22 Feb Rain rain go away…please
We seem to have taken the weather we were hoping to leave behind with us. Rain and fog and cool air. In my head, the moment we headed out for part 2, the sun would be shining and the temperature would hover around 72. A light sweater would be enough for the gentle breeze. WAKE UP from you’re daydreaming HEDY! Nights and mornings have been really cool, mixed with rain and wind. The flip flops and shorts I am excited to wear will have to remain on the shelf as we pull out thermals and fleece and rain gear to keep warm. I can hear y’all (heading south and west allows me to use the y’all speech) saying “Really, with this adventure your on, your complaining about the weather”!! I am sorry about that. You know when you just need to get something out of your head and than you move on. So, I complained for a moment. Now I will move on.
Lake Pontchartrain
Fountainebleu State Park
Since Dave and I had been to New Orleans a few years back, and given the fact that we ended up there this time along with over a million other people jamming into this city for Mardi Gras, we opted to explore the area we were camping at on the north end of Lake Pontchartrain. The only place I had wanted to get back to in New Orleans, was the National World War II Museum. Amazing! www.nationalww2museum.org. First time we had visited, we spent several hours going through and learning about the European Theater. Didn’t have time to get through the Pacific Theater. I will go back again one day to finish this and get a nice Cafe Du Monde chickory coffee and beignets.
After exploring Fountainebleau State Park some more, we took a ride down Lake Shore drive in Mandeville LA with its grand homes, one more beautiful than the next. Stopped in at a sweet spot called Rips on the Lake for some soup and drink. Really, the weather just was screaming “its a soup day”.
Strolling along Lake Shore Drive
The colder weather greeted us again the next morning. I often have to twist Dave’s arm, but I insisted that we go to Abita Brewery, not far away, since an outside “anything adventure” was not going to happen. OK, there never is any twisting of arms when it comes to craft beer. Nope. At the brewery we met a sweet couple, Dan and Kelly, who are traveling around the country in a RV too! We had such a great conversation with them, long enough in fact, that we started to get those looks from the bartender reminding us to either order more or be on our way. These kind of connections with fellow travelers really get us both excited for what’s next.
As we drove back to CR (Christopher Robin) it just so happened that we passed a Cafe Du Monde on this side of the lake too! Yeah for us. So we got our chickory coffee and beignets after all. I don’t even want to think about the amount of walking we need to do to burn off the calories from these tasty treats. So I won’t for now.
Cafe Du Monde
Be still my heart. The sun is out the next morning. Great to start the day on a two mile walk on the Tammany Trace Rail Trail. I calculated we burned about a third of one beignet. Something just not right about that.
Tammany Trace Rail Trail
We had to take a detour and replace Dave’s phone at a local Verizon store. Come to find out that the sales tax here in New Orleans area is 10%. The sales man thanked us for helping to pay for the improved roads. You’re welcome Louisiana.
Today is Mardi Gras. The closest we got to the city was to drive over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is the world’s longest bridge over a body of water, 23 miles one way. Got to the end of the bridge, and turned around and drove back 23 miles. Hey, this bucket list item for Dave was important to check off. And that we did.
Closest we got to Mardi Gras was watching it live on TV in the RV 🙂
Ended our day with some char grilled oysters. YUM
For Us, It’s Not Abad Day 🙂