Music, Disc Golf, Mexican Food and Time to Go!

We are finally wrapping up our stay in in College Station. We spent two months here so I could have my eye surgeries. While they haven’t completely healed yet we decided it was still time to go. The jury is still out on whether or not I will ever have crystal clear vision as I still have an annoying amount of double vision in my far sightedness which I have been told should go away after all swelling abates.

In our last few days we continued our morning walking ritual to check on our nest of swallow chicks. They have now all fledged and another pair has started a nest nearby. Life will indeed continue when we leave town.

We also played a little more disc golf at our favorite park. There is some water hazards on this course and we had to fish out a few discs before finishing our last holes. We also attended one more outdoor music concert this time featuring a Hispanic Band called the Sunny Sauceda Band who was as lively as any Zydeco band we have ever witnessed. We loved their music and we also loved having our boiled shrimp dinner with our Happy Hour beer at the park before the music began.

Prior to leaving we had to visit one of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant in downtown Bryan. Cheese enchiladas at Casa Rodriguez never fails. We also stopped for one last Carne Asada taco for lunch at Coco Loco’s Mexican restaurant. And before leaving Sharon added a new hat to her collection so I am sure you’ll see more of it in future blogs. I on the other had needed a Whataburger malt before heading east.

Travel day finally arrived and we packed everything all up. After sitting two months of sitting we hoped everything would work as it should. Well, it did and so we hit the road before ten for a rather long (for us) 170 mile trek to the east. A little over three hours later we pulled into Vidor Texas for a one night stay.

Boomtown RV Resort is just off the highway but with all the heat we are sure we won’t be hearing any noise since we are sure the A/C’s will be running non-stop. The park is a Passport America park so we will receive 50% off the nightly rate. It sits on a large scenic pond which was really nice.to see as we enjoyed happy hour at our rig.

This is a one night stop, something we don’t do very often but since there is little for us to see in this area we simply left our CRV connected in order to more easily hit the road in the morning.. I not sure that we have ever spent one night AND had our car stay connected in eleven plus years we have been traveling, but there is always a first.

NOTE: We are now eastbound and will stop in Duson LA next…

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…

Back to Betty’s Web in Abbeville Louisiana…

No trip through Louisiana would be complete without our annual stop at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville. Leaving New Orleans we took highway 90 to State Route 14 to avoid Interstate 10 all together. I love driving the back roads so much more than the boring truck infested interstate highways. With only the minor inconveniences of a few traffic lights and some small towns we pulled into Betty’s shortly after lunch.

Because we arrived on a weekend we hit the ground running and drove up with several other RV’ers to the town of Breaux Bridge for an early morning at Buck and Johnny’s Zydeco breakfast. We have been to a Zydeco breakfast in Breaux Bridge before but it was at Café Des Amis which we discovered had closed down.  Apparently soon afterward Buck and Johnny’s began offering their own Zydeco breakfast. While the breakfast wasn't really anything special the Zydeco music and the energy in the place was definitely top notch!

I mentioned we come here annually but actually we didn’t come through last year because of unexpected RV repairs we had to have done in Red Bay Alabama after some framing fell out. Anyway we were very happy to be able to return and get caught up again in Betty’s Web. For those who don’t know Betty’s RV Park is a small RV park that Betty built around her home in Abbeville. It can be a little stressful maneuvering into a site but those cares are tossed away at 4:30 when everyone in the park gathers (with snacks) for Happy Hour on Betty's patio. We are so excited to reconnect with Betty and so many of our Betty’s RV friends!

After breakfast a group of us walked over to the Jam Session held weekly at the Joie de Vivre Café. Locals and travelers alike can be found rotating in and out of a Jam Session featuring lots of Cajun Music and Swamp Pop. We stayed for a while enjoying some warm Beignets (a classic Louisiana pastry) and some music before moving on down the road.

Our next stop was at the La Poussiere to listen to several bands who were performing that day. As is typical of anyplace visited in the Acadian Region of Louisiana we met some friendly Cajuns and spent a great afternoon listening to some wonderful Cajun Music. Afterward we all hurried back to Betty’s for our daily ritual…. Happy Hour! It's so great to be back!!!!!

NOTE: We are still at Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville LA and will move on into Texas in April…

Enjoying Bend Oregon till the last day…

 

After getting past our ordeal with the flat on our CRV in Bend we finally met up with Pam and Vic. Sadly we were too late to go to the farmer’s market so Pam suggested we go straight over to happy hour at the The Pine Tavern. What a nice cozy place it was and it was obviously a favorite of the locals. Their happy hour was great! Our burger and garlic parmesan fries were perfectly complimentary to my Bend RPM IPA.

After happy hour Pam and Vic had more surprises in store for us! It was time to go “Back to school in Bend!” There was a live music event at the McMenamin’s Old St Francis Pub. which is one of many such cool restored buildings created by the McMenamins brothers. This one is set in a former Catholic school's main building and has five different and unique bars. We listened to music provided by a very talented guitarist and song writer. Though I can’t remember his name, he was quite good.

After a while Pam and Vic wanted to show us the rest of the McMenamins. First they showed us a really cool soaking pool and a very neat looking theater bar where I am sure it would be fun to watch some college football games. We were next shown a hidden door to a room full of interesting lighting fixtures and art under black lights. It was a little room to nowhere… We also saw all of the bars but the very coolest of all was one called the Broom Closet.

We walked down a hall and Pam told me to open the door to the broom closet and lo and behold we were in a broom closet with many interesting broom art pieces. There was yet another door inside the broom closet that led us all into a small and quaint speakeasy-type bar…very unique and clever!

The next day Sharon and I drove back over to Bend to go for a hike with Pam on the Deschutes River Trail. Vic was at a Tai Chi class so off we went. I am not sure how we ever missed this urban hike. It took us about 3-4 miles alongside the river flanked by a gorge of basalt cliffs. We enjoyed scenic vistas, white water and the sounds of rushing water  which was such a treat.

Afterward Sharon and I had reserved a tour of the Deschutes Brewery.  Pam  tagged along and was able to get on the tour as well. This free tour is a must do when visiting Bend in our opinion. To see one of the largest craft breweries in action is impressive. The four, four ounce, samples which come with the tour are also a treat. I tried two of their fresh hops beers which were really good.

Our time in Bend was coming to a close but Pam had one more stop for us before leaving to pack up for our journey south. We stopped in a makeshift garage in a neighborhood that turned out to be a brewery called Boneyard. We ordered the sampler of nine beers to share as they do not sell pints. I liked the RPM IPA the best. We also tried an interesting Ginger beer that they collaborated with a brewery in Shanghai China with. Tasty!

We enjoyed the day and it was time to take Pam back home and bid our goodbyes to both Pam and Vic, the “Ambassadors of Bend” (credit to Hans for this one)…What a fun stay!

NOTE: We are now in Klamath Falls Oregon where we will be until we can get a new tire for our RV…...

More Fun Times at Betty’s RV Park…

One thing about staying at Betty’s during the spring season is that there is always lots of activities happening on the weekends. We have been to several festivals and music jams. One of the places that hosts a Cajun music jam (Touchets) is frequented by RV’ers from all over the place who all stay at Betty’s RV Park. When we go to Touchets it is like visiting family. So much so that one afternoon Calvin and Donna Touchet (owners of Touchets) actually came to Betty’s and made all the people here a fabulous dinner as a thank you for our patronage. What a feast we had and we towards the end of the evening Bernie was serving up his famous Alligator Farts.

A while back one of the people in the park (Jean Paul from Quebec, Canada) had a birthday that we all wanted to celebrate. To make it more memorable we combined it with a pot-luck and a beer tasting event. Everyone at the park brought a few different beers and we all filled our little cups to sample beers from all over the USA, as well as the world for that matter.

Jean Paul sure seemed to enjoy this festive event as did all the other patrons at Betty’s RV Park. With all that great food, great beer and great friends at the party how could we not have fun? We may have to make sure we come back next year during John Paul’s birthday since we had such a blast this year.

Recently we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day so we decided it would best be celebrated by another gathering at Betty’s. Several people got together to purchase and cook us all some corned beef and cabbage along with some great sides and desserts.We all chipped in for the supplies and had yet another fun filled evening with lots of laughter and camaraderie. We always seem to have a great time here at Betty’s RV.

 

However as we get closer to our time to depart our eyes are focused on the Interstate 10 closure at the Texas-Louisiana border. We are sure hoping it will open before we head out on Monday otherwise we are going to have to come up with an alternate plan to make our way over to College Station, Texas…

Fun Things We Have Done While at Betty’s RV Park….

There has been quite a few things we've done here in Abbeville Lousiana we haven’t blogged about so I will use this blog to cover several of them. One thing we always do here is take a nice long walk around the town of Abbeville itself. The downtown square has a central park which is a great place to sit amongst the beautiful large and sprawling live oak trees. This has been the site of many good times in the spring when the town offers their free spring concert series. It is the place where we first saw Geno Delafose perform thus inspiring our love of Zydeco Music.

Also in town is the Steen Syrup plant which is the place to get some pure sugar cane syrup. This part of Louisiana is known for its sugar cane as well as other cash crops such as rice and crawfish. Click the link to the right to buy your own tasty Steen Syrup. There is also a beautiful picturesque Catholic Church in the town square with one of two old cemeteries found in town.

A fun event we attended was Cracklin’ Cook-off and Jam Session at the Pop-A-Top Lounge in Broussard Louisiana. Boy was this fun! The food was more diverse than I expected. There were only about 6 or 7 teams cooking but the food they cooked was amazing and all of it was oh, so good. We ate catfish, jalapeno poppers, boudin, hush puppies, pistollettes, sausage, turkey necks, fig cake and of course cracklin’s. Man that was a good time for sure…

Another fun event we attended was Second Annual Cookoff to benefit animal aid in Vermillion County. This event at the LA 14 Lounge in Erath La. had cooks making up all kind of goodies with the theme being anything over rice. One fellow who won the peoples choice award made a very delicious meatball in a nice brown sauce that had (a surprise) boiled quail egg in the center of each meatball. Man was it good… but the highlight here was getting to listen to Grammy Award winning Zydeco artist Chubby Carrier. What a great talent their band was…

Another day we also went for a hike the nearby Whitelake Wildlife Conservation Area. This area is a marshland with several levees and nature trails along them as well as a nice observation tower.We saw plenty of alligators, turtles, birds and frogs on our hike. This was a great spot to get some quiet time and take in a nice long walk amongst nature.

Another pretty hike we took was at the Acadiana Park Nature Station in Lafayette Louisiana. This park is located in a nice woodland area that is typical of the Southeastern Forest which extends from east Texas to the Carolinas. We also found a nice disc golf course located here we played one day and thoroughly enjoyed. It had been a while since we played any disc golf so we were a bit rusty but we not only enjoyed the layout of the course but also thoroughly enjoyed playing.

We are  sadly nearing the end of our month-long stay here at Betty’s RV Park but still have a few other things we want to do before leaving.  When in Louisiana and specifically here in Abbeville we live by the saying, "laissez le bon temps rouler" and for this reason we know we will return to this charming and welcoming place time and time again!