and breezy day today.

 

 

 

Tuesday: (03/05) We headed off early to the Post Office downtown. I picked up my mail package and we visited the Walmart store where Dawn was looking at pants, then we returned home. I made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. We then headed off to a couple of thrift stores where Dawn did find some pants that fit. We returned home and Dawn and I did the laundry. If it were not so cold I probably would have gone down to the French Quarter for this Fat Tuesday celebration. Possibly we're smarter in our older age so we didn't go and didn't freeze. Maybe in another year it will be warmer and dryer. We had leftovers for lunch and some stew dawn made for dinner.

One parade float came from our RV park. It unloaded by our RV.

Tabasco Tour

Friday: (03/01) We were on the road about 0730. We stopped for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Lafayette, LA.

 We decided to go take the Tabasco Pepper Sauce factory tour. We found our way to the remote factory in the swamp of Avery Island. Interesting history and factory.

  The Tabasco ice cream was interesting. We headed on toward New Orleans in a good rain. Highway 90 was one of the worst roadways we’ve driven. Very bumpy because of the seams in the concrete pavement. We ended up in some commuter traffic as we were coming in to New Orleans.

We arrived at the Pontchartrain RV Park. We’re near the Pontchartrain lake and near downtown. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch while driving. We had dinner at the restaurant in the RV park, jambalaya for me. We enjoyed the band in the restaurant/bar. Four Louisiana old boys. Quite good sound. 

(GPS: 30.0248281,-90.0346937)

On The Road To New Orleans

Wednesday: (02/27) Lou made omelets for breakfast.

 

We then drove over to the Great Outdoors nursery on Congress St. We saw it as we passed on the bus and it looked like a great place to look around. It was. Very interesting setting and stock. We returned to Walmart and fueled the Jeep and RV and were off toward New Orleans. We stopped for lunch at a Chinese Buffet in Brenham, Texas. I needed a good nap but I wanted to get through Houston before the peak rush hour traffic. We almost made it but ended up with about 20 minutes of stop and go when we got on Interstate 10 but it opened up nicely after that.

 

We stopped at the Chambers Rest Stop in Anahuac, Texas for the night about 1630. Lou made roast chicken with mashed potatoes and creamed corn for dinner.
(GPS: 29.836978, -94.609379) 

 

The rest stop is rather interesting because it doesn't look like one.

Thursday: (02/28) Granola for breakfast. On the way we stopped at a Visitor Info Center, then  drove on to Beaumont, Texas where we attempted to go see the Big Thicket Preserve. Unfortunately, we followed the signs and ended up nowhere near the preserve. So we headed on toward New Orleans. We stopped at the Isle Of Capri Casino near Lake Charles to donate a couple of dollars. We continued on with nice traffic jam on I10 and then stopped in Crowley, LA for the night at a Walmart. Chili for lunch. Tacos for dinner.
(GPS: 30.231302, -92.364454)

Austin, Texas

Monday: (02/25) Granola for breakfast. We prepared to roll and were out about 1030. We caught Highway 35 North to Austin. We stopped in Buda for lunch and a stop at a HEB market. We then continued on to a Walmart in Austin where we stopped. We are supposed to be OK here for a night. I ended up needing an afternoon nap. About 1630 we got into rush hour traffic to go see an exotic animal store in the North of town. We returned home as it was getting dark. Chili size for lunch. Leftover spaghetti with sausage and a salad for dinner. Other than getting another tour of the town by Google Maps, it wasn’t an exciting day.
(GPS: 30.220423, -97.755792)

Tuesday: (02/26) I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast this morning. We moved the RV and Jeep off the Walmart lot to a secure street parking spot convenient for a bus connection. We caught a bus downtown to look at the Bat Bridge, a bridge right downtown where many thousands of bats breed at. Not much to see in daylight and we couldn’t return at night for the sunset departure. We had lunch downtown at a salad restaurant called Mad Greens. We then visited the state capitol building. After that we walked a nice shopping district on Congress St. Made it home just after dark. Hamburgers for dinner. We moved back to Walmart for the night.

 

San Antonio, Texas

Thursday: (02/21) We made it through the night in the Walmart lot without being evicted. Breakfast at McDonald's in the Walmart store while we shopped. We continued on toward San Antonio with a stop in Uvalde for a walk. Lunch on the road of some quesadillas. When we got to San Antonio we called a couple of RV parks and stayed at the Yanawana Camp RV Park next to the South end of the River Walk by the Mission San Francisco De La Espada, the first mission in Texas. We took  walk over to look at the mission then drove downtown for dinner and a stroll on the riverwalk.
 (GPS: 29.319251, -98.458251)

Uvalde government building above.

 

After we settled in at the RV park we walked over to the Mission San Francisco.

 

 

 

Friday: (02/22) Granola for breakfast. We drove the city streets rather than the freeways to get downtown. We toured the Alamo then visited the Historic Market Square. It’s full of vendors of Mexican items and a couple of Mexican restaurants. We had lunch at Mi Tierra Cafe and Panaderia. A little more walking then Lou and I dropped Dawn off at the Half Priced Book store while I visited REI and Lou shopped for shoes. We decided to extend our stay a couple of more days. Leftover soup with toast for dinner.

 

Saturday: (02/23) We headed off to Northern San Antonio where we had breakfast at the Snooze Restaurant. Interesting and tasty breakfast. We then dropped Dawn off at a bookstore and Lou bought a pair of shoes at the Birkenstock store. aLou an I then visited Costco where we picked up a prescription. We then picked up Dawn and did some grocery shopping. We dropped  off the groceries at home then went to lunch. Lou and Dawn had BBQ at Bill Millers BBQ. I had a lunch at the China Harbor Buffet. Mu lunch, mf favorite type, was good. Dawn and Lous wasn’t. After a few thrift store visits we went home before sunset, for a change. Maybe we’ll take tomorrow off.

Sunday: (02/24) Granola for breakfast. We relaxed at home today. Lou and Dawn all day. Me until noon when I took off on the River Walk and visited two more of the old Spanish missions, San Juan and San Jose. It was about an 8 mile walk. The San Jose Mission is the biggest of the five missions in SA and in the best condition. The river walk is quite impressive. I think I could like living in San Antonio. Lunch was ham and cheese sandwiches. Spaghetti for dinner. Lou and I did the laundry after dinner. Should be ready to roll up to Austin tomorrow.