Montogomery, Alabama

We spent Friday setting up, and made a nice pork tenderloin roast for dinner. This is a nice peaceful campground, very pretty.

Saturday morning I had to make some repairs to our living room slide out. The mechanism broke (again) and I had to do my contortionist act to reach it and fix it. After cleaning up I phoned the historical sites we wanted to see, and found they would not be open on Sunday. We rushed around getting ready, then headed into downtown Montgomery.

Our first stop was the state Capitol building. This ornate building (Greek Revival design), built in 1850, was the site of two major events. In 1861 it was the site of the founding of the Confederate States of America, and where Jefferson Davis stood on the front steps and declared a new, independent nation.

In 1965 Reverend Martin Luther King led a voting rights march from Selma, Alabama to the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery. Our tour guide in the Capitol was an African American with his PHD in American history. He marched with King in 1965, and was beaten by the police.

After our tour of the Capitol, we crossed the road to the first Confederate White House. This is where Jefferson Davis was housed once he was named president. Later he moved to another white house, this one in Virginia. The house in Montgomery has been restored, and is filled with items that belonged to Jefferson Davis.

Having had our fill of history, we drove back down the Old Selma road to our campground, where we BBQ'd some burgers and rested our sore feet beside our campfire. We had a heck of a time getting the fire to stay lit, but eventually we triumphed and accomplished a respectable blaze.

Late Saturday night it started to rain, and it has rained steadily ever since. Apparently a drought here has now broken. Due to the inclement weather, we have stayed in, with the occasional drenching while taking Ben out to do his business. Sunday Marlene roasted a 5 pound chicken that we had bought at Walmart in Tuscaloosa for $3.20. We were so hungry we forgot to take a picture, but we had a delicious feast, and now Marlene is making a pot of chicken soup to which I will contribute Matzo balls.

Tuscaloosa, really "Sweet Home Alabama"

We left New Orleans around 9:30 on Tuesday morning, stopping to fill with propane and gas. We dawdled our way to Meridian, Mississippi, listening to tornado warnings on the radio. We managed to find a parking place at Walmart just as a storm hit, and rain came down fast and hard. After the storm passed, the weather turned nice, and has remained so.

The Walmart here was a new experience for us. Many of the customers sported very long beards and hair, and wore dungarees. When I heard a couple of them in conversation, they sounded like Jethro and Uncle Jed on the Beverly Hillbillies!

We left Meridian early so we could make a short trip to Northport, a suburb of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Our goal was to grab a good parking spot at Walmart before the "Black Friday" shopping frenzy began. We lucked out, and snagged a far corner of the huge parking lot.

Wednesday evening my nephew Chris and his lovely wife Mandy came to our "Chateau de Walmart" for some of my seafood chowder, this time with Louisiana catfish, shrimps, and imported clams and mussels. A good time was had by all, and a couple of bottles of wine were enjoyed.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, and Chris and Mandy picked us up and took us on a tour of Tuscaloosa and it's University campus. What a lovely little city. The buildings are pretty, the scenery breathtaking with all the many trees turning colour and losing their leaves. Apparently foul language is not common here among the genteel people of Alabama.

The campus is beautiful, with many buildings dating back to the early-mid 1800's. New construction is done to mimic the old, so the place looks period correct. We saw the home of the University president, several of the fraternity houses which look like antebellum mansions, a gorgeous quad, and many of the various schools. It is immediately obvious where the source of funding for this lovely campus comes from: Football, with a capital F. The college football team here (The Crimson Tide) is the biggest thing on campus. They have a huge stadium, which would make many cities 10 times the size of Tuscaloosa green with envy. Wow!

Chris showed us the faculty of music, where he teaches as an Associate Professor of Music Theory. We are very impressed, and this is the closest I'll ever come to the halls of academia! Mandy has a great job, telecommuting to her aircraft insurance company in New York. These two are rapidly fitting in to Alabama life, complete with the occasional Y'all. We're very proud of them.

We later enjoyed a fine meal with Mandy and Chris, dining on a lovely, home made rotinni pasta dish accompanied by a fresh green salad. It was all great, and to cap it off Mandy produced scratch made pumpkin pie with fresh whipped cream. All delicious!

After dinner, we were driven back to Walmart. The parking lot was getting busy, with the Black Friday sale starting at 9:00 pm Thursday! By 9:30 the whole place was swarmed by crazed shoppers. The huge parking lot continued to fill with cars and pickups. By 11 o'clock we were totally boxed in. People parked on the lawns, on flower beds, so close to us that they had to crawl out the back window of the truck to get out. I wanted to take pictures, but some guy parked alongside us and I couldn't open the door. The hordes continued to arrive until about 2:00 am then the traffic thinned out and I finally fell asleep.

We were up at 4:00 am, and I was surprised to find no damage to our rig. People had actually picked up our orange cones and moved them so they could park. Other places they would have tossed them away or driven right over them. Even when caught up with the shopping fever, the people of Alabama seem to remain genteel. Of course their were uncountable numbers of discarded shopping carts everywhere. But in true Walmart fashion, they were all collected up by the time we left at 4:30 am.

Since we were up, and traffic was going to pick up again very soon, we left. We did a record breaking pack-up, and we pulled out at 4:30. We drove 15 miles to the first Interstate rest stop and went back to bed, pleased to be out of the city and away from the mad shoppers. We got up again around 7, and took our time driving to our campground at Gunter Hill, Alabama, just outside Montgomery. We're going to do some sight seeing here, and this campground run by the Army Corp of Engineers seems like a good spot to base ourselves. Our site is nestled in the trees, with squirrels jumping around and the river burbling 200 ft. away.

Housecleaning... Yuukk

Yesterday (Sunday) we went grocery shopping. First we tried the Winn-Dixie, bought a few items, and weren't happy with the cost. Next we went to Walmart, and there we found the items and prices we are used to. We were also able to stock up on our favourite $2.77 wines.

After putting away the groceries we started house cleaning, scrubbing and vacuuming our old Georgeie Boy. For dinner we had BBQ'd pork, beans and salad. Tried to go light, but ended up stuffed.

This morning we had breakfast and then took the van to Houma, a bayou town about an hour southwest of New Orleans. We took a tour of this quaint but growing town, did a little shopping, then stopped for lunch. Because we had Ben with us, we wanted a place with outside seating and take out food. We picked Boudreau & Thibodeau's, a very popular Cajun place. You can see it at: http://www.bntcajuncookin.com/default.aspx . We had the sampler appetizer, Fried crawfish, crawfish etouffee, and fried pickles. It was very good, and we had a nice outdoor meal.

On our way out of Houma we stopped at a seafood place and bought a pint of fresh shucked oysters and a pound and a half of fresh shrimp. These made a great dinner for us later this evening. Tomorrow we head towards Tuscaloosa.

French Quarter, part 2

We woke up early on Saturday morning, had breakfast, and caught the 10 a.m. shuttle to the French Quarter. We wandered through the French Market, looking at all the overpriced junky "tzotkes", then walked along the riverfront admiring the mighty Mississippi.

We checked out a few restaurants around Bourbon and Royal streets, but couldn't face paying $58 ++ for a mediocre looking buffet brunch, or $18 for a shrimp omelet. We decided that since we'd had a great dinner on Frenchmens St. we'd give it a try for lunch. We chose Mona's Cafe, a Lebanese place. We thought we'd have a light lunch, so we ordered the appetizer combo. We were served humus, baba ganoush, a yogurt salad, a green salad (parsley?), lots of warm pita bread, falafels, kibbe (spiced ground lamb balls deep fried in a falafel coating), and stuffed grape leaves. We accompanied it with iced teas. The food was great, and we ended up totally stuffed! Total price: $22.

After lunch we waddled our way back into the French Quarter where we admired the buildings, and checked out some of the bars that were now opening for the day. We stopped into one bar for a couple of beers and enjoyed a band playing zydeko music. We then wandered around some more, sat by the river and watched the barges going by, and then went to meet the shuttle bus back to our RV park.

For dinner we BBQ'd some rib eyes, and Marlene made sweet potato fries, collard greens, and a cucumber and pepper salad. It was all delicious, and we accompanied it with a bottle of our cheap California Shiraz. While cooking on the BBQ some new neighbours appeared and introduced themselves. They are from Lethbridge, AB. It's unusual to find western Canadians in RV's here. Most Canadians here are from Ontario or Quebec. They had just come from a trip across Canada to Nova Scotia, then down the east coast to Florida, now stopping into New Orleans on their way to Parker, AZ.

It seemed like a good night for Marlene and I to party, so we fired up the stereo and danced into the night.

Pictures above are some of the buildings in the French Quarter, our Lebanese lunch and the zydeko band (sorry about the blurry image).

We reach the "Big Easy"

We left St. Louis early, and made our way south on the I-55 towards Memphis. We fought our way through heavy traffic and over nasty roads, crossing from Missouri to Arkansas, to Tennessee and finally to Mississippi, where we reached our stop for the night at the Walmart in Senatobia, MS. Although this is a small town, the Walmart was VERY busy, and we had a hard time finding a spot to squeeze our 60 ft. into. What are all these people doing at Walmart on a weekday afternoon?

We did a bit of shopping here, finding prices about the same as back in Edmonton. No liquor at this Walmart, either.

After a relatively quiet night we packed up early and hit the road south towards our next stop in McComb, Mississippi. Just another long stretch of interstate, although Ben liked the new look of the surroundings with lots of trees (still changing colours). The Walmart at McComb was also really busy, and we ended up staying in the middle of the parking lot, not our usual choice. Our sleep was disturbed by the noise of street sweepers cleaning the parking lot all night.

We packed up and left McComb early and went to Hammond, Louisiana, where we gave the rig a much needed bath. We just love the service at Blue Beacon truck washes. Every one we've been to offers a good wash with really friendly, attentive service. From Hammond we entered bayou country, traveling miles on the elevated roadway over the swamp. We were able to see many "camps", the Louisiana version of a weekend cottage, built on stilts along the swamp. People use these places on weekends and holidays, enjoying fishing and hunting. Some live there year round. Most are accessible only by boat.

Finally we sighted New Orleans on the horizon. We approached steadily in a river of traffic, following our GPS into a WRONG TURN. Marlene says I should have followed my instincts not the GPS. Anyway, we had to find a place to get turned around, and that meant threading our way through a residential area, and right into a high school marching band parade! Nice of them to have a parade just for us. We eventually made it to Ponchartrain Landing RV park, right on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain. It's a nice place, well run and with good amenities, one of which is a shuttle bus to the French Quarter.

Availing ourselves of the shuttle, we waited til the 7:45 run, and went to the French Quarter. Bourbon St. was crowded, but a lot of the places were quite empty inside. Our plan was to go to Frenchmens St., just outside the French Quarter. It's where locals prefer to go for food and music, away from most of the tourists. We decided to dine at Praline Connection, a very nice little restaurant serving Cajun food. Most of the clientele appeared to by African American locals, and they were all eating lots and having a good time. We ordered file' gumbo and a plate of fried chicken livers with sweet green chili sauce, and corn bread. We accompanied the food with a local dark beer. All of it was great. The service was perfect, the food tasty and the price reasonable. Total bill $35.

After dinner we wandered the street, listening in to an eclectic mix of music. One band was even playing on the balcony above. After wandering Frenchmens, we walked back into the French Quarter, enjoying looking through gates and windows of the rundown looking buildings to see fine homes inside. Thirsty after all our walking we stopped into a club to enjoy some blues music. No cover charge, but beer was $6.25 a bottle!

After rehydrating ourselves we walked some more, then found a taxi and headed back to the motorhome. The pictures above are our dinner, band on balcony, the blues band we enjoyed, a fishing "camp", and me with "voodoo Santa".

Day of the meat fest

We woke early this morning after a quiet night in the Harrah's parking lot, and after a breakfast of pancakes I got the van off the trailer, cleaned the road grime off the windows and got it ready to go into downtown St. Louis.

We loaded up Ben, and hit the I70 towards the Gateway Arch. After finding parking, we walked along the riverfront, where we saw loaded barges making their way down the Mississippi, and saw a monument to Lewis and Clark, who began and ended their 2 1/2 year exploration to the west here in St. Louis.

As we approached the Arch we were stunned by the size of the monument. Built in 1963, 64 and 65, it towers over 600 ft. high, and is made of huge panels of stainless steel flawlessly welded together. It's a true engineering marvel. There is a tram that goes to the top, but we decided not to brave the line-ups and the heavy security checks to see it. Also, Ben would not be allowed.

After admiring the arch, and the neighboring old courthouse, we checked out the riverboats that take cruises along the river. Then, hunger getting the best of us we got back to the car and went in search of BBQ.

We'd done our research, and found out that one of the best BBQ shacks in town was Roper's Ribs, a Mom and Pop shop that has received numerous awards for its food. Our trusty GPS got us there, and we found ourselves in a somewhat rundown neighborhood. We were the only white faces in sight. Inside the little joint we were greeted by Denise Roper who made us welcome. She asked where we were from, and when we told her, and explained what we are doing, she said she was jealous. We ordered the traveler's special sampler, with baby back ribs, beef ribs, a pound of pulled pork, homemade beans and coleslaw, fries, buns, bread and soft drinks. Total price $34 plus tax. We waited about 30 minutes for the food to be prepared, then rushed back to our motorhome to feast. And what a feast it was... too much to eat in one sitting, and just fabulous flavors. We highly recommend Roper's Ribs if you're in St. Louis.

After stuffing ourselves (and Ben) we loaded the van on the trailer and vegged out. Tomorrow we head south towards Memphis. The pictures above are the arch, the welds on the arch, the barges, the Lewis and Clark monument, the old courthouse, the riverboat pier, Denise Roper at work, and Marlene in front of Roper's memory wall, and of course, the food.

We see the flood damage

At Sioux City we bought some groceries and most importantly BOOZE at Walmart. Nice to get our favourite California red wine for $2.77, and a huge bottle of bourbon for $18.

Our drive to Kansas City was one long battle with gusting cross-winds. Why can we never seem to get a tail wind? Along the way we witnessed the destruction caused by the flooding of the Missouri river this summer. All along the interstate highway the ditches are lined with uprooted trees, piles of mud and driftwood, and assorted flotsam and jetsam. A lot of the farm fields have had their top soil washed to one end or the other, and a lot of granaries are collapsed. All the businesses in the Nebraska City are closed. The amount of damage is staggering.

We also continued to see dozens of dead deer and other animals along the road. Very sad.

At Kansas City we navigated our way to the Ameristar Casino, our port for the night. We had a nice spot in the commercial vehicle parking lot. The surrounding trees were full of thousands of small birds (starlings?) making a lot of racket. Marlene created a fine meal of curried chicken, with new potatoes and broccoli, accompanied by a bottle of our cheap Shiraz. It was great. (see pic)

This morning we rose early, and hit the road for St. Louis. We made a stop in Higginsville to fill up with gas and water and dump our sewer tanks. Why do the gas pumps here only allow you to pump $75 at a time, requiring three authorizations to fill the tank. Very slow process. At least the gas here was only $3.09 a gallon, reducing our fuel costs to 50 cents a mile.

Once again we fought strong, gusty crosswinds. By the time we reached our parking spot at Harrah's Casino St. Louis my hands were sore. We had a bite of lunch (left over pasta) and went to check out the casino. It was surprisingly busy for a Monday afternoon. (see pic)

Tomorrow afternoon we'll take the van off the trailer and go to see the Gateway Arch, then try some St. Louis style ribs. Stay tuned.