Our RV Adventures

I  spend some time this morning finishing up booking our trip to Alabama the end of next month.

So here’s what I’ve got:

Sun – Jul 31 – Poche’s
Mon – Aug  1 – Hollywood Casino
Tue – Aug  2 – Gulf State Park 
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Mon – Aug  8 – Gulf State Park 
Tue – Aug  9 – Athens
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Sat – Aug 13 – Athens
Sun – Aug 14 – Benchmark Meridian
Mon – Aug 15 – Poche’s
Tue – Aug 16 – Back at Lake Conroe

So I’ve now got all our reservations booked.  The Poche’s and Benchmark stays are both Passport America parks, so I’m saving $20 for each Poche’s stay, and $15 for the Benchmark one.

So in only three nights, saving a total of $55, that more than covers the $44 a year that a PPA membership costs. We’ve had a PPA membership since we first rented a Cruise America Class C to check out RV’ing in 2007, and it’s never taken more than a week or so of traveling to pay for our membership.

Around 1pm I went down to the office to see if we could stay over here a couple of extra days so we wouldn’t have to go back to Lake Conroe on July 3rd, in the middle of the 4th of July weekend. Not something I was looking forward too.

So, the answer to the question of whether or not they will let us stay here a couple of extra days was . . . NO!

Our Alliance membership doesn’t give us the option of two $29 week stays like some do. But I was hoping they could at least cut us some slack, but apparently not. But I did learn something that will help out even more.

I knew that we could rent a site here on an annual lease, but what I didn’t realize is that we could rent a site on a monthly basis, outside of our Thousand Trails membership. And it’s a really good deal, at least for us

We can get a 50amp site for $375 a month plus electric @ $012.5 per KW.  Right now, because we’ve used up our 50 free days, and are paying the extra $3 per day for 50amp, a month stay, (two weeks at a time) costs us $240. And when you figure in 35 or so gallons of diesel going back and forth, we’re looking at about $335 a month, and we still have to move every two weeks.

And, as Jan says, “ . . . . the wear and tear on the rig, and us.”

So as it stands now, tomorrow I’ll book us a month here starting July 3rd, which means we’ll stay here until July 31st when we’ll leave for Alabama.

Hopefully it will all work out, and we’ll be here for six weeks straight.

Thought for the Day:

I posted the other day about using Photoshop, or in my case Paint Shop Pro, to ‘doctor’ photos. But this video takes it to a whole new level, seamlessly mixing Cary Grant in North By Northwest with elements of Star Wars.

It’s called Alfred Hitchcock’s Star Wars: Darth By Darthwest.

Check it out. It’s amazing!

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I spent part of the morning plotting out upcoming Alabama trip. Rather than come back to Colorado River on our usual schedule, July 31st we’ll head east for a two week loop through Alabama

We’ll spend the first night at Poche’s Fishing Camp, a Passport America park,  just north of Breaux Bridge, LA, and then our second night at the Hollywood Casino in Biloxi, LA.

Jan wants to stop here again, because when we stopped here the last time in 2009, she took the $40 in slot cash they gave us and ran it up to enough to pay for our 3 night stay, and all our meals. And when we left for Gulf Shores, we still had $100 left.

Jan says she’s feeling lucky again.

Leaving the Casino, we’ll spend the next week at the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, one of our all-time favorite places. And a place I grew up in. Then at the end of the week, we’ll head up to north Alabama to spend a few days with my relatives there.

Coming home we’ll stop off in Meridian, MS for one night, and then another night at Poche’s in Breaux Bridge, before heading back to Conroe.

A little before 6pm Jan and I headed north for La Grange, about 25 miles away. We were going to have dinner at the Whataburger before attending the Fayette County Country Music Opry at the Knight’s of Columbus Hall there.

We first came to a show here back in January, but since they only perform once a month,, on the 3rd Monday, this is the first time our stays here at Colorado River have synced up.

Since they don’t have a website, we had no idea who was performing tonight, but we really lucked up. Normally you find 4 to 6 performers, with one ‘headliner’. Tonight we just got the headliner, and boy was she great.

‘She’ is Lisa Layne, a Patsy Cline Tribute Artist, who’s been performing Patsy Cline shows on Broadway in NYC, and all around the country in touring companies since 1995. Her performances are approved by the Patsy Cline Association, and Lisa and her husband were close friends with Patsy’s husband until he died last year.

The first set covers Patsy’s early years, and somewhat lesser known songs as she was getting her start. Lisa came out in true Grand Ole Opry cowgirl style in an identical outfit from the cover of one her albums.

She did about about 10 songs ending up with her first two big hits, Walking After Midnight and Faded Love.

The second set covered Patsy’s songs as she became a bigger star, a little more mainstream, moved into ballads and torch songs, and a more glamorous look.

Lisa ended the show with what she said was Patsy’s least favorite song that she recorded, “Crazy.”

Willie Nelson, Patsy called him William, wrote ‘Crazy’ in 1961, when he was an up-and-coming songwriter, but not yet recording. Willie did a demo record and pitched it to Charlie, Patsy’s husband, who played it over and over and over.

Patsy hated the song because she absolutely hated Willie Nelson’s nasally voice, and said she couldn’t record it like that. But after it was rearranged as a ballad, it suited her style perfectly. And even though it was a big hit for her, coming right after “I Fall To Pieces”, and going to #2, it still was not one of her favorites.

All I can say is that Lisa Layne passes my ‘Eyes Closed’ test. I close my eyes and just listen, matching in my mind Lisa to the Patsy Cline recordings I’ve played so many times. And she’s dead on.

Lisa matches Patsy trill for trill, overnote for overnote, glissando for glissando (a smooth slide between two notes), and even has Patsy’s range, nailing those high notes perfectly.

Another thing that really sold tonight’s performance was the keyboard player, whose name I didn’t get.

Floyd Cramer played piano on most of Patsy’s hits, and his ‘slip note’, or ‘rollover’ is an integral part of her songs. For the best example of this, listen to Cramer’s instrumental recording of ‘Last Date’.

Listen how each note starts one step off-key and then rolls in the right one.

(At this point, as Jan reads this, she’s shaking her head and thinking OMG, he’s off in the weeds again.)

So to wrap this up, tonight’s keyboard guy has the ‘slip note’ technique down, so it was a perfect complement with Lisa’s Patsy.

All in all, a great evening.

If you need more proof of Lisa’s talent, check out these 3 samples of Patsy’s biggest hits.

Back In Baby’s Arms

I Fall to Pieces

Crazy

Close your eyes and just listen.

Thought for the Day:

I tried to act normal once. It was the worst 5 minutes of my life.

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