Back to Texas…

Wow, our two weeks stay in North Carolina visiting our daughter and her family flew by! We really had fun with playing with Allie, our 2.5-year-old granddaughter who has acquired a huge vocabulary, is fun, exuberant and always on the go. We also enjoyed snuggles with Emmy our newest granddaughter who is beautiful. Katie and Brooks have made a great life in North Carolina, and it was great sharing it with them. Although it was sad to say our goodbyes, we knew it was time for us to leave.

We had to catch our flight back to Texas. Fortunately, we didn't have any problems with our flights, and we arrived on time, retrieved our car which was still in good shape and ready to roll. We drove back over to College Station but on our way, we stopped by to visit Lone Pint Brewery in Magnolia Texas. It’s a pleasant outdoor venue and serves some nice craft beer so we think it is worth a visit if you're in the area.

We made it back home without any ordeals and were glad to see our RV in great shape. It’s always a bit concerning to leave our RV home for long stretches of time. We stayed in College Station for 5 more days before hitting the road.

With Sharon having been gone 3 months, we revisited many of the spots that we love in our former hometown including a nice walk around the campus of Texas A&M University. With one last weekend, we also visited friends to say our goodbyes and to have one last weekend of fun with them. Monday rolled around and it was time to pack up the RV and start our trek westward.

The pictures in today’s blog are from my visit to the Texas Renaissance Festival while Sharon was still in North Carolina. I always enjoy people watching at this particular festival in Plantersville, Texas.

Our future plans are to winter in Mesa Arizona again this year. Before heading there our next stop is at Canyon Lake in Texas. While there we will visit our son and his family one more time in San Antonio before leaving Texas. After that we want to revisit some backroads and stay at some of our favorite places we have stayed at before.

Follow us on the road of retirement...

Kite Festival and Moving On to a New Spot!

Our time came to leave South Padre Island but before I talk about what we are doing now I forgot to mention the neat kite festival held annually there. The first day of the festival was cancelled due to unseasonably cold temperatures and excessive winds.

The next day the festival began at the convention center on the bay flats adjacent to it. It was still a chilly day but at least the sun was out. We didn’t actually go to the festival, per se, but I did park in the convention center parking lot and took photos of the various interesting kites. Photos in today’s blog are from that event.

We left Isla Blanca Park March 1st on a nice sunny day and made our way over the causeway through the many small towns which are continuously connected together. It seemed as though every 5 miles or so we would see a name change for each new town. Eventually we arrived at our next stop in Alamo, Texas.

Casa Del Valle RV Resort in Alamo Texas will be home to us until April 26th. We found this park after we decided to cancel our 3rd month at Isla Blanca because the site we would have had to move to was totally unacceptable to us. It cost $50.00 to cancel which never makes us happy so we looked for a value location to replace the month we cancelled.

Lucky for us Casa Del Valle RV Resort, which is part of a larger group or RV parks, had a monthly special for first time visitors. As a new visitor the price for one month is only $199.00 making our cost $249 for the stay when adding in our cancelation fee. This will end up in a savings of about $350 over the costs we would have spent to stay on the island in an undesirable site.

With the price of diesel skyrocketing we will need these savings to offset some of our fuel costs as we head east. It sure is sad to see what is going on in Ukraine and hard to watch the daily destruction going on there. Paying more for fuel is a small price to pay if it causes Russia discomfort as well. Hopefully, this will all end sooner than later.

NOTE: We are currently in Alamo TX until April  27th…

Roswell NM and Alien Encounters…

As another travel day arrived we packed up the RV, hitched up the CRV and hit the road. Our destination was Roswell, New Mexico. The landscape changed slightly as we crossed into New Mexico and we saw a few Pronghorn Antelope along the way. Looking for antelope made the time pass and before we knew it we had driven the 135 miles to Roswell.

We arrived at Spring River RV Park which is a nice Passport America park for only $20 per night. As luck would have it we landed here on the weekend of the Roswell UFO Festival. This three day festival offered up live music, food trucks, booths costume contests for those in attendance and it was all FREE! The music was all played on a stage in front of the really cool looking courthouse.

We checked out several of the live music venues and some of them were pretty darned good. It was great attending live music events again. New Mexico is quite a bit more cautious with Covid  in comparison to the lack of interest shown by much of Texas about the pandemic. We saw lots of masked and un-masked (vaccinated) folks attending the events.

We also made a day trip over to the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It was a short drive outside of town where we drove the loop road through the park looking for birds and wildlife. We didn’t spot much wildlife but did see some birds. We also stopped at several pullouts to either take in the sights or set off on a short hike. We found it to be a really pretty area with a lot of wetlands throughout the park.

We also found a nice little disc golf course that we played and enjoyed. We really liked the Alien logos on the baskets. The entire town really embraces the Alien theme. Nearly every business has alien or UFO art making it quite fun to stroll or drive through town.

We also enjoyed some craft beer at a few different locations. One was at the Black Cock Brewery (No I didn’t name it!) which had a fun vibe and good beers available. Another popular spot for dining and drinking was Farley’s. They served up some Alien IPA beers that were tasty. Also we noticed they had one of the most unique bar tops we had ever seen which was a lot of computer motherboards side by side and encased in resin making for a real interesting bar top!!!

And just like that our time was up in Roswell and it once again became time to head North and West towards Albuquerque…

NOTE:  We are currently Bernalillo, New Mexico until July 14th…

Last Weekend at Betty’s and Moving On…

Our last weekend at Betty’s was a blast just like all our weekends at Betty’s are. One event we enjoyed was when Calvin & Donna Touchet came over to the RV Park on Thursday and prepared a Cajun Spaghetti dinner. The dinner included salad and rolls so everyone else brought a dessert. The food was fabulous.

After the dinner and happy hour most of us headed over to Sounds on the Square in Abbeville for the free Thursday music series. While the music on this night wasn’t Cajun or Zydeco the band Bayou Beats was still enjoyable. It was also very nice to sit amongst the large and majestic live oak trees draped in resurrection fern and festive lighting. It made for a very relaxing evening. 

Our last Saturday we attended the black pot cook off at Touchet’s  Bar. Anytime we see there is one of these food type events I am there. I love the way the Acadians prepare their dishes and a black pot cookoff meant there would be plenty of different style of food to try. With a $5 entry there was unlimited sampling at the 30 plus booths and for entertainment, three different bans played that day. 

We sampled Cajun stews, Sauce Piquante dishes, etoufees, jambalaya,  a gumbo, egg and crab stew, shrimp n grits, rabbit, alligator and many more dishes with wonderful flavors. I sampled every dish and can only admit to not liking only one of them. Boy was I stuffed when I went back inside to listen to the bands play.

 We listened to a lot of great music that afternoon with each band donating their time to support the Cajun Culture Association.  One of the fund raisers was a 50-50. For those that don’t know this is where you buy a ticket for say a dollar and half goes to the charity (Cajun Culture Assoc) and the other half goes to the winning ticket drawn later.

When they drew the winning ticket we were told the ticket holder had to be present to win and no one claimed the winning ticket. After a few minutes it was announced they would draw another winning ticket and as they announced the winning number Sharon screamed out as she had it! She made her way through the crowd to collect the money ($351.00). We donated $50 back the Cajun Culture Association and spent another $40 on rounds but still came home with a tidy sum.

Our last happy hour at Betty’s was a festive one as several of us were leaving the next morning. As a result many of us broke out partial bottles of booze and everyone had a shot or two to help us lighten our load for travel day.

 The next morning came and it was time for us to go after many hugs to the group. We had  an appointment in Abbeville for a pair of new tires on the front of our RV before going on down the road. I researched tires and decided to replace my Goodyear G670’s with Toyo 122’s. With our newly installed Toyo tires we hit the road and even on the bumpy Louisiana roadways we noticed how much smoother our ride was. I think we are going to love our Toyos and at half the cost of the Goodyears we will also pocket some money.

An hour and a half later we pulled into our overnight stop at the Delta Downs Racetrack and Casino…

NOTE: We are now in College Station Texas until mid-May… 

Po Boys, Boudin and Gino!!!

As our month was quickly coming to a close we found ourselves cramming in all the fun we could here at Betty’s RV Park. We love the happy hours and the companionship at this park but we also love delving into some great Louisiana culture and music.

With that in mind a small group of us drove to Lafayette Louisiana for some fun at the seventh annual Acadian Po Boy Festival for an afternoon of good music and good eats. We saw several bands play as we walked the row of booths trying to decide which to sample.

Entry into the festival was free and Po Boy tastings were $3 each. With over 30 vendors there was no way we were going to try them all. There were every kind of sandwich you could imagine from the traditional shrimp po boy to crab cake, meatball, or hamburger. It was fun to see the different creations.  Our favorite place for shrimp po boys was one of the vendors so we just had to have Olde Tyme Grocery’s po boy last. Man that was some good eating!

Afterward we headed over to Touchets bar near Maurice LA where we met up with most of the rest of the people staying at Betty’s RV. We always have a great time listening some Cajun music and mingling with the very friendly locals at Touchets.

Another day, another festival. This time is was over to Scott LA for their annual  Boudin Festival. Yep, you guessed it… good food and great music. I love me some good boudin and I didn’t leave disappointed as I bought the best boudin balls I have ever had at this festival.

While the food was great our main reason for attending this event was that Gino Delafose and the French Rockin Bookie Band would be playing. We listened to the early band while we were eating all the great boudin. But it was finally time to hear Gino play and it was worth the wait. His high energy zydeco music was fabulous. The only disappointment was that they had to cut their time short since some bad weather was moving in the Scott LA area.

We headed back home and the rains did eventually come. That just gave us time to plan our next adventures…

NOTE: We are now in College Station Texas until mid-May…

Acadiana Dragon Boat Races and more fun…

There’s just no fun to be had here at Betty’s RV Park. Another problem is that there simply isn’t any good food either… Well both of those are lies as there is always something fun going on… And the food? Well let’s just say the Acadians in Southern Louisiana know their way around the kitchen.

                           

Speaking of food, one of our favorite po’boy stops is a little hole in the wall place called Bon Creole in New Iberia Louisiana. As is typical at Betty’s RV Park you don’t go by yourselves as it is more fun to bring along all of your new and old friends.

                        

Even better was fellow RV’ers and blogger friends Steve and Mona Lisa were nearby so we extended an invite to them to join all of us. Needless to say the shrimp po’boys were awesome and it was great we could visit Steve and Mona Lisa one more time before they beat us to the west coast.

                           

Another fun event we went to was the dragon boat festival also in New Iberia LA. We had never attended this annual event in previous visits so it was on our list to check out. This years event not only included the fun and raucous Acadiana Dragon Boat Races it also included a hamburger cookoff. Watching the boat races was fun but let me tell you what!  The hamburgers, many with a Cajun twist, were out of this world.

                           

We of course also attended the bi-weekly Cajun Jam held at Touchets (pronounced as two checks) happening every other Saturday. We have visited so often we have met several of the locals and have gotten to know nearly all of the musicians.We would be hard pressed to name a friendlier place than this.

                                

We still have a few weeks left and I am sure we will find a few new things to see, do and taste in the coming days. Stay tuned…

NOTE: We are at Betty’s RV park until April 16th before continuing on toward Texas…

International Bluegrass Musicians Jamming…

As we are still biding our time waiting for Katie and Brooks’ wedding on October 13th we have found a few fun things to do in the area. Luckily for us we happened to be in Raleigh this time of year for the annual IBMA festival. IBMA is the International Bluegrass Music Association and every year there is a big gathering in Raleigh.

   

One of the highlights is a Free Streetfest. Not only do I love Bluegrass Music but I love free Bluegrass Music even better. With more than 100 bands on 7 stages playing in downtown Raleigh we felt it was a must see event. We drove downtown and secured a parking spot then walked over to Fayetteville Street where more than 10 blocks had been blocked off for the festival.

We started at the JAM stage where Junior Appalachian Musicians were playing and it was a treat to listen to some of the young,up and coming talents in Bluegrass. Seeing some of these kids playing their instruments like a pro was fun to watch. There was one young lady who could really play her banjo and another young lady who played a cello which was much larger than her. What fun!!!

Of course there were street vendors lined all along the side streets selling everything from trinkets, to art, to locally made goods. Lots and lots of food and drink vendors were there as well. We sampled some foods and bought a locally made craft beer as we ambled slowly down Fayetteville Street street until we arrived at the IBMA Spotlight Stage where the bigger named talents were playing. One band we particularly enjoyed out of Colorado was called Jeff Scroggins & Colorado, It was a father and son band we thought was quite good.

Along with over 200,000 other attendees we sure enjoyed the downtown music festival. The next big Raleigh event is the State Fair which of course is why we had to leave the fairgrounds and move to Lake Falls State Recreation Area. With the wedding coming up we are again watching the weather as another soon to be Hurricane will be affecting the forecast for the area this weekend. We also need to start hammering out some travel plans as we will begin heading south toward Bonita Springs Florida next week…

NOTE: We are still at Lake Falls State Recreation Area north of Raleigh NC with the wedding coming up this weekend and then we head south…