April 17, 2019
We left home heading south out of Little Rock, down Hwy 167 to Rustin, LA, then east on I-20 to West Monroe. We were only planning on staying there for one night, but after looking at the weather forecast for the southern part of the state, we decided to sit it out here for another night.
We arrived at my Steve's house (my brother) about 2:00 pm. He lives in Rayne, LA, south of the 10. The ground was so soggy that they first had to lay boards down for the tires and leveling jacks to sit on.
Steve and Monique just moved into this place a few months ago, and the owner gave the go ahead to us putting in a 50 amp plug for the RV. But, first the wire had to be layed out, buried and run to the shed that Steve just purchased. So, with Phil's electrical know how, they got the shed hooked up to power, and then the RV plug installed. By the end of the day, we have a great 50 amp full hookup site with no waiting reservations whenever we want to go down there.
We always like to take a short shake down trip before a scheduled long trip like the upcoming Alaska Caravan. Never know what you are going to find after the rig has been sitting for the winter. What we found...trailer breaks worn all the way down to dust on two wheels. Phil knew we had a problem just before we left home and had ordered all the parts he thought we needed to be shipped to Steve's. Thanks to Steve's mechanical knowledge and tools (can't forget the tools), and more trips to parts stores, they think that we will be set for the long trip to Alaska. Phil also now knows what he has to look for along the way for unusual wear. Plus, he has ordered more spare parts, that will hopefully be here on Monday when we come back through. For the next two days all Monique and I heard was moaning and groaning from the two old guys who aren't use to all that physical stuff anymore.
Our 'spot' at Steve and Monique's
April 24, 2019
We left Steve's around 10:00 am and drove all the way to Breaux Bridge, LA, just east of Lafayette. Took about 30 minutes...long day uh? We are camped at Pouche's Fish & Camp. We are here for the SMART Cajun's Y'all Come Muster. This is an annual event, and our 3rd time to be here. It's five days of food (mostly Cajun), games, visiting with old friends and making new ones.
This time of year is Craw fish season and they are cooked by boiling them in huge pots over a butane fire, outside and heavily seasoned with Cajun hot stuff. This process is always done under the supervision of a dozen or more guys sitting off to the side of these big pots, telling their stories...fishing or war stories, I'm sure they get around to all of it. Butane burners are very loud, which means I can't hear a thing, so I wandered back inside the club house, where a small group of friends needed a forth to play Skipbo. I got an introduction to it, but not enough to fully understand it. Skipbo, Hand & Foot and Poker seem to be the games of choice at most SMART musters, I prefer Hand and Foot.
Anyway, Phil loves Craw fish, I don't. So I had a couple of ears of corn and some of the desert while he ate box after box of Craw fish.
On Sunday, Steve and Monique came by after a Poker Run bike ride and we followed them back into Lafayette for the International Festival that had been going on since Thursday. Huge area of tents with all sorts of items for sale, a lot of which looked like it came straight from Africa or the superstitious part of LA. Voodoo dolls were plentiful.
Then we found the artisan area and there we saw some really nice stuff. Didn't buy anything, no place to put much, either in the rig or at home. Phil did find a circular saw with a Coast Guard Emblem on it, he bought it.
After a couple of hours walking around on that asphalt, we were all ready to call it quits, then had to make the 3 block hike back to the truck. From there we followed Steve and Monique down south of Lafayette...somewhere...down in the sticks to a place called St John's Seafood. Really nice place, and packed full of people. The food was delicious!!
Then we had to try to find our way back to the campground, and by this time it was almost dark. The GPS knew where we were, and it did fine until we came to a cop standing in the middle of the road with his lights flashing, directing traffic off to a detour. Have you ever tried to convince a GPS that you couldn't go the way it wanted you to go??? Well try it out in the sticks sometime, where you don't know where you are, in the dark. With the help of our phones, we somehow managed to find our way out and back to the campground. Steve called about 30 minutes after we got home to make sure we made it. They were evidently behind us a ways and came across the same detour.
April 29, 2019
Back at Steve's for one night. The parts Phil ordered didn't come in until about 3:00 pm, so it's a good thing we had decided to stop there for the night.
April 30, 2019
We left Steve's about 10:00 am, traveling west on the 10. This is without a doubt one of the roughest roads you would ever want to travel on!! Major truck route and a poor state, no monies for infrastructure. Stayed at East Houston RV Park, in Baytown, TX. A nice park off the interstate enough that it's not real noisy. Here for just the one night.
May 1, 2019
Another day on the road, headed for San Antonio, TX to visit with Phil's nephew Bobby and his wife Cheri. They have been here for a couple of years, but this is the first chance we have had to get down here to see them.
Really different to be in the big, big city again, with all the traffic and the multitude of interstates merging here and there. One way frontage roads so that you have to go down and around, under the overpasses and back again to get where you need to go. Very confusing!! I'm so glad that Little Rock isn't a really big city!!
Phil and Bobby have come to an agreement that Bobby will be the next caretaker of the Taylor Family Tree, and all that entails. So, Phil has used the time we have here to introduce Bobby to what Phil has, all the books, documents, etc. And now I know what to do with it, if Phil happens to leave me in charge of the stuff. It will all have to be written down though, just in case I'm not in my right mind at the time. I will have to do the same with my Family Tree stuff as well.
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