WE'RE HOME

We got home on Sunday afternoon, Mar 16th. Great to be home -- but lots of work to do. Check back in mid-April -- we'll be on another trip!!

Last Week in Thibodaux, LA

We got Saturday and Sunday off from Habitat for Humanities. We were definitely ready for a break, however, Friday night we decided to try some Thibodaux cajun food and went to a local favorite called Big Al's. I got a 3 lb platter of crawfish and a cup of gumbo. It was great. The others with us weren't as brave and stuck to fried fish and shrimp. Jim got his usual chicken salad. Saturday we essentially had a down day and just got rested up, and some of us did some errands. Jim and I went and got new dishes for our new motorhome. Since it is gold and white inside our motorhome, I thought our 20 year old camping blue and white dishes had served its purpose and needed an update. We got some pretty white and gold dishes now. Saturday night we all tried another local favorite cajun restaurant called 1921. Again, I got the crawfish tray and it was awesome. Larry and Mem decided to give the crawfish a try and they got half crawfish and half shrimp, so I was pretty proud of them for trying the crawfish. This crawfish at this restaurant was even better than Big Al's. They looked like mini lobsters. I think I finally got my crawfish fill now. Sunday, we all went to New Orleans. Mem and Larry and Peggy and Jim had never been to New Orleans. We went to the French Market and bought some bargains, (Larry, Mem and Peggy in 1st pic above at the French Market). We took a horse and buggy ride through the French Quarters and really enjoyed the tour and history as told by the driver. We then had lunch at the famous Pat O'Brien's. (see 2nd pic above). Some of us were disappointed with our meals there. They brought the wrong dish for me and Larry and when we told the waitress, she really wasn't interested in correcting the problem. The food just wasn't as good as we were getting in Thibodaux. I don't think I would recommend Pat O'Brien's for lunch. It is still a must do if you want to get a drink in New Orleans. From there we took a walk down Bourbon Street. I don't think Mem and Larry and Peggy and Jim were quite up to the wild sights there. But I guess even if you are not a party-goer it is worth seeing at least once just to say you did it. From Bourbon Street we cut through Jackson Square and enjoyed the many artists displays; some were quite good and some looked like art my nieces and nephews could do with their eyes closed but it was fun to see all the different kinds of art. From there we walked across the street to what they call the Moon Walk. Its kind of a bridge where you can see the Mississippi from one side and St. Louis Cathedral from the other side. The 3rd pic above is Mem and Larry and Jim looking out at the Mississippi from the Moon Walk; I think Larry was a little frisky after his walk on Bourbon Street - Larry didn't want to admit he enjoyed the sights on Bourbon Street, however I think this picture proves otherwise!!! Next we went to the famous Cafe Du Monde and got lattes, hot chocolate and Beignets which is a must do when visiting New Orleans. Beignets are sugary pastries that are sooo good. We all agreed it was a great way to end our visit to New Orleans. We had to go through the French Market to get to our car so of course we gave it one more pass and we all found bargains we couldn't live without. When we were trying to leave the French Quarters we got caught in traffic for at least an hour and it turns out we got caught in the aftermath of parade traffic. It was very congested and a little tense but once we got out of the city it was smooth sailing back to the Habitat campground. Monday evening after work, we went to a cultural cajun music jam session at the cultural center in Tribodaux. We thoroughly enjoyed it. We learned a little about cajun music. Basically it is beautiful story telling in French and it all seems to have the same beat which we learned is because the cajuns danced a 3 step waltz to the music. We were told that call cajun music utilizes the same instruments that were used at this particular session. They used acoustic guitars, an electric guitars (which was played as a bass guitar), a fiddle (representing German influence), an accordian, and finally, a triangle). There weren't very many people attending the jam session so the band kind of singled us out and wanted to know where we were from. It seemed like between every song they would ask us about certain places they knew about in VA. It was such an enjoyable evening. They even tried to sing some of the songs in English so we could enjoy the beautiful verses. Jim and I only got to work 2 days last week and we actually got all the walls built for the house we were working on. We got all the walls (including the interior walls) up except the front wall of the house. Tuesday, we finished the front wall but didn't get to set it up before the days end. I was really hoping to see the last wall go up, but at least I got to contribute building it. We left on Wednesday to go to Gaffney, SC where Jim had an appointment to the get the motorhome worked on. Mem told me they got the front wall up on Wednesday, the front porch built on Thursday, and the major beam for the roof on Friday. I wish I could have seen that all come together, but we had the appointment with Freightliner on Friday which meant we had to leave by Wednesday. Overall, our time at Habitat was hard work, but very rewarding. Jim and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and we will definitely do it again. We got to Gaffney, SC on Thursday evening and Friday they took our motorhome in for work. There was a couple of recalls that had to be handled, a small problem with the trip computer and an oil change/grease job. We leave here on Saturday and will stop and visit my mother in Bracey, VA Saturday afternoon. We will be home in Fredericksburg on Sunday. Looking forward to seeing our family and friends in VA.

Thibodaux, LA

We arrived in Thibodaux, LA on Sunday, March 2nd, for our Habitat for Humanities volunteer work. There are 3 RV's from our Good Sam Club here; us, Jim and Peggy Settles and of course Larry & Mem Halstead. There are 3 other RVers here from other states. In addition to the RVers we were joined by 21 Boston College students who are spending their spring break supporting Habitat for Humanities. We were pleasantly surprised to find out we are working on the Angel Place community started by Oprah Winphrey and Bon Jovi, the rock star, in conjunction with Habitat for Humanities. It is going to be a community of 70 homes located on Bon Jovi Road. Bon Jovi Road is shaped like a horseshoe and we are working on the houses located in the middle of the road. After we got the RV settled, we sat outside to enjoy the beautiful day. Soon we were joined by several of the kids that already live here. We met a young man, Kurt, who is 12 years old. (He is the boy in the back in the above picture). Kurt has become our new best friend. He told us his story of his family surviving Katrina. They had to be rescued by the Coast Guard from their roof top. He said he was so scared (he was only 10 at the time). His family made their way to Thibodaux and they have been here ever since. He said the day they found out they were getting a home in Angel Place was the best day of his life. He said the families thought they were going to see a movie because they had a big screen set up in a field. Then Bon Jovi walked up to the front of the screen and everyone was screaming and shouting and then Oprah came on the big screen and told everyone they were standing in their new neighborhood and that they would be getting homes. He said people were screaming and rolling on the ground. His family actually got one of Oprah's Angel Network houses that was furnished by Nate from her show. Angle Network actually furnished 28 of the proposed 70 homes. Kurt said his house is the most beautiful house he has ever seen. He feels so thankful. He was so articulate in telling us his story I told him he needs to write a book about his experience. He told me he has already started writing it and it is titled My Journey From Katrina and that he has sent Oprah many letters to see if she wanted to read it but he hasn't heard from her yet. After listening to his story, I was really glad we came here to help. Kurt told me we would feel tired and exhausted after our first day. He was right about that. After our 1st day of work, I discovered muscles I didn't know I had -- I was so sore, tired and exhausted. I think we were all in bed by 8:30pm that night. Jim, Jim and Larry and some of the college kids were finishing the siding and trim on a house, some of the college girls primed and painted the inside of a house; and Mem, Peggy and myself got involved in building walls on a house. We were joined by several of the college kids and the other RVers. Even though the work is hard work, we really enjoyed ourselves. We have one Habitat supervisor who went from house to house giving guidance and instruction. Habitat provides coffee and donuts in the morning at 8:00am; then we get a break at 10:00am then lunch is provided at noon. So far they have fed us enormous lunches. Except one day the volunteer responsible for lunch that day had a mixup on the schedule so we were on our own for lunch. (Actually, we were glad for the break from the big lunches). I can't believe how fast one week went by. By the end of the week, we had 3 outside walls built and standing, and about half of the interior walls built and standing. We get the weekend off. The Halsteads, Settles and Jim and I are going to visit New Orleans on Sunday.

Harlingen, TX 08

What a busy and fun time we have had. We arrived in Harlingen on Wednesday and Wednesday evening, Mem and Larry and their friends Shirley and Dallas had cooked a great BBQ rib dinner. It was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting Shirley and Dallas. They are the kind of people you meet once and think you've been friends forever. On Thursday, Mem, Larry, Shirley and Dallas showed us the town of Harlingen and where the Wal Mart is. It's very important to know where the Wal Mart is when you are camping! That evening we ate at one of their favorite Mexican food restaurants. On Friday, we all went over to Mexico for the day. (See pic 1 of Jim and I standing in front of the Welcome to Mexico sign). The Mexican border is about a 45 min drive from our campground. We parked the car on the US side and walked over a bridge to get to Mexico. It was amazing to see all the dental offices in town - there must have been 20 of them on one street. And every other store was a pharmacy where you could buy drugs without a prescription. It was wild. I priced a few of our medicines but we get them cheaper than they were selling because of our health insurance (it must be wonderful for people who don't have insurance). Meanwhile, we basically shopped til we dropped. We had a great lunch at a place called Garcia's and then us girls went back to shopping. Then we took a break and met the guys at a place called the Neon Moon. (See pic 2 above of us in the Neon Moon). They had a great band and Jim and I enjoyed a few dances and a Margarita. Actually Jim enjoyed several margaritas! We also met friends of our dear friends from Tulsa (Mason and Flo); their friends are Gerry and Kenny from Sands Spring, OK. As you can imagine, being friends of Mason's and Flo they were quality people. We really enjoyed meeting them. We made plans with them to get together for dinner later in the week. Pic 3 is of Bono chilling out and watching the outside TV. Saturday night we (Jim and I and Larry and Mem) met Gerry and Kenny for dinner. It turns out that our buddy Mason called Gerry and "instructed" her to take us out to dinner on his behalf. What a wonderful meal. We went to a place called the Roadhouse which is famous for their BBQ. There was so much food, Jim and I took the leftovers home and will probably get 3 more meals from it. They're not kidding when you hear everything's big in Texas. On Sunday we went to a huge Flea Market. Again, we seemed to shop til we dropped. After the Flea Market we decided to satisfy Jim's need for a WhataBurger. On Monday we took a ride over to S. Padre Island. The last pic 4 is of Dallas and Shirley, Jim and I and Mem at the beach in Padre Island. (Larry was taking the picture). We all took a tour the town and ate at a place called Dirty Al's. We also celebrated my birthday at the restaurant. The food was excellent. Everyone but Jim got the fried shrimp which were gigantic. Jim got a chicken sandwich and he claims he enjoyed his meal as much as the rest of us. I don't see how he could have. We all agreed we had never had such big shrimp before. On Tuesday we had a down day. I came down with a tremendous sinus cold. Jim went out and got me some Mucinex-D and I slept most of the day. We did manage to watch two movies though. I must have had quite a few drugs in me because that night I woke up to see this naked, hairy body with a led blue light shining the blue lights up on the cabinets in the front of the motorhome. At first I thought I just had a nightmare then the creature starting walking toward the bedroom. I was scared to death and could hardly breath and I shook Jim to tell him to do something when I discovered Jim wasn't in the bed and the naked hairy creature was Jim. I asked him what in the world was he doing. He said he had 14 control systems to checkout and he was just checking to see that everything was working. I could have killed him! Wednesday Jim and I had a cookout for 10 (Larry&Mem, Shirley&Dallas, Gerry&Kenny, Judy&Frank and Jim and I). We really had a good time. We played one of my favorite games, Left, Right, Center. (Pic 5) Because we had 10 people playing at $3/person each pot was worth $30. We played twice; Shirley won the first game and Jim won the second. We would have probably kept playing but American Idol came on so we tuned in to watch the show. Pic 6 is of Gerry and Kenny and Jim and I. Thursday, Mem, Shirley and I went shopping in the town of Harlingen and that evening we all went out for Mexican food again. Friday, Jim and I went to Mission,TX with Mem and Larry. We met up with Shirley and Dallas who were visiting friends in Mission and we went to another favorite BBQ called the LoneStar in Mission. Everyone got catfish except Jim and Larry who got the BBQ. Again it was a great meal. Afterwords, we all met back at Shirley and Dallas' RV and had pie for dessert. We leave tomorrow, (Sat) to go to Thibadeau, LA to do Habitat for Humanities work for two weeks. We've met so many nice people here we're kind of sad about leaving. The weather here has been great. Lots of sunshine and nice cool breezes. We really enjoyed our visit here. Until next time...........

San Antonio, TX 2008

We arrived in San Antonio on Sunday. We settled in to our Thousand Trails campground at Medina Lake and drove out to our friends, Lynn and Joe Nelson's. They used to live in Stafford and have relocated to San Antonio. They have a gorgeous home (over 4,000 sq ft) and just love it in San Antonio. We went out to a Tex Mex resturant and had a wonderful time. On Monday, we met with Jim's sister, Diana and her long time friend Weesa for lunch on the riverwalk. Diana is visiting from Denison, TX so it was great that we were able to catch up with her in San Antonio. We had a wonderful lunch at Sawgrass Steak House located right on the riverwalk. From there Diana and Weesa came back to the campground with us to see our new motorhome. While they were visiting, a bunch of deer came around the motorhome so Diana and I went out to feed the deer. It was great fun. They actually came up to us and ate out of our hands. The next day, Joe and Lynn came out to the motorhome for breakfast and to see our new motorhome. We had a great visit with them. Later, Jim and I were just going to take it easy before we headed out to Harlingen, TX but we decided to join Diana and Weesa for a movie and dinner in town. We went to see Fools Gold. It was a great movie - we all enjoyed it very much. Weesa is such a hot ticket. Diana and her husband Sherman have known Weesa and her late husband for 30 some years. Weesa's husband, Chief was actually Sherman's boss in the military. Weesa had us laughing so hard as she was telling us about Diana's grazing habits during the middle of the night. Diana loves candy and every night she would get up and found all of Weesa candy stash. I think by the time we met up with them on Tuesday, Weesa was just about out of candy and sweets. Jim had met Weesa and Chief years ago, but it was the first time I got to meet her. I had heard so much about her from Diana over the years and it was great to meet her. Whenever I see candy though I will think of poor Weesa and her disappearing candy stash!

San Antonio, TX Bound

We left Las Vegas on Friday, Feb 15th with a goal to make it to Tucson, AZ. However, we got stuck in traffic in Pheonix for 3 hours so we changed our plan and made it as far as Casa Grande, AZ. We had a wonderful trip in our new motorhome. It runs much quieter and smoother than our older one. We did however, find another issue. We hit driving rain in Pheonix and we discovered we had a small leak at the top of the windshield. I don't know what it is about us and windshields but we have had our share of problems with them. This isn't a big leak because when we are sitting still it doesn't leak; it was only during a driving rain storm and while we were driving. We passed through a really neat little western town called Wickenberg, AZ. It was very rustic western and we even saw a guy pull out onto the highway in his horse and buggy and while we sat in traffice he trotted about a mile down the road to the grocery store and was on his way back before we ever got near the grocery store. This guy sure looks like our friend Larry Halstead. Must be his twin. Anyway, I really envied him being able to run out to the grocery store with his horse. I later read a plaque about the town and found out it is the dude ranch capital in the U.S. I definitely want to come back to this little town in the future. We spent the night in a WalMart parking lot in Case Grande, AZ and both Jim and I slept great. I think we were so relieved as to how well our motorhome did. Saturday, we drove through AZ and New Mexico deserts. I did most of the driving today because Jim has a head cold. I even pulled into a Flying J and actually manuvered around in the parking lot around other cars and trucks. I have never done that before. This motorhome drives much better than our old one. I used to get so nervous whenever a tractor trailer passed us while I was driving because it felt like we were going to get swept off the road. This new motorhome doesn't rock and roll at all and you cannot even feel the air pressure from the passing trucks. I usually only drive about an hour at a time but today I drove four hours. Piece of cake! Anyway we drove as far as a town called Van Horn, TX. We drove through the desert for hours and all of a sudden here is this little town of 2 streets and it has an RV park but no Wal Mart. In fact, Jim looked on his Garmin and there isn't a Wal Mart for 200 miles. We are staying at the Eagles Nest RV Park and it is a really nice park with nice big pull-thrus so we didn't have to unhook the truck and we can just head right out in the morning. Speaking of Garmin, Jim now has two GPS systems to get us down the road. The one that came with the motorhome is an Alpine and if he messes with it while he is driving, the lady's voice tells him if you are driving the vehible and trying to access the Alpine system you need to pull over. I'm glad he's got another woman bitching at him for fooling with the system while he is trying to drive! Bono and Charlie have gotten quite comfortable in the new motorhome. But Bono keeps getting up about every 30 minutes to get patted by Jim as if to say "You still love me man?" Charlie's position is in my lap watching the road. We should get to San Antonio tomorrow (Sunday). Looking forward to seeing Jim's sister, Diana, who is visiting a friend and our friends from Fredericksburg (the Nelsons) who have relocated to San Antonio. Until next time.......

Las Vegas 08 Week 4 Pictures

This is Jim's new "friend" Chris or Senuous Chrissy. Can you believe Jim didn't notice anything different about him?













This is our new motorhome! Or should I say Bono's and Charlie's new doghouse?