01-30 NOV25 - Houma, LA (🍗🍗 plus turkey day in cleburne, tx🍗🍗)

Saturday, 01NOV, continue helping Joe in rental house.  Unfortunately plumbing system appears to be plugged; efforts to solve plumbing problem fail.  And Joe shifts to installing wood laminate flooring in living room.  Sunday off to RV sewage dump to empty RV black water and gray water tanks.  Then back to son Joe’s rental house; hoping he gets house sewer system unplugged.  Eventually Joe calls-in brother-in-law Andy to help.  They hook up hose with special nozzle on one end and hook it up to Joe’s pressure washer.  Push it down all the plumbing vents on the roof; Presto/Change-O clog gone.

Lite dinner at Joe & Bethany’s watching them teach granddaughter Coraline to ride a bike.

Wednesday, 05NOV, off early on NOLA Costco run.   This is first time we have used the early entry privilege as members (nice perk).  Main purpose is to get Corrie’s Costco hearing aide to work in bluetooth mode.  The audiologist says it is probably firmware issue and she needs us to come back at 1230.  We were gonna go to Crabby Jack’s Po-boy but got phone call to be back at Costco by 1200.  So we shopped in Costco to kill time.  Looks like hearing aid is working now, and we spent a chunk of change not planned.  Back to RV and now sewer in rental house is not working again☹?

Thursday AM Joe back at rental house to unplug the plumbing second time; hope it works this time.  Joe then starts preparing one section of back yard not fenced by digging holes for fence poles.  Problem is that appears that three different postholes used over life of house and not properly removed.  So every time Joe marks eight feet on center he finds remnants of old posts buried.  Means much harder excavation around remaining concrete and pulling it out with truck and chains.  not much done rest of the day; Dan makes donation run to Habitat Restore in Thibodaux with old doors from rental house in the Toad.  Dinner with Joe, Bethany, Coraline at their house.

Friday not much done: Joe leaves on hunting trip with old HS friend Matt.  Monday, 10NOV, Joe back from hunting and has too many things to do because he goes offshore tomorrow.  Corrie touches up wall paint in rental house.  Dinner with Joe, Bethany, Coraline (take out pizza from Rotolo:).  Temps have dropped 25 degrees, sit around Joe’s new firepit trying to stay warm.

Friday, 14NOV, spend most of day getting RV ready for road trip tomorrow.  Saturday around lunch we finish hooking-up Toad to RV and head to Fireside RV park in Ponchatoula, LA.  We will stay there Saturday and Sunday night in preparation for service on our RV leveling jack system first thing Monday AM.

Turns out there are three “upscale” family RV parks on this stretch of highway LA-477 where park is located.   Six years ago we stayed at Reunion Lake Resort a very new park (see internet link).  They all have lazy rivers, pools, swim up bars and often live entertainment.  Fireside is smaller and appears older.  Dan thinks they may not be aiming for true upscale?  Because there is sign at reception desk that says “if you don’t pay bar tab at closing, you will be charged 20%”

The Ryan RV Express: 23-28OCT19 - Ponchatoula, LA (rv downsizing?)

After setting up camp we walked around park; first thing we notice is that lazy river is still open (water not heated).  The bar is busy (LSU football on big screen).  And at 5PM three man band starts rocking (hope is they stop at reasonable hour😊.  Actually by 9PM band is done.

Fireside RV Resort | Campground in Robert, Louisiana

Wake-up to bag of fresh donut holes on RV doorstep😊  Starting at 730 steady stream of RVs leaving (guessing LSU fans heading home.  Is it for church or for Saints game?  Then we head to Punjabi Dhaba an Indian restaurant; we discovered them when they just opened six years ago.  Still in same place but Shell station that was our landmark is gone; took three tries to find it.  Sunday is buffet day (all very good).  Then we drove to two different FV dealerships to look at models on the lots.  Apparently no RV or car dealerships open on Sunday in LA and everything fenced off?  Back to RV to get ready for tomorrow’s departure to RV service facility at dealership we bought RV from.

Monday, 17NOV, depart early for RV service appointment to try and solve our leveler system issues.  Plus two other minor issues (noisy awning and “house” door latch doesn’t always work).  Only issue solved is awning.  But we can leave RV there for them to monitor leveling system and hope they see the problem occur?  So we decide to give up and not to drive back to Houma immediately.  But go back to RV park we left this morning and hope there is an empty spot.  Luckily they had several sites

Tuesday wake up and we find RV “house” door in worse shape than before (even after RV technician work).  Now door won’t stay closed unless dead bolt (which we never use) is in locked position.  We call RV dealer, drive back, and they check door latch assembly on spot (no joy).  So we decide to drive back to Houma with door dead bolted to keep it closed on drive.  Get to Joe’s rental property and Dan adjusts door latch and problem solved

Sunday early AM,23NOV, dump RV and hit road to Shreveport enroute Dan’s sister Sharon & Husband Tim in Cleburne, TX.  We were last there in OCT2023.  We never have had thanksgiving with them and now we were right next door in Louisiana.  So we will celebrate with them for first time.

Rather than drive thru the pot holes and congestion of Lafayette, Dan took a bypass route south and east of Lafayette.  The first part was much better but the end was just as bad and speed limits lower.  End result was bad roads and longer time on the road.  Check into KOA Shreveport and order Domino’s for dinner.

The Ryan RV Express: 27SEP-06OCT23 - Cleburne, TX & Various (or, id, ut, nm, tx)

 

Monday AM break camp in slight drizzle and get on I-20W to Dallas/Fort Worth.  Drizzle becomes a deluge of rain.  We need to fuel and pull into truck stop and get pump under the awning to stay dry.  Dan finishes fueling to discover Toad brake alarm is going off.  He has to trouble shoot it in downpour☹   Continue drive in heavy rain until one hour to go.  Find RV park, set up camp and head to Tim and Sharon’s for delicious chicken dumpling dinner. (note pics of Tim's man-cave)

Tuesday morning head over to Sharon & Tim’s.  Corrie & Sharon head out to shop for turkey day fix’ns.  Dan helps Tim with roofing.  Tim is re-roofing to get lower insurance rate (rate price saving is significant).  Insurance companies in Texas mandate new customers have new roofing and then place expiration date on policy for the next new roof installation.

Wednesday back to Sharon & Tim’s.  Boys almost finish entire roofing before running out of steam.  Girls start makes some thanksgiving dishes today in prep for tomorrow (including great looking apple pie from Sharon).

Then a nice break before off to Pastafina for Italian food.  On way back from dinner, we stop to get pics of very nice xmas light display at Hulen Park.

Home - Pastafina

Turkey-day morning, off to Sharon & Tim’s to finish cooking and celebrate Thanksgiving.  We have seen Sharon & Tim along with their three daughters many times during our marriage, but never had Thanksgiving together.  It will be us four old fogies and their youngest daughter Julia her husband Casey Johnston and their son Gage.  Great day, Great food, and Great company.

Friday, 28NOV, moving a little slow from turkey feast hangover🙃  Head over to Tim & Sharon’s to help finish roof (Tim has it done already).  Now needs to convince new insurance company to write policy.  Tim helps Dan fix Blue Ox tow assembly that connects RV hitch to Toad.  Ladies binge watch “1923” a prequel to Yellowstone.  Back to the RV with thunder/lightning storm rolling in after dinner.

Saturday not much done (Corrie does laundry).  For lunch we try a very new restaurant in Cleburne “Quail Shack”.  Only open for breakfast and lunch (check out below website link).  Owner and wife raise quails in cargo containers and harvest the eggs.  All baked goods, soups, mayos, ham salad, etc, are made with quail eggs (even hamburger mix has quail egg in it).  No quail meat on menu yet because of another level of USDA regulations.

Quail in a box

Sunday (last day of November) make preps for tomorrow’s departure - flush black water tank; fill propane tank and grocery shop.  Mexican dinner and reminiscing with Sharon and Tim.  Back to RV for another near freezing night.

ALSO - lot of small jobs/things done during the month of November:  recycling runs; clearing construction debris; rearrange garage to make cabinet doors; dump RV holding tanks; return library movies; taking care of the garbage; continue touching up paint; Dan washes front of RV; Corrie at beauty parlor; hand washing & vacuuming Toad; laundry; Dan gets haircut;