New Orleans, Lousiana

  It was a "Big Easy" drive from San Antonio to New Orleans. I-10 all the way. Smooth four lanes and not too many hills. This was a much needed break from rugged two lane highways through the mountains. 

  We got to Lake Pontchartrain Landings Campground at around one O'clock on Thursday, July 3rd. We set up our rig, and took the Camry to the city in search of some fresh oysters and craw fish. We parked at the visitor center which is just next door to the famous St. Louis Cemetery that you always see in the movies. You know the one where all of the tombs are above ground? We decided to make a quick walk through of this notorious historic site where we experienced a very ere stench of death there inside the walls right before lunch/supper.

OK, been there and done that so, lets go get our Cajun chow on! If you don't already know it, those Cajuns know how to eat because they are always practicing. Spend a few days with people from Louisiana and you'll soon find out that while your eating breakfast, the topic of discussion is what's for lunch, and while your eating lunch, the topic of discussion is whats for dinner, and while your eating dinner... You get the idea.

Yum!

We walked in to Deanie's Restaurant and had fried shrimp and oyster Po boys, soft shell crabs, char grilled oysters, and some raw ones. They rolled us outta there...

Next we walked down Bourbon Street. Its not what we expected. There was a distinct smell of urine in the air as you walked down the street. Every other storefront was a topless bar with their employees standing at the door inviting you in, and the crowd was somewhat intimidating to a man with his wife and children with him. After making it a few blocks we quickly headed away from Bourbon street and headed towards the River. 

The shops and fellow tourists were much more mild as soon as we got off of Bourbon St. but we were all pretty tired after a half of traveling and a belly full of food, so we headed back to the car and returned to our camp.

 Erica picked a great campground for our visit to New Orleans. This place just so happened to serve the best BBQ in town, and had great live music every evening. We enjoyed both the next day on the 4th of July, after we visited the French Market, had Beignets at Cafe Du Monde and before watching the fireworks. It was another great day. The last one of a really great trip. Shortly after the fireworks, we moseyed back to our camper, broke down our rig, and left New Orleans headed for Ruskin, Fl. I drove until about 1am and then pulled in to a rest area for some sleep before finishing our journey.

Here's Betsy napping with the Big Boy's just East of Pensacola (below)

 I'll try to publish one more post summarizing the trip and highlight the peaks and valleys. Overall it was an outstanding experience for us all. As soon as we got home, I was asked by a friend if I would do it again, and I said "No, because We've already done it. But if your asking me if I had to do it again, then I would in a heartbeat and wouldn't change a thing".

San Antonio & The Alamo, Texas

 About a week before we left on this trip I was reevaluating all of our stops and travel routes. I realized that we had a problem between The Grand Canyon and San Antonio. It was just to far to drive in one day. When we got to San Francisco Erica came up with a good plan. We would shorten our stays at Vegas and Williams to give us the half a day needed to stop in Carlsbad, NM for rest. Well, when the brake thing happened in Vegas, we lost that half a day and had to make a tough decision; Either drive straight through to San Antonio or fall behind by a half a day. We decided to drive it. We left at about 5pm and drove until 1:30am. Then I (Mike) pulled over and got about 3.5 hours of sleep at a rest area. Got up at 5am and started driving again. This was hard driving too. Bumpy two lane highways, only stopping for fuel and go. We arrived at the KOA in San Antonio at about 8pm. Erica drove for a couple hours that day so I could get a quick nap in, but total that was about a 22 hour drive.

(Above) I'm OK... I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a second...

Once we got the camper set up (which now takes us approximately four minutes) we grilled baby back ribs and chicken (yummy). Then we headed into the city to scope things out.

I have to say that San Antonio was the biggest surprise so far on this trip. The city is clean, not crowded, friendly, and the two main highlights (The Alamo & Riverwalk) are absolutely free to explore. The Alamo is right in the middle of town. You cannot go inside at night but during daylight hours, the whole thing is wide open and there are historians at every turn that just love to talk about the compound, and most of them have some kind of connection to it and or its history.

The grounds inside the walls of the Alamo are quiet, shaded, and beautiful.

Horse Carriage ride around town. It was really relaxing after a long days drive

The River Walk

Next Stop: New Orleans, Louisana

Grand Canyon, Arizona

We left Vegas at about 11:00am after RJ got done with the brakes. What had happened was; While coming down the mountains from California into Nevada, one of the brake calipers had hung up and was not fully releasing. This caused an enormous amount of friction and the smoke we saw when we first arrived. RJ is a mobile repair man specializing in RV's. He took everything apart, checked the rotor, and wheel bearings, and after a short discussion, we decided to replace that brake caliper and pads, even though they didn't show any signs of damage. I just didn't want to take any chances. It wasn't cheap, but we were back on the road with the peace of mind we needed to continue on our journey without worrying about our family's safety.

 The drive from Vegas to Williams, AZ (The Grand Canyon) is only about four hours, which is less than half the time we normally spend driving from one destination to another. So we made a stop in Kingman, AZ and had lunch at Mr. D'z Diner along Route 66. The food was great and the memorabilia in the diner was all from the 50's & 60's. This little town made you feel like you were in the movie "Cars".

Once in Williams, AZ we pulled into one of the two KOA's there. We went to the wrong one first of course, and after Erica raised her voice at the people behind the counter for not having our reservation, they politely told us that there's another KOA in Williams just six miles down the road... Oops. That one's on me (Mike) because I punched in the wrong address in the GPS. Once at the right campground, we just settled in and relaxed that evening and planned to get up in the morning to see The Canyon.

The Grand Canyon is so incredibly vast, that your eyes struggle to focus on any given point. It wasn't just my 40 yr. old eyes either, I verified this phenomenon with Sarah and she said it was the same for her. I'm not quite sure just how far we were seeing but it seeming like forever, and the colors of the layers of rock, well, see for yourself.

Once in the Grand Canyon National Park, opportunities to explore are only limited by your own judgement & willingness to do so.

Everything that I had heard about seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time was true, and then some. This is one spectacular piece of artwork created by our heavenly Father, and being able to experience it with my family was very special.

Do you see what I mean about depth perception at The Canyon? In the picture above, can you really tell how far away each section of rock is from Josh and I?

Hoover Dam and Las Vegas, Nevada

After arriving in Las Vegas at 3 in the morning with one of our brakes smoking, we set up and tried to get some rest. We finally got everyone going around 10am, and needed to fix our brakes before we could go any further. The office recommend a guy that lived in the park and was very reputable. I called him and he said go enjoy your day and I will take care of everything. So, we did. By the way, at 10am it was already 104 degrees outside. We drove to the Hoover Dam and could only stay for about an hour. It was so hot, we saw it and left. On the way back, made a pit stop at Lake Meade then went back to the RV resort and jumped in the pool to cool off.

Above, we're standing on the dam so you can't really see it, and below is looking the other way towards Lake Meade. The color difference you see on the rocks is where the water should be. They are currently 100' below normal water levels and are starting to panic a little. Everyone has been talking about the monsoon rains set to come in the next two weeks.

We parked at New York, New York(Thanks Janice for the recommendation). It was overwhelming walking the strip. By the time we got to Caesars Palace, we were all tired of walking. There is so much to see and especially with the kids, you cant really do everything you would like to. But we all got to see many things, weather we wanted to or not. By the way, if your hungry, you better eat on the strip or before you get there. It cost us $65 for four slices of pizza, a calzone to share and 3 drinks at the food court at Caesars Palace. OUCH! Mike and I could not relax the whole time, always watching the kids and making sure they were okay. Josh didn't really care for as much, but Sarah loved it. Mike and I will definitely be back without the kids one day.

Caesars Palace

I don't know who enjoyed this more. Mike or the kids?

Next Stop: Grand Canyon, Arizona

Redwoods National Forest, San Francisco and Hollywood, California

Entering California, we made a little detour through the Redwood National Forest. We really wanted to see them, and we did, but if we had a known all the curves and roads traveling in the R.V. down the coast, we might not have done it. These tress are amazing and huge. 

If you ever wanted to live in a tree, this would be the place to do it.

The pictures shown here are not the biggest trees we saw. There were several along the way that were bigger than the RV along the road. If you've never been there, the road winds through the forest and your passing semi's going the other way as the the road twists and turns through this imaginary forest where a full size motor home and tractor trailer look like toys compared to these things. They really are unbelievable until you see them for yourself. The pictures that we posted here are the same woods that Return of the Jedi was filmed in. We chased an Ewok for a few minutes but had to get back on the road... Headed for San Francisco... Don't ever... drive... from... the Redwood forest... to San Francisco... on Hwy. 101... In an RV!!!! 

-Brutal-

 We were so excited to take this route because it was going to take us right over the highly anticipated "Golden Gate Bridge". Well after driving 10 hrs up and down mountains, through twists and turns, OMG it was truly miserable, we finally got to the bridge! Yay!

 Below is the most we ever saw of it in two days, even after driving across it. (I'm not kidding)

 And now, are you ready for the most memorable part of the bridge that we experienced after we drove across it still full of this massive excitement that had just been corrupted? At the Golden Gate Bridge, you go through the toll plaza after the bridge instead of before it. The toll plaza is completely unmanned and there are blazing signs blinking "Don't Stop - Automatic toll by plate - Keep moving" so in our sea of emotions we run right up to the middle of the toll plaza at about 40 MPH and then realize "Oh Snap!" we're not going to fit through that gate! LOL, its funny now, but let me tell you... It wasn't, funny then. Towing the Camry that we can't back up, in a full onslaught of traffic.... WOW. Well we crept up to this gate, opened up the RV windows, folded in the mirrors on the bus and crept through that thing at a top speed of 0.002 MPH, and cleared the gate by about 1/2 of an inch on each side. Didn't put a scratch on Old Betsy (That's what we're calling her now). Sorry I don't have a pic for you. Things were a little intense right then.

The city was a lot better but anything near the water was plagued by "The Fog". Alcatraz Prison (above)

China Town was really cool for the first two blocks. There was really no need for the other five. One thing that I have seen enough of on this trip is souvenirs made in China. Especially at the Mt. Rushmore Memorial gift shop in the National Park (That's another story for later).

We ate lunch at Pier 39 and explored the shops. The food was fantastic! We had the clam chowder in a bread bowl, some clam strips and I had a local beer. The street performers near the water in San Fran were some of the best I've seen so far. They not only showed considerable talent but were also very gracious & humble. The waterfront in SF gets two thumbs up from us. Its roomy, relaxed, and very friendly. The rest of the city inland... not so much.

After leaving San Francisco, headed to Las Vegas, Nevada, we made a pit stop near Los Angeles. This was Sarah's stop. We stopped at Wal-Mart in Santa Clarita, 30 minutes North of Los Angeles. Sarah, Josh and I took the Camry and headed to Los Angeles. Mike stayed back and napped. Driving blindly, not really knowing where I was going, my nerves were already shot. The traffic was horrible to top it off. Needless to say, after approaching signs that said Hollywood, I made Sarah choose what she wanted to do and all she really cared about was seeing the stars on the Hollywood Boulevard. So, thats what we did. I was not impressed with Hollywood, whatsoever. It's a been there, done that and wont do it again. Too many creeps, druggies and the city was nasty. Not what you see in the movies. We walked the strip one side and came back the other and made our way to the car. It took us an hour to get back, which should have taken only 30. Mike was well rested and was glad he didn't go, but I would have preferred if he did. 

On our way to Las Vegas, Nevada

Seattle, WA and the Northern Pacific Coast

Our family agrees that we have never seen anything that matches Montana's majestic scenery and beauty, but its time to move on. We still have 3,500 miles to drive and only about a week and half to get home. So, its off to Seattle Washington, and the Northern Pacific Coast (Cape Disappointment) State Park.

We started in Seattle at the Public Market. It was awesome! I so wish we had something like this in Ruskin (no that wasn't a joke). To have fresh seafood, and farm fresh fruits and vegetables, along with handmade artisans from the locally grown ingredients and having a competition among the artisans was just very cozy and refreshing. Not at all what I expected from the city of Seattle.

As many of you know already, I'm a seafood nut to begin with. Everything was so fresh, all you could smell was salt sea water. Not even the hint of any fish smell, and this was at an open air market.

At Pikes Place Seafood (one of the top tourist attractions in Seattle) the workers throw the fish that's bought and holler out as they do so. They do this so enthusiastically that it often calls for cheers and applause from the constant crowd of spectators. 

Next was the gum wall that Sarah insisted on seeing. I thought it was disgusting, but she seeming to think that it was intriguing.

 Josh and I rode the Great wheel and got a birds eye view of Seattle and the bay (see below). 

After Seattle, we headed to the coast, Cape Disappointment State Park. Finally, we had finally made it to the Pacific coast! and by the way, that's not a black & white picture that's just what it looks like there. 

 We toured an old lighthouse built in 1889, and met a few old salty dogs... 

Well then, it's off to the Redwoods and San Francisco. We'll try to post again real soon!

Glacier National Park, West Glacier, Montana

After leaving Yellowstone National Park, we headed up to Glacier National in West Glacier Montana. On our way through Montana, the fields were covered with free range cattle. Of course, we couldn't leave Montana without putting some on the grill. About an hour from our destination, we found a local butcher and bought two of the biggest rib eye steaks that I have ever seen. It's going to be hard to buy steaks from the grocery store from now on. It was pricy but let me tell you, it was well worth it.

The next morning we headed to Glacier National West Entrance and after looking at the map, we decided to go Logan's Pass. We knew we could only spend half the day there so we can get ready to move to out next destination. The trail we wanted to see was closed due to snow and avalanches still blocking the roads, so it left us with no choice to hike Avalanche Trail. It was a 4 mile hike round trip and it was spectacular. The pictures can do it no justice. 

On the way to the trail, some rapids off the river

Panoramic view 

Chipmunks trying to steal food

After the long hike, Erica relaxing and enjoying

the scenery.

Next stop, Seattle, Washington and the Northern Pacific coast.