singing the praises of Ameri-Camp

So, with the rain, we’ve noticed a small leak in the skylight in the bathroom.  We actually noticed it in the small town we were in, and started looking into replacing it.  Kids got sick; everyone sick, put it on the backburner.  We did a lot of looking around on the internet and a couple places B&M (brick & mortar) but couldn’t find our exact size.  So I call up AmeriCamp and ask them for a price (we’re out of warranty) to replace it and some other goodies.  They give me a price and I say, great!  Send it General Delivery…but UPS doesn’t do General Delivery.  So I figure out a way to get it to us and call them back; they are upgrading the delivery from Ground to 2nd Day Air, sending us the skylight and the goodies and NOT CHARGING US A DIME!  I even pooh-poohed his offer and tried to give our CC#; he wouldn’t budge.  They’re sending us everything 2nd day air and won’t take money.  What a company!

Goose Island State Park, Texas

Just checking to see if your collective pacemakers are working. Yes, it is an actual post. Merry Christmas! We had such a lovely time with our friends in Texas. All four of the kids made fast friends with all four of theirs. Sissy hung with the boys and Ellen and Mia had a wonderful time playing. They have such a quaint little town and the downtown looks to be on the cusp of revitalization or death. But the parks are nice, the houses are beautiful and so full of character and the laundrymat is CHEAP. Since we’ve been travelling and coming back to the US via Fort Davis, Texas, I have always held the notion that living in a small town of about 2000 would be heavenly. I think I based this on Fort Davis itself. Being with our firends, however, allowed me to realize that the closeness of a small town can be stifling and somewhat boring. I keep coming back to Minneapolis. I can’t believe how much I loved that city - especially since it is pretty much covered by ice and COLD 11 months of the year. Well, I exaggerate. A smidge.

So we left as a front was coming in; literally, as the front moved over, halving the humidity and temperature. Jody met us at the park to say goodbye and mentioned that as she was driving there, passing through the front caused all her windows to fog up. I’m embarrased to say that I thought she was just not used to “weather”, being a sunny Texas girl. So, off we headed to the coast. The route we took, zigzagging all over creation, as Texas likes to offer “alternate” routes to the highway (i.e. 77ALT) that go NOWHERE near the non-alternate route (i.e. 77 goes south, Alt77 goes WEST) and had the fortune to zigzag through the front 3 or 4 times. Each time we went from cold (under the front) to warm (outside the front) the OUTSIDE of all our windows and mirrors fogged and the inside would waver with fog. It was the oddest weather experience we have had. We stocked up in Victoria at the HEB Plus (what a marvel of a store that is!) and marveled at the architecture of Victoria. We made it to Goose Island without incident and decided to pay an extra $2 to camp on the beach. It is a lovely place here and until about 5am this morning, I was loving it dearly. Apparently, at 5am, the duck hunters put out in air boats which rival a helicopter hovering directly over the trailer for noise.
Jamie and Jesse spent yesterday in bed with the stomach bug while the girls and I headed to Port Aransas for errands and to check out the beach. Port “A” is directly on the Gulf and muc hwindier, with blowing sand. The girls were not impressed. So here we will sit and pass the Christmas. UPS is supposed to be delivering to the campground today (apparently they don’t deliver to “General Delivery”; we’ll see how well they do with “Bayfront Site #3, Goose Island State Park”.
I put Christmas lights up inside and outside the trailer yesterday and the kids have nixed the idea of driftwood and shell Xmas tree. They want a real one (nope!) or a fake one. I’m hoping to find a thriftstore in Corpus Christi on Saturday as I don’t want to waste the beautiful sun we are getting today.

Jamie is better, Jesse is better, the sun is out, the airboats and thankfully quiet, the house is asleep, the sun is out (did I mention the sun?), the birds are hopping on the roof (???) and the vistas from the laptop are stunning here on the calm bay.

Kathy, Texas

So, did you all enjoy your drive along highway 82 in Creole country? Along the Creole National Highway Byway backroad place? I sure hope YOU all did because we had a hell of a day. It started out innocently enough (and honestly, it was just a PITA; nothing even comparitively like Colorado La Veda pass…) as we headed out highway 82 from Abbeville through rice fields and sporadic cotton plantations. We’ve been having a weird brake controller problem with the trailer; it started in Ft. Davis and then disappeared only to resurface the day before we got to Abbeville. We replaced the breakaway box (when it is disengaged the trailer brakes slam full on), the wiring to the box, took the 7pin connector apart on the back of the trailer (all electrical from the van goes through this to the trailer (brakes, lights, battery charging and 4 other things) and checked all that wiring and found one problem on the charging pin. The problem is so erratic and sporadic that we can’t see immediately if it is fixed; we have to wait to see if it pops up again or not. The scenery was pretty for winter and the plantations were amazing and some were very very sad. The weatherbeaten shacks, still in use we incredibly sad. As we left Vermillion (?) parish (in Louisiana, a county is called a “parish”) and headed onto the Creole Nature Trail we began to see damage. Katrina and Rita damage. Converseley, the road improved immensely; we had a shoulder again and the surface was without constant holes and patched holes. I had downloaded the audio files to listen to while driving but SOMEONE logged me out and they were all lost (without internet). So i tried to recall parts of the commentary that I had listened to and we all looked very forward to the ferry crossing. We tried stopping at the Rockefeller and Sabine wildlife refuges but there was no room for our enormous vehicle. We figured we’d find some place to walk around by the ferry. About 14 miles from the ferry we found that the ferry that would accomodate us was not running and we were forced up to highway 10. We had traveled very far out of our way and were worried we’d get to the state park (our destination that night) late, but we figured we’d be there a while and it wouldn’t be a problem. The Sea Rim State Park is at the end of the road along the gulf and we thought it would be very remote, quiet and pretty. About 25 miles from the park our trailer brakes (the trailer does most of the braking as the van would quickly loose its brakes if it were required to stop the entire rig on its own) and I was forced to drastically cut our speed as my stopping distance was probably increased 200%. We finally, just about sunset, far after the sun had dissappeared under low clouds, found the state park. It was closed, and had been since Hurricane Rita. Or Katrina. One of the two. What was especially disheartening was that there were numerous signs to the park and not one indicated it was closed. We found an RV park about 10 miles back along the road as last night was supposed to be especially cold.

So, this morning, we had only one mission; to get to an RV dealership or Houston (Camping World) to deal with the pesky brakes. Fortunately, or unfortunately, they have been working well all day long. But since we NEED to spend money at Costco and Camping World, we dropped into Houston (instead of Galveston island and another questionable ferry) and dragged the trailer to Costco. Many many jars of organic peanut butter, coffee, and about $200 worth of other crap, we made it to Camping World just in time for it to close. So we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to buy stuff we probably won’t need, but will be desperate for in Mexico should we find we do, in fact, need them. Then we’ll be off to a small town in Texas which shall remain annonymous (to give some privacy to my friend, Jody) and then to South Padre Island where we’ll FINALLY get some Gulf beach time.

simply lovely in small town Texas

If we had to pick a place to come down with the barfs, we couldn’t have picked a better place. We’re visiting a friend I’ve never met, who has 4 kids, an AmeriCamp 5th wheel (that I’m DYING to see) and a website. She found our website from someone else and that is how we became friends. I’m purposely not giving geographical descriptions nor updating the datastorm map (see the “Where ARE we link above”?) to protect her privacy, but it is a small town and really lovely. The kids are all having a marvelous time and the boys, who have yet to come down with the barfs, have been spending every spare moment with her boys. I hope we don’t overstay our welcome as they are such a loving, caring, open and down to earth family.

We’re staying at the city municipal park which has installed some 20 RV sites with FULL hookups in a 148 acre park. They’re currently rehabilitating the creek running through the park and we have a wonderful view of the process. I don’t know if we’re an oddity or if the town is so small that anyone new is a source of entertainment of if this is simply a busy place, but there are pickup trucks and cars coming through here at just about any hour. Everyone is really friendly though, so it is hard to figure out. For such a small town it is amazingly healthy; we spent the first night at the band concert of one of Jody’s boys and the place was CRAWLING with kids. Kids of all ages. It was such a wonderful experience; not a child was hushed; they played and romped and entertained themselves all through the concert and were simply allowed to be kids.

I’m sure there is much more to the town, but until the females (so far, only the females have been affected) stop the barf cycle, we’re getting a good view of the INSIDE of the trailer and far too many DVD’s. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll EVER get to Mexico…

I'm thinking Louisana doesn't get cold very often...

I have a thingie integrated into Firefox that gives me weather and stuff.  Sheesh, I don’t know what it is.  Anyway, I just got an URGENT warning!

If you’re anywhere north of the south, this will probably sound funny (especially when we saw negative temps forecast for Minneapolis the other day)
“THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A FREEZE
WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 AM CST
SATURDAY.
A HARD FREEZE IS EXPECTED TONIGHT ACROSS ALL OF SOUTHEAST
TEXAS…CENTRAL LOUISIANA…SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA…AND SOUTH-
CENTRAL LOUISIANA. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL BELOW FREEZING FRIDAY
EVENING AND REMAIN BELOW FREEZING THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING.
LOW TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REACH THE LOWER 20S ACROSS THE
LAKES REGION OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA…WITH MID
20S ACROSS LOWER SOUTHEAST TEXAS INTO SOUTHWEST AND SOUTH-CENTRAL
LOUISIANA.
TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO BE BELOW FREEZING FOR UP TO 12 HOURS
AND AT OR BELOW 27 DEGREES FOR 4 TO 8 HOURS.
PERSONS SHOULD TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT PLANTS…PIPES…AND PETS
FROM THIS LONG PERIOD OF FREEZING TEMPERATURES. USE EXTREME
CAUTION WHEN USING SPACE HEATERS INSIDE HOMES TO PREVENT THE START
OF FIRES.
A FREEZE WARNING MEANS SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE IMMINENT OR
HIGHLY LIKELY. THESE CONDITIONS WILL KILL CROPS AND OTHER
SENSITIVE VEGETATION.”

Abbeville, Louisana

I got a little present last night. It isn’t something anyone can buy, and the piece of mind it brought was priceless. Our time at the mansion in Minneapolis coincided with a certain cyclical event leading to much physical activity. After one particular event, an item used to prevent a 5th was shockingly empty of that which it is supposed to collect. (is it not obvious that I am purposely being vague?) The next day I took Plan B and we worried. The effacy rate was in the high 80 percentile but still… I had no side effects and I was especially pleased as my last foray into hormones was the birth control pill in 1993. Taking that cause some super fertility and Jesse was conceived but I was horribly sick on the pill. I was very happy to find that Plan B (Emergency Contraception) was incredibly side effect free. For about 3 days. I then was dumped into hormone hell. I was ravenous and shoveled sugar on an hourly basis. I was TERRIBLY depressed. I was anxious and worried about incredibly stupid stuff. I second-guessed myself on an hourly basis. I was angry and short tempered. Well, more than usual. I was a classic bitch. And it lasted a good long WEEK. Two days ago the hormone hell started tapering off and yesterday I felt the best I’ve felt in a Very Long Time. Last night I got my present and today I’m in my “normal” hormone hell. So the family gets a super double dose this month. Aren’t they lucky?
Inbetween all this we visited an estate (think plantation) which is run by the NPS and “oohed and aaahed” over all the incredible homes in Natchez, Mississippi. We spent One Hundred Dollars on a single dinner in Vidalia, Louisiana. Apparently, in Louisiana, when they specify “fried”, it really means “deep fried”. Deep fried pickles, hush puppies, catfish, oysters, shrimp; you name it, it came deep fried. And it was DELICIOUS!

I was very impressed with the way that Arkansas merges traffic when two lanes merge to one. The left lane merges into the right lane. If you are a long slow vehicle, this is a wonderful idea! Merging into a lane of cars going faster than you is always hard work and no-one ever wants to let you in. Having those fast cars merge into your lane is so very much more civilized, saner, safer and easier.
We were going to drag the kids to plantation after plantation, but the one we went to ended up being so emotionally draining we decided against it. We spent one afternoon at Melrose, an estate in Natchez, and came back that night for a Christmas program. It was incredibly historic; Christmas through the eyes of the slaves, complete with mansion tour and vignettes around the estate. The kids had hot chocolate and made “mussy tussies” or something like that; little boquets. I highly recommend it if you’re in the area December 1-2. Oh, and best of all, it is FREE!

We have been staying in Passport America RV parks all through Louisiana though it about killed me to pass up incredible boondocking opportunities along the Mississippi. It has been getting down to the 30’s (though last night was mid 40’s) here in LA and we’re needing the heat, if nothing else, to keep the pipes from freezing. Oh, and those pesky kids. Hmmm…maybe the hormonal hell isn’t quite over yet. We’ve only been doing about 100 miles on a travelling day and staying about as long as the whim lasts. The kids are LOATHE to leave camp, preferring to spend all day outside playing or playing with their toys. The long days of travel outrunning the storm were trying on us all. I’m ready for Gulf water though, and hopefully tomorrow we’ll head to the Gulf coast somewhere near Houston. We need to spend outrageous sums of money at Camping World and Costco (and I need to see if Houston has a Trader Joes) and then we’ll head further down the coast. I’m not sure if Christmas will be in the US or Mexico; I thought Jamie was insistant on Xmas on the beach in Port A, but I’ve got an itch that only Mexico can cure and after talking to him (that does help, I find) it turns out he just wants to be on the beach.

So, that’s the non-update. We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know when we’ll be there, but we’re doing pretty well getting there.