28-31OCT25 - Houma, LA 🎃🎃🎃

Monday AM, 27OCT, head out on very same road we came into RV park on yesterday, back to I-49S,  Five hour drive back to Houma unfortunately on the terrible section I-49 in Lafayette, followed by other bad sections on US-90.  And set up camp in Joe’s rental house driveway in Houma.

Tuesday not much done, just R&R after yesterday’s drive.  Dinner at Bethany parents, Tee and June’s with other in-laws.  Late that evening gale force winds and heavy wind blew thru for fifteen minutes.  A few air filled Halloween yard ornaments not properly staked down, were lost in the neighborhood.

Wednesday mostly little errands and minor repairs/maintenance on RV.  Over to Bethany & Joe’s for dinner; and then off to Zacks Famous Yogurt for “birthday” yogurt belatedly for Corrie’s recent b-day.

  

Thursday Dan works on straightening out the rats nest of wires for TV entertainment system, satellite, over the air TV, DVD player, cable, and two extra HDMI cables.  All are black cords, with no labels☹

Friday, Halloween day, Corrie starts touch-up/painting rental interior walls as designated by Joe.  Dan works on RV wiring for tow connection to Toad.  Then early evening Trick or Treat with Bethany, Joe, Noah and Coraline.

Meanwhile back in Silverdale, WA. 

23-27OCT25 -- Hot Springs, AR (🎂another trip around the sun for corrie 🎂)

Wednesday AM, 22OCT, get RV ready and hook up Toad with Joe’s help for today’s drive to, Vicksburg, MS, where we will overnight.  Next day we will finish drive to Hot Springs, in Arkansas.  There we will meet Joe, Bethany, Coraline, Tee and June (plus various Jeep rock crawling friends of Joe’s) for four days.  Joe has rented BnB called Virginia Homestead for all and we will stay in driveway in RV.

We went little out of our way to avoid driving thru Lafayette, LA.  So we took I-55N from NOLA almost straight north to Ameristar Casino RV Park in Vicksburg.  Added some miles and time to drive but no stress of going thru Lafayette, LA; and an enjoyable drive.  We were last here sometime in 2004?

Set up camp and headed to The Tomato Place for early dinner.  Small, eclectic, hidden café highly rated on Roadfood.com.  Great fresh beefsteak tomatoes used throughout menu (of course including various BLTs).  Corrie went with Fried Green Tomatoes BLT w/avocado.  Dan went with pimento cheese and tomato.  And for take out Dan got an order of fried pig skins (best ever, extremely light and air’y, with no grease).  Back to RV little rest and shower; then to casino for short time.

Thursday AM back on road to finish drive to Hot Springs, AR.  No trouble on drive except last 1/4 mile to get to BNB – narrow streets and steep hill.  First impression at BNB is no way to find level spot for RV!  But end of road in front of house just fits our 24 foot rig and extra blocking under wheels and levelers get’er done.  Later that evening Joe’s Houma friend Alan, Katie and two daughters, show up; with Alan’s trailered ORV.

Friday AM Joe, Dan, Tee and Coraline head to Hot Springs Off Road Park for some rock crawling.  There we meet Alan and two daughters; and Joe#2 a friend of Alans.  Tee, Coraline and Dan jump in Joe’s jeep.  Alan and his two daughters jump in his ORV.  Joe#2 has just purchased really beat up ORV for $2.5K and everyone thinks best deal ever.  Also joined by ????????? in small side/by/side Honda ATV that is very, very expensive.  Honda has figured out people were buying their top of line ATVs and pouring thousands into them.  So why not cut out the middle man and hours spent on modifying; just sell them with no mods needed?

Dan immediately noted no side door or retaining netting to keep upper body in ORV when rolling; and no four point harness (Joe said on the to do list).

Hot Springs Off Road Park | hotspringsoffroadpark.com

Its seems the big thing of rock crawling is not the ascent or descent; but the socializing and story telling after each trail segment ascent/descent.  One ORV is chosen to lead, and one person videos each ORV making the crawl.  Then everyone stops at the top talk about how well or how bad they did.  Plus discuss what they observed or experienced on this trail in past (especially big mistakes leading to rescue efforts or even flipping an ORV right side-up after rolling).  In fact all these guys have had landed their ORV on its side or flipped upside down.

Often the extreme forces on these vehicles often results in major mechanical/structural failure resulting in all day emergency repairs in the park or on the rocks where it broke.  And sadly today we had two major failures, and one indication that something was not right.  Only the new honda ATV was still running right when we stopped.

First Joe2 thought he had a engine mount break; apparently this is routine and son Joe he had the stuff to fix.  So Joe2 started back to camp.  Then Alen said he had lost his clutch and he need tow back to camp.  But son Joe $7000 new tranny was wonky and he didn’t want to tow.  So Joe2 would tow Alan back at camp.  Dan decided to get in good old Toad and head back to RV and BnB.

Turns out they could fix Joe2 motor mount but the missing mount had caused the transmission casing to split and no fixing that.  Alan problem was no throw-out bearing – two day repair in a garage.

Everyone made it back to BNB about 530PM.  Joe and Alan bbq steaks, burgers and sausages over open fire and an excellent dinner.  With lemon cake and s’mores after and then to sleep.

Saturday AM (Corrie’s B-day) awake to off/on rain throughout day erasing all outdoor plans for day.  But since Joe and Alan jeeps are out of commission lots of time left for preparing for tomorrow’s departures.  Joe helps Dan trouble shoot bad right, rear tow light on Toad.  Dan off to autozone where clerk sells him amber light when red light needed.  After half hour in down pour Dan is drenched and light is replaced (won’t know if light fixed until hooked up to RV.  Joe and Alan off to ORV park to trailer both of their jeeps in the rain in mud (fingers crossed no more breakdowns).  Rocket and us are in the RV listening to rainfall.

Early evening we decided to find restaurant in town for B-day dinner for Corrie (ie just us two).  We find The Vault.  High end, fine dining, opens at 430PM and no reservation available until 7PM.  So we sat at bar and ordered off the menu (something we have done a few times in past when told long wait for open table for two).  Excellent meal, back to BnB, everyone there and Alan’s ORV trailered.

 

Vault | Restaurant Downtown Hot Springs, AR | Places to Eat

Sunday morning everyone a little slow in packing-up to hit the road to Houma.  First out the gate is Alan and family; then Bethany, June and Coraline in a SUV.  Next Joe helps Dan get RV hooked up to Toad and we are off.  That leaves Joe and Tee to go back to ORV park get Joe’s jeep loaded on trailer and they will bring up the rear.

As on our trip up here we split it into two days and took different route back.  We decided to first drive I-30 and I-49 to Natchitoches, LA, before continuing to Houma.  Dan picked an RV park called Grand Encore RV Park.  In the RV guide book we use it is shown very close to I-49.  What is in the book is more an approximation then to scale.  It was twisty, turny, narrow, dead end road.  GPS kept saying make u-turn during last few miles.  But at the end of the road is a beautiful, empty, facility on the Red River.  Has boat ramps, pool, splash zone and full hook-ups.  Right next door to a Army Corps of Engineers visitor center. Hopefully drive out will be easier?

 

Grand Ecore Visitor Center

Home - Grand Ecore RV Park

Monday AM, 27OCT, head out on very same road we came in on back to I-49S.  Five hour drive back to Houma unfortunately on the terrible section I-49 in Lafayette, followed by other bad sections on US-90.  And set up camp in Joe’s rental house driveway.

08-22OCT25 - Houma, LA (🎂granddaughter coraline's 6th birthday🎂)

Wednesday AM, 08OCT, finally get Toad connected to RV and start dumping holding tanks in Casino RV park sewage system.  And experience big back flow and sewage on ground.  This has never happened and Dan had it all connected correctly.  His guess is that park system is clogged, so we report it to front office and hit the road finally😊  

Drive is great until we enter and travel thru Lafayette on US-90; this was road was terrible 30 years ago and now is worse!!!  We finally make it to Joe’s “second” house he is renovating in prep for selling.  Joe and Dan figure out how to level rig manually.  When things settle we will need to have RV system checked.  Late afternoon/early evening at their house, Joe grills great steaks, with sides by Bethany.  Great dinner and early night back to RV for early bed.

Thursday AM Dan runs his laptop over to Mr Wu for battery/charger issue.  Mr Wu started working on small computers 1979, and Dan has relied on him since 1997 when in Houma.  Corrie runs errands/grocery shops; Dan spends time on phone trying to solve auto-level issue; DISH not working.

Friday more running around not actually accomplishing anything.  Part of the problem is Houma is not very big; and businesses geared to RV support are few and not really geared for advanced system jobs.  Ex - is trying to have auto level system checked (no one qualified to even trouble shoot-it, might be able to replace an obviously broken/leaking part – otherwise try NOLA or Baton Rouge).

That evening head to Houma Christian School for their HS homecoming football game.  Why attend?  Because granddaughter Coraline is the flower girl for the homecoming queen, king, and court during the halftime ceremonies.  Quite an honor for her and family.

Saturday (11OCT, Coraline’s b-day) not much done other than laundry.  Mid-afternoon Joe buy’s cajun boiled crabs, shrimp, potatoes and sausage for an early, early, delicious dinner.  Then back to RV to veg out.

12OCT Dan spots "Ghost Buster Car" in Civic Center parking lot.  This car has been around Houma area since late 90's.  Almost a fixture in any parade in Houma (specially Mardi Gras).  Not sure if same owner/driver but was being shown off for some reason?

Thursday, 16OCT, Corrie wakes up not feeling well; off to urgent care.  Dan takes laptop to Mr Wu at Great Southern Computer, new dell battery for laptop is in.  Mr Wu will replace battery and then start lengthy process of shifting computer from MS Windows 10 to MS Windows 11.  First step is one hundred per cent back-up and complete virus/malware check.  Bathed Rocket.

Friday Dan picks up computer from computer shop (Mr Wu finds one of two clam shell hinges broke and fixes with JB Weld – (permanent repair will require brand new, entire laptop shell).  Decision is to postpone repair.

Saturday we head to Coraline’s delayed b-day party at Joe & Bethany’s.  Small family and neighbor gathering. Joe had inflatable jump/slide with pool at bottom set-up.  Some adults thought no sunshine and only 74 degrees maybe don’t use it?  Kids ignored parental concerns and jumped right in.  Heavy winds and rain squall that night.

Sunday AM, 19OCT, note right front RV tire worn☹   During afternoon quick visit to rougarou festival with Joe and Coraline.  We first attended festival in 2013.  Too hot and Coraline needed nap after yesterday’s festivities.  So a short visit.

The Ryan RV Express: 14-26OCT13 - Houma, LA

Rougarou Fest | Rougarou Fest

Monday after lunch we take RV to local tire shop to get right front swapped out for spare.  Inside tread of tire badly worn for some unknown reason on drive here from Seattle area.  Tire replaced quicky and at very reasonable price.  Dan finally washes just the front of the RV and Toad to get all the bugs, tar and grime off.  Tuesday, 21OCT, not much done just getting RV ready for tomorrow’s drive to Vicksburg, MS.

Also during last two weeks in Houma we have dumped our sewage tanks twice.  Been to Verizon to get Corrie’s phone fixed and pay for more data on Dan’s phone.  Been to Tee & June’s (Bethany’s parents) for fish fry dinner with Joe, Bethany & Coraline.  Trimmed crape myrtels and bushes around rental house.  Started working on clearing out small metal shed on rental property.  Doing laundry at Bethany & Joe’s.