Beads, Beads, and More Beads

Today we attended the Covington parade, a family oriented parade on the outskirts of New Orleans. Lots of fun packed into a small town event. Kids (and adults) going crazy for items being tossed from the floats, including beads, spears, and small food items like Tootsie Rolls & Moon Pies; but mostly beads. Beads of every size, color, and shape. Another tote bag full of the stuff.

Back when I was still working, some of my friends in marketing would refer to such items as "trinkets & trash". Those terms are entirely wrong when judged against everyone's reaction on the receiving end.

At a Mardi Gras parade, everybody starts off cool, calm, and collected. Next thing you know there's a frenzy of activity with people jumping, shouting and in general having a great time. The folks on the floats get into the fun as well, trying to place a well aimed toss of beads, etc to those they deem most worthy. Small kids, big kids, ladies of all types: attractive ladies, young ladies, old ladies, GLM ladies, loud ladies, enthusiastic ladies, etc.

Not nearly as big as the parades in New Orleans but a lot of fun.

After the parade we had some of the best BBQ and spicy cole slaw of the trip so far. I'll ask my sister-in-law for the recipe; she's a great cook.

We plan to get together for a cook-out later, probably this weekend.

I need to buy a grill first. Plus I still need some BBQ supplies.

When we went to Camping World the other day we approached the check-out counter with the shopping cart overflowing. The lady said jokingly "What, was the coach empty?". Matter of fact it was we told her. Next thing you know she and her co-workers launched into a whole series of recomendations for additional equipment, where to stay, places to visit. It took us almost another hour to get out of there while they rang up our purchases and then helped us load the RV. So far, everyone has been really helpful and can't wait to help you. They want to share in the adventure. And of course, it's still fun to tell people we don't have any specific plans/reservations.

I mentioned in another post that my SIL Debbie had platters of shrimp & crawfish, known locally as "Mud Bugs". Here's a picture of MLA and a platter of 'Mud Bugs'.

Extended our site reservation through Sunday night. We want to see New Orleans and the Riverwalk, a few of the plantations and museums in the area.

BTW: The weather has been great. Tonight was warm and breezy with just a hint of humidity; typical of island/seashore weather. Gotta love it.

See ya!

Throw Me Som'tin Mista

Moved to a new campground today. Last night's campground looked good and had very good ratings from a campground directory however our specific site was not good. Stepped right out into our very own mud bog. I was tempted to say our very own swamp but that would be an overstating the case, and you know me, I don't like to expand the truth ;>).

So we moved to Fairview Riverside State Park. OMG. This park is just about perfect. Most sites are shaded by very tall oak trees. Incredible Spanish moss hanging from some of them. Beautiful river. Level sites. An old restored mansion turned into a museum which we will tour later this week. Perfect weather didn't hurt either!


Best of all? Orginally when asked how long we would be in Louisiana we thought in terms of a few days. We realized we don't have anywhere to be, no commitments or appointments, sooooo,
we will stay until we've seen all we want. Mardi Gras parade tomorrow, French Quarter & River Walk, numerous plantations, parks and museums.


The campground has a two week maximum stay however, after two weeks you can go somewhere else for one night and then come back here for another two weeks. I don't think we'll stay four weeks or even two however it sure is liberating knowing we could if we want to. MLA says she sure could get used to this.
After setting up camp we had lunch with Debbie, Richard and Chance at Mortons on the river in nearby Mandeville. Great food and company.

A terrific dinner at Debbie and Richard's topped the day. Chance is a non-stop ball of energy. I was exhausted just watching Debbie & Richard with him. This picture is of him in the garage playing with something called "Moon Sand". Great stuff. Kinda like Playdough except it has consistency of sand and doesn't appear to dry out like Playdough.

What a cutie. Chance is trying to teach MLA how to get some beads. He keeps telling her to yell "Throw me something mister". Worked for him; he had a large paper sack full of beads and another big bag of stuffed toys. We'll see tomorrow if MLA has blossomed under his tuteledge or if she is tempted to use a more conventional method.



BTW: Most state parks (and national parks for that matter) were built many years ago and cannot accomodate today's larger rigs. Most have length restrictions of 22-28 feet. Most of today's coaches range from 34-40+ feet. Lack of State and Federal funding for parks means no $$$ available to maintain existing infrastructure yet alone improve campgrounds, increase land set aside for future generations. Something to think about in case you are ever in a position to help change the current situation.


More pictures of parade and campground tomorrow. See ya!

Not another day... Not another day... ;>)

This RV stuff is more difficult than it looks: Get up early in the morning just to laugh when the alarm goes off. Back to bed to rest from a demanding start to the day.

Get up for showers & breakfast, trying not to let the strain of what to have for breakfast wear you down. Then deciding where you would like to go today, usually requiring the flip of a coin or consulting the weather channel (always turn towards the sun & warm weather). A brief nap to recover from the stress of decision making.

Pack up the rig: 1) slides in 2) automatic levelers up 3) disconnect the water hose and the electricity cable 4) program Judy, our Garmin GPS (as in Judy Garland; never mind, most of you are too young for that one) 5) Hit the road. Elapsed time: about 15 minutes, will get faster when we do not have to triple check our pre-daparture check-list. Of course, at least 5 minutes of that time is spent with our neighbors-for-a-day discussing how we are so busy now we don't know how we found time for work before we retired.

Drive for about 200 miles/4 hours -- off the road by 3 or 4 pm so as not to miss the sunset or happy hour, hopefully not in that order.

Park the rig: 1) Automatic levelers down 2) slides out 3) Connect water hose and electricity (sewer connection if they have it) 4) break open an adult beverage of your choice.

Nap as necessary to re-charge the batteries to get through dinner.

Tonight we drove over to see Debbie, Richard and Chance just in time to catch the Super Bowl. Nicest people in the world. Debbie had enough food for 10 couples, including two huge platters of Shrimp and Crawfish plus a King Cake.

King Cake is a New Orleans Mardi Gras tradition. Cake drizzeled in several colors of icing with a small plastic doll baked inside. Whoever gets the slice with the doll in it is supposed to have a really good year. Plus I think you have to buy the cake the following year. Or maybe you get an all expenses paid trip to the hospital if you eat fast enough to swallow the plastic doll.

Tried the crawfish, including the 'sucking the heads' tradition; have to say not my cup of tea. The rest of the crawfish is like a very small lobster tail and tasty. The best though, were these huge Louisiana shrimp -- made me think of Forest Gump and the Bubba Shrimp Company -- delicious.

Planning to move closer to Debbie & Richard (about 30 minutes away now) if closer campgrounds are not packed with Mardi Gras attendees. Debbie and Richard have a Mardi Gras parade planned for us to attend on Tuesday. We'll get pictures and share with you. Will try to get MLA to collect a few beads......

Signing off from Hammond LA.

A Comment About Comments

Comments are most welcome. Several of you indicated you left a comment and it did not show up on the blog. Sorry about that. Looks like we have it resolved. An issue with, can you believe it, SPAM Comments. Knew there was spam; did not know some idiots have automated programs to add spam advertising to blogs.

In any case, you will be asked to type in a few letters that are displayed that only someone as warm and loving as yourself (otherwise know as a human) will be able to understand and type. I promise you, nothing to complex, just meaningless characters/numbers.

Thank you, and remember, we value your comments. Of course we love and value you and our relationship with you more, but we love the comments too.


BTW: Here's the promised picture of "Killer" in her spike collar (aka: Dobbie). Here she is terrorizing the sofa pillows; daring them to move. A great watchdog even if she is not a great attack dog.

Check out new pictures in other posts....

Any problems, send me an e-mail at dalew.abbott@gmail.com

Graceland -- Don't Miss If You Get to Memphis

Spent yesterday and part of this am getting the motorcycle lift and toad tow bar installed. Yesterday we had some free time while the coach was having everything installed so we went to Graceland, Elvis's home. What an amazing place. Since raquetball is one of my favorite sports, I especially liked the raquetball building. Except they have converted it to (one of several) a trophy room for his gold and platinum records.

Also saw his car collection including, of course, one of the famous pink cadillacs. This car was MLA's favorite.I had trouble chooising a favorite between the Rolls Royce, the Ferrari or the cherry 1960 MG. Also saw his two jets, which are literally parked across the street from Graceland (at least 10 miles from airport, must have been fun moving those). One was the size of a 727 and the other the size of a LearJet. Both customized in those awful golds, yellows, greens and browns of the late 60's and early 70's. Yuk -- although high style at the time I guess.

I was impressed when I saw an award for selling 50 Million records. Turns out that was just for one album/song. Elvis has sold over 1 Billion records. OMG! The whole tour was really something and worth the $32 per person price. MLA liked his stage outfit collections best. Really is an amazing accomplishment. Note: had to go through at least five gift shops. Not a problem for me but if you are or you know an Elvis fanatic, watch out. People were dropping money like Elvis dripped swaet in his later years performances (lots of leather one piece pants suits).

Once finished in Memphis we headed south to Jacksonville, Missisippi, which is where we are tonight. Should get to New Orleans tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait to see Debbie (MLA's sister) and her husband Richard. Chance is living with them now so hopefully they will let us babysit hime for awhile. He's growing up so quick. Chance has been following the blog and keeps going to the pictures while Debbie is trying to read.

Put the first scratch on the RV today while moving the RV around at the hitch installers. The owner, a fellow RV'er tells me welcome to the club. Happens to everyone sooner or later. Then he tells me, don't worry, it won't be the last time. Seems RV's collect scratches the way an RV windshield collect bugs -- we already have quite a collection of bugs.

Until next time, see ya!