Moochdocking by The Big Easy

on Edit: 

 My blogger friends Paul and Marti Daul say: 

It's no longer politically correct to call it "Moochdocking", 

it is now GAFHing:

Gratefully Accepting Friend's Hospitality. :c)

Woke up after all the storms passed in Mississippi on Friday morning, and made contact with a fellow Safari motorhome owner who lives near New Orleans.  We have been frequenting the same yahoo Safari Owners group called  SafariCoaches    Eric offered an opportunity to "moochdock" in his driveway for a day or two so we can see the sights in New Orleans.  How nice is that?

We drove on down into Louisiana... stopped for a fuel up in Hammond at $4.09 a gallon.  We took on over 70 gallons which bit almost $300 outta our piggy bank.  We are doing just over 8mpg towing our Tracker and facing some headwinds as we came south.  Not too bad.

Driving along I-55 south was really interesting... we ran through some bayou country and the road was actually two long long bridges that spanned for 15-20 miles over the swamp lands....

Traffic was light ad we cruised right along... looking over the edges at the small shacks and cottages dotting here and there throughout the bayou.  (later Eric explained that often one person owned the entire part of land/swamp and leased out sections for folks to put up fishing or crabbing operations)

We found our way to Eric and Cathy's place in Luling.  It was too bad that Cathy was up in Ohio taking care of some family business, but we got to greet Eric and the two dogs, Annie and Jackie.

Eric got us backed in the long drive, and has his 1997 Safari Ivory motorhome parked crossways along the back to make room for us.   We snugged in the Tracker alongside, and had a nice little spot to park for a night or two.  The skies were still cloudy, but it was a warm day in the high 60's.  After coming from below zero Wisconsin temps, this was heavenly!

We toured each other's rigs and had fun comparing and examining the features of our great Safari Motorhomes.  Eric invited us into his gated back yard where we got to pick a ruby red grapefruit right off his tree!  He also has a large lemon tree just laden heavy with fruit too. There are birds singing and fresh green grass, trees and shrubs in bloom everywhere. Ahhh springtime!

Eric brought us for a tour of the area, around some little fishing villages and then over to his little airport hanger to show us his plane!  He offered to take us up in it later on Saturday if the weather cooperates!!!     

We got to look at all of the different planes in the club airport, just a few miles from his house.  He even has room to park a motorhome there if he wanted.  But it's nicer keeping his in the yard where he can work on it and fiddle around.  

Speaking of fiddling around, Eric had a project to do. 

Unfortunately, someone with a truck had hit and knocked over Eric and Cathy's brick mailbox! (not us!)  It needed to be repaired and Steve was quick to offer to help.  He examined the job and the guys determined they needed to go to the hardware store for a bag of mortar.   What a ride! 

They enlisted the help of a neighbor to be the third guy to lift the heavy upper portion back onto the lower portion ... it was probably 200 pounds.   They set small pieces of wood around the top, so they could tuck in more mortar once the top was set on.   OOOOMMMMMPPPPHHH! 

 Using quick setting cement mix, they tucked in around all of the bricks 

and quickly slid out the wooden spacers.... and it held!   

I sponged off the excess mud to clean up the bricks, 

and am happy to report now the next morning, it is still standing... 

so I guess it is fixed! 

They deserved a beer break after that big job!   We sat around on the back terrace and talked and enjoyed the warm weather.  Though it's very damp and humid, a lot more than we are used to, it was nice to set out and not be shivering in heavy winter jackets and snow piled up around us.

Eric mentioned a great local place for catfish---  So off we went to this place nearby that served HUGE portions.  This was called "Catfish Chips" which are all small pieces of tender catfish deep fried.   I only ate half of this and brought the rest home.  Yummmm melt in your mouth light battered and tasty.

We got to "meet" Cathy last night via some facetime on Skype.  Wish we could have met in person!   She sure misses their little doggies, Annie and Jackie. And they really miss her too!   Though this is a bad smeary pic of the people, the doggie portion of the photo tells the story.  Who say's dogs can't understand modern technology?  They were Skyping to their Mommy!

It rained horribly during the night, thunder, lightening and torrential downpours.  We woke up to a damp cloudy day... but we don't care!  We are going to drive in and explore the French Quarter today.  Sadly, Eric has to work, but we will return to the house this afternoon and see how the weather is holding out for a plane ride.  In looking at his app for flight planning, there is a line of storms coming with some rotations for tornado activity, so we might have to pass on the experience.

We will see... as I said, "PLANS MADE IN JELLO" !!!


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