We pulled out of the Camping World in Robertsdale just after 9 a.m. yesterday morning, took State Route 59 north through Loxley to Interstate 10, and turned west. A few minutes later we were crossing Mobile Bay on the causeway, past the impressive bulk of the battleship U.S.S. Alabama, her big guns looking mighty intimidating.

On the west side of the bay we entered the George C. Wallace tunnel, and came out the other end, with the downtown area behind us. Every time we drive through here, I think every American city should be laid out the same way. No traffic hassles, just drive under the darn town!

Traffic was light, and we scooted across the lower edge of Alabama and crossed into Mississippi with no delays. We stopped at the Flying J in Gulfport, and I wanted to get propane while we were there, but the way the RV island is laid out, we had to stop just inside the RV entrance to the parking lot at the propane station, and as I was waiting for the attendant to come out and fill our propane tank, a big motorhome towing a car tried to pull in and was left hanging halfway out into the road because we were blocking the way. An eighteen wheeler was right behind them, so I pulled forward to the fuel pumps so we didn’t have a huge traffic jam. We have enough in our tank to last a while, so we’ll wait until we’re somewhere more convenient to get propane.

Back on the highway, we rolled past miles of flooded countryside, with a long line of billboards sticking up out of the water, advertising one headliner after another who will be appearing at the local casinos. We entered Louisiana, and took the Interstate 12 route around the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, avoiding the traffic in the New Orleans area.

We ran into a traffic slowdown in Baton Rouge, and managed to thread our way through to come back out on Interstate 10, where we crossed the Horace Wilkinson cantilever bridge over the Mississippi River. This is the highest bridge on the Mississippi, and Miss Terry commented that I really seem to be handling bridges much better, because I didn’t snivel. I told her I was too busy trying not to run over four wheelers and hoping an eighteen wheeler wouldn’t run over us to have time to snivel!

We made good time all the way across Louisiana, and the promised stormy weather held off, although we did get some stiff wind around Lafayette, and just a sprinkle or two of raindrops. The Atchafalaya Swamp Freeway is an eighteen mile long elevated stretch of Interstate 10 that bridges the Atchafalaya River and its accompanying swamp, where trees stuck out of the water for as far as the eye could see. The roadway is narrow, and about as bumpy a stretch of pavement as you’ll find anywhere in North America. We shook, rattled, and bounced our way along, and I commented to Miss Terry that as nice as our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage is, our old MCI bus conversion handled this rough piece of highway a lot better. Interstate 10 across Louisiana has a reputation as a terrible roadway, and it is much deserved. More than one RVer we know has had things shake off their walls and out of cabinets as they bounced along.

Eventually the road smoothed out, and at Exit 36, on the east side of Lake Charles, we turned north for three miles on Pujol Road, a good two lane that passed a couple of RV parks. The road ends at a T intersection, and we turned right and went another mile to White Oak Park, a nice little Calcasieu Parish park on the bank of the Calcasieu River. The park has eight pull- through concrete RV sites with good 50 amp electric, water, and a dump station. At $12/night, or half price if you have a National Parks senior or handicapped pass, the park is a heck of a deal.

There was one fifth wheel trailer, which is unoccupied, and the beautiful Tiffin Phaeton motorhome of our friends Mark and Sue Didelot. We unhooked the van and pulled into the site next to theirs. Mark greeted us, and a few minutes later Sue returned from town and came over, and then she excused herself to go back to their coach, where she prepared us a wonderful dinner of salmon from their summer trip to Alaska, along with shrimp, and all the trimmings. Yummy! Thanks for the great welcome and the delicious dinner, Mark and Sue!

We had originally planned to push on to the Thousand Trails in Columbus, Texas today, but we can’t pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal until Monday. So we decided to stay here two nights, and drive through Houston on Christmas morning, when hopefully, there won’t be as much traffic.

We have three bars of EVDO on our Verizon cell phones, no problem getting a signal on our TV dish, and it’s not cold. Life is good.

Thought For The Day – A friend is someone you can see through and still enjoy the show.

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After reading yesterday’s blog, longtime reader Gene Teggatz suggested that maybe I need to consider having a sign made that says “Visitors Welcome Today” and a second sign that says “Visitors Not Welcome Today,” or perhaps a more diplomatic one saying “Please let me get some work done today.” Really, we don’t mind visitors dropping in, we’re pretty spontaneous and love to visit with folks most of the time.

Of course, there are those occasional few who would abuse even Saint Peter’s hospitality, and there has been a time or two, after somebody sat here for hours droning on and on, where I wished I had a sign that just said “Go Away!” But that doesn’t happen very often.

Yesterday morning started with an interesting e-mail seeking advice from a couple who will become fulltime RVers very soon. I get a lot of e-mails like this, and I’m always happy to offer whatever insight I can. But I had to demur on this one.

They plan to leave Chadron, Nebraska September 15^th, and head directly for Livingston, Texas to become official Texans. From there they want to go to New Orleans to see the French Quarter, and then on to Florida, where they hope to bounce around for the winter. They included an itinerary by date of where they hope to be and wanted me to tell them which RV parks to stay at for every stop, where were the best places to eat, what to see and do, and where to buy fuel along their route between now and next April.

I wrote back to tell them that while we have done a lot of traveling in our ten years as fulltime RVers, we haven’t been everywhere yet, so there was no way I could plan their entire lives for eight months! Heck, I most of the time I don’t even know where I’ll be next week myself!

By the time I finished with that e-mail, Dan and Karen Silverwood were at our door for a visit before they pulled out of Elkhart Campground headed for Ohio. They left about noon, and I decided to walk over to the campground office to see if any mail had arrived for us yet. There was a package from our mail service, along with a package for Ron and Brenda Speidel that they had asked me to watch out for, so I took it to keep at the bus until they arrive next week sometime.

On my way back to our bus conversion, I saw John and Alice Clark, the visitors whose names I could not remember in yesterday’s blog. They were very gracious about my social faux pas, and John even gave me a tour of their absolutely beautiful Newmar Ventana motorhome. I was so impressed with the coach that I went right back to the bus and brought Miss Terry back to see it for herself. Wow, what a rig!

Back at our bus, while Terry was doing bookwork, I worked on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal for a few hours, and then waded through a bunch of e-mails that had come in. No, I don’t want to meet hot college coeds; yes, we still have vendor openings for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally; no, I don’t want to send my banking information to that nice man in Nigeria who wants to deposit $10 million in my bank account; yes, we’re still looking for a motorhome, but not a two year old Prevost, thank you very much; no, I don’t want to meet any bored and lonely housewives; yes, the price of the vendor spaces at the Ohio rally includes all camping and rally fees; no, I already have a good watch and I’m not interested in quality replica timepieces; no, I don’t want to correspond with beautiful Russian girls seeking permanent relationships; no, I… well, you get the idea.

About 5:30 we walked down to the site where Bill Joyce and Diane Melde are parked in their nice Dutch Star motorhome and piled into the backseat of their car to go and meet our friends Terry and Dale Pace for dinner at their favorite restaurant here in Elkhart, a place called Heinnie’s Back Barn. This was out first time there, and we were impressed. The food was excellent, our waitress was a lot of fun, and we had a good time chatting over dinner.

Back at Elkhart Campground, someone pointed out this neat old homemade camper trailer, and though the light was fading fast, I managed to get a couple of photographs. That bright glow you see at the front of the rig is my camera’s flash reflecting off the red and white safety tape the owner applied to the trailer’s tongue.

We got back to the bus just as darkness fell, and I still had a few hours to work before bedtime. I wrote the blog, edited the Todays Hero Blog offering for today, and handled even more e-mails while Terry filled a bunch of orders that had come in the new mail delivery. Our life is never dull. 

Thought For The Day – Save the planet, have fewer kids.

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