Saturday (5/30)  We can't believe that today is day one of week seven.   The time if flying by very quickly.  We left Torrey, UT for Salt Lake City, UT this morning.   Stopped in Salina, UT at Mom's Cafe for lunch.  This place is not much to look at but it is very well known for its good food.  We had a great lunch which included scones (which is our fried dough.)

We arrived in Salt Lake City late afternoon and set up quickly as we wanted to go to a ball game.   We went to see the Salt Lake Bees, a AAA minor league team for the California Angles.   The ball park is very nice and has the most spectacular view of the mountains out behind center field.  

Friday (5/29)  We went to Capitol Reef National Park today.   We took a two-hour ranger guided tour to Hickman's Bridge (see picture)  at 8 am that was very informative.  We learned that a hollowed out spot in the rock made by water is a bridge and a hollowed out spot in the rock made by wind is an arch.  That is why yesterday's park is called Arches because the formations are made by wind.  In Capitol Reef Park most of the formations are made by water.   Two totally different looking parks.  This park is quieter than the other parks we have been in and they say more people from Utah visit it than any other park because it is beautiful and not crowded.

Capitol Reef is a very long and narrow park running north to south.   Running east to west, just about in the middle, is a valley.   This valley was farmed by the Mormons in the late 1800s right up to 1969.  At that time, the last of the Mormons sold their land to the National Park Service. There were never more than ten families living there and they depended on each other for survival.   They lived in very meager homes such as the one in this pictures which was the home of 12 people.  The boys actually did not sleep in the home.  They slept in hollowed place in the side of the rock wall (see picture.)  They girls slept in the bed of the family wagon.

We followed the Scenic Drive in the middle of the park to Capitol Gorge - a long and narrow dirt road right into the heart of the stone formations that are several hundred feet high (see picture.)  You get a real close look at the rock formations and a real sense of how big they are. 

Tonight we are going back to the amphitheater for a talk on astronomy.  I am sure it will be very interesting.

Thursday (5/28)  Today we were in Moab, UT and we went to Arches National Park.  The park gets its name from the natural arches that have formed as a result of erosion over thousands of years (see picture.)  We guess that the park is about 20 square miles of the most amazing rock formations.   Most of them are smooth on the edges because of the wind erosion.   It is like they have all had their rough edges filed off.   We climbed up many of the trails so that we could get close to the formations - they are huge!!!!!  There is one really interesting one called Balance Rock - the picture says it all.

After a lovely day in the park, we drove west to the town of Torrey.  Let me tell you, it is not comforting when you see a sign that says "No Services for 100 Miles."  To say that this is desolate country is an understatement.  Torrey is a very, very small town just outside of the Capitol Reef National Park.  We stopped into the visitor center on our way to Torrey and found out there was an evening program on "The Sounds of Capitol Reef."  It was held in an outdoor amphitheater in the park at 9 pm.  It was just the most perfect setting to enjoy all the sounds of nature along with a wonderful slide show.  

The campground that we are staying in is very pleasant.   We have the most perfect backdrop behind our T@B.  Rich caught Sue doing a minor repair - but most of all - look at the backdrop in the picture.

Wednesday (5/27)  We left Mesa Verde, CO for Moab, Utah making a few stops along the way. We went to Shiprock, NM which has a rock formation that looks like a ship.  You can only view it from a distance because it is on sacred indian land.

Then on to Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona all at the same time - yes, all four states at the same time (see picture.)   The spot where you can stand in all four states at once is call the Four Corners. After seeing this, we left our friends Kim and Kevan who will be heading back to Albuquerque, NM.

We arrived at Moab, UT, late in the day.  Most of the day was spent driving and viewing the beautiful scenery.  We checked into a camp ground and immediately starting giving tours.  Once camper said "that is the neatest camper in the whole campground!!"  We spent a very enjoyable evening visiting with other campers.

Tuesday (5/26) We are still in Durango.   We spent the day at the Mesa Verde National Park. These mountains were once in inhabited by the Anasazi indians, known today as the  Ancestral Puebloans.  They lived there for approximately 700 years and built elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of the canyon walls.  Farming on the top of the mountain, which they called Mesa Verde or green table, was their major source of food.  

The dwellings are made out of stone and mortar and are comprised of a series of small connected rooms.  They show evidence that they had fires in them to keep warm and that the smaller rooms were used to store food.  It is amazing to think that they were built about 1,400 years ago and today are 70 to 80 percent original.  Life in these cliff dwellings was not easy.  To get to the dwellings, they literally had to climb up or down the side of the mountain. In the late 1200s, they moved away to other communities leaving no trace of the reason why.

We (Rich, Sue, Kim and Kevan) decided that we wanted to see these dwelling first hand.  So we climbed to visit the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House.   The Cliff Palace (see picture) is the largest cliff dwelling and had 129 rooms and eight kivas (religious rooms that are round.)  It is estimated that 60 to 90 persons lived there at any time.  To get to the Cliff Palace we had to climb down and up a number of stairs and a series of ladders that were about eight feet high.  It was a little scary at times but not too bad.

Then on to the Balcony House.  This dwelling is much smaller and is much more difficult to get to.   We had to climb a 32 ft ladder (see picture) that went up the side of the mountain, crawl through a 12 ft long tunnel that is only 18 inches wide, scale a stone pathway that has minimal railing and then climb several more ladders to get out.  A VERY scary route in and out of the cliff dwellings BUT oh so worth it.  

The views from the mountains are so vast and so beautiful that again, I don't have the words to describe them.  It is best to see them for yourself - that way you can be as awe struck as we have been.

Monday (5/25) We are still in Durango, CO.  We took an all day trip from Durango (6,512 ft above sea level) to Silverton, CO (9,318 ft above sea level.)  The start of the trip was a bus ride that took one and one-half hours  and went along the side of many of the mountains, some that were 14,000 ft above sea level.   Silverton gets about 21 ft of snow each year and the sole road to Silverton is kept clear by an aggressive avalanche control program.  It snows in every month of the year in Silverton and it was predicted that they would get snow in the evening on the day we were there.  Silverton has a summer population of 800 and a winter population of 350.  The entire town is on the historical register and looks much the same as it did in the mid to late 1800s.   It was a mining town in the 1800s and one of its claims to fame is that it had 32 bordellos.  Today, the only visible means of employment seems to be the tourist industry.  

We took a tour of the town's many small homes in a stage coach and had lunch in one of the bordellos. Silverton is the County seat for San Juan County because it is the only town in the entire county.

We returned to Durango on the Durango Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.   The ride back took three and one-half hours at a rate of 18 miles an hour.  The train follows the Animas River down through the mountains.  The train is from the late 1800's and rocks so much that is difficult not to fall asleep.  

What I have not spoke about is the scenery.  Well, it is just too beautiful for words.  Mountains, trees, flowers, snow and the river - it has it all.

Sunday (5/24)  We left Santa Fe for Durango, Colorado with Kim and Kevan.  We drove most of day stopping along the way several times to take in the scenery.  We came upon the Echo Amphitheater in the Carson National Forest (see picture.)  This is a most amazing natural amphitheater that nature has carved out of the side of a mountain.   It is rich with color and sound.  If you talk at the bottom of it, your voice is amplified so that it can be heard in the entire amphitheater.  The setting surrounding the amphitheater is beautiful and it displays many layers of strata ranging from yellow to red.

Saturday (5/23) We are still in Santa Fe, NM.  We spent the morning at a Flea Market looking for indian jewelry.   She has great success and found a lovely necklace made by a Navajo indian.

In the afternoon, we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.   O'Keeffe is best know for her paintings of very large flowers.   She spent many years coming to New Mexico to paint starting in 1929.  In 1949, three years after her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, died she moved from New York City to New Mexico to live.  She painted approximately 3,000 paintings in her life and many of them reflect the landscape of the Southwest. The museum has many fine examples of her work. Unfortunately, you cannot take pictures in the museum, so we cannot show you an example of her work.

Friday (5/22 continued)   These are pictures of the stair case in the Loretto Church.

Friday (5/22)  We spent the day in Santa Fe which as many historic buildings.   The first building we visited the Loretto Chapel.  This chapel is famous for the stair case to the choir loft. The stair case has two complete 360 degree turns and no visible means of support.   It has no pole in the middle nor any support on its sides.  It looks like a ribbon that was twisted and attached to the choir loft.  It was built in the 1870's and even today, architects don't understand how stays up. The story of the stair case includes answered prayers of the nuns and a carpenter who came and built it and disappeared without payment.  The stair cases has 33 steps - the age Jesus was when he died. 

We went to the oldest church  and the oldest house in the United States which are located right next door to each other in Santa Fe.   Both date to the early 1600's and are adobe structures. The church is now privately owned and is a museum.   The house is a museum as well.

Next we visited the State Capitol which was built in 1965 and is round like the Zia Sun Symbol. This symbol is everywhere and was inspired by a design found on a 19th century water jar from the Zia Pueblo.   It is closely associated with the Land of Enchantment.  The Capitol has a collection of native art work which is on display throughout the Capitol.  One of the sculptures lists the names of over 500 indian tribes that are extinct in New Mexico.  

The afternoon was spent walking around the Plaza looking at the jewelry and art of the native indians.   The indian artisans display their works on blankets on one side of the Plaza.  It is fascinating to see it all and to speak to the individuals who make the items for sale.  

 

Thursday (5/21)  We went up to Taos, NM for the day.   We took a very scenic ride to Taos via the High Road.   Along the way we saw many historic adobe homes and buildings (see picture.)  

We toured the Taos Pueblo (town) which has about a dozen families living in it consisting of approximately 70 people.   The adobe homes in the pueblo are 1,000 years old and are passed down from generation to generation.  They do not sell their homes and consider it a privilege to live in them.  These homes have no electricity, no water and no plumbing.  They use gas lanterns, get their water from the stream that runs through the pueblo and use porta potties.   They have very efficient fireplaces in them but most now supplement that heat with gas heaters.  The homes are very small and require constant maintenance.  The outside layer of adobe (earth, straw and water mixed together) that covers the clay bricks has to be reapplied every year.  Just think, that process has been done for 1,000 years!!!  Most of the people of the village make their living by selling jewelry and art to tourist.  The live style there is very primitive.  

Near Taos is the second longest suspension bridge in the United States (see picture.)  The Rio Grande Gorge Suspension Bridge is 1,200 feet long, 650 feet above the Rio Grande and was built in 1965.  The gorge that it crosses is an impressive site, especially when you realize that it was created by running water.   It is one of those things that you just can't imagine until you actually see it.

Taos also has a Plaza that is steeped in its history and its people.   Tradition and heritage are very strong here.  The Plaza has many nice shops for the tourists.

We drove back to Santa Fe along the Rio Grande which is a never ending display of beautiful scenery.  

Wednesday (5/20)  Drove to Santa Fe, NM.  Santa Fe is the capitol of NM and is a city steeped in its history and the culture of its people.    The city's elevation is  6,989 ft. and the temperature is 20 degrees colder than the 90 degrees we had in Albuquerque.  

We went to visit a place just outside of Santa Fe called Tinkertown.  Tinkertown is the life hobby (forty years) of a gentleman who turned everything (mostly junk) into art.  He was a painter, wood carver, sculptor, photographer and many other things.  This is a place that just has to been seen to be believed.  He carved an entire miniature western town, an entire circus with two big tops and many, many other things (see pictures.)   The range of items on display boggles the mind.  The building was made out of bottles laid on their sides and cemented together (see picture.) It was fantastic.

In the evening we went to the Santa Fe Plaza just to get a feel for the city.  There are very strict building codes that require all buildings are built in the adobe style and painted a sanctioned shade of beige.   It really has the feel of an old southwest town.

Tuesday (5/19)  Still in Albuquerque for the day.  We went to the Petroglyph National Monument to see dozens of petroglyphs in the Rinconada Canyon (see picture.)    It is about a mile walk into the canyon and is well worth the trip.  The some of the drawings of animals, people, brands and crosses on the rocks have been there since prehistoric times.

We spent the afternoon riding around Old Albuquerque taking in the beautiful adobe style homes and buildings (see picture,) stopped at a winery which was very Tuscan - so quaint and put our hands in the water of the Rio Grande.   

Albuquerque is such a beautiful place nestled in the valley with all those mountains to look at.

Monday (5/18)   So sorry not to have blogged more regularly but finding a strong wifi connection is becoming a hassle.  I will try to keep it up the best that I can when wifi is available.  

We spent the early part of the day relaxing.  That is something we have not done yet - it felt good. We are meeting today with friends, Kim and Kevan, that are staying in Albuquerque, NM and planning to spend the next week sight seeing with them in New Mexico and Colorado.  

We drove up to the Sandia Crest, elevation 10,678 ft above sea level, the mountain just to the east of Albuquerque.  Kevan and Kim were going to show us some big game but all we saw were a herd of mice (actually three) in the road - we guess that everyone has their own definition of "big game."

Sunday (5/17) We are continuing on Route 66 to Albuquerque, NM.  We had breakfast at the Big Texan, the home of the free 72 oz. steak - that is if you can eat it all and everything that comes with it in an hour (see picture.)  Along the way we came across ten Cadillac cars with their noses buried in the ground - yes, I said buried in the ground (see picture.)   The cars are from the late 1950s and early 1960s.  They are about 300 feet out in a field and are a tourist attraction call The Cadillac Ranch. The thing is you take a spray can of paint and paint whatever you want on them.  The must have been there many, many years as the layers of paint on the cars is cracking off in pieces so thick you can separate the layers of paint with your fingers.  

We arrived in Albuquerque in the evening and have set up "camp".  We will be here for six nights - a nice break from the continual setting up and taking down.  We will be spending time here with our friends Kevan and Kim, a couple we met on our Alaska trip back in 2002.  This is the six state that we have met up with them.

Saturday (5/16) This is a travel day along Route 66 from Guthrie, OK to Amarillo, TX.  Some of the highlights of things were saw are as follows:  The only round wooden barn in OK (see picture,) Pop's Gas Station, El Reno including Fort Reno, the Pony Bridge, Lucille's Service Station, a Blacksmith's shop, the Weatherford trolley, the Wind Energy Center of Weatherford and a great deal of wonderful landscape.  It is very evident that Route 66 is of a bygone time - there are many vacant business and building along the way.  The Pony Bridge has some very unusual trusses and it was used during the filming of the Grapes of Wrath (see picture.) 

Friday (5/15)  We are near Oklahoma City, OK and we had a lazy morning trying to catch up on the business of life - bills!!!  Spent the morning acting like responsible human beings and not two wild and crazy retirees.  In the afternoon we went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum.  Wow- another first class museum that had the greatest cafe to eat at.  There is so much history in the life of a cowboy and this museum covers it all from the 1300 examples of barbed wire (out of the 8,ooo samples they have of which in total there are 13,000 different kinds) to unbelievable paintings and sculptures (see picture.)

In the evening we visited Guthrie, OK, a small town that is known for its 400 blocks of historic homes and buildings.   We were underwhelmed - there were some great 1850s to 1890 buildings on the main streets (see picture) but other than that it was just okay.  Guthrie had served as the Territorial Capitol of the Oklahoma Territory at the time of the Oklahoma land rush.

Thursday (5/14)  We headed to Claremore, OK in the morning.  Visited the Will Rogers Museum which is a large memorial building built by the citizens of Oklahoma to honor him.  The museum covers all aspects of his life and career.  It has many of his saddles, clips of his movies and personal items such as clothing and the room he used as a study.  The most unusual item were a pair of shoes he put on his horse when he would do tricks on stage with the horse.  The shoes kept the horse from slipping (see picture.)

In the afternoon we went to the Woolaroc Museum and Nature Preserve near Bartlesville, OK.  This is the "entertainment home" of Frank Phillips of Phillips Petroleum.  The preserve has many acres of land with a variety of animals roaming around and several buildings including a museum, heritage center and the lodge he built to entertain his friends in.  The lodge was full of mounted animal heads and was very rustic but not overly large (see picture.)  The museum - wow!!!!!  A very large building with all kinds of western art, artifacts and memorabilia.  We were they only about 2 hours and we wished we had all day.  This museum is a must to see!!!!

On to Bartlesville to see the only skyscraper Frank Lloyd Wright ever designed.  It is a 19 story building in the heart of Bartlesville (which was not too large.)  We love the homes that Mr. Wright has designed but we did not like this building at all.  To us it was just ugly.  We have attached a picture - make your own judgement (see picture.)

Wednesday (5/13)  Left Allen, TX for Tulsa,OK late morning.  Arrived in Tulsa in time to see the many wonderful art deco buildings in the downtown area before it got dark.  Tulsa is known for the many well preserved art deco buildings still in use.  We walked for some time taking many pictures of buildings and admiring how clean the city is.

We will be spending the night in Tulsa and visiting surrounding sites tomorrow.

Tuesday (5/12)  Rich and Sue went to downtown Dallas to the Texas Book Depository, the site from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy.  There is a museum on the sixth floor (the floor he shot from) which covers all aspects of the event and of President Kennedy's rise in politics.  It was very interesting and a bit strange to stand and look down at the spot where the motorcade was when President Kennedy was shot.

In the evening Bunny, Rich and Sue went to a Texas Rangers game at Ranger Ballpark at Arlington.  The Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners.  This relatively new ballpark has an old time feel about it with open ironwork everywhere.   The Dallas Cowboy's new stadium is being built next door.

Monday (5/11/)  Went to the U. S. Bureau of Engraving in Fort Worth.  The security is very strict just to get in for the tour and cell phones and cameras were not allowed.  You did not dare walk any where without being given permission.  During the tour, our guide stressed all the new security measures that are being incorporated into the bills they print.  They print about 12.5 million bills per day of varying denominations.  

In the afternoon, we went the Stockyards at Fort Worth which at one time was the largest livestock market in the southwest.  This is an area that depicts activities that have taken place for 100 years.  There is a recreated long-horn cattle drive twice a day with about 20 cattle and cowboys in period dress.  The first indoor rodeo arena is there and it amazing to see how small that arena really is.  There are many shops but one in particular is famous for cowboy boots.  It is called Lenny's and the pair of boots that Sue liked was a mere $2,450, or she could have had her second choice at $1675.  The boots were very intricate and perfectly made.

The streets are lined with brass stars commemorating all the various individuals who have contributed to the cowboy way of life.  There is a large entertainment center called Billy Bob's.  In it they have a bull riding ring, a dance lessons floor, a bar, a store, a restaurant and a performance stage which seats 2,000.  Anyone who is anyone in country music has performed there.   Willie Nelson make an annual visit there to perform every July 4th.  They have a section of the walls lined with plaster casts of the performer hands.

Sunday (5/10)  Allen, TX - we will be spending several days with Bunny Palmer.  We had a Texas specialty for breakfast - kaloche.  It is a roll with a sausage link baked in it - they are very tasty. We spend most of the day riding around the area looking at homes.  In our travels, we saw a McDonalds that looked like a Happy Meal.  It was very cute.

We stopped in Farmersville to see the memorial to Audie Murphy.  Farmersville is the place that he left for the service and where he returned to a heros welcome.  He was the  most decorate soldier in the WWII and a hollywood actor.  

Spent a relaxing evening visiting with Bunny and her son Mike.

Saturday (5/9) Drove to Allen, TX, which is just north of Dallas.  Our destination was the home of Bunny Palmer, the lady responsible for getting Rich and Sue together 23 years ago.  We arrived before lunch and spent the afternoon catching up with our old friend.  Her two sons and one of their wives came and we went to dinner at Maggiano's in Plano, very nice food Italian food.  There was some sort of formal dance going on in the area and there were many young people in gowns and tuxedos.

Friday (5/8)  We left Lafayette, LA this morning to travel to Tyler, TX.  Along the way we stopped at Lecompte, LA for pie.   The legislature proclaimed Lecompte the pie capitol of Louisiana and it lived up to its billing.  Lea's Restaurant specializes in meringue pies and the meringue was the best we had ever had.

Continuing north, we went to Natchitoche, LA, a quaint little town where they filmed Steal Magnolias in the 1980s.  Along their water front park they were having a rally of vintage farm tractors - very fun and very cool.  One gentleman who owned a Farmall (which are red) had a button on that said "Friends don't let friends drive green tractors (John Deere.)"   In town was the recreated Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site, the oldest permanent settlement in the territory of the Louisiana Purchase.   We were the only people there and had the tour guide all to ourselves - we learned a great deal from him.

From there we went to Tyler, TX (our 9th state) to spend the night.

Thursday  (5/7)  We went to Avery Island this morning, the home of Tabasco hot sauce made by the McIlhenny family.  The island is actually a salt deposit.  The tabasco sauce is fermented in old Jack Daniels whiskey barrels for three years. They drill holes in the top of the barrel and then cover the top of the barrel with salt.   The holes let the gases and excess liquid escape while the layer of salt keeps anything from getting in and contaminating the sauce.  While there we ate sweet and spicy ice cream and jalapeno  ice cream.  They were both interesting but the sweet and spicy one was good.  They had many foods made with Tabasco sauce including mayonnaise, mustards, pickles, jellies and spam (see picture.)

In New Iberia we visited the Konriko rice factory, America's oldest operating rice mill.  This factory still process rice as it was done 100 years ago.   Therefore,  Konriko only does specialty rice due to an inability to compete with new equipment.  They had a silo there that holds a million pounds of rice - it was really BIG.

Also in New Iberia is Shadows on the Teche (teche means snake).  The home, built in 1834, is situated on the edge of Bayou Teche which snakes along behind the house (see picture.)  The home was occupied by four generations of the Weeks family.  What makes this home so unique is that the Weeks family never threw away anything.  Thus, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has over 17,000 items (6,000 that are clothing) relating to the four generations who have lived in the home.  So concerned with saving things were they, that one family member asked when she wrote a letter to someone that the person receiving the letter return it to her after reading it.  The home is a wealth of historic information and thus is irreplaceable. 

It was a beautiful day, so we decided to ride down to the Gulf Coast at Cypremort Point State Park.  The 185 acre park was just a perfect place to sit and enjoy the afternoon.

As we leave the Bayou area, we will miss the great food.  While here we have tried many local dishes which include gumbo, jambalaya, smothered cabbage, craw etouffee and the best bread pudding we have ever had.

 

Wednesday (5/6)  We are still in the Lafayette area.  We started our day by going to Vermilionville - a living history museum, whose purpose if to preserve and interpret authentic elements of folklife and cultures of the Attakapas area between 1765 and 1890.  It seeks to help ethnic groups of this area gain a better understanding and appreciation of their own cultures and those of others in this multi-ethnic region.  It is a recreation village with many historic buildings and people in period costumes (see picture.)  We ate lunch in the museum restaurant and had the best meal of the trip so far.  It consisted of many cajun dished and bread pudding with rum sauce like we have never seen before.  It is a meal we will talk about for a long time.

The next stop was the Jean Lafitte  National Hsitoric Park and Preserve.  Jean Lafitte was a pirate.  The museum focused on the treatment that the Acadians (Cajuns) had received since their arrival in the late 1700s.  They settled in the bayou country, where their isolation was compounded by their distinctive dialect and their fierce loyalty to family and place.  They endured many hard times and developed new ways to live off the bounty of the delta landscape. They had a diet that was heavily depended on fishing.  

We drove to the St Martinsville area as we were going to take a boat ride on the St Martin Lake.  Arriving early we decided to go for a ride.  We came upon the Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site.   Legend has it that it was the meeting place of the ill-fated lovers, Evangeline and Gabriel, from the Longfellow poem, "Evangeline."  In history, it was the meeting place of exiled French aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution and Acadians of Nova Scotia seeking refuge after the British expulsion in 1755.  On the property is an excellent example of a Raised Creole Cottage.  The ground floor walls are 14 inches thick and made of brick.  The upper walls consist of a mud and moss mixture called "bousillage."  The house is brightly painted in traditional Creole colors of yellow, red and green (see picture.)

Now short of time, we hurry to catch our boat ride.  As it turns out, we are the only people on the boat and end up having a personal tour.  Our guide, who has a BS in Zoology/Botany, went above and beyond to give us a most informative tour lasting two hours.  We saw numerous birds, local trees and plant life and about 20 alligators varying in size from 11 ft. to 1 foot (see picture.)  Our guide enticed the alligators so that they came right up to the crawfish skiff we were riding in.  The only trees able to adapt and live in the water are the cypress and the tupelo trees.

We wanted to hear some local music, so we had dinner at Mulates.  It is a restaurant where Cajun and Creole music is played seven days a week.  We listened for a while and watched the dancing before returning to the campground to retire after a long day.

 

Tuesday (5/5) Still in Baton Rouge, LA.  We went back to the capitol building grounds to tour the Arsenal Museum.  It was built in 1810 and was used to store munitions for the US Government 1810 to 1885.  It is one of the most historic buildings in the state.

Next to it is the Louisiana State Museum.  The museum does a good job of presenting information about the various regions of the state, its people, and the major events leading to the creation Louisiana as a state (see picture.)  A very interesting state museum that focuses on the lives of the people of the state (see picture.)

As we were leaving Baton Rouge for Lafayette, LA, we passed the old State Capitol.  Although we thought is was a very interesting building, Mark Twain said it was it ugliest building he had ever seen.  We stopped and took many pictures which were inadvertently deleted - bummer!!!

Arrived at the campground just south of Lafayette and spent the rest of the day setting up and doing laundry.   For dinner, we went to a cafe in downtown Lafayette and had boudin balls. They are a fried ball made of rice and meat - much like falafel.  When we asked the waitress what they were she said "well they are like boudin balls" - that told us a lot!!!

Monday (5/6) Left New Orleans for Baton Rouge.  We had to breakdown our camping set up in a very big hurry as we woke up to thunder and lightening.  Took everything down and packed it up in record time AND we beat the rain.

Arrived at Baton Rouge and visited the State Capitol building.  It is a non-traditional capitol building in that it has no dome and looks  like the Empire State Building.  It is the tallest State Capitol in the USA - coming in at 450 ft (see picture.)  It was the brain child of Huey P. Long, a Governor of LA and a US Senator.  It was completed in 1932 and he was assassinated in that building in 1935.   The reason for his assassination is unknown. 

Our next stop was the Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum.  This depicted rural southern life in the mid 1800s - showing how primitive living structures were and how little people had.   It was an un-glamorized view of southern life far from the wealthy plantations. The Church has painted windows because the community was too poor to have stained glass (see picture.)

The last stop of the day was the Hollywood Casino on the banks of the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.  The casino is a riverboat that must be fully functional according to State law.  It was no where as big as the casinos that are in the Northeast.  We did gamble just a little bit and did not come out winners.  We spent the night in the parking lot of the casino.

Saturday (5/2)   We went to the French Quarter in New Orleans.  There were a number of street performers on Royal Street which was only open to pedestrian traffic.  It was a very festive atmosphere.  I don't think I have ever seen so many bars!!!!! (see pictures)

We also went to the Riverwalk.  It is a nice new shopping center with food right along the Mississippi River.  Given the number of empty stores and food places, it would seem that they are not doing well.  Today being Saturday, you would expect it to be busy and it was not.   

In the early evening we "Skyped" the folks at the Blue Ridge Rally.  That is a rally of 24 T@B trailers in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an event we attended last year.   It was great to be able to see and say hello to everyone over the internet.  Thanks Susan for making the "Skype visit" possible.

We did go to a casino for a bit of gambling today.  Once again, we were up just a little bit - which is great!  We had free tickets for the casino buffet and we ate crab legs until they came out of our ears!!!!

Friday (5/1) Left Mobile for New Orleans.  Went to a shed for lunch - yes, a shed (see picture.)  This is a barbeque place that we saw featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that is located in Ocean Springs, MS.  It is nothing more than whatever the owner could find, nailed together.  There is more stuff, well actually junk, around this place that you can imagine.  The barbeque was excellent and the atmosphere was fun.  All I kept saying was "you could never duplicate this place."

Our next stop was at Beauvoir, the last home of Jefferson Davis, located in Biloxi, MS.  It had sustained damage (see picture) from Katrina but a $20 million restoration has just been completed (see picture.) This beautiful water front home is built on stilts and this is what helped to save the structure.  It served for an extended period of time as a home for Confederate veterans, their wives and their personal servant (i.e. African Americans.)  When the last of the veterans died, it was turned into a museum.   On the property approximately 800 of the home's residents are buried.

As we drove along the Gulf Coast, there were many places where the land was vacant and many vacant lots had foundations still visible.  The closer we got to New Orleans, the more damaged and abandoned structures we saw.  Clearly, there is still evidence of Katrina to be seen.

At the camp ground we met a very nice couple, Linda and Tony, who have traveled all over the world.  They spent 9+ years living on a boat.  They had a great little motor home that actually gets 22 to 23 miles per gallon.  That is better than we are getting and it looked pretty inviting with all that additional room.

In the evening, we went to see downtown New Orleans.  We went to Harrah's Casino and actually came home with a little more than we went in with.  I have to note this, as it almost never happens to us!