Mickelson Wins The Masters

Sunday, April 11, I slept like a rock until 9:00. I called Sunrise on Second and they said they are open until 2:30. So we take the bikes off the truck and head out to breakfast. I have New Orleans French Toast Plate and Bob has Blueberry Pancakes. A groovy looking guy is playing classical guitar. He really knows his crowd as he strums Moon River and Amazing Grace. I enjoyed breakfast after our waitress turned down the ceiling fan above us.

Afterwards we stop at Rouse's for fruit and Ham Hodge Podge ingredients. We're home by 1:00 to watch the final round of The Masters golf tournament. The high gets to 77 here today but it is 87 degrees inside the RV after we closed it up to go to breakfast and the grocery store. We had to reclose them when the streetside neighbors starting BBQing. He used half a bottle of lighter fluid right under our window. Anyway, the low was 57 this morning.

Phil Mickelson defeats Lee Westwood by two strokes and has an emotional scene with his wife Amy who is in treatment for breast cancer. This tournament was Tiger's 5-month comeback after his sex scandal and he tied for 4th.

Bob and I make our soup and eat healthy while the neighbors scarf down BBQ pork chips and beef steaks. It's 6:27 p.m. and 54 degrees with 42% humidity. I stay up until 10:30 working on French Quarter pictures and journal pages. Today I read in the paper that the French Quarter Festival is the second most popular event in the French Quarter after Mardi Gras. Late breaking news today reveals a shooting on canal street near where we were on Friday. Eight people were shot. All are being treated and none have fatal wounds as of right now. How scary to think we were just there.

Stand Up and Be Counted!

Thursday, April 1, I have no idea where March went! In spite of our long cycle I couldn't sleep last night. Woke up at 8:15 on a board. Whatever is blooming, tree pollen probably, has my sinuses running. I take a walk anyway after a light breakfast and come home to stretch.

Right after I get back there's a knock on the door. It's a young gal working for the Census. She takes all of our information and Voila! we are counted! Our Escapee RV mail-forwarding service had first informed us that a census form would be mailed to us and we would need to comply with a quick turn around. Then the feds informed them it was not to work that way but we heard no more about it. I asked this gal and she said she was hired to go door-to-door at 3 or 4 RV Parks and marinas in the area. People are to be counted 'where they are' if they have no permanent home. So even though we have a permanent address in Texas, if we don't physically live in that spot, we get counted where we are when the census is taken. On the Census form we are called "People staying here on April 1,2010 who have no permanent place to live." Interesting.

I work on journal pages for a bit. Around 1:00 Bob and I go to Ruby Tuesday's to enjoy their salad bar. Then we cruise up and down Gause to scope out beauty shops as my hair is getting critical. Finally we stop at Rouse's, a great grocery up here that reminds me of the old Simon-David in Austin. We find Yellow Tail wine for $5.99 a bottle. And we buy seasoned chicken thighs for $0.98/lb. They'll work good in my Chicken Broccoli Soup that my Dad loves so much.

I cut up Ponchatoula strawberries. They are in season right now, very inexpensive and so tasty. They are sold on almost every street corner here. We got ours at Rouse's. It's 5:49 p.m. and 73 degrees with 46% humidity. The high was 74 after a low of 56.

Movin' On to Slidell, LA

Tuesday, March 16, I woke up at 7:00 on a board, behind the bikes. The digital picture frame is not on, not even unpacked. I get it out with the heater and figure out it is still on daylight savings time. It's always something. I stare at it and drink my coffee. Bob get up. We stretch, clean up yesterday's dishes, have a light breakfast, pack up and leave by 10:10 a.m.

We travel 175 miles east on I-10 through Lafayette and Baton Rouge to I-12. The rest area/travel center they promised is not at Mandeville so we have no break. We finally stop after that about 30 miles from our final destination at a Chevron. We use our own restroom as we are in a 15-minute zone and some guy is hogging the only diesel pump. We get back on the Interstate and eat our leftover muffalata sandwiches on the road.

It is weird to pass all of the little RV Parks and towns we stayed in with the Casita. It seems like another lifetime ago. At Slidell (we called it Slimedell when we were here back in the 1980's with our St. Louis friends, Jim and Donna, because the water was so smelly--high sulphur content) we took I-10 west four miles to Hwy 433 to our destination today,.New Orleans East Kampground, 56009 Hwy 433, Slidell, LA 70461 (985) 643-3850, St. Tammany Parish.

We pass Pine Creek RV Park on the way and it looks better from out front. A lady in the office, Cathy, leads Bob to site #23 while I sign us in. I'm not sure I like that. We like to do this setting up thing together with the two-way radios. Our site seems to be nestled amidst the worker bees here. They just graded the gravel on the site and she comes over to rake some loose rocks for us. We are set up by 1:50.

I put up the decor, we move the bikes outside and Voila! It seems like home again. Cathy brings over a wooden platform to put in front of our door in case it rains since they just graded the site. We take a short walk. It clouds up after our sunny drive today. The high was 72 degrees after a low of 50 in Egan. It's 3:54 p.m. and 64 degrees with 34% humidity. Bob Googles for Rouse's, an upscale grocery here, on Gause Lane at exit 266. We head up there and find a great store. We'll have to come back as we're too tired to browse. I snapped a picture of this in-store promotion to win a Smart Car. Thought Nan-Marie and Tom would get a kick out of it.

Back home for leftovers. I walk once around the campground for a half of a mile. This is not our most scenic place but we've been in worse (e.g. Ft. Stuckin!) It is a cool 60 degrees at 6:12 p.m.