A travelin' we will go, a travelin' we will go ...

Yup, we are back on the road .... seriously back, living the life we set out to do nearly six years ago and after an eight month period when the coach was parked at our place in Florida and we spent a great deal of time flying back and forth to snowy New England.

To start off this post let me show you a masterpiece created by Brianne's Pet Portraits!  I found Brianne's ad in a little local weekly paper when I was at my sister's in VT in January.  We (Brianne and I) emailed back and forth a bit, I sent her several pictures of Arlo and told her about him and this is what she created for us.  Note the soccer ball background .... I had told her that next to a few favorite people and a few favorite dog friends (Casey, Indie, Bowser and Mia) soccer balls were his best favorite thing in the world, well maybe sticks and lakes too.  If you enlarge this portrait you will see Arlo's name there in his body ... that is Brianne's "thing" ... I just LOVE her work, and this will hang proudly in the motorhome while we travel and the FL house when we don't!

So we left the house on June 26 and went to a "campground" about eight miles away.  We've stayed here many times, it's convenient to I-95, it's Passport America discounted (thank you David and Lynda for introducing us to PA six years ago).  We stayed at Pecan Park for four nights, with a few trips back to the house, and then really hit the road.  We had planned to travel about 300 miles (a long day for us) that first day, but alas ... life had other plans and once again we found ourselves on the "shoulder" waiting for our road service to come "save" us ....

We waited about an hour and fifteen minutes in 95 degree heat, but we DID have a spare and the "problem" was solved in about 15 minutes and we were back traveling again.  We decided to cancel the planned remaining 75 or 100 miles and just pull into the closest campground we could find, which happened to be a KOA just west of Tallahassee

A very nice, incredibly quiet place about a mile from the interstate.  Problem was, the closest restaurant was 25 miles away.  Restaurant you wonder?!?!  Well our refrigerator kicked the proverbial bucket a few months ago while we were on a "trial run" to St. Augustine so we'd been working out of a cooler and didn't have much more than half and half in said cooler .... there is no sustenance more important to me than my morning coffee and THAT requires half and half ... correct coffee is more important to me than the fruit of the vine, serious and truly.

Next stop a lovely Elks Lodge in Slidell, LA about 35 miles north of New Orleans.  We've been here before and just love the property.  The Lodge isn't open all that much, only three or four days a week, but was quite busy over the fourth of July.  The property affords us easy access from the interstate and LOTS of room to maneuver the coach while connected to the trailer.  It is a huge property backing up to Bayou Liberty (photos below)

Arlo was, of course with us here in our previous visits but in spite of the size of the property and its rural setting we couldn't let him go off leash because he would have made a bee line to the bayou and we were afraid he'd meet Ali Gator and his family there, but Arlo surely would have loved the opportunity of freedom here to roam.

A lovely, peaceful view of Lake Pontchartrain

We did go into New Orleans one day to the usual Bourbon Street haunts .... the photo above is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop (one of our very favorite places, but there are many of those favorites I believe).  Reportedly the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States, and word has it there was never a horse shoe made there!!

Another day we went up to Abita Springs, about 20 miles from where we were staying.  We had planned to do a Garden District tour in New Orleans that day, but alas, much to my dismay and Rick's GREAT sorrow (she writes so facetiously) it was raining.  So we headed out to do a tour of the Abita Brewery.

Just a note here for those that care, I don't drink beer, can't stand the smell of beer and NEVER (I know, never say never) WILL drink beer .... the last tap is for Abita root beer ... yummy yummy yummy root beer, just like A&W for those of us of our generation who remember such deliciousness.

We returned to Slidell where I had the brilliant idea to buy seven pounds of crawfish ... yes indeed another addiction ~ crawfish ettoufee ~ so in my infinite wisdom I decided I could buy these crawfish and "just" shell them (or whatever it's called) and freeze great quantities (remember seven pounds here) and make wonderful culinary delights in the weeks to come.  Yeah, right .... seven pounds of these delectable creatures yielded less than a quart freezer bag to freeze and cut fingers that are still healing a week later.  VALUABLE LESSON LEARNED.

After the crawfish purchase we headed to a fun fun fun place down the road from where we were staying in Slidell.  The Landing .... well the outside was fun and funky, the inside not so much.  The outside was so casual, with no one there but the two of us ... along a canal with gorgeous homes across the way.  I want this decor (the gator and that great parrot wind chime) at the house in FL

Not sure what the flower is above but I'm thinking it's in the calla lily family???  There were many of them at the Landing along with other native plants just there, in no particular design, just THERE!

We continued from the Landing down to a lovely local fine dining establishment that we'd discovered purely by accident two nights prior and got very friendly with the wonderful, gracious owners Michael and Courtnye

Along the back road home from Michael's we passed this fish ... never read about it at roadsideamerica.com, and I don't think it's a fish named Wanda, but I loved it!!

Next stop was Vicksburg, MS.  photo above was along the mighty Mississippi River and below a restaurant we ate at that was in the OLD Nabisco building.  Gorgeous building, the food and service not so much.  Sadly we found Vicksburg very underwhelming, granted we were there only one night, but with as much history as there is in the city it was very disappointing, very "skanky" and I never felt particularly safe, and would continue on through next time.

So we continue on to Choudrant, LA which is one of our preferred places to have work done on the coach.  As I mentioned, our refrigerator quit on us so it was out with the old and in with the new ....

a very lousy picture of the new 'fridge!

After three days we arrived at an absolutely gorgeous Corps of Engineers park in Little Rock, AR along the Arkansas River.  We had planned on being here two nights but as we often do, we extended a night.  This is just a wonderful, peaceful campground with HUGE sites.  Ours is 50 amp with water hook up for $12.00 a night using Rick's America the Beautiful senior pass.  What a treasure (Rick, the campground and the pass!)

Yesterday we toured Little Rock, which will be the next post, I still need to load photos from my phone and camera to iPhoto, which I am having some problems with!  

Stay tuned.