2015 Trip - League City, TX to New Orleans, LA

Sun. 5/24… (League City, TX)   It rained hard on us this morning complete with lightning and thunder and dumped a lot of water in the campground.  But it let up a bit by 10:00am so we decided to drive down to Galveston Island to tour around.  I had been there when I was on assignment in Houston a little over 4 years ago so I knew a bit about the city but it was still fun to go back.  This place is like a huge Balboa Island complete with plenty of tourist stops and restaurants! The beach is the attraction but the weather kept most of them away at least for the morning. 

 

 

We decided to go tour the Moody Mansion.  Designed by William H. Tyndall for Narcissa Willis, financial mogul William Moody Jr. bought the mansion from Mrs. Willis’ heirs for $20,000 after the great storm of 1900.  The Moody Foundation restored the mansion and property to its former elegance and the $8.00 senior ticket was well worth the money!  Cameras are not allowed in the mansion but I got some pictures of the house. 

 Afterward we looked around for linner and found Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant down by the cruise ship pier but couldn’t find parking.  We headed for the south beach area known as Seawall Ave. (17’ high seawall was built after major storms devastated the island).  We found Fish Tails and a parking space. Yaay!  The meals were ok.  The clam chowder soup was expensive and terrible. They should have called it bacon soup with clams. Lydia and I shared the seafood platter which was very good, just overpriced. We expected tourist trap prices so we were ok with that.  Afterward, we headed home to catch up on TV (Indy 500 and CocaCola 600 for me!). We prepped the rig for tomorrow when we take off and finally leave Texas.        

   

Mon. 5/25…. (New Iberia, LA) We had 240 miles to drive today so we were up and out of camp by 9:00am.  We worked our way east and up around Galveston Bay and to the I-10 then out of Texas and into Louisiana.  No issues, just a stretch of really rough roads which made for a long day!  We are now at KOC Kampground in New Iberia, LA. 

 

The weather is just plain hot!  Up till now we had some cloud cover when it wasn’t raining.  Seems that is over now and we have big white puffy clouds and temps in the 100s!  Hot and sticky!  Treasa is cooking tonight and she served up spaghetti and salad and bread.  It sure hit the spot especially with a few cold Lone Star beers! We talked a bit about plans for tomorrow.  We want to go to both the Conrad Rice Mill and to McIlhenny Company on Avery Island and see where Tabasco is manufactured. 

 

Tues. 5/26… (New Iberia, LA) We left camp around 10:00am and headed south about 6 miles to Avery Island.  This really is an island that was bought by McIlhenny family and developed as a salt mine (cost us a $1 to cross the tiny bridge).  Avid gardener Edmund McIlhenny planted seeds of capsicum peppers and then developed the recipe for the pepper sauce that is made to this day.  The plant is expanding but we got the basic tour through one room of windows.  Basically the peppers are harvested (under the supervision of a McIlhenny) and sent to the mill where they are crushed and made into a pasty muck which goes into barrels for 3 years.  Once opened, they add vinegar and mix and bottle the sauce immediately.  Afterward, we went to the store where all their products are available to sample.  They make seven versions of Tabasco sauce but also steak sauce and others not available anywhere but at the store. 

Afterward we drove back home to walk the dog a bit.  She deserves some time too!  We let her off leash in this great big boggy grass area and she had a ball running and rolling in the puddles.  She was a mess! The picture I took didn’t even look like her

 

Before and after....

 

After giving the dirty dog a quick bath, we then set out to find the Conrad Rice Mill.  P.A. Conrad founded Conrad Rice Mill in 1912.  Konriko was an acronym for Conrad Rice Company. He changed the Cs to Ks and thus the name.  Our tour guide was wonderful.  She is a true Cajun and has been working there for 10 years. Turns out she was married only 8 days after us!   We saw a movie about the history of the area and then she walked us over to the mill.  This place was deemed an historical site in 1981 and cannot be altered in any way.  It is a working mill with only 17 total employees so they don’t market that much product. 

We bought a few things and asked about where to eat in the city and she immediately directed us to ‘Bon Creole’.  She said if you didn’t know about it you would not go in the rundown place.  But she says, ‘It is the Best!’ so we went.  It was the best! Lydia and I split the large combo basket which included crawfish, shrimp, oysters, catfish, fries and a salad and drinks. Very tasty! Rick and Janie bought linner to thank us for helping get their water heater going again. Not necessary but thanks guys!

 

 

After returning we had to check out the little time town of ‘Lydia’, just a few miles down the road. We went into the Lydia Food Store and bought some fudge, then cruised around the town and took a few pictures. Just had to do it!

 

On the way home we drove through New Iberia to see if we could find the 'sugar plantation' mansions on the Teche Bayou. We saw a few but they were closed to tours for the day. We got a picture of the trees in the front of the property.

 

We came back and rested and made plans for the trip tomorrow.  We are headed to the New Orleans area and back to another military base.  One note - we traveled here on I-10 and then to State Highway 90.  90 is a terrible road!  We are continuing east on that route again tomorrow.  Let’s hope the road improves! 

 

Wed. 5/27… (New Orleans, LA) This morning we got going about 9:00am.  Even though the drive was only 135 miles, we knew the road was tough so we wanted to leave early to allow some time. We had a nice enough road but we hit some really bad rain along the way. We were able to outrun it though and made it to Aviation Arbor RV Park at the NASJRB Base in Belle Chase, LA. We had to stop along the road (Walmart parking lot) to switch wives again so Janie could use her military id to get our rig on the base.  This is a really nice place.  The RV park is in a kind of secluded area on the base so it should be really quiet tonight.  We got in and hooked up everything right before the storm caught up with us.  They said we only got the edge so it wasn’t too bad.  Just wish California could see this rain.  Once the rain quit we headed over to the base commissary to pick up something for dinner. Lydia is cooking tonight so we settled on rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes, veggies, bread, and an apple crescent roll thingy for dessert.  It was yummy!  Tomorrow we head into New Orleans.      

2015 Trip - Austin, TX to League City, TX

Tues. 5/19… (Austin, TX) Last day in Austin area. Rick and Janie were going off to visit with Zel, but changed their mind.  Bill & Treasa are going to the movies.  We decided to drive around the Austin downtown area.  We had seen much about the city on TV and heard about their unofficial slogan ‘Keep Austin Weird’. So we explored the area a bit and then went to the grocery store. The girls have been seeing supermarkets all around Texas called HEB.    We got curious and checked the good old web. Named after the founder, Howard Edward Butt, it grew into a corporation employing 80,000 people. I’m glad they didn’t name it ‘Butts Grocery’.  We have Butts on every corner in Texas!  J  After everyone got home we decided on Golden Corral for dinner.  They have just opened on right across I35 from our campground.  The place was a bit disorganized but we finally found Cory who helped us at our table.  The food was ok, some really good, some buffet food.  This is our third GC (not on this trip) so we’ll try others along the way as we travel. We (ok, Lydia) did a load of laundry.  We have been using our washer/dryer in the rig pretty regularly but once in a while she wants to do jeans and blankets when we can use the campground laundry. More machines, less time. We watched Monday night’s DWTS before going to bed.  We will watch the finale tomorrow afternoon.        

 

Wed. 5/20… (College Station, TX)  We pulled out about 9:15 this morning for the 104 mile run to College Station.  It was a really pretty drive off the interstate through farmlands and ranches. We made a fuel stop along the way and while we were in the store, Bailey decided to drive again.

 

While traveling, Lydia called my sister to ask her to mail our Chevron gas card (ours expires in June).  We’ve set it up for the New Iberia campground, so hopefully get it then. We got in to town and are actually a ways away from College Station, in a little town called Bryan at the Primrose Lane MH & RV Park.  This is another Passport America park.  PA parks are usually either out of the major travel paths or don’t offer many amenities.  This is both of those but it’s clean and the spaces are easy in and out.  We are here for two nights.

 

Before we set up the inside we did a pretty good cleaning which was needed from the dust and mud we have tracked in the last few days. Janie made dinner, flautas, rice, beans, chips and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Yummy!  After dinner, we headed home to watch the season finale of DWTS.  We liked the outcome.  America got it right!

Thurs. 5/21… (College Station, TX)  The plan for these two days was to go to the George H W Bush Presidential Library and then to Blue Bell Creamery.  It turns out that Blue Bell is still closed and the plant is cleaning, retooling and sterilizing due to a Listeria breakout a while back.  So that is out.  We took off around 9:00am and found the Kettle for breakfast.  Not bad and reasonably priced too.  Good choice.  Next we made our way to the Texas A & M University campus where the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum is located.  AAA plus senior discount got us in for $5.00 ea. and off we went.  This is the senior Bush (George H W).  This museum was really nice!  You follow Bush’s life from birth through his service, then college and marriage and then into his political career.  There are many, many interesting exhibits.  This is a touch and feel museum.  You are even allowed to sit behind his desk in the Oval Office!  (see pics). Although he served only one term he did make an impact on the US. He and Barbara seemed to both enjoy their time in the White House as well as family time in their summer home in Kennebunkport MA.

 

On the grounds we saw the rose garden area and their future burial site in a nice wooded area beyond the pond and gardens.  Their daughter Robin (1949-53 who died from leukemia) is buried there.

 

 

After that, we made our way back home to rest for a while.  I needed to find a Lowe’s to replace a couple of fluorescent tubes in our bathroom so Bill and I made that run while the others rested.  Lydia looked up quilt stores and found one in the area so she and Janie headed off to find that.  Treasa is cooking tonight. We had short ribs, potatoes, veggies, and lemon bars which were very good.  Eating in like we have been doing mixes it up a bit and the girls decided to take turns making dinner so that seems to be working out too.  All good meals!  We talked about our route tomorrow.  We drive southeast to Houston and then work our way south to League City. Afterward, we took Bailey out for a walk.  Lydia said ‘Take her off the leash and let her run’. She got into a boggy grass area and ran wild.  See the picture below.  It smelled so bad we had to take her right in to the shower to bathe her!          

 

Fri. 5/22… (League City, TX) Today’s drive was 140 miles. The day started out pretty rough for us.  I have a sticky lock on my tow bar so I have to hook up and make sure both arms are locked.  I pulled out about a foot and heard a pop!  The arm lock came loose.  I had Lydia pull the coach up and locked it no problem.  But we were now committed to turn left out of our space which made the right turn out of the park impossible.  So I turned left and went down a residential street to go around the block.  Turns out it was a cul-de-sac!  But after jockeying around for a few minutes we made it out.  The drive took us into the greater Houston area, which meant greater Houston traffic!  But we got through it ok and arrived at Safari Mobile Home Community and RV Park in League City, TX. 

 

 

We chose this park as it is between Houston and Galveston, both of which we plan to visit while here. This is a nice place. More of a mobile home park with a few RV spaces but it works for us. We’re in the trees but I was still able to get a signal from the roof satellite dish.  Still waiting to have to pull out the remote at one of our stops! We went to HEB and got a few things as Lydia fixed a chicken casserole dish with salad.  We found fresh lemon meringue pie so that was our dessert.  Everyone enjoyed it all.  Tomorrow we plan to go to the Johnson Space Center.  

 

Sat. 5/23… (League City, TX)   We ate in and left around 10:00am.  The Johnson Space Center is a big place!  We had seen it before (in 1987) but it was totally different this time! Treasa found some discount tickets at the RV park so we got in for $10.95 ea. senior discount which was half price.  Cool!  We decided to take the red tram tour first (the line was shortest). It went to the space station full scale mockup plus the Saturn 5 rocket building.  On the way there we were told this was ranch property and they maintained livestock (longhorns) there still today. 

 

In the mockup building we went upstairs and viewed the room from a walkway.  Pretty cool how they simulate space in there!  All of the astronauts trained there before their flights.

 

On the way back we stopped at the Saturn 5 rocket building.  When we were last here this exhibit was outside and has since been moved indoors due to deterioration from the elements.

 

 

Once back at the center we had a quick lunch (very good) and then went back for the blue tour which went to the mission launch control center.  We saw they older control room back in 87 so this was way more modern.  They will use it again as the next program ramps up and it will be off the tour then so we were lucky.

 

After both tours we wandered in the large space center complex.  They had exhibits, demos, simulators and movies and you moved through at your own pace.  This is Memorial Day weekend so it was pretty crowded.

After we got tired we headed home and Janie fixed dinner tonight – corn chowder, biscuits, salad and cake.  Yummy! I decided to walk the dog to the baseball complex across the street from our campground.  They play little league equivalent ball here and the place was very well maintained.  I didn’t go in because I had Bailey but what I saw was nice.

 



Tomorrow we head to Galveston.