Our RV Adventures

or Shake, Rattle & Roll.

Yes, this is our last day of travel for 2012. We ended traveling 7151 miles this year, quite a bit less than our usual 10 to 12 thousand or so. But we might make it up next year. Who knows?

After yesterday’s sunset picture, I got this sunrise with the fog floating over the lake.

We left Poche’s RV Park a little before 8am, heading for the Galveston Bay RV Park about 230 miles away, which will be our home for the next two or three months.

We stopped to top off our diesel tank right before we got back on I-10W. We had planned to grab a breakfast sandwich from the Quiznos Subs at the service station, but it turns out Quiznos doesn’t do breakfast like Subway so that was out.

Instead we ended up at the Cracker Barrel about 8 miles away in Lafayette. Love their RV parking.

Our trip was mostly fairly smooth with some intermixed Shake, Rattle & Roll. Since we no longer had the rear airbags, the ride was a rougher than normal with a lot of vibration. We kept our speed at 55, but even so, we’d hit rough patches that caused the rig to start porpoising and bouncing.

But we survived and pulled into the park about 3:30. On our way we stopped right up the road and topped our diesel off again. I also added a dose of algacide to the tank before I filled up to forestall any problems with condensation in the tank.

And on a pleasant note, diesel was only $3.53, a nice change from the $3.81 in Breaux Bridge this morning. I love Texas.

About 5:30 we headed up to the park clubhouse for Thanksgiving dinner. Jan made a batch of her Heavenly Hash last night in Breaux Bridge so it would be all ready to go this afternoon. We had a great meal, and a fun time meeting old friends and making new ones.

We even found some French Canadians that Nick would like. The couple were from Quebec and said they were heading to Mission, TX for the winter. Jan asked if they’d been to Florida, and the husband said he didn’t like Florida in the winter. When Jan asked him why not, he said there were too many French Canadians down there.

Like I said, even Nick would like him.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, checking in with a couple of clients, picking up food for our Thanksgiving, and get ready for our trip to Marble Falls on Wednesday.

Busy, busy, busy.

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Thought for the Day:

"If a thousand shares of stocks or bonds make nothing, you pay nothing. But on a thousand acres of land you pay enough to support half the community who own no land and pay no taxes." – Will Rogers

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Since this was our last morning here in Gulf Shores, we wanted to end it with a delicious breakfast, so about 6:45 (OMG!) we headed down to Orange Beach to have the breakfast buffet at Hazel’s Seafood Restaurant. Hazel’s is known for their buffets, especially their Sunday Brunch and evening Seafood Buffets. But we love the breakfast buffet and always try to visit at least once each time we’re here.

We were back at the rig by 7:45 and on the road by 8:45. The rig cranked up with no problems, and we were on our way back to Texas.

But our first stop was Dodge’s up in Foley to top off our diesel. Jan had followed me in the truck so it would be easier to get in and out of the station to fill up. She waited for me right down the street where we hooked up the toad and were on our way.

And everything went smoothly until we were in Mississippi several hours later. As we were coming off a section of rough pavement on a bridge, I noticed a funny vibration. But since we were planning to make a rest area stop about a mile up the road, I decided to wait until then to check it out.

Getting out of the rig I did a detailed walk-around. Something didn’t look right but it took a little checking to figure out what the problem was.

At first I thought one of my rear airbags was deflated, but after crawling under the rig, I discovered that neither airbag was airing up. Since my dash air pressure gauge was showing normal pressure I’m thinking the problem is in the proportional valve that equalizes the air between the front and rear airbags. But I’ll have to wait to get back to Houston to track it down. By taking it easy we should be able to get home OK. We did about 200 miles today after I discovered the problem.

I’m beginning to think our travels this year have been kind of snakebit. It seems to have been just one thing after another.

We pulled into Poche’s RV Park in Breaux Bridge, LA about 4:30pm and got park and set up. Then it was off to supper at another of our favorite places, Pont Breaux.

We’ve eaten here for more than 30 years, when it was called Mulate’s. But when we got here last year, we found it had changed hands and was now called Pont Breaux. But lucky for us, they’ve kept the same menu and it’s as good as ever.

So after a great meal, we were back at the rig for the night, but on the way in I did get this great sunset photo over the RV park lake. If you look carefully you can see a great heron perched on a float out in the lake.

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And to make it even better we have new Landon pics.

Brandi, Lowell, Aunt Sherry, and Landon, along some friends, Jason and Shawna Oakley, and some of their family, all visited the Texas Renaissance Fair north of Houston.

It was his first time and Landon had a ‘Two’fer’.

His first big Turkey Leg.

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And his first elephant. If you look at his face, he’s not too sure of the whole thing.

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Tomorrow will be our last day of RV travel this year. We’ve got about 230 miles to go which will give us a little over 7100 miles for the year. Far short of the 10 – 12 thousand we usually do, but since we spent 4 months oil rig gate guarding in south Texas, it cut down on our traveling this year.

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Thought for the Day:

"The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it’s in the way that it’s spent." – Will Rogers

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