Thebes and Cape Girardeau

Location: Boomland RV Park; Charleston, Missouri

It was another long haul of about 270 miles. The trip was a little adventurous too. During my walk-around before pulling out of the campground, I noticed Liberty's right rear turn signal light wasn't working. It wasn't super critical so I waited until I got to the current campground to take a look at it. Freedom has two places to plug a trailer into. That helps a lot because the turn signal didn't work in either plug-in location so that probably indicates the problem is with Liberty. I tightened up some of the connections in Liberty's plug but that didn't solve the problem. I'll kick this problem down the road again for the next campground. Also, Liberty has a slow leak in one of her tires around the valve stem. I isolated it with some soapy water. To add even more stress, the Temperature/Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) attachment vibrated itself loose. I passed over some of the worst road so that may have caused it. This has happened before. It will set off a low pressure warning once the tire reaches 50 psi. I was lucky to be within a mile of an exit to a location with a wide open parking lot. I was able to air the tire back up, tighten the TPMS and continue on. Oh, I guess in case someone saw where I aired up the tire, I should mention it was an Adult Store parking lot. I was surprised at the size of the parking lot but it worked out good for me to air up the tire.

It's a plainer campsite compared to the last one.

This is parking lot I used to air up Liberty's tire. I took the picture, with the air compressor in the picture to prove what I was doing there. I didn't even notice the name of the place until I was almost finished airing up the tire. The one car in the picture is the only one there.

 This campground is a no-frill one with full-hookups. I'll be able to empty all of my tanks and give them a good flushing. The 500 miles of sloshing around with the cheap fabric softener should help a lot. Again, something only an RV'er can appreciate. I've stayed here before because it is conveniently located along a couple north-south interstates with easy access. I'll only be here two days which gave me today to do some exploring. 

First up on the exploration list was a small town in Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi River. The name is Thebes. There isn't much in Thebes now a days but at one time it was famous. The thing that made it famous was a man name Dred Scot who spent a few nights in the dungeon of the Thebes Courthouse while he was fighting for his freedom. Anyone my age should have been taught about the Dred Scot decision during our school years. He was a slave who filed a lawsuit asking for his freedom. That suit made it all the way to the Supreme Court where the court ruled against Mr. Scot. The court issued a very long ruling with each Justice having his say for and against the case. The summary was that blacks, free or slave, were not citizens and therefore could not file lawsuits. They also issued a secondary ruling that stated the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional which helped start the Civil War a few years later. The story ends on a good note, although bittersweet. Dred, his wife and children were granted their freedom by their owner years later. However, Dred passed away shortly after getting the freedom he fought so hard to get. Over his lifetime, he and his family had many opportunities to escape to the north and get their freedom in a Free State but did not do so. Dred wanted to do it the legal way or be granted his freedom. He won in the end. 

The other thing that made Thebes somewhat famous is that Abraham Lincoln made a campaign speech at the courthouse. And wouldn't you know it, the courthouse that Abe spoke at and the courthouse dungeon where Dred slept is still standing. You can tour it, but only on Saturdays and Sundays. Wrong day for me again. Even though it was closed, it was a nice visit to a sleepy, historic river front town.

This is the courthouse whose museum is only open on Saturday and Sunday. But, it is still impressive to see it still standing over 150 years later.

This is looking along the side of the courthouse to give perspective to its location on the hill above the river. You can easily imagine riverboats parked along the river in years past. 

The railroad bridge surprised me. I wasn't expecting such an old bridge at this location. After checking, the bridge was built in 1905 which puts it in the first 10 steel bridges to cross the Mississippi River.

I especially liked the arched concrete approach spans. I drove up close to the ones on the Thebes side of the river but had to back out since they were working on the bridge. 

This standing near the bank of the river looking back at the Courthouse. It is not hard to imagine Abe and Dred standing up there admiring the river down below. Who knows what thoughts were going through the minds of each of them. We must remember our history, good and bad.  

The second item on the exploration tour was personal stop. It was seeing the sights that a 16 year old boy saw while driving his Volkswagen everywhere back in the early 1970's. The boy was me and the town is Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Even 50 years later, the memories kept flooding back as I drove around and visited many of the places I had known as a teenager. Just like Thebes, Cape is located on the Mississippi River. I won't go into a lot of my past since I wrote about it in a blog post while I was staying in Cape a several years ago. You can read it here, if you want >>> https://gozatravels.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-river-will-tell-you-your-future.html

I think I'll let that post from 5 years ago stand on its own and just say it was a very nice memory ride today. I spoke to the river and she spoke back.

Cape Girardeau has built a floodwall around most of the city to protect it from floods. They have decorated it with a mural highlighting the significant moments in the history of Cape and the area. Excellent job. 

This is just one of the floodgates that closes during flooding. The high water marks are show on the left. The one I lived through was 1973.

This is the river side of the wall showing the size of the gate. Also notice the railroad crossing. The railroad has a floodgate on each side of town as well. 

The bridge in the background connects Missouri on the right to Illinois on the left.

During certain times of the years, this area is packed with people. Just watching the tow boats going up and down the river. The city should be congratulated for providing such a nice spot.

This is where the river will talk to you now-a-days. 

This is where the river talked to a 16/17 year old boy and helped him plan his future. 

I also drove to New Madrid where a giant earthquake happened a couple hundred years ago. If you have read about, it is worth researching. This post is way too long for me to talk about it. But to spark your interest, the Mississippi River flowed backwards, etc. 

Tomorrow is moving day again. The check-in time at the next campground is 5:00 pm. Of all the 300+ campgrounds I've stayed at, I've never heard of one with a check-in time so late. I called today to verify the time and they said I may be able to get in early if the campers from the night before had left early. I told them not to bother and I would try to time my arrival to around 5'ish. To delay arriving, I've found a tire place locally that can put a new valve stem in Liberty's tire. I bet you thought I forgot about that uh? I also found a local laudromat with a vacant lot next door so I can park Freedom and Liberty. So with only a 150 mile trip tomorrow and an arrival time of 5:00, I plan to be at the tire place around 11 or 12, then go to the laundromat. It will take about 1 1/2 hours to do my clothes so I should be on the road by 2:00 pm. I'm hoping I have an uneventful trip tomorrow.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.

First Days Back Exploring and Traveling

Location: Willow Beach Campground (Corps of Engineers); near Little Rock, Arkansas

I hitched up early Sunday morning with the temperature and humidity steadily rising. Brandon dropped by to see me hitch Freedom and Liberty. That is the first time he's seen the old man get ready to travel. Everything was hitched and ready after about 45 minutes of work. Before hitting the road, I had to change my shirt and socks due to being soaked through with sweat. I mentioned the humidity, right? I had left Liberty plugged in and the A/C's running while I hitched up just so I could change clothes in a cool place. After changing, I gave Brandon a hug and said I would see him in a couple months or so. I then headed north (actually it was east for a little while before headed north). 

When I'm traveling, I try to stay under 200 miles of towing. Sometimes I violate that rule suggestion and I did so on Sunday when I drove 270 miles to this campground. Coincidentally, tomorrow is moving day and I'll drive another 270 miles. Wow, two long days of driving in a row. I bet I did that on purpose. After sitting for so long in the same campground, a couple of long drives help get the cobwebs clear in my brain as well as in Freedom and Liberty. The radio wasn't turned on but I still listened to music. It was road-music. Travelers will know what I mean. Freedom and Liberty did a good job without any problems, well Liberty did, but Freedom was a different story. Remember, I got Freedom a new set of tires a few weeks ago. Those tires were not completely broken in before we headed out. For those not familiar with breaking in tires, it is that slippery feeling when driving on new tires. It is due to the chemicals/lubricants used during the manufacturing process. It takes about 500 miles for it to wear away. I should hit that 500 mile mark tomorrow when driving to my next campground. I'll be happy, because towing in the rain with slippery tires isn't fun. And yeah, of course, I passed through a couple of heavy rainstorms on I-30 in Arkansas. It slowed us down for a little while but, all in all, it wasn't too bad, just a different song on the road-music station. 

I stayed at this campground a few years ago. It is close to the interstates and conveniently located to the Little Rock area for exploring. Although I had to do a right-hand back in to my campsite, the overall campground is laid out pretty good. My campsite is on the banks of a little backwater from the Arkansas River. Water and electric, for $9.50 per night and a nicely laid out dump station that only RV'ers can really appreciate. 

You pass through a small subdivision of upper middle class homes to get to the campground. Just past that little hill on the road is the campground entrance. 

Our campsite for the next three days.
That is the Arkansas River in the background. I never have liked parking Liberty under trees and I still don't like it now. Those are gum trees. Their seeds, gum balls, fall on Liberty when the wind picks up. Luckily there have only been a few so far and no really windy days are predicted before we pull out. The shade has kept it cooler though, so that's a plus.

The sun sets over the water right behind Liberty.
Good planning uh? 

A nice sunset.
Not as spectacular as some of the ones out west, but pretty good for around this part of the country. I hope I've planned for more on this trip. 

One of the great things about staying at Corps of Engineers campgrounds are that some are located near navigable waterways. The Arkansas River is one such waterway. It starts in the Rocky Mountains near Leadville, Colorado which is just west of Denver. It passes through Canon City, Colorado where I drove the Skyline Drive a couple of years ago. It then passes through the Royal Gorge where I've visited also. The total length of the river is 445 miles and it passes through 17 lock and dams that makes it navigable. The river also produces oodles (technical term) of electricity at its hydro-electric dams. When the environmentalists talk about clean energy, they always conveniently forget about hydro power. Can anyone say "infrastructure"? As it passes through the farm lands of the mid-west, it is the most economical means of delivering harvested crops to market.

One of the locks and dam is located just a few miles downstream from the campground. I drove down there to see what I could see. Lucky me, this tow boat and his barges were just exiting the locks. It seems I get lucky a lot with my timing. Someone else is doing some planning too. :) 

I don't know where they are headed to, but I wish them safe travels.

This one is headed upstream and I took the picture from the day-use area of the campground.

I went exploring in Little Rock, but picked a bad day. A lot of the things I wanted to see where closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. "They" said the reason was so the places could be open on weekends. That may be true but it could also mean they did it because they knew I planned to explore on those days. For those that think that is a little paranoid, remember the wise words from the radicals in the 70's, "it's not paranoia if people are really out to get you". :) See what happens when the cobwebs get cleared out by longer than usual drives.  

Little Rock must have a very large liability insurance policy. They have hundreds of these motorized scooters parked everywhere. I didn't read any signs but it seems like you just use one and park it where ever it runs out of juice or where ever you quit needing it. I did not give it a try. 

The Bill Clinton Library was one of those places closed on Monday and Tuesday. Although he is way down my list of favorite Presidents, I thought I would give the library a chance. Notice the sign saying "Now Open". That's a lie, at least not on Mondays and Tuesdays. But after all, it is a politician's library.

One of the good things about Little Rock are their use of old bridges as Pedestrian Bridges. A big congratulations to those who carried it out. In this case it is an old Railroad Bridge.  

Then entrance to the Pedestrian Bridge over the Arkansas River.

The flowers were in bloom which added a lot more to the bridge than I would have thought. I'm not a real big flower type person, so this surprised me. Wait a minute, I just realized I didn't check them to see if they were real. They could have been plastic. Oh well, they looked nice anyhow. 
Notice the two people in the picture. They were an older couple traveling around the country in a car and staying in motels. They live in Billings, Montana now but she was originally from Cloutierville, Louisiana which is less than an hours drive from Mansfield, Louisiana, my adopted hometown. She was born and raised in Cloutierville, Louisiana and went to college at Northwestern in Natchitoches, Louisiana. It's a small world after all. Dang it, I shouldn't have went to Disney World because now I'll have that song in my head.  

A nice picture of the Arkansas River framed by the structural members of the bridge and the real flowers (maybe plastic). I wonder why they have an irrigation system run to "maybe plastic" flowers. Enquiringly minds want to know.

This is my neighbor that camped for one night. He personally refurbished the trailer and put it up for sale, online, while sitting at the campsite. He is originally from Erie, Pennsylvania and was familiar with the campground I stayed at up there several years ago. He and his wife relocated to Texas a while back. Since he was off-work for the summer, he was taking the trailer for a shake-down trip back to Erie. He was traveling solo, since his wife couldn't get time off from her job, as an engineer. Small world, again. Wow.

This is the view waiting for me after exploring.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be headed to a campground in the boothill of Missouri. It isn't as nice of a campground as here, but it is OK since it is only a 2 day layover. I do plan to explore one of those days. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.  

Hit the Road Tomorrow

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

I'm ready to pull out tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be camped on the banks of the Arkansas River in an area just east of Little Rock, Arkansas. I'll have to go much farther north to find the 70 degree line that Joe Debusk (RIP) and I joked about before I initially hit the road.  Sadly, even all the way to North Dakota, that 70 degree line may be night time temperatures instead of daytime. Luckily, there are no major storms predicted for the areas I plan to visit. It seems all clear for at least three weeks. I will be in Tornado country and even though the peak tornado season ends in a few weeks, I will stay alert to them. 

It has taken longer than expected to get everything ready to travel. I guess if I hadn't taken so many breaks, it would have been shorter. But, Freedom and Liberty are at the point where they can hit the road in about 20 to 30 minutes after I start the hitch-up process. One of these days I need to document the hitch-up and set-up process for the blog. Some people that are planning to RV may find it interesting.

Liberty's tires did good while being stationary. Over the last 13 months, they have lost less than 5 psi. I aired two of them back up to 70 psi the other day and will top off the other two after bringing the slide in. I have a great Kobalt air compressor. It easily airs up Freedoms rear tires to 80 psi which is the highest amount for all of the tires on Freedom and Liberty. One feature I love on the Kobalt is being able to set the desired psi and walk away while it airs up the tire. This allows me to do other things while it is working. It runs on 120 volt or 12 volts. The Temperature/Pressure Monitoring System on Liberty's tires allows me to check the air pressure by using the wireless monitor. Once I turn it on, it will give me the temperature and pressure of all the tires in about 2 to 3 minutes. Thinking about it, those are two "lazy man" options for sure.

The plastic "squirrel cage" (blower fan) in Liberty's front (bedroom) air conditioner went kaput (another term youngsters may have to ask an older person about) a couple of weeks ago. I got lucky and was able to find a replacement on Amazon and received it in about a week. Many of the web sites I checked said the part was on back order for weeks if not months, so I was really lucky. That's the first time I've been on the roof in a long time. While up there, I checked all the caulked locations and they looked to be doing OK. I cleaned the fins on the A/C I worked on but not on the main A/C. Afterwards I heard about something called "rinse-free cleaning foam" but didn't feel like setting the ladder back up so I'll take care of that chore this fall.

The black plastic is what broke. Oh well, it's fixed now.

I don't like climbing the ladder that came with Liberty so I use my telescoping ladder. It's tied off so it can't slide sideways and the pool noodles work well at protecting the surface. 

Freedom was feeling left out so I bought her some new tires. The existing tires were within one year of expiring and had another 10,000 miles of tread left but I decided to be "safe than sorry". When I was young, dumb and broke I rode tires until they were nearly bald. Since I'm no longer "10 feet tall and bullet-proof", I don't do that anymore.

I'm a little more concerned about violence in the larger cities than I have been in the past. I've driven Freedom and Liberty through many of the largest cities in the country over the years without a problem. I used to joke about the way to drive in big cities was to turn the music up load to drown out the gunshots and check for bullet holes once I got to the campground. The way things are going in the country now-a-days, I think I'll be a little more cautious. I'll revert to my old ways and start carrying something (equalizer) on the floorboard like I used to do. I had become complacent during the last couple of trips and keep it in storage under the bed. Not any more.

Sorry for the rambling, but this helps document the process of getting ready. I promise more pictures of the trip, campground and Arkansas River in the next post.  

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.      

Trip Philosophy; Leave on July 18th

 Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

When I'm traveling, I can usually be ready to pull out of a campsite in about 30 minutes. This time it is taking me about 3 weeks. I hope to get back to the 30 minute time on this trip. One thing I've learned since traveling is that all RV'ers are different in terms of how they travel, where they camp, how long they stay and what they do while camped. I've mentioned my way of RV'ing before in this blog, but feel the need to repeat it. I decided from the beginning of my travels to move campgrounds often. Moving every three to four days seems to suit me well. Normally, at the beginning of my trip planning, I'll pick a destination located far away and begin to choose campgrounds, roughly along the route, located about 150 to 200 miles apart. Rarely is this route a straight shot to the destination. Once I decide on a campground, then I'll look around the area for things to explore. This may seem backwards, but I've discovered that there are things to explore just about everywhere, so the campground type and location is more important. Usually, I'll have one or two things to explore within about 50 miles of the campground. It has been my belief that the number 1 & 2 things at the next stop are usually better than the number 3 & 4 things at my current stop. With this in mind, I'll show up at a campground in the afternoon of day one and after setting up camp will go to town to get something to eat while Liberty is cooling down. On days two and three, I'll explore the area. Moving-day is day four, which is day one of the new area. I repeat this process until I get tired and need a longer rest to "let time catch up". Traveling that quickly and always seeing new things will cause my mind to get foggy. I guess it is like when a computer is slowed down by an overload of input. Usually, it only takes an extra day or so of doing nothing to "let time catch up". 

I started my travels in April of 2014. I don't know the exact number of campgrounds I've stayed at since then but I'm pretty sure it is close to 300. Maybe I'll count them up this winter. I've been coast to coast and border to border. I use campgrounds as a base camp to explore an area. The only thing I need in a campground is a secure campsite that is somewhat level and has an electrical connection, preferably 50 amps, although 30 amps is OK if the weather isn't super hot or cold. Most campgrounds have a fresh water source that I use to fill my fresh water tank and a means to empty my waste tanks. Sometimes, these two things are at the campsite and sometimes they are located elsewhere in the campground. I don't need the other amenities that attract weekend campers. I don't have a problem with other campers since I'm usually out exploring an area and not hanging around the campsite. The number one campground I look for now-a-days are U.S. Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds. With my Senior Pass, I can camp at half price. That half price is usually between $8.00 and $13.00 per night, which is really good. They are usually well maintained and laid out in a logically manner. Not always, but 99% of the time. 

So now, after saying all of that, let's see where we're going. I've chosen the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota as the initial destination point. The reason for choosing it is simple, it is cooler up north in July and August. Of course there were other places up north I could have chosen, but I haven't been to North Dakota so it seems like a good place to go. I'll roughly follow the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers to get there. The following picture shows the route and stops for the first 8 campgrounds. I have reservations at all eight, except for one, which doesn't take reservations. 

All campgrounds are Corps of Engineer except number 2 and 7. I'll arrive at stop #8 on the 8th of August. All stops are for 3 days except #2 which is for 2 days and # 6 which is for 4 days. 

I'll try to make another post before I leave on the 18th.

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.   

Time for some "Thinking-Driving and Thinking-Camping"

 Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

It's been awhile since I've made a post. I'm sorry if I left readers wondering what was going on. 

All of the family is healthy and doing well. Brandon's transplants are still doing great. The kids and grandkids are doing fine as well. My X-wife went through a lot of medical issues over the last year. A very quick summary, so as to document it here, would be: folded intestine (hospitalized), ischemic colitis (hospitalized), low blood pressure/dehydration (hospitalized), biopsy's of lymph nodes and lung (day surgery), lower lung removed along with the cancerous spot  (hospitalized), watchman device installed in heart (hospitalized). The watchman is interesting. She has had Afib for awhile and was on a mild blood thinner and rhythm medicine. Her regular cardiologist set up a meeting with another cardiologist who specializes in the installation of a new medical device called a "watchman". The danger of Afib is strokes. The strokes happen when blood pools up in an appendage/alcove inside the heart. Once pooled, the blood can form a clot which can break loose and travel throughout the body in the blood stream. It can lodge in the brain stem and cause a stroke. It can also lodge in many other places and cause major problems. This is why people with Afib are usually on a strong blood thinner to prevent the clot from forming. Well, a few years ago, the watchman device was approved. It is a tiny wire mesh device that blocks off the appendage and prevents blood from being able to pool up. About 45 days after the procedure the doctor does a scan of the device to see if it is still in a good location and working. If all is good, then the patient can quit blood thinners and the chance of stroke is dramatically reduced. "Good deal, Lucille". Kathy has the follow up scan scheduled for July 9th. If she gets a good report from the doctor, then my work here is done and I can hit the road. 

I need to hit the road because I've been in a funk for the last couple of months. Younger readers may need to find a seasoned citizen to ask what "funk" means in this case. It is not like the song "Uptown Funk". Other than going to the doctors and hospitals with Kathy, I haven't been motivated to do much of anything else. Unless I figure it out, I'll just slowly fade away. That's where the title of this post comes into play,,,, "Thinking Driving and Camping". That isn't three separate things. It is two things Thinking-Driving and Thinking-Camping. I have a few things to work out in my head. An old saying from the Navy days would be, I need to "get my $hi! together". 

Summer is here but we've been lucky in not having too many super hot and humid days. But they are due anytime. I don't like hot and humid weather, so if Kathy's scan is good I should be on the road by the 15th of July. And of course, I'll be headed north for cooler weather. I'm not sure which route I'll be taking but my destination goal will be the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Once I settle on a route, I'll post it here. 

I think I've figured out the new Blogger program enough to get around inside of it. I still don't like it. My Picasa (picture editor/storage) program also quit working with my direct downloads from my phone. However, it does work if I'm using an SD card from the fancy camera. So I figured a way to download my pictures from my phone to a thumbdrive then upload from the thumbdrive to the laptop for use in the blog. Geez,,,,, the things we go through just to post a picture or two. 

I'll post some of the pictures from the last year in a future blog post, but just to make sure I do know how to do it, I'll post a picture from this winter. The winter was pretty mild except for about 10 days. The temperature got into the single digits and snow was flying. I'll make a more detail post about it later so it will be memorialized here for the grandkids to read in the future.   

Snowing on Freedom and Liberty

This blogging and typing feels good. I think I'll try to do it more often.

Ya'll take care of each other. Maybe I'll Cya down the road. 

Update (long overdue)

Location: New Rockdale RV Park; Mansfield, Louisiana

It's been over five months since my last post. My, oh my, how things have changed over that time. I ended my winter trip thru Texas during the last week of February. My original plan was to rest up for a few weeks while seeing my doctors for check-ups, visiting with family and be back on the road before the summer heat hit Louisiana. That plan didn't work out due to lots of reasons. 

The main reason was Covid-19. The governor of Louisiana issued a "stay at home" order on March 22, 2020. I isolated myself from Brandon because his immune system is being suppressed to reduce the possibility of his body rejecting the transplanted kidney and pancreas. By the way, today is his second anniversary of his transplant and he is doing great. His mother, my X-wife, lives with him and she has several medical conditions that makes her also an "at-risk" person for Covid. So, I spent lots of time cooking for myself and twiddling my thumbs. Not long after the Louisiana "stay-at-home" order was issued, the State of Texas required a 14 day self-imposed quarantine for any citizens of Louisiana entering Texas. Texas state troopers were actually stationed at the border to enforce this action. That somewhat "unconstitutional" order from Texas began on 4/5/20 and ended on 5/1/20. Strange times for sure.

Beginning about two months ago, my x-wife was in the hospital on three separate occasions. The first time was for a folded intestine, then ischemic colitis, then dehydration/heat exhaustion. The total time in the hospital was about twenty days with the last one being the most serious which came close to killing her. It was good I was here so I could be with her and report back to the rest of the family as to her condition. I guess that is the job of a "wasband", uh? For those curious readers, we were married for 28 years and been divorced for 14 years. 

Covid also interrupted visits with the grandkids so I had to settle for facetime and pictures. However, things have lightened up some over the last few weeks and I've been able to get my necessary hugs. 

So far, the riots and looting has not started in my part of Louisiana. Hopefully, it will stay away. 

Between Covid and family medical issues, my travel plans have been put on hold until at least sometime in the winter. Hopefully that will give time for things to settle down. I've received reports from some other RV'ers who's said things are a little dicey in parts of the country if you have the wrong license plate on your vehicle. Also, for now, it seems avoiding large cities would be wise. It's never bothered me traveling through large cities and have never had any problems. A few scary moments, but no problems. But now, things seem to have changed. Hopefully the November election will stop some of the craziness.

Olivia taking Nathan for a ride. He's not sure about this. I hope I'm around in about 10 years when she gets her license so I can see her driving Nathan around in a real car. 

 

This was just a quick update since I had been neglecting the blog for a while. By the way, the new blogger program is not as good or easy to use as the old one. Why do people always try to fix things that aren't broke? 

Ya'll take care of each other. I may Cya down the road.      

    

Random Thoughts on the Way Home

Location: Port Arthur RV Resort; Port Arthur, Texas
On a map, it's along the Sabine River were the Louisiana/Texas border meets the Gulf of Mexico.

Stop #12.
Last one before home.

It's been a while since I've made a post to the blog. Nothing is wrong, I've just been lazy at doing it. I'm at my last stop before heading back home to Louisiana but this post will include some pictures from the Galveston area that I didn't post yet. My plan was to stop here for two nights but ended up extending an additional two nights. The extension was to allow a cold front to pass through Louisiana plus two additional drying days for my campground site in Mansfield to dry out. The owner of the park had to do some digging to unplug a sewer blockage. I'll see about the condition of it tomorrow. I hope it is OK, because the owner said the campground was full due to a large pipeline and other work going on in the area. I asked Brandon to drive around the area to see if the other RV parks were full and he said, yes they are. So, if I can't get into my old site, I'm not sure where I'll be staying tomorrow.

My campsite here at Port Arthur. It is the most crowded campground I've stayed at on this trip and am feeling a bit claustrophobic. 

I really enjoyed my stay on Bolivar. It is just a relaxing place. It was windy, rainy and chilly for several of the days though. I took a few rides on the ferry to go into Galveston for eating and a little exploring. I didn't make a night crossing on the ferry this time and that disappointed me some. I celebrated Mardi Gras with a parade that passed down the highway directly in front of the campground. Crystal Beach put on a nice parade with lots of decorated four wheelers and a few floats. It was a good way to pass a few hours.

Riding the ferry is always a great thing. I make it a point to cross with Liberty in tow so I can get on the platform and look directly down on her roof. I discovered a minor problem that way many years ago. It is a peaceful trip.

As always, I had to check out the "teapot house". Over the years, I've watch it fall into disrepair but the time I was here, someone had started fixing it up. They are doing a great job.

Looking directly at the "teapot house".

I got stopped at a red light in front of the old motel we used to come to when the kids were small. It was a great location, directly across from the beach with a balcony overlooking the Gulf and Seawall Blvd traffic. Great time, great memories. 

One of the better views while driving the Seawall in Galveston.

Crystal Beach Mardi Gras Parade. Directly in front of the campground and within a stones throw of Liberty.

These two ladies were camped next to me in the campground. The dog's name was Emily and she received lots of beads and dog treats from the parade. I posted this picture for "you know who" who liked Elvis a lot, crazy lot.

The view from Fort Travis on Bolivar. That is the entrance to Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Chanel. Most of those ships are riding at anchor. On a nicer weather day, it is a great place to sit on the benches and watch the ships go by.

Port Arthur and the surrounding area is currently going though a boom town expansion. I was here about five years ago and it seemed like a dying town about to close up shop and blow away. Now though, there are dozens and dozens of new stores and businesses opened with more being built. Several new RV parks are being built with all of the existing ones full. I was lucky to get into this campground. The Texas economy has been looking good at all of the places I've been on this trip, but the coastal cities are doing really good. It's nice to see an old town get new life. 

I'll be passing over the bridge on the left tomorrow when I leave this area. The bridge I'll be using is the newer one. The one on the right is the famous Rainbow Bridge. 

This picture gives an idea of the steepness of the old Rainbow Bridge.

I know I'll never permanently live near an oil refinery or gas plant. When I was camped near the plants at Quintana Beach, I started getting a tickle in the back of my throat with some sneezing thrown in for good measure. I thought I was getting sick so I started some self-doctoring. But when I got to the Galveston area on the Bolivar Peninsula and much farther away from any plants, the symptoms went away. Once I got here to Port Arthur, the symptoms came back within a few hours after setting up camp. I'm anxious to see if they go away when I get back home.

The booming economy down here is largely due to the advent of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and horizontal drilling used during the oil/natural gas well drilling. This process has dramatically increased the amount of oil/natural gas being recovered. The U.S. is now not only energy independent, but energy dominant. This has been wanted since the late 70's during the oil embargo by the OPEC nations. It's now here. In fact, a natural gas "import" plant was built about 15 years ago just across the state line in Louisiana. Their plan was to unload natural gas tankers and pipeline it into the country. Before it could be completed, so much natural gas was being found and pumped out of the ground in the U.S., the plant was converted to an "export" plant instead. Now, ships are going there to be loaded with natural gas for shipping overseas. This is a great thing worldwide. But, the Democrats want to change all of that and take us back in time. We will see how that goes for them and the country.

This is a picture of the Cheneire Natural Gas export plant. It was a cloudy day when I drove by.

Same Cheneire plant. You can tell by the number of cranes, they are still expanding.

A trip to Sabine Pass on the Texas side. The river on the left is the Sabine River and is capable of receiving ocean going ships.

This picture was taken between Freeport and Galveston. Just a large refinery located in the middle of nowhere.

For those of ya'll familiar with the Bolivar Peninsula, I'm sure you know where Rollover Pass is located. It's a cut between the Gulf of Mexico and the East Bay of Galveston Bay. It actually makes a large chunk of Bolivar Peninsula an island instead of a peninsula. Well, I was shocked as I was leaving the area to head here and saw Rollover Pass was filled in with dirt. Apparently, the pass was causing such large amounts of siltation on the bay and nearby Intracoastal Waterway that the state decided it was better to just fill it in. A lot of fishermen in the area are up in arms about it. I can remember my father talking about fishing at the pass in his younger days. It seems things are always changing. There was so much work going on at the pass, I wasn't able to take any pictures as I passed through. Oh well.

A view along a canal near Sabine Pass on the Texas side. I could tell I was going to get that lens flair when I took the picture. It just sort of adds a little bit to the picture. A little lagniappe. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.