NNWWARRLLLLEEEENNNZZZ and The French Quarter (blog about yesterday)

Saturday went by in such a whirlwind, that I didn't have time to post about the day.  So tonight I will try to catch up!

Our host, Eric, had to go in to work for a few hours on Saturday morning, so we hopped in our Tracker and headed out east to The French Quarter in New Orleans.  I had been there many years ago, but this time with GPS and our host's recommendations, we were able to really pinpoint the things we wanted to see.   (plus I was with my darling Steveio, a much better exploring companion)

We found our way right to the parking area we were hoping to find a spot so we would be near the French Quarter.  Yup...  an empty spot in the lot 3 spaces in from the gate!  The first thing we walked by were the carriages for hire, all with mules and not horses?  I wonder why?

Artists lined the gates around the Andrew Jackson square.  We saw interesting stuff, and some bizarre stuff, but nothing that we would consider having in our home.

We really enjoyed the "people watching" and wandered among the displays and vendors.  All round the park borders the artists were either creating more works of art, or gently talking to others... nobody bothered us or hawked their wares like some places we have been.  This was very nice.

Steve and I strolled arm and arm around inside of the park too, ringing the statue on the beautiful cobble stones.  It was such a nice romantic space in the middle of a very large city.  Just as it started to rain, we decided to go for lunch.

The lines at Cafe Du Monde were four people wide down the sidewalk and clear into the next block. This was only 11 a.m.  There was no way we were going to stand in the rain for a table.  We checked my tablet for another restaurant nearby with good recommendations and the one specific item I wanted on their menu.... a MUFFULETTA!   We went to River's Edge and got a table after a short wait.

Our food was served quickly and soon I had my MUFFULETTA!   

(Steve ordered Jambalaya) 

Wanna know what is in a MUFFULETTA? 

(from WIKIPEDIA)

The muffuletta sandwich has its origins at the Central Grocery in the French Quarter of New Orleans.^[4]

According to Marie Lupo Tusa, daughter of the Central Grocery's founder, it was born when Sicilian farmers selling their produce at the nearby Farmers' Market would come into her father's grocery for lunch and order some salami, ham, cheese, olive salad, and either long braided Italian bread or a round muffuletta loaf. In typical Sicilian fashion they ate everything separately sitting on crates or barrels while precariously balancing their meals on their knees. Her father suggested cutting the bread and putting everything on it like a sandwich, even if it was not typical Sicilian fashion. The thicker braided Italian bread proved too hard to bite and the softer round muffuletta loaf won out. Shortly, farmers came to merely ask for a "muffuletta" for their lunch

A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, capicola, mortadella, salami, pepperoni, ham, Swiss cheese and provolone. The sandwich is sometimes heated to soften the provolone.^[3] Quarter, half, and full-sized muffulettas are sold.

The signature olive salad consists of olives diced with the celery, cauliflower and carrot found in a jar of giardiniera, seasoned withoregano and garlic, covered in olive oil, and allowed to combine for at least 24 hours.

I could only eat half of it, so we carried the other half around in our backpack for the rest of the day! We wandered up and down the streets of the French Quarter, admiring the buildings, peeking in some of the shops, and watching the people.    We wandered into some of the residential areas too.

We stood there, just wondering about the history of some of these buildings, who owned them, how many families passed through their doors.  The colors were amazing and even in the dark rain soaked streets, we found history and engineering and flavor of the area.

Back into the business district areas, we imagined the crazy scenes of many, many people jammed in the streets during Mardi Gras.   We even saw some leftover beads hanging from spikes up high here and there that had been thrown to the throngs of crowds as the floats went by.

We peeked behind some of the gates of inner courtyards and peaceful sections of the town.  Though I would imagine on Mardi Gras, there is not a quiet spot to be found.  It's amazing how trees can grow when sandwiched in between the buildings.  Birds were all over, even in the restaurant we were eating in.  The multiple door panels in restaurants lined along the buildings are opened wide, and the birds come in and hop around on the floor, looking for crumbs....

We found our way to Bourbon Street... it was too early in the day for a drink, but I did manage to stop in a kitschy shop and buy a Tshirt! The neon lights during the daylight looked strange and surreal. Some of the bars had bands playing and plenty of patrons already inside getting rowdy on a Saturday afternoon.

We found ourselves thinking we needed to get some pralines---- another thing on our list.  So we wandered along and found this shop-----  Called Southern Candymakers.  While Steve was at the counter ordering up some goodies.. our phone rang.  It was our host, Eric.  We asked him if he needed anything from "The Quarter" and he said hmmm could we pick up some pralines?  And he said the BEST place to get them was... ummm you guessed it!  Southern Candymakers!  hahahaha  and we were right at the counter ready to make a purchase.!

(also from Wikipedia)
Praline can refer to confections made from nuts and sugar syrup, whether in whole pieces or a ground powder, or to any chocolate cookie containing the ground powder or nuts.  French pralines are a combination of almonds and caramelized sugar. American pralines such as ones from New Orleans also contain milk or cream and are therefore softer and creamier, resembling fudge.

We added some salt water taffy and New Orleans Creme Brulee coffee beans to our sack.   I think this was a much better purchase than sitting in a bar on Bourbon Street and getting toasted.

Eric was done with his work, so we headed on back to his house.  The guys had some motorhome projects to work on, between both motorhomes.  Being only a year apart, many of the items are the same.  Eric even gave us a cool door bell/alarm unit to put on our rig.  I will do a blog post about it later when I install it.  They fiddled and futzed around with all their tools and toys.

Later in the evening, we tossed some of our good Wisconsin tenderloin steaks on the grill. (thanks to Paula and Mel!)   Eric had made up a batch of seafood gumbo and a pot of rice.  Oh my... when is this New Orleans eating is going to end? What a great way to wind up a great day!

We sat out late on the patio with the mild evening air...  not even jackets on!  Little Annie and Jackie kept making the rounds, looking for something good to nibble on.  Our host, Eric was so kind to have us moochdock in his yard.  Sure wish his wife, Cathy had been able to be there too.

 The conversation wound down about 11 pm and we toddled off to bed.  

Whew.. what a day!  

But wait till you read the next blog 

and see what we did on Sunday!!!

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" !!!


.

Five States in a Day! and a Boo-Boo Bumper

Gosh, we covered 517 miles today, and hit FIVE states 

 (ILLINOIS, MISSOURI, ARKANSAS, TENNESSEE, AND MISSISSIPPI)

and came close to another (KENTUCKY)

and almost made it to another (LOUISIANA)  

But NOW that there are thunderstorms, tornado warnings, and flood warnings, we hunkered down for the night in Brookhaven, Mississippi.  If Steve had his way, we would be already to Baton Rouge and checking out the gulf coast.

We started out this morning in Benton, Illinois and left about 7:30 a.m. to hit the road.  We crossed over into Missouri by 7:50 and saw a sign for Cinnabon at a Flying J.  We HAD to stop!

Besides, we needed more coffee.  

Didn't have time to perk a second pot before hitting the road. 

That is my excuse and I am sticking to it. 

Yummm what a treat!   By this time it started to sprinkle out, but we didn't mind.  It was a good way to rinse the Wisconsin road salt off of the rig and Tracker.  Little did we know what lay ahead....


For the first time, we saw diesel under $4 a gallon on this trip.  It was 3.93 at Portageville, MO.  We didn't need to fuel up, but kept that in mind for the return trip.

We crossed into Arkansas at 9:45 and then quickly crossed back over the Mississippi River into Tennessee.

As we were passing through Memphis we thought we saw something fly off a truck and heard a HUGE CLUNK on the front bottom of our rig.  OH NO!  We were winging along the twisty tight turns of the interstate as it ran through Memphis and could not pull over anywhere to check.   Our imaginations ran wild as we pictured our fuel tank hanging down or a hole blasted in our propane tank... or worse yet, a piece of frame broken and ready to collapse our rig.  Finally we got to a rest area and pulled over.

Sigh....  there was a big chunk knocked out of our front bumper fiberglass.  We searched the tires, and underbody as best we could in the rain, and decided we were VERY LUCKY-----  That appears to be the only damage.  Whew!   We are thanking our lucky stars and God above for the minor problem.  We can handle this.

It's too small to even make an insurance claim on.  A bit of fiberglass material, some sanding, some paint and it will be good as new.  Another project for Steveio this spring.  I think we should buy a big big bandaid and put it on and write "OOPS" on it.

We crossed into the state of Mississippi about 11:15 and the rains were getting heavier as we went south.  Our rig was finally blue and silver, and our Tracker was finally bronze.  The salt was gone!  We may have damaged the water table of Mississippi by all the salt brine we shed off.

We tuned into the national weather service warnings and saw what we just missed out on back in Missouri and Illinois!  Glare ice, snow and winds.... whew were we glad to be south of that!  Friends Rosie in Bethel and Sam/Donna in St. Louis are glad we didn't stop, as we would have been frozen into place for gosh knows how long.

We kept on going on I55 south, through Jackson and southward... but the storm warnings were getting worse, as were the winds and the rains.  We pulled over at a wayside near Beauregard, MS and filled our fresh water tank, walked the dogs and made a supper.  We turned on the tv to local weather stations and checked with Wunderground on the internet.  Now there were tornado watches in the area, and flooding to the north of us back in Jackson.  We drove only 15 more miles when the watches turned into Tornado Warnings.  That is nothing to fool around with!

I insisted we pull over at the next town....  even if Steveio was bound and determined to get into a sixth state (Louisiana) today.  I pulled the imaginary emergency brake on the passenger side and made him turn down the exit ramp into Brookhaven, MS.

My Mr. Zoom Zoom Motorhome Man... 

Although we had hoped to reach Baton Rouge by nightfall, it really was time to get off the road, so we pulled into the Walmart at Brookhaven, MS for the night.  In between rain showers, we ran in and did some shopping.  Although the attendant back at the rest area assured us the water we put in our tank was potable, we will only use it for showering and doing dishes.  We stocked up on bottled water to use for our cooking, coffee, and teeth brushing.   And of course the dogs drinking water.  Ever travel with long haired dogs with diarrhea???  Don't ask.  Yes, we give our dogs bottled water when travelling.

It's thundering and lightening right now, and the rain is extremely loud on the roof.  Every now and then we are rocking with the winds, but parked between two semis has helped, I am sure. We are following the weather channel and if anything is close, we scoped out a good wall along the building to drive up with the rig on the leeward side.  Then we will run into the store to a cement walled inside corner for protection.

The dogs are shaking like leaves, and even tempting them with doggie biscuits was not enough.  So we stuffed them in the bathroom where they can't see the lightening and hopefully they will calm down when it passes.   The rain is coming down in buckets now and many semi trucks have joined us here in the lot.  Smart.

We served up our own treat too.. 

some berries, angelfood cakes, whip cream and sprinkles!  

Oh my .. life on the road sure is sweet! 

517 miles traveled today, will fuel up in the morning

PS .. got a phone call from my little brother---seems my nephew Mikey is in the hospital with some medical complications and could use all the prayers and kind thoughts.

On The Road (post script)

After logging on 476 miles today, we pulled into a Walmart at Benton, Illinois for the evening.

Whenever we hit the road, we try to make our first night at a Walmart and treat ourselves to a rotisserie chicken dinner from the deli!  I got in the store, and there was only ONE chicken left, so I snatched it up, along with a few other things we needed.

Once I checked out, I asked at the service desk if we could overnight in the lot. We always try to ask and I jot the name of the manager on the sales slip, just in case there is a problem later after a shift change.   The lot is posted "NO TRUCK OR TRAILER PARKING- TOWED AWAY AT OWNER'S EXPENSE" along with a sign showing a semi truck being towed.  This manager told me that their parking lot has very thin layer of blacktop and semi trucks will damage it, so they will allow RVs but not semis.  How nice for us!  I put our "Parked With Management's Permission" signs in our windows and we settled in for the night.   That way parking security doesn't have to come and knock on our door during the night if there is even the slightest doubt of us being there.

Went back to the rig where Steveio was waiting with the dogs for our dinner...  ahhh life on the road.

(dontcha love my table topper from Paula?) 

After a nice dinner and bottle of wine, we checked the weather channel for the area and watched the national news too.  Seems the storms coming across will be still west of us in the morning and north of us as we head south early.  Hope to be around Memphis by noon and perhaps Baton Rouge or therabouts by evening.  If we run into rain that is okay, we just want to get below the freezing area of ice and sleet.

The temps are about 35 now, and dropping yet tonight to mid-20's.  One of us has to take out the dogs one more time, and I am thinking we should flip a coin.  I would rather get in my flannel jammies and head to bed.  Our heater is keeping us comfy and we are well off with fully charge batteries and enough power to run the tv, 2 computers, the tablet as our router and anything else we want.   I finished putting away a few things we had tossed in at the last minute, and now we are pretty well organized and things stowed for the rest of the trip.

Oh, before getting settled in our parking spot, we also filled up the diesel tank, as this was the lowest price we have seen for diesel so far.

71 gallons at $4.07 a gallon.  Ouch.. almost $300 bucks!

We traveled 476 miles today, but we already had 96 miles used from that tank.  Now we are filled up for the next leg of the journey!

On the Road!

Yes, we woke up to clear blue skies (well, early morning dawning to the east) and all was a GO to head out!   After fortifying ourselves with coffee, we started to load up the last few freezable things... the tv, the computers, the cameras etc.  Plus the dogs!

Steve fired up the rig and that Cat was purring like a good kitty....  we idled in the yard a while as we finished up the last details, locking up and dropping off goodies to the neighbors who are going to be shoveling our snow.  (a couple paris of warm wool socks!)   It was frosty cold of 3 below zero when we got up.... and the poor dogs were trying to figure out how to raise all four paws at once from the frosty cold hard packed snow to pee quick and get in the motorhome.  They got their jobs done, and in they jumped, eager for a camping trip!

We were ready to roll by 7:30 a.m.

I drove the Tracker to the end of the driveway and put on my four way flashers.. when there was a break in the traffic I pulled out and blocked the two south bound lanes (we have a four lane road in front of our house) .   Steve backed down with the motorhome and out into the road and was able to get headed south without causing too much of a delay to the drivers waiting behind me.  I waved a friendly "thank you" to them, glanced at the house one more time and headed south!  

I had to mail out a DVD and drop off our mail-hold card at the post office, while Steve headed out on Main St. which is highway 151.   I caught up with him at the edge of town in front of the high school so we could hook up the Tracker to the tow bar behind the motorhome.  We double checked each other's hookup jobs, and checked the lights and tow bar levers.  Now I could finally hop in the rig and head into my passenger seat.  

We have the Wave 8 catalytic heater going in the living area of the motorhome, plus the dash heater blasting full from the front on us, and we closed the back doors the bathroom and bedroom to make the space smaller and easier to heat.

Hwy 151 was all ice covered and slippery as we headed along the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago.  The winds were calm, which at least made it somewhat easier to maneuver.   If it had been as windy as the day before. we would have delayed our departure.

Yup.. these are the kinds of roads we deal with every day in Wisconsin in the winter....

The dogs were sooooo happy to head out, they curled up in their "spots" and went right back to sleep!

Actually, our dogs own our motorhome and we are just here to serve them and drive them to new places to sniff!  Especially when it gets green and warm and sandy and wonderful for the dogs as we head south.  I remember one year coming back from Florida... the noon "potty break" for the dogs was sunny and warm and green grass before they took a long long afternoon snooze.  The final "potty break" that night was in a Walmart lot in Indiana with snow piled up and ice all over.... they looked around like: "HEY.. WHAT KIND OF DIRTY TRICK DID YOU  PULL ON US????"   Sometimes, I feel the same way coming home.

Steve is happy to report all systems are on track, all items functioning properly and his VmSpc computer panel is keeping him informed of all data as we drive.  (Sorry, had to rub it in, Mel)

He really enjoys driving his "rig" and has a very comfortable seat to cruise along.  We can go for many miles without feeling tired.  It's kinda like sitting in two easy chairs, watching the scenery pass in front of the huge picture windows up front.  A lot less tiring than travelling in a car, for sure.

Although  we wanted to stop in and see our friends Juanita and Norm at the weaving studio near Beloit, we are facing a time-crunch to get as far south as we can to avoid a storm coming from the west around Nebraska and coming across Missouri.  So we figured we should keep on going and see if we come back this way.  Juanita has been working on a special project for me, and I had hoped to pick it up on the way through.  But we are thinking of the ice storm heading across Illinois and we hope to be far south of it before it hits.

We found bare pavement once we got further south, and hit the Illinois border (139 miles) by 10:30 a.m.  And now an hour later we are pulling off into a rest area to run the Tracker through it's gears (needs to be done every 200 miles)   let the doggers out and make some late breakfast/early lunch.  

Boy--- waysides sure have changed over the years.  I remember as a kid, we were lucky to find a pit toilet, picnic table and a big bonus if there was a water pump!   Pretty elaborate for travelling nowadays....

I snapped a few pics here that would make an RV owner want to cry..... 

 danged Wisconsin Road Salt! 

and look at our poor Tracker!!!!!

I think we need to find a Blue Beacon Truck Wash sometime soon, hey?   

Back on the road again here and travelling south. No more snow to be seen, and the sunshine  is coming in so bright that I had Steve turn down the dash heat... plus we turned off the catalytic heater too.  It's a comfy 70 degrees inside and up to 30 outside.  What a change from 3 below this morning... brrrrrrr