November so far.......

We left Ashdown, Arkansas and drove Northwest into Sallisaw, OK, picked up Manuel's Mom, Viola, and took her with us to spend the week at Bears Den Resort in Grove, OK.  We visited, played on the computers and added stuff to and updated her computer.  Took her to the casinos there and met Jack and Melba Shadwick for a pig out dinner at Golden Corral.  They invited us over the next day for cat fish dinner, then on Saturday a bunch of the cousins got together at their house and had another pig out of our own. On Sunday some friends of ours Bob and Opal came to Bears Den and we took off together the next day. We are going to travel together for the rest of November.
 Dropped Viola off at home and went down to Lake Texoma for a week.  I did something to my back one morning just getting out of the chair................is that called old age????? Anyway better now.  We moved down to Lake Conroe for four days.  It is 82 degrees here and loving it.  We drove into Huston today and went through PPL.  For you guys that don't know what that is, it is one of the biggest used moter home sales dealerships in the USA.....We have looked for years online at their inventory.  Houston is a beautiful town, lots of trees and OMG the roads here are something else..................... the exits and onramps are like side roads and then a quick left onto the road............ Most of the people in Houston don't use their blinkes, and they still smoke in restaurants...................but Opal wants to move her......especially after we heard the temp at home.... glad we are here right now..... anyway. We to Huntsville yesterday to the Sam Houston memorial, and the prison museum.
Also went to see the house made out of Beer cans, will put pictures on later of this.  I know we go look at some strange things...... but we have fun.

Moved to Arkansas

On Thursday we moved up into Arkansas, it was raining before we got to Baton Rouge, and wind and rain all day.... The radio came on with at least 10 Tornado warnings and I'd grab the map and see where the town was and the county.... we had always just left that town, so we stayed in our seats and drove NORTH.... I really liked Louisiana thought maybe I could live there.... THINK NOT..... When we got here to Ashdown, Arkansas, it was 51 degrees and we were use to 80 degrees in Louisiana.... we liked to turn into an ice cube, it got down to 41 both nights we have been here.  But today we went north and it was a nice 68 today......

Ft. Jackson, Louisiana

Ft. Jackson is on the southern tip of the land, by Venice, LA.  The fort is surrounded by water, the moat is cool, something from the past for sure.  We were camped at Abita Springs, LA.  Which is North of Lake Pontchartrain, it was a really nice resort and I learned how to play a new card and dice game.  VEGAS  

Venice, Louisiana

The next day we got up and drove south again, the picture of the water  is of Lake Pontchartrain, as we were driving the Pontchartrain Causeway bridge.The Bridge is 25 miles long and the longest bridge in the USA. 

We drove through New Orleans again and went south the farthest we could go on land to Venice, LA.  The homes down there were really hit by Hurricane Katrina, and all we heard about was New Orleans.......

 We stopped and talked to a man cleaning fish and he owned a charter and his group had already left to fly home to Texas.  They didn't want their catch for the day as they had caught 80 some the day before.  So he was cleaning them and going to give them to the church.  He handed me a baggie and said take 5 or 6 for your supper.  They were Spotted Brown Trout, and they tasted like Ling Cod.  They were so good.  Good thing we always carry an ice chest with us..... by the way Manuel doesn't drink Dr. Pepper in the day time anymore..... you won't believe this but he is drinking water..... WHAT???? yes water......... he only has soda after we get home for the evening.....

More town and Cemeteries NEW ORLEANS, LA.

Bet you have seen a lot of these in movies, the collums is the remains of a structure in the city park, the park was huge and had so much going for it.  The Cemeteries of course are the talk of the whole world, they bury their dead above ground.  It use to be necessary but isn't any longer but it is a tradition so they still do it that way.  I don't know how many cemeteries there are in New Orleans but I know I saw 7, and they were all quit large.  Thought the Voo Doo Mart was cool looking so snapped the picture.......we walked for hours and still only saw a part of the French Quarters, then we went to Magazine St and drove down that one......

When our feet hurt so bad we couldn't take another step, Chuck took us over to a PO-BOY Pub and bakery, I had a shrimp PO-BOY that was to die for, it had about 20 pieces of shrimp about the size of your thumb on a home made roll....... and Manuel was afraid to eat anything down there as he thought it would be to hot and spicy.  So he had a hamburger..................boring......................... I loved New Orleans but Manuel can't understand why anyone would want to live there or even go there...... ha ha...... next time he will go for me again... ha.............

Beautiful homes in NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Sandra Bullock just bought a home in New Orleans and Chuck thought it was this one.  I took about 50 pictures of homes but only could put a few in the blog..... Beautiful.....

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA

Monday we spent the day in New Orleans, LA.  what a day, I took so many pictures and walked for so many hours our feet felt like they would fall off.  This is just a collection of a few of the pictures we took. My cousin Chuck lives there so he was our tour guide for the day.... thank goodness as Manuel would have said we are out of here...... but Chuck just keep telling him to go somewhere else.  loved it....

This is Jackson Square, in the French Quarters, artist are creating their works for you to watch.  The open air market was huge and so much fun to stroll through, everything from fruits and vegtables to artists, clothing, nic nacks, jewelry, wood crafts all kinds of gifts and antiques.

The buildings were beautiful, old old old..... the buildings on royal street have stories of each one..... the architecture WOW

New Orleans has more National Historic Landmarks than any other city in the United States.  St. Charles Ave is an architectural tour to see, we took in Queen Anne Revival mansions, quaint bed and breakfats, and churches etc. 

Avery Island, Louisiana

We got up Sunday morning and went over to Avery Island, we went through Baton Rouge, Layfayette, and south of Layfayette 20 miles to Avery Island.  This is the home of the Mcllhenny Company TABASCO factory and country store.  The pepper plants that are grown on the island are used for seeds to produce more plants.  They are shipped to Central and South America and raised there.  Then the peppers are shipped back to the USA to be ground and made into TABASCO SAUCE and bottled on Avery Island, Louisiana....USA......

At the Country store I tried a lot of really good products, chili was one of the best.  Also tried two different ice creams, one with hot peppers which was not hot just warm, and the other with a smooth pepper flavor, and not hot at all.  Manuel didn't try anything... ha ha.

When we left there we went into Lafayette, Louisiana, had lunch and went into the Jean Lafitte National Historical Preserve.

This was the Acadian Cultural Center of the Jean Lafitte National Preserve.  The Acadian people that came to America, and pushed out by the government and the hard times that they had. 

GULF ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE Fl.

The Gulf Shores was beautiful and full of birds. The White sands we pretty and soft....... again the beaches were full of sea shells...... This Beach was FT. WALTON BEACH on the Gulf of Mexico...

Take a look at the colors of the houses, this was all over the gulf shores region, the houses were very colorful......

NATIONAL NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM.... Pensacola, FL

We were at a resort in Alabama but went into Pensacola, FL. to see the huge selection of airplanes, and many other items of the war years.  They are in sections from WWI, WWII, Korean War aircraft, Modern aircraft. Plus a section on Nasa, Blue Angles, and life in general during these eras. The Blue Angles were gone when were there, they were at an air show in California. 

The Flying Tigers plane......... take a look at these candy bars, 3 Musketeers in a package for 5 cents.

Just a few of the planes, we were there 4 hours and so you know there was so much to see.....

Just a note from Elaine

If you click on any picture it will enlarge where you can see the details, also at the end of the pictures you will see older post that takes you to another page of the blog, think there are four or five pages. Enlarge the green shell love the saying on it. 

USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park Mobile, Alabama

We went into the the Battleship and the Submarine and walked the halls, up down and around, we were lost most of the time, but there were little arrows on the wall telling us where to go..... good thing.......

Wednesday we went into Mobile, Alabama to tour the Battleship USS Alabama, the Submarine USS DRUM
the park also has over 20 rare historic aircrafts, the flag above was flown as a tribute to our fallen commander in chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.