05-25DEC13 - Houma, LA (merry xmas!!!)

Thursday morning, 05DEC, we hit the road back to Houma, LA to beat the cold front/ice storm that the weather forecasters have been talking about for almost a week. Originally we were going to head west & south to stop in Vicksburg, MS, & spend the night. But since the cold front was coming from the west, we decided to head due south & spend the night in Philadelphia, MS; staying at Frog Level RV where we stayed back in 15NOV12.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2012/11/01-15nov12-red-bay-al-mostly.html

Friday morning we started driving to Houma, LA, after hooking up in the rain as the predicted cold front had finally caught up to us. Our window defroster had a hard time keeping up. Earlier this year we noted that our dash AC was not working. We arrived back in Houma to 80 degree temps & more rain, but an hour after arrival the cold front came thru & the temperature dropped 30 degrees!

 

Sunday evening, 08DEC, Tasha & Joe had a family dinner for her grandma, mother, two aunts, three friends w/two kids, Rebecca & Raymond w/two more kids, & us. Very enjoyable time, with family reminiscing thrown in. Monday, 09DEC, we helped decorate Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson & Mason’s xmas tree. While doing this, Dan discovered that a special ornament was made for him last year when he fell off roof & spent week in hospital at Ocshner.

Wednesday, 11DEC, took the RV into a local garage for hopefully minor repairs to dash AC system so the window defroster system would work. Turns out that a seal in the AC compressor was bad. We then learned that our after market insurance does not cover seals & gaskets. Since we need the system to work, we made an appointment for the repair. If some sort of “mechanical” damage is found during the repair that caused the seal failure, we will be reimbursed by our after market insurance.

Thursday evening we along with Rebecca, Jaxson & Mason headed into New Orleans for “Celebration in the Oaks”. This is an annual Xmas light display in New Orleans’ City Park. We had visited once many years ago. Back then there were two parts. One part was large light displays that you could view from your car. The other part was vendors & smaller displays that you could walk thru. Apparently someone woke up to the fact that most families only paid to drive thru & skipped the walk thru section (ie money was being lost).

Now both displays are combined & there is no drive thru. End result is you have to walk through the displays & past many vendors selling food, drink, toys & pictures w/Santa. As adults without kids, we prefer the drive thru. But the children definitely prefer walking thru the displays, especially those they could play on!

Tuesday, 17DEC, we took the RV back to the shop to fix the dash AC. When the AC compressor was opened the mechanic discovered it full of metal “filings”. This is good news because our after market insurance should cover the repair. The bad news we now must wait for an adjuster to come out to authorize the repair & more parts will be needed. As a result we must spend the night in RV behind shop. Wednesday the after market insurance adjuster did not show up. The shop keeps working on the AC system, but we spend another night behind the shop. Thursday, 19DEC, the insurance adjuster shows up & approves the repair. This gives us another reason to celebrate our anniversary that night.

Saturday, 21DEC, we went to the new Cosco in New Orleans to buy a new laptop computer for Dan. As we have discussed in previous BLOGs Dan’s present computer is over six years old & still running MicroSoft Windows XP & an old version on MicroSoft Internet Explorer. Dan did try upgrading to Windows Vista & latest Internet Explorer; but it was such a disaster, that he paid someone to re-install XP & an version of Internet Explorer. Although we are happy with what we have & it is powerful enough for our needs, we feel “forced” to replace it!

MicroSoft has tried several times to stop providing upgrades to XP, but customer complaints have forced them to backdown. Latest rumors are that it will happen in the spring of 2014, no matter what. Additionally, today’s websites often will not work properly on older versions of Windows & MicroSoft Internet Explorer. Although the new laptop is the latest & greatest, the odds are that most of our old software isn’t compatible?

Christmas Day, 25DEC, Joe & Tasha came over early AM to Rebecca & Raymond’s to open presents. We didn’t count & are guessing, but there may have been too many presents for grandson Jaxson. Right now it appears his favorite is the small workbench with tools? Uncle Joe did manage to scare Jaxson with the clown in the jack-in-the-box; another child who will fear clowns for life. Grandson Mason didn’t seem to be interested in anything he received, but the jack-in-the-box clown didn’t scare him.

 
 
 
 
Late that afternoon Tasha & Joe came back for Xmas dinner (way too much food). Interesting that it took 45 minutes to open presents, & only 25 minutes for dinner? Christmas is always enjoyable, especially with family. This year’s was better than others because it wasn’t in a hospital, like last year when Dan was injured. Hopefully your Christmas was as enjoyable & Santa was good to you:)!