Well, enough of the Rio Grande Valley and time to start our trek north. But we didn't want to get back too early because of the cold and snow still happening in southeast Michigan!
On March 5, we left Tropic Star heading for Aransas Pass. We had made reservations to stay a week at Aransas Bay RV Resort. It just so happened that the wind was quite nasty--gusts up to 47 mph. Not much fun with this high profile motor home! We found the park to be very nice and had an ideal site.
The next couple of days were spent exploring the area. We went to Corpus Christi a couple of times and had delicious seafood each day. We found a German bakery that had apple streudel that was out of this world!! The seashore in Corpus is very nice and well kept. It was about a week early for spring break, so the beaches were deserted. We did take the ferry to Port Aransas a couple of times. That island is quite commercialized with t-shirt shops, etc. From our campground, we walked to Beals department store and found it to be nothing like the Florida Beals.
Time to meander up the coast. Our next destination was Beaumont. We had tried to stay in Galveston, but the campgrounds were booked up with spring breakers! We took the ferry to cross Galveston Bay. Kind of neat sitting in the motor home riding on the water! Gulf Coast RV Resort was our campground for the next three nights. Beaumont has a lot of oil history and we took advantage of that to learn about that history. We visited the Texas Energy Museum and learned about the discovery of oil in Texas in the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the information came from lifelike maniquins. The first oil well was called Spindletop and it was fascinating to hear just how many failures and hardships it took to perservere in the discovery. In the museum there were illustrations on what goes on in the refineries that we see all over the country, with huge ones in the gulf area. Still don't understand all the technical jargon, but we did get an overall understanding how we get to the gasoline that goes in our vehicles.
The next day took us to Gladys City on Spindletop Hill for a look into the past. Sightseers, fortune seekers and "boomers" poured into Gladys City to see the world's greatest oil well which was discovered in 1901. There are 15 buildings furnished with items of daily life in the boomtown. The city went from 50 residents to 50,000 in no time, but when the well went dry, Gladys City became a ghost town.
While in Beaumont, we went through the Chambers House, a beautiful old mansion. It was built around 1910 and was occupied by two daughters until 2004 when the youngest daughter passed away at age 90. During all the time it was occupied by the Chambers family, nothing was changed. There was a remodeling in 1924 which added a sunroom and a bedroom upstairs. The furniture was exactly the same as it was in the early 1900's. An interesting sideline--when the sisters inherited the house, they only had $40,000 cash. Neither of them ever worked and when the youngest sister passed away in 2004, the estate was worth 4.5 million, which was left in a foundation for future care of the house. They had enmassed their fortune in the stock market! Quite shrewd! We had a personalized tour given by a very knowledgable lady. All the original china, silverware, glassware and porcelin figurines were still on display. Very neat to be able to go back in time.
Well, on to the next leg of our journey north--New Orleans!! We had never been there and it was one of the cities on our bucket list. It truly is a place like no other! We arrived on March 15 at Pontchartrain Landing, a very nice park located on a canal that opened up into Lake Pontchartrain. This was our home port for five nights. On Saturday we took the shuttle offered by the park into the French Quarter. We walked and walked and walked!! It was quite a unique experience! We hit St. Patrick's Day weekend and spring break!! In New Orleans, one can walk anywhere with open containers of beer, mixed drinks or whatever, as long as it is not in a glass container. So there were quite a few folks that were a bit intoxicated. It was really neat to see musicians performing everywhere, sidewalks or streets. All were quite talented! Then, of course, you have the magicians and jugglers showing off their skills. We took Sunday off since it was St. Patrick's Day and booked a tour for Monday. The tour was very informative and we got to see a lot of New Orleans, both new and old. There is an entire section of antebellum homes. What was interesting to find out was that in order to be an antebellum home, it had to predate the civil war. If anything was done to the outside of the home to remodel, it was no longer to be an antebellum home. All of those homes are made of bald cedar wood, which the termites don't like and that's why they are still standing and looking so elegant. Of course, the azaleas were in bloom all over the south and made everything look beautiful.
St. Louis cemetery was a stop on the tour. All the graves are above ground, as they are all over New Orleans since the elevation is below sea level. Some of the grave markers are truly elegant. Of interest, a body could be placed in a crypt and the crypt could not be opened for a year and a day. This was a law and mainly because of disease. There is a "holding" area where a family member had to be placed if they died within that period of time. After that year and a day, they could be placed in the family crypt.
There are still a lot of areas in the New Orleans area that have not been rebuilt since Hurricane Katrina and lots of construction going on. The French Quarter was not affected by the storm, but most of the surrounding area was. We found out that New Orleans is the fourth largest port in the United States and the rebuilding process of that port was certainly a priority.
Of course, we enjoyed some good food while there. We tried gumbo, po'boys and red beans and rice along with other southern delacacies. Gulf shrimp still remains one of our favorites.
We took the 24 mile long bridge across Lake Pontchartrain and visited Fairview-Riverside State Park. Much of this park was damaged by Katrina, so all the buildings were new. Many new trees had been planted, but the old mansion that sits on the property seemed to have made it through with minimal damage. Another stop for a shrimp po' boy for Roy and a shrimp salad for me and we continued on to a maritime museum. Just got a bit more information on the Mississippi River's past.
Time to move further north into Mississippi. We spent the next night just outside of Jackson, Mississippi at a park called Swinging Bridge. It was an okay park with nice pull-thrus and had an excellent Mexican restaurant within walking distance. We got there for "happy hour" which meant we could get one medium marguerita and get a small one free!! Good thing we walked because the medium was huge!!
Up and at the next morning headed for Trace State Park just outside of Tupelo, Mississippi, the actual birthplace of Elvis Presley. This is a very nice park and we were backed up to the lake which should have been great; however, we arrived on Thursday, left the following Monday and it rained EVERY day and never got to 50 degrees!! We did some exploring in Tupelo, but had been to Elvis' birthplace and the hardware store where he got his first guitar when we were there in 2007. Still a neat area. Just wish it could have been better weather.
Well, the weather certainly didn't get better as we headed north to Cave City, Kentucky. The one stop we wanted to make before getting home was the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Cave City is only about 20 miles north of there and we had stayed at Cave Country RV Park before and knew that it was a nice park. We were surprised by snow flurries and the following morning it was only 33 degrees and snowing!! The corvette museum is really awesome. There are some gorgeous cars there and we drooled a lot.
On Wednesday, March 27 we got up early and headed for home! It was a clear, but cold day which was okay for traveling. We arrived home at 4:45 p.m. and was glad that our neighbor, had turned the heat up in the house! Then it was unpack and laundry, laundry and MORE laundry. We think the motor home rose about four inches once it was unloaded. It definitely let out a sigh of relief!! It's good to be home and look forward to our next adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment