Today we drove US90 from Del Rio to Marathon. En-route we made a quick stop at the Amistad Dam, walked out to the middle, and stepped across into Mexico. This is definitely the spot to drive into Mexico (or back to the US). In contrast to other border crossings we've seen, this one was deserted. The customs and immigration folks are standing around with their hands in their pockets. Perhaps one car crossed each ten minutes or so, in either direction.

We had hoped to find a coin laundry in Sanderson, but no such luck, so we pressed on to Marathon, where we hoped the commercial RV park would have one. They didn't, but referred us to one in town. This turned out to be a small wood shack with a tin roof, containing two washers and two dryers, at $2 per load each. Unfortunately, all the machines were in use and we opted to just hold off until we are in Big Bend, where, we've heard, they have one. I almost took a picture of the place, it was so comical.

We had a nice dinner in town at the one AAA-rated restaurant, inside the historic Gage Hotel, which turned out to be a real gem. After which we retired here to the RV park (map), which was kind enough to give us a $5 rate since we are using neither hookups nor their facilities.

Tomorrow we will be in Big Bend National Park, where we hope to spend a few nights. That is, unless we get stuck here in the snow that is supposed to fall tonight.

Hmmm.... Usually when I make a new post to the blog, I then go to the blog to make sure it came through OK, and, in particular, any map link I post actually brings up the correct map. So I just did that with today's post, below, and was surprised by the MapQuest result at various zoom levels. It shows us as being right on the highway. Of course, this is really the old highway, which is now partly under the lake. The new highway is actually also shown, but it appears as a smaller gray line a bit to our west, and, at the right zoom level, is incorrectly labeled as the old highway.

We find this sort of database error quite frequently on our GPS and on Street Atlas, but we expect those databases to be somewhat out of date. MapQuest has newer data, usually. Also, it's more common for only the old alignment to show at all -- when new alignments are in the database, they are usually correct. In any case, we are not really camping on the highway! We're just off the old alignment, several hundred feet from the new highway.

We are parked at a lovely spot overlooking Lake Amistad, in the Amistad National Recreation Area (map). This particular site is a National Park Service primitive campground (called, unimaginatively, "277 North"). It's actually a handful of graded sites with ramadas, just off the old 277 grade (from before inundation of the lake). The old road simply dissappears into the water, and one can see it rise again from the opposite shore in the distance. We are on a finger of the lake here entirely on the US side, but the lake is an impoundment of the Rio Grande and thus spans into Mexico. The Pecos and, I think, one other river also empty into this lake.

Our route west from here is actually US90, and we will need to backtrack a few miles on 277 back into Del Rio to pick that up. There are also several primitive sites in the recreation area along 90, but our guidebooks list them as unsuitable for rigs over 29'.

The campground host, Larry, invited us over to enjoy the large campfire they have going in their site, so we went over bearing the remains of the birthday cake. With eight participants, the cake dissappeared instantly. Turns out most of the handful of rigs here belong to full-timer retirees who appear to be staked out here for a while, and it has become sort of a community. We had an interesting fireside chat, including a pseudo-argument with a gentleman named Paul. Paul was appalled at our conspicuous consumption of, in particular, electricity, and took us roundly to task for trying to maintain all the comforts of home. Of course, he's the guy cutting all the firewood, so it's impolitic to complain too loudly. He's also the guy with numerous bags of aluminum cans that he collected along the highway stacked alongside his trailer...

We arrived here fairly late today, on account of a navigational snafu. We had hoped to take the road closer to the river, but it went from asphalt to graded dirt some 20 miles or so out of Laredo. We had to backtrack about 15 miles to a (brand new) tollway connecting the Columbia Friendship bridge to the freeway. On top of which, just getting turned around when the pavement ended was something of a challenge.

We are in Laredo, TX. There happens to be a quite nice state park here, and we are parked in a nice spot right on lake Casa Blanca (map).

Today is my birthday, and we thought it might be nice to have dinner downtown, then perhaps walk over the bridge into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Early in the afternoon we headed into town to check it out, and it turned out to be a real nightmare negotiating downtown in Odyssey. On top of that, the street leading up to Bridge #1 (the one you can walk across) is closed off a couple blocks from the bridge, effectively cutting off access to anyplace we might have parked either to eat or to walk across. We finally conceded defeat, bought a small cake and some dinner fixin's at the local grocery store, and retired to our campsite for the night. It's been raining all day here anyway, so the whole walk-over-the-bridge thing was probably off the agenda. Louise made me a nice spaghetti dinner (my request) and we cracked open an excellent bottle of Joseph Phelps Merlot that my good friends Chuck and Ellen Haas gave us as a wedding gift (thanks, Chuck and Ellen).

My abdominals are aching today. Yesterday, when I was replacing the leveler, the only way to get to the upper bolt was to, essentially, do a giant crunch, and work the pair of wrenches (requiring both hands) for as long as I could hold it. I guess I did maybe ten or fifteen crunches, but held them for perhaps 15 seconds apiece (well, okay, they got shorter and shorter as I worked). I was so worn out when I finished that it was a struggle to extract myself from under the bus. I didn't think anything more of it. Today, of course, my body is letting me know, in no uncertain terms, that it was unhappy with the treatment. It hurts even to cough or sneeze. I suppose this would not have been an issue had I been in better shape to begin with.

Tomorrow we head further upriver, on our way to Big Bend National Park.

We have been following roads as close to the Gulf of Mexico as possible, and much of our route has been marked as an official "bird watching route." The Great Louisiana Bird Watching Trail, the Texas Bird Route, or some such designation. We've also seen signs for the Texas Tropical Trail, Florida Cracker History Route, and WARNING! THIS DIRECTION IS NOT A HURRICANE EVACUATION ROUTE! Somewhere, your tax dollars are paying some state bureaucrat to make up these designations...

From our rooftop deck this afternoon, I saw quite a number of birds that were new to me. I was able to identify a vermilion flycatcher, a black-crested titmouse, and a northern cardinal. Far off in the distance was a bird with bright yellow chest and a black throat that I think was a type of oriole, but the bird sat still for such a long time in the same position that I couldn't see any more of it for identification. Probably real bird watchers see these all the time, but I'm a rank amateur and just like having a few new names and feathers to put together in my mind.

Along the shore were a great blue heron and a great egret, which we've seen all over the gulf coast. While they are common, they are always wonderful to see in their graceful legginess. While we were at South Padre Island, I was able to get within 20 feet of a great blue. It was busy stalking a fisherman's bait bucket and ignored me.

A few days ago, we saw three bright pink flamingoes in flight. I had seen pale pink flamingoes in Hawaii, and hot pink plastic ones in suburban front lawns, but never such lurid plumage on living birds.

We are at Falcon State Park, on the Rio Grande, or, more accurately, on Falcon Reservoir which is part of that river (map).

When we arrived here around 4:00 this afternoon and asked if there were any campsites left, the ranger at the gate said "no." Almost as an afterthought, she added "unless you want a site with water only." We've learned now to always ask about primitive or "no-hookup" sites, because some rangers and camp hosts seem to think that anyone in a motorhome needs to have hookups, or a minimum of electricity. In any case, we allowed that we didn't need any kind of hookups at all, and they assigned us to a space in the "primitive" area. Once again, as luck would have it, this area is better situated than the developed areas. We have a wonderful view of the reservoir from our penthouse window, and can see right across to Mexico. (The price we pay for this is having to listen to the border patrol's speedboats whizz by.) The developed sites, as far as we can tell, have no view whatsoever. On top of that, we paid only $8 for this great spot.

We're not very far from where we started the day, on account of working on the levelers. Wal-Mart turns out to be a pretty good place to do such work... they seem to tolerate it, and they have a reasonable hardware department in case something needs to be picked up in a hurry. In any event, I spent a good half hour wedged under the bus between the drive and tag axles getting the leveler out and installing my jury-rig stand-in spacer bar. Setting up chocks, cones, tools, etc. etc. of course took longer still. I'm happy to report that the spacer bar has held up thus far with no problems. Unfortunately, now that I have the linear actuator out, I can see that fixing it will be no small feat. I have sent an email to the manufacturer for assistance.

Tomorrow we will head into Laredo.

Today I received the very first "comment" posted to the blog since I enabled them a few days ago. It was posted by Sk8RN, who writes:

"What kind of pets are you traveling with? How are they faring the trip?"

These and other questions, along with many things you probably don't want to know, are found at our main web site, which can be accessed by clicking the link at right for "Our bus adventure site".

The main site is a bit out of date, as several pages refer to Odyssey as still being under construction. I am trying to update the site as time permits, including posting the oft-requested interior pictures (good news here: I finally took some, but they are still in the camera). I'll post an announcement here on the blog anytime I update the site.

One of the settings here at Blogspot that I changed was to add this blog to the directory. It occurs to me that this means some folks will come here before ever seeing the OurOdyssey.US site. Perhaps I will add some sort of "read this first" link here as well.

Sure enough, there is a Wal-Mart here in Mission, just a stone's throw from Camping World and Home Depot. So guess where we are staying tonight (map).

We left SPI, as the locals call it, sometime around noonish and had a pleasant, if uninteresting, drive through Brownsville. Actually, we sort of skirted around Brownsville, so for you bus nuts and Neoplan folks out there, no, we did not see the now-idled Neoplan USA plant which was formerly the Eagle plant.

More interesting was the drive up Military Highway, US281, which runs just north of the river. Definitely a very border-town feel. Interestingly, we saw no ICE/Border Patrol along this route. In contrast, we passed many ICE vehicles driving down 77 into Harlingen, and, while on SPI, we were buzzed by a LearJet flying less than 100' off the deck that we believed to be an ICE aircraft.

We arrived in Mission in plenty of time to do our shopping at Camping World, which, it turns out, was absolutely packed with "winter Texans" shopping the January sale. From there we went to Home Depot where I picked up some threaded rod, couplers, and eye bolts that I hope will work to replace the rear leveler for a while. I had planned to do the swap-out right in the HD parking lot, but the light was fading and neither of us had the energy to start the project that late in the day. Instead we scoped out the Wal-Mart and headed off to the Olive Garden in neighboring McAllen for dinner.

If the weather cooperates in the morning, I will try to get the leveler changed out here at Wal-Mart, just in case we need to go for more (or different) parts. Mission is the last good place for parts until we hit Laredo.

Spent a lovely day here on South Padre Island. This is the off-season here, yet there are so many snow-birds here in their RVs that restaurants and the like are fairly crowded. I can only imagine what this place is like during spring break (when hotel room rates essentially triple from what they are now).

Tomorrow we will head out of here, after a quick loop around the tourist district. We will head down to Brownsville, then follow the Rio Grande inland. Our immediate objective is Mission, TX where there is both a Home Depot and a Camping World (hey -- we lead an exciting life). We need the former for parts to repair the rear leveler, and the latter for parts we need for the, umm, waste disposal system. Maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be a Wal-Mart there as well...

Tonight we are on South Padre Island. We left Corpus Christi around noon, and headed east to retrieve our mail in Ingleside. A bit out of the way at this point, but the mail was ready and waiting for us and the Ingleside post office was easy-in, easy-out. From there, we headed west back through Corpus and joined up with US 77 in Robtown, where we stopped at a classic Texas barbeque joint for lunch -- Joe Cotten's (highly recommended). From there we blasted down 77 to Harlingen and headed east on TX 100 through Port Isabel and over the causeway.

On our way through the southern part of 77 and all along 100, we saw many RV parks that were absolutely full. In fact, several billboards along the route greeted "winter Texans", so we knew we were in serious snowbird country. As we approached South Padre we faced the fact that, quite possibly, there would be absolutely nowhere to park on the island or even nearby. We headed straight for the most likely location: Isla Blanca County Park, in Cameron County on the very southern tip of the island (map). We were thrilled to find that, while the developed campsites (with hookups) were fully booked, boondocking space was available in the "overflow area" for $15 per night. We quickly paid for two nights and proceeded into the park.

The unspoken truth is that, even though hookups are only a few dollars more, the overflow area is actually much closer to the beach, being essentially a day-use parking lot that has been re-purposed. So we are parked right at the beach on the gulf side, and we had a beautiful view of the gulf and the moonrise out our penthouse window.

The overflow area turns out to be, well, overflowing with really nice people, many of whom are full-timers. A crowd immediately formed around Odyssey when we parked, and we spent a good deal of time discussing the conversion and showing folks the exterior features. We met several nice couples, among them Bill and Mary and their friends Jerry and Ann (sp?) traveling in a pair of Fleetwood Discovery coaches, who invited us to sit and have a glass of wine with them.

In the small world department, two women (who turned out to be sisters) approached us and allowed how as they had been parked next to us in Beaumont at the Wal-Mart (they had noticed us being whisked away by our friends there as well), and we learned that we had been on much the same itinerary since New Orleans and will be into Brownsville. They are from Chico, which is not all that far from our former digs in San Jose. We remembered their rigs from Beaumont -- a group of three fifth-wheels. After a few minutes' conversation, they left to re-join their husbands and the rest of their travel group of seven people.

About ten minutes later, there came a loud knock on our door -- it was the sisters from Chico, whose names we still have not learned. They came bearing a skewer of roast dove, bacon-wrapped and jalpeno-stuffed, which their group had been grilling up. Apparently, the dove (and possibly quail?) was the result of a hunting expedition earlier in the year. In any case, it was absolutely wonderful, and essentially that became our supper for the evening.

Sometimes, you meet the nicest people on the road.

We are at Stewart & Stevenson where Odyssey is getting a much-needed oil transfusion. All other critical fluids are being checked as well, and the technicians will also be looking at our oil leakage.

This morning, we got up before dawn in order to be here for their 8am opening, so we were treated to an incredible sun rise over the gulf.

Update: The tech says that the oil pan bolts were loose, and this probably accounts for most of the leakage. Good news. The coolant needed additives -- no surprise there.

Today I called Stewart & Stevenson, the megalithic multi-state Detroit Diesel/Allison dealer which has a branch nearby in Corpus Christi. We need to get our engine oil changed, as well as the fuel filters, and I want them to have a look at the engine to assess why we are leaking so much oil (we leave a few drops everywhere we go, and we are consuming about a quart every 500 miles). We'll also have them top off the tranny and the now-seeping rear end. Anyway, they said to bring it by first thing in the morning tomorrow, so we opted to hold off on getting the mail till then as well. No doubt we will spend a good deal of time waiting in line at S&S, so we'll pull a motorcycle out and one of us will run into Ingleside where the mail is (we hope).

That left us with a free day today, which we spent walking the beach, checking out the visitor center, and getting a couple projects done around the coach. All in all a lovely day here on Padre Island.

We are at the north end of Padre Island, at the park service campground in Padre Island National Seashore (map). Today involved yet another ferry ride, as we came across through Port Aransas. The whole ferry rolled left as we embarked -- a bit unnerving. Otherwise, the ride was uneventful. The ferry guys assured us that they carry 80,000 lb trucks all the time.

It is permissable to park and camp right on the beach just south of here, and we had thoughts of doing that. However. this site was the last one available in the paved campground, and we did not want to take the chance that the beach would be too soft to support Odyssey, then returning here to find the site gone. We had good reason to be concerned, as we had pulled in earlier today to the Mustang Island State Park campground one island north of here, only to find them completely full. Many of the commercial parks we passed along the way also appeared full -- it seems we are again in snowbird territory.

In any case, this is a nice spot. We got a prime site on the beachfront side of the asphalt, and we have a lovely view of the gulf along the whole curb side of the coach. The sites here are a bargain at $8 per night (there are no hook-ups), although on-beach camping would be free. (There is an entry fee required to even enter the national seashore, but our annual Golden Eagle/National Parks Pass covers that.)

When we set up for the night, we discoverd the rear leveler is inoperative (though it was working a mere 25 miles ago when we transited the ferry). I crawled under the coach to investigate -- one of the two wires to the actuator motor has snapped off at the motor housing from metal fatigue. I will need to remove the actuator altogether to see if there is any way to open up the motor assembly and repair the wire. If not, we will need a new actuator. The good news is that the rear leveler is the least important, and it "broke" in the neutral, centered position. With both front units still working, we still have 100% of our left/right leveling capability, and 50% of our front/back capability (it's a three-point system, with only one unit in the back). So we can live with this issue until a covenient place to effect repairs.

Of greater concern is that, while I was under the coach, I noticed that the rear end, AKA the differential, appears to be leaking oil. I suppose I should not be all that surprised -- unlike the rest of the power train, this item is as old as the chassis, or a full 20 years this year. No doubt the seals are at end-of-life. Unknown what it will take to get this repaired, but we will probably head for a Freightliner dealer, as they are the official heavy-truck/bus arm of Daimler-Chrysler in the US, and it's a Mercedes rear end.

I've changed the blog settings to allow comments...

Today we had another ferry ride, this time without incident. After leaving the picnic area, which turned out to be a real gem as we had the place all to ourselves for the night, we drove into Port Bolivar and got in line for the ferry. When we got to the head of the line, there was no room for us on the vessel they were loading, so we had to wait fifteen minutes or so for the next vessel. We had a very pleasant crossing, but no dolphins.

After disembarking the ferry, we drove along the famous Galveston sea wall, the top of which is a beach-front highway. The Galveston waterfront turns out to be much the same as any of the tourist-centric coastal communities we passed through from NJ all the way down to Ft. Lauderdale and again along the gulf coast from Florida through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We opted to drive through slowly but without stopping. The rest of the island was more scenic and less crowded. We crossed the Galveston Toll Bridge to the next barrier island and passed along Christmas Bay and through the community of Surfside, where we had no choice but to turn inland. From here south, the gulf coast of Texas is protected by myriad barrier islands, but, save for a short stretch near Corpus Christi, none is traversable by motor vehicle until South Padre Island at the very southern extremity.

We are proceeding south toward Corpus Christi, where our mail should be waiting for us in the suburb of Ingleside. Tonight we are parked at the Lighthouse Beach & Bird Sanctuary, a public campground operated by the city of Port Lavaca (map). This turned out to be strictly a lucky find, as it is not in any of our directories or on any of our maps. However, it is a very nice facility right on the beach at Lavaca Bay, and we have a waterfront view from our penthouse window. We spotted it from the road as we were driving through, hoping to find another rest area or perhaps head down to Goose Island State Park.

We are only 75 miles or so from Ingleside and our mail, but, of course, the post office will be closed tomorrow (Sunday). We might spend tomorrow night at Goose Island or, perhaps, head all the way in to Corpus and spend the night on Padre Island, backtracking into Ingleside Monday morning. We are a bit ahead of ourselves, as I had expected to spend most of today in Galveston, though I'm not sure why...

We've parked for the night at a Texas state highway "Picnic Area" -- what Texas calls many rest areas (map). We are on a spit of land known as the Bolivar peninsula, on our way to the Galveston ferry and Galveston Island. The great state of Texas is generous to allow travelers to spend up to 24 hours at a rest or picnic area. This one's pretty spartan -- just a loop of pavement with a couple of picnic tables -- but we can see just a glimpse of the gulf past the nearby housing development. In any case, it will likely be quieter and nicer than the myriad low-end RV parks we passed on the way here, and free to boot.

We've been visiting friends in the Beaumont area for the last two days, which is why we have been off-line. We parked the coach in a local Wal-Mart, and our friends whisked us off to their ranch about an hour north, in Woodville. We left the vicious attack cats to guard Odyssey, while the dog came with us. Opal was in dog heaven, roaming the ranch off-leash and chasing us as we rode aboard Yamaha four-wheelers. Now, however, she's exhausted. Our friends were the consumate hosts, and we had a great couple of evenings with them.

Notwithstanding our last ferry experience, where we unseated an air bag during embarkation, we intend to try again tomorrow morning with the Galveston ferry. This is a much larger vessel and the crossing is around 15 minutes. We've heard that dolphins can often be seen swimming along with the ferry. Interestingly, the Galveston ferry utilizes Voith-Schneider propellers, a unique propulsion system more commonly found on large Eurpoean ferries.

With any luck, tomorrow's crossing will be uneventful, and we will be enjoying Galveston proper for lunch.

This seems to be our week for suspension problems. While embarking the Cameron Ferry today, we unseated the left side drive-axle air bag. Gave us a bit of a scare, as we were unsure we could make it back off the ferry with the rear end down on the stops. We just barely made it, while Louise, I, and the ferry guy all held our breath.

What happened, we surmise, is this: we "pumped up" the suspension to it's max height, which means also max pressure in all the bags. This is routine whenever we need to go over a bump or a swale, so we don't high-center or low-center. The loading ramp to the ferry had a sharp drop-off onto the deck, almost like rolling off a curb, and we think the tag axle, at max pressure on the bag, held up enough of the weight in the back that when the drivers dropped off the ramp, the left bag broke its bead.

In any case, this sidelined us at a small turn-out near the ferry dock for almost three hours, while we waited for road-side service. Between myself and the service guy, and the four jacks and two pry-bars we had between us (and a bit of dish soap from the kitchen) we managed to get the bag re-beaded. Unseating one of these bags is a constant concern of ours, because it usually takes multiple jacks, a bigger air compressor than we can carry, and a lot of grunting (and finger-crossing) to get them re-seated.

Nevertheless, we were on our way before nightfall. However, darkness was upon us as we crossed the state line, and we stopped here at the Umphrey State Park (map). The park appears to be open, but the campground is empty. A sign says to pay for camping at the store across the street, but a sign there says they are closed until sometime in February. We parked here anyway -- we don't need the electric hookups (which are padlocked, presumably until the store re-opens), and it was the first place we came across where we could safely and legally park.

Tomorrow we will stop in Beaumont to visit friends. We had planned to see them tonight, but the air bag fiasco supervened.

We are planning to take the Cameron Ferry today, assuming the tide is favorable and Odyssey can make it up and down the loading ramps. I've been searching the web for more information on the ferry, and one of the things that came up on Google was the following bit about the 12 Days of Christmas. (The ferry makes its appearance on Day 9.) We've seen this before, but now that we're here in the bayou country, we "get" more of the references. It's funny enough that we thought we'd share with y'all. Apologies and thanks to the original author, wherever he/she may be...


The 12 Days of Christmas...Cajun Style !

Day 1....Dear Emile, Thanks for da bird in the
Pear tree. I fixed it last night with dirtyrice
an' it was delicious. I doan tink the Pear tree
would grow in de swamp, so I swapped it for a
Satsuma.

Day 2....Dear Emile, Your letter said you sent 2
turtle dove, but all I got was 2 scrawny pigeon.
Anyway, I mixed them with andouille and made some
gumbo out of dem.

Day 3....Dear Emile, Why doan you sen me some
crawfish? I'm tired of eating dem darned bird. I
gave two of those prissy French chicken to Mrs.
Fontenot over at Grand Chenier, and fed the tird
one to my dog, Phideaux. Mrs. Fontenot
neededsome sparring partners for her fighting
rooster.

Day 4....Dear Emile, Mon Dieux! I tole you no
more of dem bird. Deez four, what you
call"calling bird" wuz so noisy you could hear dem
all da' way to Lafayette. I usedthey necks for my
crab traps, and fed the rest of dem to the gators.

Day 5....Dear Emile, You finally sent something
useful. I liked dem golden rings, me. I hocked
dem at da' pawn shop in Sulphur and got enough
money to fix the shaft on my shrimp boat, and to
buy a round for da boys at the Raisin' Cane
Lounge. Merci Beaucoup!

Day 6.... Dear Emile, Couchon! Back to da birds,
you coonass turkey! Poor egg sucking Phideaux is
scared to death ah dem six goose. He try to eat
they eggs and they pecked the heck out ah his
snout. Dem goose are damm good at eating
cockroach around da' house, though. I may stuff
one ah dem goose with erster dressing to serve him
on Christmas Day.

Day 7....Dear Emile, I'm gonna wring your fool
neck next time I see you. Ole Boudreaux, da
mailman, is ready to kill you, too. The crap from
all dem bird is stinkin up his mailboat. He afraid
someone will slip on dat stuff and gonna sue him.
I let dem seven swan loose to swim on da bayou and
some stupid duckhunter from Mississippi done
blasted dem out da water. Talk to you tomorrow.

Day 8....Dear Emile, Poor ole Boudreaux had to
make 3 trips on his mailboat to deliver dem 8
maids-a-milking & der cows. One of dem cows got
spooked by da alligators and almost tipped over da
boat. I doan like dem shiftless maids, me. I
told dem to get to work gutting fish and sweeping
my shack--but dey say itwasn't in their contract.
They probably tink they too good to skin all dem
nutria I caught las night.

Day 9....Dear Emile, What you trying to do?
Boudreaux had to borrow da Cameron Ferry to carry
these jumping twits you call lords-a-leaping
across da bayou. As soonas dey got here dey
wanted a tea break and crumpets. I doan know what
dat means but I says, "Well la di da. You get
Chicory coffee or nuthin." Mon Dieux, Emile, what
I'm gonna feed all these bozos? They too snooty
for fried nutria, and da cow ate up all my turnip
green.

Day 10....Dear Emile, You got to be out of you
mind. If da mailman don't kill you, I will.Today
he deliver 10 half nekkid floozies from Bourbon
Street. Dey said theybe "ladies dancing" but they
doan act like ladies in front of dem Limey sailing
boys. Dey almost left after one of them got bit
by a water moccasinover by my out- house. I had
to butcher 2 cows to feed toute le monde (everybody)
and get toilet paper rolls. The Sears catalog
wasn't good enough fordem hoity toity lords. Talk
at you tomorrow.

Day 11....Dear Emile, Where Y'at? Cherio and pip
pip. You 11 Pipers Piping arrived today fromthe
House of Blues, second lining as dey got off da
boat. We fixed stuffed goose and beef jumbalaya,
finished da whiskey, and we're having a
fais-do-do. Da' new mailman drank a bottle of Jack
Daniel, and he's having a good oldtime dancing
with the floozies. Da' old mailman done jump off
the Moss Bluff Bridge yesterday, screaming you
name. If you happen to get a mysterious-looking,
ticking package in da mail, don't open it.

Day 12....Dear Emile, Me I'm sorry to tell
you--but I am not your true love anymore.
Afterthe fais-do-do, I spent da night with Jacque,
the head piper. We decide to open a restaurant and
gentlemen's club on the bayou. The
floozies--pardon me--ladies dancing can make $20
for a table dance, and the lords can be the waiters
and valet park da boats. Since da' maids have no
more cows to milk, I trained dem to set my crab
traps, watch my trotlines, and run my shrimping
business. We'll probably gross a million dollars
next year.

We're in Abbeville, LA. Louise says she's posting tonight, so I'll just post the map.

A typical traveling day

8:00 Coffeemaker brews a pot, noisily. Ignore.

8:30 Opal asks to be on the bed. She jumps up, lies on her back between us. The cats, who've been on the bed all night, scatter.

9:00 Louise gets up, fixes two cups of coffee. She reads the newspaper on-line.

9:30 Sean gets up, takes a shower, has his coffee.

9:45 Louise takes her shower.

10:00 Opal gets out of bed. She does not shower.

10:00-11:30 Sean and Louise read e-mail, putter around the coach, eat breakfast.

11:30ish We begin to get itchy feet and start getting ready to go. Sean starts the engine, then prepares the outside of the coach. He does his "walk around," checking to make sure all the bays are closed, the tires are okay, nothing has fallen behind the coach during the night, etc. Louise prepares the inside: closing cabinets, putting loose items away, stowing the satellite dish. Opal goes into her traveling crate, usually without being asked. We're off!

11:30 to 1:30sih We drive at a leisurely pace on the back roads. Sean does most of the driving, and Louise is the navigator. For the last several months, we've been trying to travel the road closest to the ocean. We avoid the interstates as much as possible, preferring to drive through every small town and on every back country road. A good town has an interesting downtown with courthouse, library, roadside shacks selling local edibles, and folks who smile and wave as we drive past. A less desirable town has the same stores you can find everywhere: Home Depot, Office Max, Payless Shoes, Applebee's. If we see a roadside attraction that catches our eye, we stop. Or not.

1:30 We eat lunch. Many days, we just snack on what's in the 'fridge, often while still driving. Other times, we pass an interesting looking local restaurant and stop there. Good: cops parked outside, hand-lettered signs with the words "family" or "pie," large flat parking lots. Bad: anything named with a registered trademark, drive-through windows, hand-lettered signs that say "smokers welcome!"

2:30sih Louise starts to look for a place to stay for the night, while Sean continues driving. Estimating where we'll be about 30-60 minutes before sundown, she looks for likely spots. Best: national forests or BLM land where we can boondock. Second best: county, state or federal parks with campgrounds. Third choice: businesses where we can park overnight (Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel, truck stops.) Last choice: privately owned campgrounds. We have a variety of sources to find campsites, including maps, AAA campground guides, a truck stop atlas, a guide to free camping, and tourist brochures.

Getting close to sunset: We park for the night. Louise goes upstairs to check how level the site is, and Sean adjusts the leveling system as necessary. We check to see if the dish can see the satellite, and re-park if necessary for a good connection. If the site is nice, such as a park, we often set up our rooftop deck and go topside for a drink. If the site has other people nearby, we spend 10 minutes explaining the bus to curious campers.

Sunset to bedtime: We cook and eat dinner (Sean cooks fresh food, Louise cooks leftovers.) If we're parked at a Wal-Mart, we often go out to dinner if there is a restaurant within walking distance. Relaxing in the coach, we check our e-mail and surf the net if we can, watch a little TV, read books, drink a little wine, wash the dishes, walk the dog. Sean often maps out the next day's route. Louise sets up the coffeepot for the next day's brew.

That's pretty much it for a day on the road.

We're in New Orleans! We are parked at the charming (not!) Mardi Gras RV Park, in a very industrial area northeast of town.

We came into town yesterday from the north, over the Lake Ponchartrain causeway, just because we wanted to see it (it's marked as scenic on our map). The view of the lake was wonderful, but the construction of the causeway had Odyssey pounding up and down over the expansion joints.

We then crossed the Mississippi on the Hugh E. Long bridge, which we had crossed a few years back on the train (the railroad and the roadway share the same bridge), and proceeded directly to Westwego and the Bayou Segnette state park, which we had heard was a nice place to camp. Unfortunately, the fifth-wheel just ahead of us in line got the last space, and we had to go back to the books for an alternative campground. (We pulled over in a bank parking lot to consult our directories, where the Westwego police department came by to check us out. Officer Mike was so appreciative of Odyssey that he radioed for another car -- we ended up giving three officers tours. We felt very safe in Westwego!)

Wal-Mart and its ilk were out of the question, since we wanted to leave the coach for several hours at a stretch to explore the French Quarter and other New Orleans sites. Reluctantly, we headed for the Mardi Gras campground, on the diametrically opposed side of the city, resolved to look it over before deciding what to do.

Fate made the decision for us: on the way across town, we ruptured an air hose on the right front suspension valve, and the coach immediately dropped onto the suspension stop in that corner. Of course, we were on an elevated section of freeway at the time, having just re-crossed the river, heading for I-10 (we were taking the expeditious route to the campground). Fortunately, we were able to pull into a breakdown lane to asses the damage. One consequence of having, effectively, no suspension at that wheel is that we can go no faster than, perhaps, 15 mph without risking serious damage.

Given that the airline components for the suspension are German and not stocked by any roadside truck-repair outfits, we knew this was going to be a lengthy repair, with a possible multi-day wait for parts. We quickly made the decision to continue on to the nearest campground, where we could better deal with the problem. We drove two more exits on the freeway with our four-way flashers on, and exited down to US-90 (a city street at this location) where we proceeded five miles further to the park at speeds between 10 and 15 mph.

I must say that the Mardi Gras campground is not the sort of place we would normally want to stay. However, the sites are level, ample electricity is provided, and the facility is secured with a fence and electric gate, so it was a great "port in the storm" for us. We checked in for a two night stay (knowing we might need to extend that if we needed parts) and got Odyssey settled in to a space. The suspension issue could thus safely wait until morning.

It being Saturday night, and this being New Orleans, we made dinner reservations at Antoine's in the French Quarter -- one of the grand old restaurants (1840) of New Orleans. We dressed for dinner, called a taxi, and headed into town.

Dinner was excellent, and, in spite of being dressed to the nines, we spent some time walking up and down Bourbon Street before and after dinner. By the time we came out of dinner, things were heating up and the street was fairly crowded. It's only three week to Mardi Gras, and the women are already flashing for beads on the street. We stopped for cocktails at the Old Absinthe House, where we had a good view of the revelers on the balcony across the street.

Today we were hoping to take a river cruise to the Chalmette Battlefield, but, of course, I spent most of the day working on the suspension. I'm happy to report that I was able to salvage the parts from the ruptured line and replace it with a spare line that we happened to have with us. (The big challenge was carefully removing the compression ferrules for re-use -- this is normally considered a replacement item, but, with no spares in town, careful surgery on the old hose ends was our best option.)

Odyssey thus safely restored to road-worthy condition, we hope to do some touring tomorrow morning before packing up and heading out. Tonight is up in the air, but we are thinking about a jazz dinner cruise on one of the paddlewheelers.

Today is my parents' 50th wedding anniversary... Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

We are at Buccaneer State Park (really!) in Mississippi, after a very pleasant drive along the gulf coast. Biloxi and Gulfport evidenced far less storm damage than we saw further east, and these casino resort areas had a lot of incentive to clean up right away.

We are following US-90 along the coast, and will likely take this all the way into the big easy. Finding a place to park in New Orleans has proven to be a bit of a challenge -- right now, it looks like we will shoot for the state park in Westwego. We'll spring for a cab to the French Quarter, where walking down the street with a Hurricane (the cocktail) in your hand is not only legal, but de rigeur.

We've received a number of emails lately about the blog, and it's rewarding to know so many people are actually reading it. Of course, this increases the pressure to actually post on some kind of regular basis -- I'd like to try to post at least weekly, and hopefully more often. We've been having a great deal of difficulty with the satellite service of late, so there is always the chance that we will be "off the air" for a few days at a stretch.

Tonight we find ourselves in yet another Wal-Mart, this time in Foley, Alabama. Once again, we had high hopes of a nice park along the coast, however, much to our horror, the coast here has been destroyed, and all parks and campgrounds are closed.

Hurricane Ivan came ashore in the western Florida panhandle and the gulf coast of Alabama a full four months ago, on September 16th, 2004. The areas we passed through today still look like a war zone. In one stretch of beach straddling the FL/AL state line, we drove for several miles without seeing a single building (of hundreds) in habitable condition. Many smaller structures are awaiting nothing short of bulldozers to clear them away, as they are completely unsalvagable. I was shocked at how much devastation remains even after four months.

In any case, the four or so gulf shore parks along today's route are closed indefinitely due to the damage. Some of the rangers with whom we spoke allowed that they hoped to have things in shape for the beginning of the summer season. We saw many RVs along the coast, but, sadly, they belong to the residents of uninhabitable buildings and the thousands of contractors in the area to rebuild them. We opted to continue beyond the ravaged areas to this small town somewhat inland, where many businesses have reopened. Tomorrow, we will continue west through Mobile. (We had hoped to stick to the barrier island route, but the Mobile bay ferry was one of the casualties of Ivan and is also closed indefinitely.)

We're at the Wal-Mart in Panama City. We had planned to be camped tonight on the gulf coast, somewhere between here and Pensacola, as there are several nice parks along the route that looked good to us. Unfortunately, while driving through town here we took yet another rock to our windshield. Heartbreaking, considering the windshield was just replaced in November at a cost of over $3K.

Mindful of our last rock chip experience, where a minor (so we thought) chip turned into a windshield-eating crack in the span of only a day, we stopped immediately and called a local glass repair shop. They were able to get us right in, but the technician was out on a field call, and the repair ultimately had us there until after sundown. So we did some needed shopping at Home Depot, had a nice dinner at Olive Garden, and parked here for the night. With any luck, the chip repair will hold fast, and we will not see any further spreading this time.

Tomorrow we will head west into Alabama.

We've had a relaxing couple of days here on St. George, and are packing up to leave this afternoon.

Yesterday I finally made time to sit down with the maps and figure out where we go from here. Our only real commitment at this point is to be in Death Valley for President's Day weekend, which gives us almost six weeks. We want to stay flexible and take things as they come, but we now have an overall game plan as follows:

From here we will head west through Pensacola and on to somewhere near Gulfport, MS. From there we will hop to New Orleans and spend a couple of days -- that will take us to around the 15th or so. Then it's on to Avery Island, Port Arthur via the Cameron ferry, and in to Beaumont, TX around the 19th. From there we will head to Houston where we hope to get the main engine serviced. Then it's down the gulf coast of Texas through Galveston and Corpus Christi and on to South Padre Island where, if the weather is nice, we will stay for a few days.

From there, we plan to follow the Rio Grande inland, through Brownsville and on to Laredo. We will start the month of February in Big Bend National Park. From there we head toward El Paso, then cross into Arizona around the 6th. We expect to stop for a couple days in the Tucson area, where we have friends, and to see Saguaro National Monument. From there we head to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, then north to lake Havasu.

A quick jaunt through Lake Mead NRA will bring us to Las Vegas for St. Valentine's day -- we have two nights campground reservations here, and show tickets for the 14th. From Vegas we proceed direct to Death Valley, where we have one night at the Furnace Creek Inn before heading down to Furnace Creek Campground for the weekend.

After Death Valley, we will make our way to San Jose and the bay area for a few weeks, catching up with friends and family and taking care of some business.

This takes us into March, which is as far as we have scheduled at the moment. There are a number of items on the calendar beyond that, and we are working on integrating those into some kind of a travel plan, along with fitting in a one-month jaunt through Mexico with a caravan (including a five-day piggyback through the Copper Canyon by train).

Whew. Stay tuned for updates, though, because things can change in a heartbeat.

We are on the lovely barrier island of St. George, separating Apalachicola Bay from the Gulf of Mexico (map). We're planning to stay for two nights.

Yesterday, we stopped for a picnic lunch at Fanning Springs. The spring was crystal clear, and the state park has made it into an old fashioned swimmin' hole. Since it was 85 degrees outside, we plunged in, even though the spring is a cool (for us) 72 degrees. Very refreshing, and an interesting experience to swim in such clear water. (The spring pumps out several million gallons per hour, which run into the adjacent Suwannee River.)

I've got a nice pork tenderloin for the grill tonight, and I'm looking forward to relaxing for a couple days with no particular agenda.

Another day, another Wal-Mart...

We left Walt Disney World yesterday. All in all, it was a nice visit, but we were definitely ready to leave. There is only so much Disney one can take at a stretch. The highlight of our visit was the back-stage "Keys to the Magic Kingdom" tour that we took on Friday -- we saw some of the back stage areas including the tunnel system that connects the various "lands" under ground, and also rode some of the attractions with a behind-the-scenes narration. After the tour, which lasted almost six hours, we spent the remainder of the day at MGM Studios, where we can highly recommend the "Tower of Terror" ride.

Last night we attempted to camp at a small county park just east of here, but low trees foiled us. Besides, it was full to the gills and did not look like the most pleasant experience. So here we are in the Wal-Mart/Sam's Club in Brooksville, where it was very quiet last night. We are en-route to the gulf coast, where we will head north and into the panhandle.

We're at Disney World!

We're parked in Disney's own campground, "Fort Wilderness." As far as commercial campgrounds go, this is about the nicest we've ever seen. The real benefit, though, is that it counts as a "Disney Resort," meaning we get extended hours at the parks, and access to Disney's transportation system.

We spent yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. It was nice, but, honestly, I prefer the original DisneyLand in California. Today we relaxed in camp, and rented speedboats to tour around Bay Lake (one of Disney's private lakes within the complex). Tonight we will have dinner at a highly recommended restaurant, "Aurthur's 27", in the Wyndham Hotel (also on the property), after which we will take in some of the clubs on Pleasure Island. Tomorrow we'll be at EPCOT center, and Friday we have tickets for the behind-the-scenes tour of the Magic Kingdom, after which we will probably head over to MGM Studios. We're here until Saturday morning.

We have no plan whatsoever after leaving Disney until President's Day, when we need to be in Death Valley.

Most of the Disney resort properties appear to be rather empty, yet Fort Wilderness is pretty full. There are quite a few foreign tourists here, judging by the languages we've heard spoken. As usual, Odyssey is attracting a good bit of attention, sometimes much to our annoyance.

I've been struggling for a few days to move over to a new computer, as my old one is on the verge of collapse. Unfortunately, we now have only two fully functional computers on board, and one of them needs to be the server for the satellite connection. I drew the short straw, so I'm chained to the modems with old-fashioned wires (gasp) until I can repair the server. With luck, all it will need is a new hard drive, and I have a spare back in San Jose that I can swap in after Death Valley. Until then, I have to type over here on the sofa, rather than in my comfy swivel chair.

As soon as I have some idea of where we will be heading next, I'll post it here. Also, I have some more pictures to upload to the photo site when I get a chance.

Happy New Year, everyone.

We are in Arcadia, FL, having just attended the Bussin' 2005 bus conversion rally here. Something like 180 buses here during the event (though most are gone now). Odyssey was one of three "featured coaches" and we had perhaps 60-70 people tour through our home Saturday. Friday morning, a news crew from the local ABC affiliate came and interviewed us for a brief news segment on the rally. We met with reporter Brad Griffin. I understood that it aired on the 5:30 news, but we have no way to receive local channels so we could not see it. Drop us a note if you see us on the news!

The flu that we caught on our cruise lingered until Friday for me, and Saturday for Louise. Yuck.

Tomorrow, we are heading to Walt Disney World. We will spend five nights at Disney's own campground there, "Fort Wilderness." That gets us the same priveleges as their hotel properties (trams to the parks, and early admission). Plus, we understand the campground itself is pretty nice. I'll let you know.