22-30NOV10 - Various TX & LA (houma (home) again)

Monday morning, 22NOV, we departed the Big Bend area enroute Dan’s sister Sharon & husband Tim Tompkins place in Kerrville, TX. If you have followed this BLOG, you know we routinely stop there on average twice year; once on our drive leaving Louisiana, and upon our return. We decided to break our drive to Kerrville into two days & spent the night outside Ozana, TX, a little Texas town we overnighted in once before (see below BLOG entry).

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/10/28oct07-ozona-tx.html

After a short, relaxing, drive on Tuesday we arrived at Sharon & Tim’s in Kerrville. We used the rest of day to check on our household goods in storage, do laundry, & run errands. Wednesday we ran more errands before getting back together with Tim & Sharon, & taking off for steaknite at Waring General Store, Waring, TX.

First Tim took us on a sightseeing drive thru the some of surrounding back country roads; stopping at a local cemetery to check out some of the historical headstones. The Waring General Store is in the middle of nowhere & appears to be more dance hall/entertainment venue than a store. Supposedly steaknite here was started by Don Strange & is the first “steak” night in TX. The funny thing is that Don Strange’s main business is a catering business started by parents in Bandera, TX. Bandera is home of the Cowboy Bar which also has a steak night on Wednesday nights that we have attended a couple times in the past.

For $20 you get unlimited non-alcoholic drinks, appetizers, dessert & fixings; along with your choice of grilled steak or 1/4 chicken. The food was excellent & well worth the price. Then around 7:30 the house band, Brian Strange & the Strange Brothers, starts playing. We found the music very enjoyable. In fact for the first time ever, Dan went to the cashier & bought one of their music CDs; something he never does. Except for the long drive home (thankfully Tim was driving), it was another great night out with family!

http://www.steaknite.com/

http://www.donstrange.com/

http://brianstrangemusic.com/

Thursday (turkey day) we got back on the road heading east on I-10 enroute Houma, LA. First stop was at a RV park on west side of Houston which had no room (or so they said, even though we could see empty sites). Since this was the last RV park we knew of on the west side, we decided to drive through Houston to the next one listed on the east side of Houston. Somehow Dan missed our turnoff for Beaumont & we found ourselves circling Houston on I-610 in the wrong direction! After back tracking a few miles we found the next RV park & set up camp. Our turkey day dinner was supplied by What-a-burger.

Friday morning we continued driving east on I-10 making a detour to our favorite casino, Choushatta Casino, in Kinder, LA. Apparently because they were giving away two cars that night, there was no room in casino RV park. The choice was dry camping in their parking lot, or finding another RV facility. Since the drive had been very cold, we wanted electrical hookups to run our heaters & finally warm-up. Dan had noticed a nice RV park just down the road. We drove back to it & found it almost completely empty. In fact we had to call the 800 number the next morning to find out what to pay, because there was no staff on site. That evening we spent a couple of hours at the casino, where the gods of chance were not kind to us.

http://www.coushattacasinoresort.com/

Saturday we awoke to sunshine & had a quick drive to Rebecca & Raymond’s. That evening our son, Joe, showed up & joined us for a dinner of leftover Thanksgiving items. Sunday morning Dan & Rebecca took off to pick out a Xmas tree for the house. In the afternoon Joe came back over to watch football & play Yahtzee & Pictionary. The competition was spirited, & we learned how much Rebecca hates to loose! After just a quick two days, Dan had fly out on Monday morning for a one day job in Anniston, AL.