Today is moving day and we are going to New Orleans.
It’s a quiet morning so far. I woke up a bit earlier on my own, around 5:30am and its nice and warm. It looks like it did not get lower than 63F overnight and that’s the temp right now. We are going to try to leave by 10am so we make it in to our campground downtown New Orleans by 2, or 3pm max.
We had a bit of another repeat of our morning routine… ish. I could kind of see the sunrise, but it was overcast, and since I woke up earlier, so did Bella, she started making noise around 6:20, but got out of her bunk at 6:40 today. yikes. She’s totally a morning person, like me.
Bella started working on school stuff as she was awake, did most of the work on her own, but was not able to finish before we left at 10. She did some work in the truck, but not much, so she left a good amount to finish later.
I got Bia up and she got going. She had a normal school routine, and normal for travel Wednesdays as well, where she does 2 classes on the road and is done by time we arrive at our destination. That’s how it went, and it works well, I think.
I kind of got Carol up right by 8, so we could start packing to leave by 10. Carol did the usual inside packing, vacuum, clean the rugs, etc and putting things away so they don’t break on the road.
I finished writing and a bit of work, then got outside a little after 8. Easy process again as we had a concrete slab under the trailer, so no mess. The only difference today was that the sewer hose was on the other side of the trailer, and I had both hoses connected, so moving it without spilling would be a bit of a challenge. I have some caps I had not used before, so I unhooked the hose from the trailer and put a cap on the end, then went to the side that goes into the drain and pulled the hose entirely to that side, then raise it and took the cap off, draining whatever was left properly while retracting the hose. No problem! We did good, and we were out just before 10.
The drive was pretty easy, it was basically I-10 all the way. The road was a bit bumpy at times, and it was quite windy most of the way. Bia recognized the gator place as we drove by Jennings. We drove through a lot of swamp land, and there were miles and miles of road that was right over the swamp, on elevated roads, or bridges, not sure what to call those. I’d say they are bridges, but they were so long it’s weird to call them that. We made two stops on the way, but they were both quick. I didn’t get gas again on the trip, and we are pretty empty now, so whoever takes the truck out first will have to fill up. I’m not having much luck pulling in to truck stops or gas stations that have Diesel, or accept regular cards, or the pump is on the side I need it to be. Some truck pumps only accept fleet cards, so a regular credit card will not work.
As we got into New Orleans, we had heavier traffic, lots of bridges with many exits all combined, it was a bit more nerve wrecking, especially when we got really close as it was one exit feeding another, and so on, but with two GPS on it makes it easier to see what you need to do, so we were able to find the right path through the bridge exits and got to the street we needed, and in a few blocks were by the RV park. We are right at the French Quarter, downtown New Orleans. We pulled up to the gate and waited a bit, then the gate opened and a lady came out to check us in. We got the paperwork and headed to spot number 5, which was right by the entrance. We pulled up and got out to remove the weight distribution bars to make the backing in a little easier. Carol and I scoped out the path to take, and I pulled forward more to start backing in. Carol then told me to go further forward and started directing from there. She made signs constantly if I was to keep going straight, turn or what not, and that was awesome! She totally got this now, and we were in the spot perfectly on the first try, and without needing to even go forward to get aligned. NICE! We have a large area here, and it’s all brickets and some grass. We had chosen to be a little more to the middle hoping we’d not need to level and it paid off, we were right on. The rest was the usual, I setup outside, Carol did inside.
The girls were doing some drawings, and then Bia was helping Bella finish her school work. That was cool. They were working together on Bella’s school stuff so they could play more. Then, when Bella was done, they went to my bed and were playing some game on their phones together.
When we were done setting up, Carol and I sat outside and started planning our visits here. Carol picked a boat tour, and made a list of places to go and see. We then decided to go out for dinner, so she found a place and made reservations for 6pm. We decided to walk there, so we wanted to leave by 5:15 to have plenty of time to walk there and just check the area as we did. I took a quick shower and the girls got their stuff ready. They each packed a backpack full of drawing things. We had a quick talk about what to expect here, and a bit of history. French, Spanish then French… Gypsies and Fortune Tellers against Voodoo, etc on top of the usual big city stuff. And we were ready to go.
We are less than 20 minutes from Bourbon Street and all the buzzing around here, so it was a quick and enjoyable walk. The girls were chatting and in a great mood. As we asked, they were close to us the entire time. Bia was with Carol and Bella with me. We had a nice walk to the restaurant, but we’ll need to go back and explore that whole area later, with time, and also check out the water front.
The restaurant we went to, which Carol picked for Creole cuisine, was a nice place. Everyone wearing a mask in there, etc. They had some local beers and there was plenty of space around, so we felt good. We ordered, the girls were drawing and we were all chatting. It was a super nice time there. The food was good, but nothing special. I got a rice jambalaya, Carol got shrimp and grits, Bia got shrimp, and Bella got Mac and Cheese. They did some awesome drawings, and Bella was drawing her friends, it turned out super cool. We got dessert, it was a chocolate mousse cake, and it was delicious. And after that we got the check, a bit pricey for what we had, and then called an Uber.
I had not been in an Uber for way over a year and was glad to see the guy had some plexiglass or plastic cover blocking the back from the front, so that was good. It was a quick 10 minute ride, and the guy had us back by the front door of the RV park. I was pretty tired at that point, I’ve not been sleeping too great so I was ready for bed. But, we got the girls to shower and get ready for bed, then put them to bed and I called it a day.
We had a nice moving day, and it was nice to walk downtown New Orleans and get a first feel for it.