January 17, 2013 by Rae

Thank You, Ms. Grumpy Pants!

This morning, I packed up the inside of the rig in preparation for moving, then went to check the post office in case I could leave town today.

The package still isn’t here, so it really would have been cheaper to pay the $60 for guaranteed two-day delivery on my package instead of renewing for another five nights at $90. I believe that Monday is a holiday here and that there won’t be mail, so I’m giving my package till Tuesday AM to arrive.

Anyway, the weather isn’t that great near Houston right now (we finally got sun, YAY), so it’s rather nice to be on hookups and this will probably be my only paid nights of the winter. $200 is about a fifth of what I would have been paying per month for RV park fees, electricity, and propane so, really, my budget can absorb this.

I went into the office on the way back and a rather grumpy-looking and quiet woman was at the desk. I said, “I’m in 84, I want to renew for five more nights, I know I have to move to a different site, and I just checked online so I know you have tons of availability.” She pushed some keys and stared at her screen for a long while and then started to write me up a new park entry pass for the truck. I asked what site I was going to and she said, “The same one”!

I have no idea what she did — if she moved the reservation to another site (which the other front desk person said was not possible) or if she determined that only half of the site was booked or if the other guys cancelled, but I consider this a miracle!

I didn’t mind putting away stuff inside as it’s really just tidying up after myself now, plus the minor aggravation of securing the filing cabinet. It’s really putting away the water hose and power cable, getting off the levelers and stowing them, backing into a new site, getting level again, and rehooking up that is such a pain.

I don’t expect to have much to blog about in the next few days as I have some business matters to attend to and will need to be in the office for most of the next few days, another reason I don’t mind staying put. So if the blog goes a little quiet, no need to be alarmed. 🙂

January 15, 2013 by Rae

Enjoying My Stay At Bayou Segnette State Park

Bayou Segnette State Park really is a jewel of a place to park your RV in the greater New Orleans area. I mean, you get to stay out in the boondocks for $18 a night (off season) and are just 10 minutes from all the services and 40 minutes (including a ferry ride) to touristy New Orleans! And if you don’t have a washing machine, the FREE laundry facilities really offset the cost of the nightly stay!

The state park entrance is located off of a busy express way. You then have a couple of miles to go to get to the RV park area. The area is swampy, so I imagine it gets quite buggy in the summertime!

There isn’t much to the RV park itself, a couple of loops to walk around, plus bathrooms, FREE laundry facilities, and a dump station. All sites are back in and have 20A/30A/50A connections and water. Some sites are ‘doubles’ whereby two rigs have to share a slightly wider pad.

The park is verdant and lovely.

There’s a boardwalk leading from the bathrooms/laundry through the swamp to the other side of the loop.

It was a humid and pleasant stroll!

There is lots and lots and lots of stagnant water in the park.

The boardwalk ends on the other side of the loop.

Coming back, Neelix was watching for me in the rear window.

I am parked in a double. If my site is reserved for one rig, I can’t figure out why the other folks can’t park beside me.

The park is very lush and verdant.

I would not walk off the roads and boardwalk here!

Two things have marred my stay. My first two mornings here, I was awoken before 8AM by lawn care services. Staff was utterly unapologetic, saying that lawn care has to be done and since it might have rained later in the day, it had to be done early. I really don’t see what makes leaf blowing so urgent that you need to wake your guests at oh-dark-thirty.

The second is that when I came in, I asked for five nights with the possibility to renew for more nights. I was told the park was full and that I would have to take a double site with no neighbour at the time. But the site was only renewable for one more night beyond the five and they could not promise there would be space for me for a sixth night.

Well, the park has been mostly empty. I checked online and there is tons of availability in the next few weeks. In fact, I don’t see any reason that I couldn’t have been given a site with open ended availability.

This is a good example of why people who don’t RV shouldn’t manage RV parks and set policies. The girl at the counter can’t understand why I am put upon to move a few sites down on Thursday. Packing and moving an RV represents a couple of hours of work! If I had other options in the area, I would move elsewhere. But since I don’t, I will move should my package not be here on Thursday and I need to stay on.

January 12, 2013 by Rae

I Forgot How Great It Is To Be on 30A Hookups

I can’t even remember the last time I was on 30A hookups, maybe in Hankinson, and before that was probably in Blaine.

It’s such luxury to be able to just turn on the AC when I need it without having to turn anything off first, or to be able to run the microwave and the toaster at the same time!

The temps and humidity are rising, so I want to leave the AC on for my brood while I’m out. No problem. I would be too concerned about a possible brown out to leave my AC unattended while running it on 15A.

Heading out? The tour folks agreed to pick me up on the Westbank (where I am now, only about 15 minutes closer to the city) if I can be there for 1PM! I want to stop at the Piggly Wiggly first to get snacks. Oh, Piggly Wiggly, you silly named store, how I have missed you. It’s so great to be back in the South!

January 11, 2013 by Rae

New Orleans!

I made it!!! And those exclamation point are because the bit on US-90 between I-10 and the park entrance were harrowing!!! OMG, the wind kept battering the rig and people were zipping in and out and slamming on their brakes and reducing my stopping distance to zero and tailgaters were honking at me like my smoking the brakes was my fault. It was just like Montreal! Why?! Because these drivers and I share the same ancestors! It must be in French Canadian blood to drive like a lunatic!

Um, now that I’ve got that out of my system, let’s go back to Mississippi. 🙂

It was so good to see Biloxi open for business. That the region has managed to rebuild after the devastation wrought by Katrina is a testament to the notion of home as being a physical location. As the camphost here said, “What else could we do but rebuild because where else could we have gone?”

Louisiana welcomed me in French!

I stopped at the welcome centre and got a ton of state tourist info IN FRENCH. I grabbed a pile of tourist brochures and the helpful lady at the front desk organized them by location so that I can plan an efficient itinerary. At the minimum I’d like to do the French Quarter one day, a bus tour of New Orleans another day, and then go out and do a swamp tour.

The lady thought it was cool that I’m from Alberta and I replied that I’m really French Canadian from Quebec and I wish my ancestors had been smart and gone south instead of staying in the frigid north. I’m not saying I would have wanted to be part of the Acadian Expulsion, but I come from a long line of explorers. Couldn’t they have looked south just a teeny bit? 🙂

You have to cross huge Lake Pontchartrain to get to the Big Easy:

First glimpse of New Orleans:

I am staying at Bayou Segnette State Park where $18 (off season rate!) a night gets you power (20, 30, or 50), water, and FREE laundry!

I continue to have the best timing in the world and have apparently landed at the start of Mardi Gras season (which I thought was at least a month later) so the campground is nearly full. I am stuck in a ‘double’ which means another rig could put in right next to me on the same pad. But I picked the best ‘double’ available so that I will never have a neighbour on my passenger side, and therefore a clear view from the office.

There is an extremely expensive RV park right in the French Quarter, but one night there is the same price as five nights here. I don’t plan to be out after dark, so this location is a good compromise. I can drive less than half an hour and catch a FREE pedestrian ferry right to the French Quarter!

There is concern that there will be no more availability past my checkout date of Wednesday, but I’ll cross that bridge when I have to. I have to stick around until my general delivery parcel arrives.

It’s pretty cool thanks to a nice breeze but quite muggy out. I thought it was going to storm, but now I’m not so sure. Anyway, I can run the AC no problem to bring the humidity down if I need to. Right now, I have all the windows, roof hatches, and front door open and it’s quite lovely and comfortable!

January 11, 2013 by Rae

Muggy Mississippi Morning

I am paused for a very early lunch at the second Mississippi rest area on I-10 westbound from Alabama.

It was a hot night in Atmore and I awoke to cloying mugginess. By 7:30, the sun was shining brightly. So much for the forecast!

I took it really slow this morning as I only had about 300KM to drive. I’d hooked up the night before, so I thought I would have an easy pull out. HA HA HA HA.

Signage and directions in the Wind Creek parking lots are poor and I wound up driving straight into a dead end unloading area with no place to turn around! Thankfully, I was able to pull into a quiet area in a straight enough line to unhook. A nice gentleman helped me back the motorhome out of there once the truck was out of the way. GAH. Anyway, unhooking without any pressure isn’t too bad.

If the next few days are anything like today, I will be glad to have shore power when I get to New Orleans! In fact, if I have the choice, I will get 30A rather than 15A.