RV Repair

Tomorrow morning, Tuesday 3/29, we have to have the trailer at the repair facility at 7am. They will start taking everything off of the roof, which include 3 solar panels, satellite dish, air conditioner, 5 roof vents, tv antenna, and wiring for the panels and dish.  They will strip off the rubber roof covering and remove the damaged aluminum extrusions and than replace them and the rubber before putting everything back on. Hopefully with out any screw ups.

They say it will take them thru Friday afternoon to get it done. We have made a reservation at a local, pet friendly, motel for the 3 nights. We have also  made a reservation starting Friday at another corps of engineer park in the area for a week to make sure that everything is working o.k..

Neither of us is looking forward to the three nights and 4 days in the motel. We will have to eat out every day, which Linda will like, but the insurance does not cover meals. It will cover the room. I am taking several books and Linda will have her Kindle and Nintendo DS but it is not like being at home.

We will also have the computer with us so you could send us encouraging words to help us thru this trying time. lol……

Have a wonderful week, enjoy life and remember we love ya

Jim and Linda

Port Arthur, Texas

Yesterday we drove down to Port Arthur with Jim and Bobbie. .The downtown area of Port Arthur is decimated. All businesses are closed including the several story hotel, the main building of downtown and for a couple of blocks North of town. Even a mile or so away from the gulf there is devastation and abandoned buildings and homes.  All this was from hurricane IKE in 2008.

There are huge oil refineries in the area and I took lots of pictures, but you cannot visualize it from the pictures. You can not smell it for one thing. But anyway here are some photos of the refineries. Along with some of the two bridges that span one of the canals or rivers. (I love bridges) The new one is 143 above the water and the old one is 176 above the water, and they both have short approaches.

Enjoy the pictures, and remember we love ya, each and every one, even if you do NOT send us emails.

this picture is a little crooked, I took all the pictures from the moving truck

And I could go on and on…………the place is soooooooo big it will blow your mind, even if you are sober and not on drugs.

South of the refinery we were paralleling a ship canal and followed this ship as it was heading out to sea, although it way pretty empty…….maybe it was going to stop somewhere to fill its belly before heading out to sea.

Here are a few shots of some of the other stuff, older oil rigs, boats and the yellow thing that none of us could figure out.the square things are the jacks to raise the oil rig above the water.

these are emergency life boats, and the little thing sticking up on the top is where they drive it from…..very technical, I know.

The rest are shot s of the houses that have been rebuilt after the various hurricanes. They sit way above the ground level, which is about sea level.

and a couple of final shot of the bridges.

O.K. that’s enough. I already told ya that we love ya. So give us a little love back.

Jim and Linda

SPRINGTIME IN TEXAS

We are still at the Sam Rayburn Corps of Engineer park in Jasper, Texas and are enjoying springtime in Texas.  This is a beautiful park.

 

 

We drove to Nacogdoches, Texas (the oldest town in Texas) Friday to see all the azaleas in bloom.  Unfortunately, we were about a week too early but were still able to enjoy a beautiful walk through the Ruby M Mize Azalea Gardens.

 

 

Here are a couple pictures of the town:

 

 

We are still waiting to hear back from the RV repair shop about getting the roof fixed.  They came out the other day to access the damage and submit a quote to our insurance company.  Hopefully, we will hear something the first part of the week and can schedule the repairs soon.

We are going to take a drive down to Port Arthur, Texas on Tuesday with Jim and Bobbie.  And then we will have to say our good-byes to them on Thursday as they will start heading back to Colorado.  Jim and I will not start for “home” until after the repairs have been done to the trailer.

 

Love to all of you…….

New Orleans and Texas

On the 9th we left Betty’s and headed back  to Bayou Signette state park. Thursday and Friday we went into New Orleans, stopping in the French quarter at Café du Monde for café au lait (www.cafedemonde.com/coffee.html)and beignets (www.cafedemonde.com/geignets.html)
From there a walking tour of Jackson square area including the Hurricane Katrina and Mardi Gras exhibits at the museum. Both were wonderful. Stopped at Pat O'Brien's patio bar for hurricanes and than on to The Gumbo shop for lunch.

Friday we went back to the quarter and rode the trolley out to the garden district and back and than stopped at Jimmy Buffet’s  Margarittaville for a late lunch. Than back to the campground to have a few more hurricanes from the mix and rum than Scott and Diana bought. We had also bought more shrimp and made coconut shrimp with cole slaw and potato salad for dinner. Wonderful food and company, and I think everyone went home a little tipsy from the hurricanes.

Saturday morning we said good-bye to Scott and Diana and headed off to Texas. We are staying at a corp of engineers park on Sam Rayburn reservoir about 14 miles north of Jasper Texas. Pretty uneventful and boring trip except for the major damage I did to the trailer trying to get out of a parking lot. I did not see the horizontal bars at the top of the posts and tore up the roof edge in two spots. We will contact the insurance tomorrow and hope to find a place to have the repairs done.

How is this for a steep bridge approach

notice the mileage across Texas

have a wonderful day, we love ya

Jim and Linda

Our last night at Betty’s

It has been a wonderful month. We have met a lot of very nice people and have enjoyed happy hours, lots of food and restaurants and parades and friendship.

It is like leaving family. And tomorrow morning it will be a lot of sad good byes. Nine of us are moving on in different directions, and some of us are going the same way.

Four couples of us are heading to Bayou Signette state park in Westwego, which is Linda's and my favorite Louisiana state park. We will be spending 3 nights there before moving on to Sam Raybourn corp of engineer park in Texas for two weeks. Jim and Bobbie are going with us. Rich and Terri are heading to Texas tomorrow and on to Colorado to open the campground that they manage for the summer. Jim and Bobbie will move on to Colorado after Texas and we will start heading back north to Woodstock, Illinois. Plan is to arrive there around the first of May.  We will be “home” for about 6-7 weeks before heading to Colorado to join Jim, Bobbie, Terri and Rich for the summer.

Today is Fat Tuesday http://en.wikopedia.org/wiki/mardi-gras  and all of the cities have parades. We decided that we have done enough parades over the years and stayed home, only going out to lunch at a local restaurant/grocery store in Kaplan. They are known for their local food and we had a wonderful lunch.

 

I think shrimp po boys were the choice of most, but I had a Philly cheesesteak po boy.

After returning to Betty’s we started to put stuff away in the rv’s for the trip tomorrow and happy hour started really early. Plan was to have a chili cook-off  for supper and, as usual, the food was great. As well as the friendship and good times. it is going to be a sad day tomorrow saying good buy (oops, I think I already said that)

notice the matching shirts

The mason jar that you see is apple pie (do you remember that from Campbellsville?). We had talked about experimenting with the apple pie using vodka instead of shine and Jim and Bobbi worked out the recipe. It was just as good. And they shared almost half a gallon of it with the group.

These are some of the bottles that were collected during our stay. Betty paints some of them and is decorating a stump in her yard. She still has about 200 bottles left to do.!!!!! O.K. so there were 34 of us here, give me a break!!!!

and time is winding down, it is only about 7:30, but everyone is heading home for the night………

Bye Betty, we have enjoyed your hospitality and your love and getting caught in your “web”.

Love to all of you also

Jim and Linda