07-30NOV14 - Houma, LA (with a camp trip to bayou segnette state park)

Thursday morning, 06NOV, after spending two great days with our friends Chuck & Anneke Guldenschuh, we left Tickfaw State Park & headed to Dixie RV in Hammond, LA, to have them look at our dash AC system.  After sitting around all day we learned the magnetic clutch on the new AC compressor was bad & it looks like we may need an entirely new compressor.  After all day at Dixie we had to drive from the RV facility to our daughter Rebecca & husband Raymond’s house in Houma, LA, after sunset; during the drive we learned how bad our front lights were.  Something else to add to the “to do list”.  Since it was dark we had to park the RV in their driveway using flashlights for hand signals, because Corrie couldn’t see Dan’s hand in the dark.

Friday afternoon Dan headed over to Polar Aut-O-Air to discuss the warranty on the dash AC compressor they installed last year.  We make an appointment with Polar’s owner to bring the RV in next week, for them to trouble shoot.  Not much is done the next week with Dan fighting a cold, medical appointments & Corrie xmas shopping.

Thursday, 13NOV, we take RV to Polar Aut-O-Air; & then head off to more medical appointments.  Dan who rarely gets sick has been under the weather for the last week, so for the first time in forever he will go with prescriptions to cure his ailment.  When we pick up the RV we learn that the problem may have been just a loose compressor belt not the magnetic clutch?  Since we have been without dash AC for almost a year, Polar’s owner extended the compressor warranty by six months.

Friday, 21NOV, we head to the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux, LA, a part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve.  Jean Lafitte Park & Preserve is unique in that it is spread over six different geographic locations in Louisiana – New Orleans, Eunice, Lafayette, Thibodaux, Barataria & Chalmette.  See below BLOG entry for our visit to the New Orleans French Quarter Visitor center back in FEB11.  We had planned on visiting the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center on Monday, 10NOV, to take one of their weekly bayou boat tours, but it was cancelled because they didn’t have eight paying customers.  On this particular tour you get a long boat ride of Bayou Lafourche, with a lunch & tour at Madewood Plantation.  It was great day, except the boat ride back into a headwind!

http://www.nps.gov/jela/index.htm

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/01-05feb11-new-orleans-la-mostly.html

http://www.madewood.com/

Sunday, 23NOV, we headed into New Orleans for Cirque du Soleil’s “Varekai”.  First stop was at the “Butcher” deli right next door to one of our favorite restaurants “Cochon” (that we discovered in February 2011) for lunch.  Then it was off to Varekai.  We have seen five of these Cirque du Soleil productions, but the last one was way back in October of 2007 (how time flies?).  We are big fans of Cirque du Soleil, & highly recommend seeing one of their “shows” if you haven’t!  In our opinion Verakai was good, but not as great as the previous five we have seen, still worth seeing!

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/02/01-05feb11-new-orleans-la-mostly.html

http://www.cochonbutcher.com/

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/10/09-14oct07-las-vegas-nv.html

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/home/shows.aspx

Monday, 24NOV, around lunch we fired up RV & headed to Bayou Segnette State Park to “camp” with grandson Jaxson.  We had talked about doing this with Rebecca & Raymond previously; but this was a good time to actually do it because Jaxson’s daycare was closed all week for Thanksgiving.  After setting up camp it was off to the playground, followed by a short hike & then smores around the campfire.

Tuesday morning Dan made a Mickie D run for breakfast.  Then it was off to the Barataria Preserve Trails section of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve.  Unfortunately the visitor center is closed on Monday & Tuesday thanks to never ending federal budget problems.  While there we hiked most of Bayou Coquille Trail (2 mile round trip) before Jaxson ran out of energy.  Then it was back to the RV for late lunch & the movie PLANES (apparently one of Jaxson’s favorites?).  Late that afternoon we re-started the fire for a dinner of marshmallows & hotdogs.  Jaxson already wants to go home, but we showed the movie FROZEN to distract him & then tried to put him to bed; which did not work.  So Dan volunteered to stay up with Jaxson, who finally falls asleep laying on opa on the couch sometime after 11:30PM.  Wednesday morning was the short drive back to home in Houma, LA.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/parks/bayou-segnette-state-park/index

Thursday (turkey day) in the morning Dan headed out with Raymond, Rebecca & grandkids to tour replicas of Christopher Columbus’s vessels the NINA & the PINTA.  The organization that sponsors the vessels does not have a replica of the SANTA MARIA because its draft would preclude it from visiting inland ports; & most of their port visits for fund raising are shallow water ports.  As it is, the NINA is to scale but the PINTA has been enlarged to allow social events below deck (AC has even been added to the PINTA).  One fact Dan didn’t know was the crew lived on deck the entire voyage, because below decks was for storage of supplies only!  A great Thanksgiving turkey dinner was at Joe & Tasha’s, with contributions from Corrie & Rebecca.

http://www.thenina.com/

The last day of November, Sunday, Rebecca, Raymond & the grandkids headed out to get a xmas tree.  Then the rest of day was spent getting the house xmas lights strung; & after dinner decorating the xmas tree.  A real challenge with Mason trying to help:)!

The rest of the month was spent:

---dealing with a string of illness probably started by Dan

---playing Yahtzee & a card game called Phase 10

---Dan BBQ’ing pulled pork

---Saturday, 22NOV, Rebecca & Raymond’s dryer breaks, it is decided to replace both the washer & dryer

---family dinners including Joe & Tasha in attendance

---xmas shopping including Black Friday shopping (including small business Saturday & cyber Monday)

---“camp” fires in the back yard

---taking batman to the local playground

01-06NOV14 - Tickfaw State Park, Springfield, LA (visiting w/guldenschuhs)

Saturday, 01NOV, Corrie & Rebecca headed to the annual local crafts fair at Southdown Plantation, leaving Dan to baby sit.  Sunday morning Rebecca & Dan took Jaxson & Mason for a walk in the nearby Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge.  Even though the Refuge has thousands of acres, there is only one short nature trail; unfortunately 99% of the Refuge is only accessible by water (ie boat).

http://www.fws.gov/mandalay/

Tuesday (election day) morning, 04NOV, we headed to Tickfaw State Park near Hammond, LA, to meet up with our old friends the Chuck & Anneke Guldenschuh.

http://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-parks/parks/tickfaw-state-park/

Followers of our BLOG know that Chuck & Dan served together in the Coast Guard starting in 1979 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.  Our paths have crossed repeatedly (even serving together again in Rotterdam in 1995/97); & as fulltime RV’ers since 2006.  See below BLOG for our last visit with them.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2014/02/0304feb14-navarre-fl-via-tallahassee-fl.html

After setting up camp & snacking, we headed to a Roadside attraction Dan had read about - “Dr Charles Smith’s African-American Heritage Museum & Black Veterans Archive”.  As the website Roadside America states:

“Years of steady work have again transformed Dr. Charles' yard into a folk art mass, used by him as a springboard for lessons in black history for anyone who stops by and wants to listen. "People don't really pick it up until you talk to them," said Dr. Charles. "Then the whole picture comes clear, and everything reads like a book."

Although well into his seventies, Dr. Charles still has the two-fisted forcefulness of a Marine, with strongly worded opinions on everything from race to politics. His museum covers some very unpleasant topics, but he's so earnest and big-hearted that it all somehow doesn't seem so bad.

"When you get back in your car and think about it," said Dr. Charles, "You go, 'Well, shee-it, he's right! He's got a lot of balls for saying it, but he's sure right."”

Check out the below internet link for more details & location.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/38831

After that we had a walkabout in Hammond’s very nice looking downtown.  Then it was back to their RV for dinner & Mexican train dominoes.

Wednesday morning we all headed over to the state park’s Nature Center.  This was a very nice facility with educational displays and an outdoor boardwalk trail (on the walk we spotted a water moccasin).  Then we all drove to Baton Rouge, where the first stop was for lunch at Poor Boy Lloyd’s.  Lloyd’s is a Baton Rouge institution famous for their PoBoys, only open for breakfast & lunch.

http://www.poorboylloyds.com/

Then we walked a couple of blocks to tour the old state capitol building; formally known as “The Louisiana Old State Capitol Museum”.  Outside the museum we discovered a WWI French boxcar, which was part of the 1949 Merci Train.  Over four year ago we ran across one of these in Albuquerque & as we said in our 27MAR10 BLOG – “This is another of those small pieces of USA history that is extremely interesting but unheard of.  The Merci Train was a French reply to the 1947 USA Friendship Train put together by Drew Pearson.  We won’t bore you with the details, but encourage you to check it out on the internet.”

The below internet link will tell you where the Merci Train boxcar is located in your state.

http://mercitrain.org/

The museum’s building was the Louisiana Capitol Building from 1852 to 1932.  The interior of the building has been beautifully restored with many stain glass windows; & the museum has many displays showing the various “capitols” of Louisiana, starting with the Spanish conquistadors to present day Governors in Baton Rouge.  This being Louisiana, a large portion of the displays deal with Governor Huey P Long (aka The Kingfish).  Long was a bigger than life Louisiana Governor (& eventually US Senator) who was planning to run for President, when he was apparently assassinated in 1935.  (We say “apparently” because the exact circumstances of the shooting are not clear; & he may have been shot by his bodyguard & that was covered up?)  A very interesting museum!  Then it was back to their RV for Mexican train dominoes, dinner & more reminiscing. See their BLOG for their spin on our visit/time together:

http://goldenshoervtrip.blogspot.com/2014/11/friends-and-activist-artist.html

http://goldenshoervtrip.blogspot.com/2014/11/baton-rouge-and-old-state-capitol.html

http://www.louisianaoldstatecapitol.org/

Thursday morning, 06NOV, we said our good-byes & headed to Dixie RV to have our dash AC looked at once again!  Dan had called Dixie back in mid-October: but they had no service appointments available & put us on waiting list.  After sitting around all day we finally learn that the magnetic clutch on the new AC compressor is bad & the whole unit may need replacing!  Since the unit is less than one year old & probably has less than 20 hours on it, Dan plans on seeing if it is covered by any warranty at the repair facility that installed it when return to Houma?

22-31OCT14 - Houma, LA (via toomsuba, ms; celebrating a birthday & halloween)

Wednesday, 22OCT, Tiffin finished working on the dash AC before lunch; so we immediately paid our bill & hit the road.  The dash AC worked great for an hour & then nothing!#@!  Rather than drive into night, we drove to an out of the way (& we mean out of the way) KOA outside of Meridian, MS, (Toomsuba, MS, really).  KOA has a really bad habit of naming their location for the nearest location most people would recognize, but the actual location is miles away!  That evening Corrie discovered our Tiffin bill charged us for parts that were not installed?

Thursday finished drive to our daughter Rebecca & husband Raymond’s driveway in Houma, LA.  During the drive we corrected the Tiffin bill over the cell phone.  Unfortunately, no joy on the dash AC.  That evening our son Joe & Tasha came by for a family dinner.

Friday evening Oma, Opa, Rebecca, Jaxson & Mason headed to Thibodaux for a Halloween Festival supporting the local police & fireman (way too many people!).

Saturday (Corrie’s birthday), 25OCT, Rebecca, Jaxson, Mason & us headed to Larose, LA, for the French Food Festival.  In our opinion it should be called the Cajun Fried Food Festival.  Anyone coming to the festival to find cuisine from France based on the festival’s title would be very disappointed!  Since daddy Raymond working just down the road from the festival he was able to meets us for lunch.  Then at 1800 everyone (including Joe & Tasha) met at Ichiban for Japanese birthday dinner.  Followed by stopping by Cherry Blossom Yogurt for dessert (they charge by the weight of your container).

The rest of the month was spent not doing much other than running errands; Corrie starting xmas shopping; starting our annual medical & dental appointments; family dinners; & getting ready for Halloween.

13-21OCT14 - Red Bay, AL (via williamsport, md, & dandridge, tn)

Early Monday morning, 13OCT (Columbus Day), we hit the road for several days of hard driving to the Tiffin Motorhome factory in Red Bay, AL.  Why – because several minor things need fixing on the RV & we have decided that since we would be driving by Red Bay we would stop at factory service center & see if we could get in without appointment (see below BLOG for our last visit & difficulty of appointments).  The day was eight hours of driving & 450 miles covered.  Beautiful scenery until afternoon fog sets in for several hours.  Once again driving on Interstates in Pennsylvania is stressful, because of road conditions, construction, heavy traffic, weather, etc; not to mention many, many, dead deer on the road.  The KOA in Williamsport, MD, was definitely off the beaten track.

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

Tuesday’s drive thru all of Virginia & part of Tennessee on I-81S was one of the most scenic Interstates to drive even though we hate Interstates.  Drive was another long one with one major accident delay (not involving us) & couple of rain squalls – 440 miles to spend the night in Dandridge, TN.

Wednesday, 15OCT, we completed the drive into Red Bay, AL, after 350 miles driven.  Even though Tiffin has greatly expanded the number of RV sites at their facility, there was no room at Tiffin.  But some the locals noted a business opportunity & have created small RV parks surrounding the Tiffin repair center.  So we drove across the road to McKinney RV, who has installed over 20 RV sites.  See below BLOG for more about Tiffin repair facility; & McKinney’s “relationship” with Bob Tiffin.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/02/01-06feb08-red-bay-al-laurel-ms.html

Thursday afternoon a Tiffin rep came by the RV to go over our work list.  The repair rep told us that it was at least one month to get into a service bay!  But if we could live with a three hour service, something might be available next week. (Apparently Tiffin is having problems with some of their newer models including 2014’s?  Our informal survey indicates there are a lot of new & newer Allegro Busses, Phaetons & Open Roads waiting for service.)  So we opted for the three hour service to address these three issues:

1) air horn system that almost caused a fire as we discussed previously in the BLOG; 2) our GFCI 120volt circuit keeps “popping” for no reason;  3) our dashboard AC system stopped working almost one year ago & we have had it looked at three times, each repair has lasted less than a week each time.

Friday at noon we moved the RV across the road to a Tiffin factory RV spot.  After setting up camp Dan set-up the DISH satellite since it looks like we will be here awhile?  Saturday, 18OCT, we headed over to Russellville, AL, for a flea market & WalMart.  After returning to the RV, we moved it over to Detail Depot for so they could repair some front window chips, & then wash/wax the RV.  (see above 2012 BLOG link for more details on Detail Depot & our last visit).

Sunday just before lunch we headed into Tupelo, MS, for a little exploration.  First stop was the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center & Headquarters just north of Tupelo.  While there we picked up info on Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site, & the Tupelo National Battlefield Site.  Then we watched the informative 15 minute film on the Trace.  At the visitor center we also learned the following two major Civil War battles in the “local” area:

#1) 10 June 1864 -

In 1863 Federal armies won important victories at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Chattanooga.  In the spring of 1864 the Federal mission was to bisect the South from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the Atlantic coast at Savannah, Georgia.  Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman wanted to destroy the Confederate Army led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and occupy Atlanta along the way as he executed his “March to the Sea”.

Sherman knew that his plan was vulnerable.  To supply his large troop movement into north Georgia, he depended on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad.  This line could be most threatened by the excellent horseman of Confederate Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry corps.  Sherman needed to keep Forrest in north Mississippi.

In June, Sherman ordered Brig. Gen. Samuel Sturgis and 8,100 soldiers to move out of Memphis and into north Mississippi for the purpose of fighting Forrest and his cavalry corps of 3,500.  Win or lose the primary goal was to keep Forrest in Mississippi.  Sturgis's forces were crushed by Forrest on June 10 at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads and the Federals retreated back to Memphis.  Although defeated, the primary mission was accomplished.

http://www.nps.gov/brcr/index.htm

#2) 14 July 1864 -

In July, Sherman still needed Forrest to stay in Mississippi.  This time though, Sherman expected better results on the field of battle. Sherman ordered his commander in Memphis "to make up a force and go out to follow Forrest to the death, if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury."  Now the Federal force was 14,000 strong and led by Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith.  The Federals left Memphis on July 5 headed into north Mississippi, determined to defeat Forrest.

On the morning of July 14, the Battle of Tupelo began at 7:30 a.m. when the Confederates began a series of uncoordinated charges against the Federal position.  These attacks were beaten back with heavy losses.  Failing to break the Federal center, the Confederates attacked the Federal right, again without success.  After dark, the Confederates made another attack from the south without significant effect.  Although his troops had repulsed several Confederate attacks, General Smith was alarmed.  The heat was taking its toll on his soldiers.  Also, due to bad planning, his men had little but coffee and worm-infested hardtack (crackers) to eat, and their ammunition supply was very low.

At 2 p.m. on July 15, after skirmishing with Confederates on the western and southern fronts, the Federals began marching north in the direction of Memphis.  They marched four miles and crossed to the north side of Old Town Creek and camped in the late afternoon.  At 5 p.m., from a commanding ridge south of Old Town Creek, Confederate forces surprised Smith's troops with artillery and infantry fire.  The Federals scrambled and formed a line that pushed the Confederates off the ridge and forced them to retreat to Harrisburg.  The fight at Old Town Creek ended the Battle of Tupelo & once again Forrest’s Calvary was prevented from advancing on Sherman’s supply lines.  Among the casualties was Forrest himself, who was kept out of action for three weeks.

http://www.nps.gov/tupe/index.htm

Our later exploration of Tupelo showed a very nice downtown but everything was closed on Sunday?  We did notice lots of painted steel guitars on the sidewalks in tribute to Elvis, who was born in Tupelo.  Lunch was at Woodys – no wild game as advertised on their sign, but a very good Sunday buffet w/snicker raviolis (selected as best Mississippi dessert two years ago?).  Then we took the Trace Parkway for forty miles back to RV – beautiful road that we took several days to explore & drive the entire length of in 2004 in our first RV.

http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

Monday, 20OCT, Corrie headed back to Tupelo & the Mall.  Right at lunch Dan got a call from Tiffin service that our three hour slot would start in thirty minutes & please drive the RV to service bay 31!  They were able to repair air horn that almost caused a fire when the wiring shorted out.  But nothing else was done & they wanted the RV back at 0700 the next day.  Tuesday morning the Tiffin electrician could not find the problem with our GFCI 120volt circuit; it appears that the system has repaired itself?  So it was out of the service bay to wait for a technician to try & solve our dash AC problem that we have lived with for almost one year.

Wednesday morning we receive phone call to get over to bay 42 to have our dash AC system looked at!  The dash AC was supposedly fixed by lunch time.  So we paid our bill & quickly hit the road to Houma, LA, & the kids & grandkids.