Every year someone organizes what is known as the Mad Heifer Ride in late March. Last year it was cold and I didn't go. This year my friend Jackie, who organized it, convinced me to go even though we had winds of 25 mph. It is all the women at the park, permanent residents and anyone in the daily spots, who wants to have a fun ride. Those without transportation hitch rides with those of us who have rigs. It's a very easy run out Little China wash to Butterfield Road (it's on the same route as the old stage coach route to San Diego), and a stop for lunch at a place called Candy Rock.
Someone this year brought bottles of soap bubbles and you can see in the photos that we are blowing bubbles. With the shelter of Candy Rock, the bubbles actually floated up to the top of the rock.
We planned a trip across TX to New Orleans. Stopped at a park in Fort Stockton, TX, then San Antonio, Beaumont and Abbeville, LA.
And then there was Houston...
We were probably two-thirds of the way across the city, in the four-lanes-each-way part instead of the downtown six-lanes-in-each-way part, an hour or so before rush hour. The left rear tire on the truck gave up the ghost, and, luckily, right at an exit ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, across the parking lot, was a Discount Tire. I have always said I would rather be lucky than good.
We were puzzled by the area in Beaumont: what is all this green stuff?
After Beaumont, a run to Abbeville, LA to a small park.
Abbeville is a very old town and an interesting one. We tried to find the shrimp market in Delcambre, twenty miles or so from Abbeville but it was Good Friday and everything was closed. However, the next morning, we drifted down to the local grocery store and got shrimp!!!! $4.99/pound. Wonderful...I may never eat shrimp anywhere again.
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| Shrimp boat at Delcambre LA |
We had seen what looked like crab pots in ponds around Abbeville. We stopped to buy ice and talked with guy next to us who was also buying ice. He told us the fresh water pond traps were for crawfish; the marine pots were for crabs. And he was kind enough to show us the blue crabs he had caught that day.
On to New Orleans!
We left Abbeville with a few boiled spiced shrimp left in the fridge. There are only a couple of parks in New Orleans and they are prohibitively expensive. I found a park in Slidell, LA, which is about 40 minutes from the French Quarter on a good day. We got settled into the park and took a quick run to the French Quarter. No one in their right mind would take any kind of vehicle into the French Quarter on Easter Sunday. There were two different parades and the people and vehicle traffic were ridiculous.
We decided the next day to go out to Venice, LA, directly south of N.O. Not much out there but the road parallels the Mississippi all the way out to the Gulf. This area is interesting: extremely narrow, with the Gulf on one side and the Mississippi on the other. Levees keep the water from overrunning the land.
Everything is built up from a couple of feet to probably 15-18 feet above the ground. Even the schools are set up to accommodate being overrun by water during a storm surge. We stopped to walk the dogs at the Plaquemines Sheriff's Department park. I had read about Spanish moss but had never seen it. Well, here it is. And the Sheriff's Department has a serious bbq smoker!
So we returned to Slidell with a plan to go into the French Quarter on Monday after Easter Sunday.
The easiest way into the French Quarter is to park your vehicle and take the streetcars. I had made an appointment at a Petco to have all three dogs groomed and the Petco was on St. Charles Avenue which is the route of one of the street cars. We dropped off the dogs and drove down a mile or so where we coud park the truck and catch the streetcar. And it started pouring.
The last stop for the St.Charles Avenue streetcar is Bourbon Street and Canal Street...perfect. We hopped off and launched into the French Quarter.
I had noticed as we came down Canal Street that there were Mardi Gras beads hanging in the trees. (Mardi Gras was only about five weeks earlier.) When we got into the French Quarter, we saw more beads on the balconies, on the signs on the buildings, etc.
The ironwork on the balconies in the French Quarter looks like lace. I doubt that today's foundries could re-create any of it. It's beautiful.
We stopped for a light lunch at Felix's Oyster House. Had Oysters Bienville, oysters on the half shell topped with chopped shrimp and a bunch of other stuff and then broiled. Divine! Then we began wandering around the French Quarter people-watching.
We walked back to Canal Street/Bourbon Street and caught the street car going back toward the Petco. The Charles Avenue streetcar passes through the famous Garden District, home of the rich, the super rich, and the famous. Here are a few shots of homes on the streetcar line. I am sure the really extravagant homes are a couple of blocks away, to keep out the riff-raff like us.
When we stepped off the streetcar, we saw a cop and asked him about somewhere to get more Oysters Bienville. He pointed in the direction of the French Quarter and said "Try the Blind Pelican. It's that way." So we drove and drove and finally gave up. Turned in at Superior Seafood and had outstanding Bienvilles and entertainment at the bar to boot. The bartender was shucking oysters. He made it look sooooo easy (and I know it's not). He didn't wear one of those metal gloves to protect his hand, either.
We returned to Slidell with our recently-groomed dogs and packed up to go to Vicksburg the next morning. I had toured the Civil War battlefield there probably 25 years ago, before I had the information on Henry Lingle Waldrip's Indiana unit. A stop at the visitor center gave me a map marked with the location of the 24th Indiana.
We drove the route around the battlefield, admiring the beautiful monuments dedicated to units on both sides. The 24th Indiana monument was just before the end of the route. Some of the most devastating fighting in the entire war took place at this location, Champion's Hill. Henry was captured here and then returned to Union lines a week or so later in a prisoner exchange.
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| How did they fight their way through this dense vegetation? |
The stone above marks where the 24th Indiana was positioned at the end of the siege in July. Vicksburg is on a bluff with a bayou to the north and ravines and rough territory on the east and south. It couldn't be taken by direct assault so the Union Army laid siege to it from early May until the first of July.
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| The monument dedicated to the 24th Indiana. Company B's plaque is on the right side. |
Every time I visit one of these battlefields, I reflect on what a crushing failure of our country resulted in such a waste. For those of you unfamiliar with the War Between the States (as it is called in the South), there were 600,000 casualties at a time when the population of the US was far smaller. Many towns, both north and south, lost all of their young men.
The cemetery here in the park has 17,000 graves and 13,000 of the dead are unidentified. I can imagine parents, wives, children, friends at home, waiting and waiting and waiting for news that never came.
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| Henry Lingle Waldrip, Company B, 24th Indiana Infantry. |
The next morning we started home, making stops at Abilene, TX, Carlsbad, NM, and Cornudas, TX.
It always surprises me what dogs RV'ers choose. At Abilene, we saw a couple walking what has to be the biggest dog I have ever seen, an English mastiff. Mike was outside and called to me to come out. Muppet slipped out the door with me.
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| Both dogs appear confused. |
Mike had seen Carlsbad Caverns years ago so he stayed at the trailer while I toured the cavern. It is immense. We got there early so we found a place to park and no line for me to get a ticket or get on the elevator. By the time I returned to the visitor center, there were 20-deep lines at each of the three ticket booths and an even longer one for the elevator. Timing is everything.
I took a lot more photos but most of them did not turn out, as the lighting in the cavern is quite dim and my little Fuji camera couldn't deal with both the dim light and the distances. We left Carlsbad Caverns and wound our way down Highway 62 toward El Paso. This run was the only place in thousands of miles where there was no Verizon signal at all, nothing.
At Cornudas, TX, there is a small, old diner with an equally small, old RV park behind it. We learned last year that it's nice to get home mid-day and, if we didn't stop at Cornudas, we would have gotten into Deming late. The other advantage is that it gave us a chance to clean up the Lance, since we are leaving again in four weeks.
Mary's was worth stopping. The lady who apparently owns it had flaming RED hair and appears to be in her 70's. The whole place is for sale by owner, but I'd say chances are very slim it will sell. She told us the cafe was probably built around 1923 and it appears nothing has changed since then.
The owner told us that Highway 62 was part of Butterfield Stage route and that there was a stage station at the back of the property. Loyal blog readers know that the park in Deming is also adjacent to part of the Butterfield Stage route.
Here is our space in the "park." After we got settled, we went into the diner and I had one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever had.
We left the next morning for Deming and fought heavy winds the whole way. The first full day we were home we had 30 mph winds the whole day and into the night. Spring in the West.
Preview of coming attractions:
The Great Western Trail
We leave May 25 for four months in Utah. I will pick up a new side-by-side (automatic transmission, power steering!) and trade the Honda in Richfield, UT.
Utah is an off-road friendly state. There are trails north, south, central, everywhere. We stayed at a couple of parks last year that had good access to the trail system but we didn't have the side-by-sides with us.
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