Blessings and Stability

After so many days in a row driving, it’s really nice to stay put in one place for a bit. We spent last week parked at Diamond Jack’s casino in Bossier City, a suburb to Shreveport.

I mentioned in my last post that we were near a train, fire station and Barksdale Air Force Base.  I’m pleased to report we heard no air traffic from Barksdale.  We’re sort of used to other noises now but won’t miss them when we’re gone. Being able to look into your neighbor’s windows isn’t preferable either.

When we originally made reservations here they only had a site open Sunday through Wednesday, so we would have to vacate by checkout time on Thanksgiving. We went ahead and kept the reservation and hoped for a cancellation.

On Monday we went to Walmart and bought groceries for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was entertaining just listening to people in the aisles talk. My (Ann) unscientific observations concluded that about 1/3 of the shoppers spoke the deep Weezianna accent. I secretly wanted to follow them around and listen to them pronounce things and talk, but that’s Grade A stalker behavior which is generally frowned upon, even in a Walmart. Louisisana tv stations must import the weather people, none of them have accents although some of the onsite reporters did.

We go on short walks around the huge parking lot for exercise and are working on stamina and distance. One of the puzzling things about the Diamond Jack’s RV park is why they have perfectly good benches facing the berm. Perhaps watching grass grow really is something people do.













We opted to visit the casino and buffet Wednesday night. Neither were enjoyable but it got me out of cooking.  They have a giant hotel but I can’t imagine it gets a lot of use based on our experience.









We checked daily with the super nice RV park employee, Laura, in hopes of a site cancellation. Sadly none became available and we timed the cooking of our Thanksgiving meal so that we could eat before we had to hookup and leave.

On Thanksgiving, the RV Park was nearly empty. We decided that we’d finish cooking, eat and cleanup before we pulled out even though we’d be in the spot after checkout time.  If someone showed up for our spot, we’d speed it up. It just didn’t make sense that the park was going to magically fill up on Thanksgiving with at least 15 spots open.

I roasted a small turkey breast and made the normal sides. After we finished eating and started doing up the dishes, the RV park attendant Dee (Laura was off that day) was nice enough to come over and let us know she’d made some calls and we didn’t have to leave on Thanksgiving after all.  We are thankful for her efforts and took her a piece of key lime pie to show appreciation.  As a positive, we got the dishes done immediately after eating so I had the entire rest of the day to do nothing.  And do nothing we did other than the daily walk and watching football all day. ☺ Unfortunately we didn’t do any sightseeing or go out to eat for fresh Cajun or seafood during our time there. Perhaps someday we’ll have another opportunity.

On Friday, we decided it was time to head west over the weekend and to do some maintenance things before we left.  In the afternoon when it was safe to travel outside after the black Friday hours were over we went back to Walmart and decided to improve our living conditions with a new toilet contour rug and toilet seat.  We like the cushy seats but not when the seat cover breaks and there is risk of poking or injury.  I also washed and repaired one of our big windshield curtains.

Saturday we hit the road about 9 a.m. which is early for us. We decided to go to the Houston area and enjoy the warm weather they’re having.  We researched a cheap rv park outside the SW corner of the metro area that works for us.  A few miles out of Bossier City is a Flying J with a Dennys.  Breakfast is always good on a travel day and the gas was reasonable to top off the tank with.  We saw the Dennys sign on the interstate but it was a little deceiving to actually get to from outside.














 Once we crossed from Louisiana into Texas the road quality improved dramatically.  We’re not fans of how they design interstate travel here with the weird u turn lanes under bridges and bizarre access points, but the side roads we took were scenic and smooth.  In this picture the right lane appears to be 3 layers deep and smoother than the left lane.  Since the right lane takes the most abuse, I think this is a good idea.

 

Riverbend RV park (http://www.riverbendrvpark.cc/) is mostly full of permanent residents in various forms of campers.  It’s basically a giant field of rv spots in the country just like the picture on their website. There’s no pool, trees, or paved spots. You know what it does have?  Quiet, strong wifi, and 70+ over the air channels. Did it mention it was cheap? The other parks in the general vicinity are all $50-$60 a night. Forget that.

It’s warm here this week, unseasonable temps that the newscasters complain about every night. We are happy to have it and the A/C works great in the living part of the coach.  I had put the flannel sheets on our bed before we left Iowa, those may need to come off with overnight temps in the mid-to-upper 50s. Not sure how long we’ll stay here, but our reservations run till Saturday. I imagine we’ll decide Friday night.

Well, that’s all I have to say about this week.  I hope to write these updates on Sunday evenings going forward, but don’t hold your breath.  Love and blessings to all our friends and family.
Ann

We're Not the Jet Set, Although You Can't Tell by Destinations in Our First 5 Days

Paul says this is our 9th winter snowbirding. Where has the time gone?  All the years go by so quickly anymore.

Greetings to everyone!  I know we haven't used this blog for a few years but I think I'll try posting on here this year to keep folks abreast of goings on.  Maybe we'll have exciting things to write about, maybe it will be the same ol', same ol. I don't know but I have hope.

Wednesday, 11/15-Nevada
We left Des Moines amid breezy and chilly temps. And none too soon, either of us will tell you. Our lease ends on 11/1 and our campground let's us stay 2 weeks after at a rate of $16+ a day.  Not including electricity or the $5 a day in propane we were using in the indoor fireplace.

We got on the road about 4 p.m. and wanted to make a fair distance so that it would be warmer at night. We finally stopped for the night in Nevada. At the Walmart. 

We took a scenic route out of Kansas City aiming for Joplin and we stopped when we felt like it at Nevada. Not sure if it's pronounced Ne-VAD-ah like the state or Ne-VAY-da like the town in Iowa. Regardless, Highway 71 was in great shape and it made for easy driving, even though it was dark.

Our electric blanket runs off the inverter and boy were we thankful for its warmth. It was 52 degrees in the coach when I got up for work on Thursday.

Thursday, 11/16, to Saturday, 11/18/17-Miami
 I work during the day so we try to stay put and leave after work.  Makes for driving in the dark, but we were still on a tear to get toward warmer weather. We found a great state park near Miami, Oklahoma, that had cheap rates and we were in want of electricity for the chilly night ahead. 

As we got closer to the park, our Verizon signal deteriorated significantly.  At the point of bouncing between 3G and 1x we decided it wouldn't work and turned around and came back to Miami.  We found a small Indian casino with 5 RV spots that had an opening so we beelined for it as fast as the red lights would let us.

Quapaw Casino (https://www.quapawcasino.com) offers 3 nights of free camping and $10/night after the 3 days.  We knew we wanted to keep moving south over the weekend, so we signed up for the 3 days and enjoyed electric heat for the overnight.

Of course we did our part to keep the casino in business, so the "free" camping was the expected ruse.  Friday night was super warm and we loved it. It was 76 degrees at 8 pm!!!!  Sadly, there was a cold front coming through on Saturday morning and we knew we were not south enough.

Saturday, 11/18/17-Miami to Paris
As expected Saturday morning was too windy to drive with sustained winds of 20-30 and 40mph gusts along with rain.  So we packed everything up, hooked up the towed, and watched the last Xfinity race of the year (from Miami, no less!) till we could travel. We did go back to the casino for breakfast, but no slot action this time.

Saturday afternoon was beautiful, dry and cooler. We knew we needed to be stable to watch the last Nascar Cup race on Sunday so we planned on another night of driving in unfamiliar territory in the dark.

It was a good thing it was dark. The roads were terrible quality and it was slow going. On the turnpike. With tolls. That required cash.  It was not an enjoyable night's travel and Oklahoma, here's your notice: If you're going to have pay roads, they better be in good shape. You're officially on the &#*! list.

We rolled into a Paris Walmart about 11 pm, dodged carts in the parking lot and found a nice curb to cozy up to and sleep.  Seriously people, but your carts back in the corrals. Yes you do need the extra walk. This Walmart had a huge lot and we were in the boonies and there were still carts in the far corners. 

There's a duet between John Prine and Iris Dement on his album In Spite of Ourselves that's titled "We're Not the Jet Set" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsyHo8iUsjE) to which we give a nod of reverence in the title of the post.  The song mentions Paris, so I really wanted to go through there.  The Paris mentioned in the lyrics is Paris, TN, but what's one letter in the abbreviation, right?

Sunday, 11/18-Shreveport
This morning we moved pretty quickly to get on the road so we could get to Shreveport, Weezianna, during the daylight and in time to watch the last Nascar Cup race of the year. We came very close to things working out as planned, but missed it by a smidge.

The weather today was beautiful and the sun was shining and we drove on good roads through beautiful east Texas countryside.  We stopped in Mt. Pleasant, TX, for Ihop but otherwise kept a steady pace. 

This is my first time to Weezianna, and I tried very hard not to be all judgmental and compare people to those in the Adam Sandler movie, Waterboy, one of my favorites. I tried really hard. I swear.  Mt. Pleasant was a hodge-podge of Texans and mis-placed Cajuns. As a result of the missing teeth, bib overalls, uncombed hair and clearly Cajun accents, I failed. I do apologize.

Why are we in Weezianna?  Because we can!  It's someplace different and there are new adventures to be had.  We may not stay very long or we may stay a few weeks, time will tell, but not tonight.

But I digress. Paul found a great little park in Oil City, LA, 20 miles north of Shreveport that had electric for $12/night.  Perfect!  It would be quiet being out of town on a lake and the Verizon signal was good.  We pulled in, grabbed a reservation slip and went to find a spot. (Insert failure sound effect here)  Buckets!!! It was full and not a site to be had and it was t-minus 30 minutes till the green flag.

So we headed down the road toward Shreveport and a place to lay over and watch the race.  We found a strange little truckstop not 3 miles down the road that had large open drive through spots open for us to layover and we were close enough to Shreveport that we could pick up the race on our over the air antenna.

While we watched the race, we identified a couple of candidates to stay at for the week till we decide next steps.  The RV park closest to us wanted $200 a week cash for 50 amp service. No thanks!!!!  So we found another casino campground that was more reasonable and has full hookups.  And interstate noise. And train noise. And emergency vehicle sirens. Last, but certainly not least, it's near Barksdale, AFB, so trying to work this week may be interesting too. 

So friends and family, I hope you enjoy reading this post and I will try to update it from time to time so you can read along with our adventures.

Ann