December 30th, 2022, we left the Colorado River Thousand Trail Park and started our trip East into some 'new to us' part of the country. It was a 145-mile drive east along Interstate 10. It wasn't even bad as we drove through Houston. We planned to stay at the Winnie Stowell County Park at the fairgrounds in Winnie, TX, just off of Interstate 10. There is many power peds in a big grassy area here for RVs during fair events, but overnighters are really just supposed to boondock. I called ahead and verified that we could stay, and she asked for our license plate numbers and then said we could stay 3 days. We didn't park on the grass because it was very wet here from the stormy weather the day before. We were all by ourselves here, but I did see 3 class B RVs a little ways away. It was a good 1-night stop.
The next day, we finally left the big state of Texas and entered Louisiana.
Entering Louisiana.
Interstate 10 is really in bad shape in this area. The last part of Texas and into Louisiana was crazy. Louisiana is really wet too. Nasty looking water and everything is soggy. We stopped briefly along the way, and we saw this cemetery. I guess they don't want the dead bodies to sit in all the wetness.
And the Interstate was built up on very long bridges over the swampy land.
This is our 27th state that we have traveled to and spent the night in our RV. After a 281-mile drive on Interstate 10 & 12, we stopped at the Fairview Riverside State Park by Madisonville, LA. We are staying 3 nights here.
The next day I walked around the park and took a few pictures. What a moist environment.
We had plans to drive into New Orleans Monday and see the sights. So, we went to a Walmart nearby and I picked up a new camera. It is a Canon EOS Rebel T100.
Our last Canon camera was great, but only an 8 mega-pixel camera and it was getting old. This one is an 18 Mega-pixel one. I took a couple of pictures to make sure it worked ok.
Then we were off to the big city. It was only 61 miles away.
Earlier, I researched parking in the city and almost everything mentioned was expensive and lots of people had been broken into or vandalized. Great!
OK let's just go and see what happens.
Lots of fog as we drove over Lake Pontchartrain. Then as we got closer, we could see past evidence of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it caused. And there are lots of poor folks here. I thought maybe we could park at Harrah's Casino along the French Quarter and walk or take a trolly from there. But as we entered the French Quarter, it was not fun at all. The streets were incredibly narrow, lots of shady characters around. Not a place I would want to walk the streets. There were cool looking buildings and all, but I was busy driving our dually downtown while Donna was directing me through the maze of humanity. As we saw Harrah's, there was no big parking lot, just valet parking or something. It was a confusing busy place. We decided, OK we have seen New Orleans..... plot a course for home.
And guess what, no New Orleans pictures. We have memories though. The new camera will just have to wait for another day.
Now the only thing left to do here before we head to Mississippi tomorrow, is to find a nice Cajon food restaurant and have some good Jambalaya!!
The Fergs out .......
My understanding is that the cemeteries have to "bury" the bodies above ground because the water table will force the vaults up regardless. Glad to see y'all are adding states to the east! Hope to see you in Florida soon!!!
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