2015 Trip - New Orleans, LA to Mobile, AL

Thurs. 5/28… (New Orleans, LA)  Last night while walking Bailey, I came across a family staying on base.  Both Jeremy and Kelly are service or ex service.  They have three young adorable kids with them.  They also have Daisy, a cute 4 year old Labradoodle that really hit it off with Bailey.  After about an hour of play and conversation, they volunteered to come get Bailey when we go into the city to tour.  We graciously accepted their offer with the caveat that we pay the kids.  So off we went…. We decided to catch the ferry from Algiers which is south of the city.  We decided to buy tickets to the Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour.  The tickets ($36. ea.) are good for three days.  Our first stop was at French Market where we hopped off to grab a bite at The Gazebo.  I had gumbo and Lydia had a roast beef poorboy with gravy.  Both were amazing!  We walked over to Café Du Monde for hot beignets.  Also amazing! Then it was back on the bus for the trip around town.  Our tour director was ok with the info he provided but his microphone was very squeaky and hard on the ears.  We made all the stops and stayed on to get an idea where we want to stop tomorrow.

 

We headed back to the ferry and made our way home.  We were stuffed from all that food so no dinner tonight.  We did break out the wine and our neighbors joined us for a little bit till the skeeters showed up.

 

Fri. 5/29… (New Orleans, LA) We decided to go back into the city this morning to see stops we missed yesterday. One on our list was the above ground cemetery.  Bill & Treasa have seen this before so they passed today so the four of us took off for the ferry and got over there before the crowds.  We weathered the mini storm while waiting for the bus and then hopped on and were given some mini rain slickers as we wanted to ride in the upper section and it was still a bit wet.  But we got to the stop and walked the short distance to the Lafayette Cemetery #1 and toured the place.  It was very interesting to see the crypts above ground. 

 

We walked back and boarded the bus just before it was going to pull away. Lucky for us!  We rode it back to the French Market and hopped off to shop a bit and then have lunch, again at The Gazebo because we enjoyed it so much yesterday.  We got back on and rode the circuit back to the first stop then headed back on the ferry and then home. 

 

As I mentioned, our new friends have been walking Bailey each day.  The kids (9 year old twins Adam and Lily, and 7 year old Applejoy, yes that is her name!) are the sweetest and best behaved kids we have seen in a long time. I took some pictures and mom Kelly sent me some that she took.  They are also walking Rick & Janie’s dogs as well. We’ll give them some money tomorrow after our last day out. 

 

We had decided earlier in the day that we wanted to go to a murder mystery dinner tonight on the base and found they still had tickets (reduced to ½ price on the last day to $5.).  The dinner was very good.  They served spaghetti, chicken pasta, seafood pasta, salad, drinks and several desserts. After dinner the entertainment began.  They came to our table and chose Rick to play the role of Dr. Joe King, and then later they got Janie to be Cindy Leapyear. We were to listen to all the suspect’s stories and determine who killed the rockstar Poison Rattenstien’s manager. Dr. Joe and Miss Cindy did an excellent job in their characters as did the other ‘suspects’ and made the evening fun!  Turns out our table (there were 8 tables and each had to come up with a name – ours was the Donner Party) actually figured out who the killer was and why.  Cindy Leapyear did it!  We got a nice certificate and everything!  We were really shocked because we were just guessing.  Nevertheless it was a fun evening!   

 

Sat. 5/30… (New Orleans, LA)  Today is our last day in the New Orleans area. We have seen the city and decided to take a drive out to the country (65 miles one way) to tour the Oak Alley Plantation. We left about 9:00am and stopped at the Waffle House for breakfast.  It was surprisingly good and reasonably priced. We got to the plantation and paid the $18. (senior rate) and walked the grounds a bit before going to meet the tour guide/docent to walk through the main house.

 

The plantation was established with the main crops being sugar cane. We saw the slave quarters and the sugar kettles used to cook the sugar cane that was part of the crops grown here.

 

We also saw the large oak trees planted over 300 years ago. They stretch from the house to the road and form a great arch that was majestic.

 

After the tour was stopped and had a soda or water and decided to head home. Ok - time for a medical issue - the first day in NO, Lydia felt a pain in her foot. No warning - no twist - just when she took a few steps after our lunch stop it hurt. It's not any better today so we decided to stop at the ER (Oschner Medical Ctr) to have it looked at.  After x-rays and an hour later she found out nothing was broken.  They suggested she put on compression stockings to alleviate the swelling while might make it better. She’s still convinced it’s broken since she’s had this kind of splinter break in the past.  We’ll watch it and go in again if we need to. Since we were off base we met up with the others at Adams Catfish House for dinner.  This place ranked right up there with the best seafood we have had on this trip!  Afterward we went home and hung around with Kelly and the kids and paid the kids for walking our dogs. Mom said it was the first money they have ever earned.  She wants to make up a sign for when they are on base for the other campers advertising their services. After they left we sat out for a while and talked about tomorrow when we split up.    

 

Sun. 5/31… (Theodore/Mobile, AL) This morning we said our goodbyes to Bill & Treasa and they headed out.  They are driving 240 miles to Pensacola FL.  We only have 140 miles to go so we took off about 9:15am. The drive was very nice. We are now at Payne’s RV Park in Theodore, AL., which is just south of Mobile. This park is real nice, tucked away from the road.  We overlook a little pond and a grassy field.  We got everything squared away and after a rest and a cool drink, we headed off to Walmart. Janie is cooking tonight.  She fixed a chicken tortilla casserole with salad and vegetables.  We have to get used to cooking for four now. It was very good. We talked about our plans tomorrow.  We want to go to into Mobile and see the sights. After dinner, we headed home to catch up on some tv.