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?