Loving Louisiana

We have been having so much fun here! Great food, fun people, fantastic weather, a perfect RV park with free shuttle to the French Quarter.
You can click on this link to see my favorite pictures from Louisiana...
http://picasaweb.google.com/sschin999/LouisianaMarch2010?feat=directlink

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.As we have learned to always do, we toured the state capitol building in Baton Rouge. It is gorgeous, loaded with marble from all over the world, and the tallest in the USA.

Now those of you who know Gregg well will know that he is now trying to figure out how to get this giant craw fish boiler home with us in the RV...

So much to see and do...

We've been to so many museums lately and learned so much that I think we should be awarded some kind of advanced degrees. Well, if we could remember all this stuff and pass the tests ...

Galveston Moody Gardens has a wonderful complex of these 3 pyramids full of great stuff. IMAX movie about the ocean, 4D fun movie - Happy Feet penguins in 3D with wind and water drops blowing on us, an unbelievable multi-story aquarium. We especially loved this place when they let us overnight in their parking lot for free!

Houston NASA Johnson Space Center - so much information there it is just overwhelming. We visited the actual mission control room where all the Apollo Missions were monitored. Interesting to note the phone DIALS and pneumatic tubes and no keyboards. Imagine that - we went to space without computers as we know them today.

Saturn V

BIG engines!!

Now we are in New Iberia, Louisiana along the Bayou Teche. Learned that "bayou" comes from an American Indian word meaning small river.



Toured an historic rice mill today and learned that crawfish are raised in the rice fields during the off-season. This is an operating mill almost 100 years old. Since it is historic, the equipment cannot be updated. Maybe that's why the cats that live there are comfortable sitting on the conveyor belts during a tour?? That just struck me as funny to see...

Good tour at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island. The "island" is actually the top of a salt mine and all Tabasco pepper sauce is made here using this local salt. Most of the peppers are now grown in Central and South America though because the weather here in Louisiana is too undependable. But ALL the peppers are grown from seeds from Louisiana.

Galveston homes on stilts - hurricane protection. Much here appears to be recently rebuilt after last year's storms.

Galveston's off-shore oil drilling museum. Eye-opening to see how oil is found and drilling done and to learn that there have been more than 56,000 wells drilled in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since 1938!

Fried Oreos

Where but in Texas would you find Fried Oreos, Fried Snickers, Fried dill pickles, Fried Twinkies...???

This was a surprise yesterday...this nice policewoman riding this beautiful mount, Mikey, walked up to the RV window to talk while we were parked in a WalMart parking lot. I just love Texas!

We seek out factory tours and love to find the ice cream factories. This is Blue Bell Ice Cream (really, really good!). We added that to our list of ice cream factories we've toured...Blue Bunny, Ben & Jerry's, Blue Bell. May be Breyers will be next...

One of our favorite On the Road activities...Presidential Libraries. This is at President George H.W. Bush's in College Station, TX --- a 2.5 ton section of the Berlin Wall.

Best part of traveling - looking up friends and family. This is Sal's cousin Frank, his son, daughter-in-law and grandson. We just love seeing Frank who has had a life of adventures that just knock your socks off. We'd never met his family before and that was a treat. We plan to meet up with all of them again in July at a family reunion in IL.

Still in Texas...

One of the things we've learned to seek out - State Capitol buildings. Beautiful and free admission! Here's Austin ... and the trees are blooming.




Another thing we seek out - Presidential Libraries and Museums. Wonderful history lessons.





My favorite thing in LBJ's library was this letter from a school boy.








More to look for in Texas...BBQ joints! They are renowned for smoked beef, pork, sausage. Go in and buy right out of the smoker...
smells so good in there. (And then you and your clothes smell like that all day long.)



We have had SUCH a good time visiting friends from Scottsdale who relocated to a ranch outside a tiny Texas town. Allen and Mayra have the most incredible collection of animals. These 3 - Paco, Macho and Guapo (which means "handsome" in Spanish) - Mexican long horn cattle.


Notice the new hairdo that the photographer gave me?






This little cutie is Clementine, one of 3 burros who live with 3 horses.











And this is the herd of 7 mini African goats that love to go for walks. We took them on a long walk around the ranch.






Allen lets the chickens out to graze then gets them back in their pen with his special chicken broom...



That's their beautiful house in the background that they built - overlooks their pool and pond and acres of land. Not a neighbor in sight. So peaceful.

Fredericksburg, Texas

Yes, I DO drive the big rig diesel pusher! It's fun and easy (well, at least on the Interstates..)


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Gregg still does the hard part of driving but he has found he really likes my new front passenger recliner seat...

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OK, now what could be better than a cute little town of 10,000 or so that has German Biergartens and breweries and friendly people???

We've been through Fredericksburg twice before but this is the first time we've been able to stay long enough to see a lot of it. We are loving it.

Newly re-opened 12-7-2009 by George H.W. Bush is the National Museum of the Pacific War and it is world class ... absolutely fascinating. Admiral Chester Nimitz was born here in Fredericksburg.

See some of my pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sschin999/MuseumOfThePacificWar#5444545874020926082

I loved this pennant, the personal motto of a ship man that means "What the Hell." It confused the Japanese, stopped a bombardment, and allowed evacuation of some missionaries in China.

There is so much interesting information in this museum. I learned that the Japanese did not surrender right after the dropping of the 2 big bombs. Almost a week later 800 bombers and 200 fighters dropped another 6,000 tons of ordnance on 8 more Japanese cities before they surrendered.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

May we all learn from a museum like this...the best we have seen since the incredible museums in France remembering the horrors of the European World War II.

Deming, New Mexico

We've had a great time here with sister Betty for 2 days. She & I worked at things like hanging these pictures on her living room wall, organizing her quilting studio, shredding bags full of old files from her office. Gregg had fun running around town getting a screen repaired and new tires on her car for her. So we rewarded ourselves with a pizza feast and watching Mel Brooks' Spaceballs last night.
Thanks for fun times, Betty! Now we need to hit the road again - still looking for warmer weather...

On the road again ....

Wow - we finally dragged ourselves out of Prescott. Been trying to leave for weeks and just couldn't break away from good friends, things to do, needed a new roof on the house, needed tax documents, Dr and dentist and eye check ups, just life...

We have had a great time at home in Prescott but have this ITCH to be traveling. It's NOT just that we are WW's as our friends from Wyoming say - Weather Weenies. (Though it has snowed and rained a lot this winter...good for the vegetation. The roots must be partying underground this winter.)

Tonight we are in the Benson, AZ Walmart parking lot. Had dinner with son Andy in Mesa last night. Stopped in Tucson today to see former clients Bonnie & Russ and RV friends we met in Duluth, MN last summer - Ellen & Mike. Great to see all of them. We'll be off tomorrow for a couple of days with sister Betty in Deming, NM.