Installment #8

Arriving in Baton Rouge at yet another Wal-Mart, we took off in the car to see the sites:

The Louisiana State Capitol building (claims to be the tallest state capitol building in the U.S.). Tony had never been in a state capitol building and he was amazed and impressed. We went into the Senate and House chambers (all wired for laptops, of course); took elevator to the 27th floor to the observation deck (34 floors total, 450 feet high) – the views were fantastic with the Mississippi River to the west. The brochure description quoted the north view as "Louisiana’s prosperous and economically important chemical corridor" – meaning petro chemical plants and smog! The entrance is approached by a grand staircase with one step for each of the 48 states, listed in the order of their admittance to the Union. Alaska and Hawaii were added to the top step when they were made states. Flags of various nations which have ruled Louisiana hang from the balcony – Castile & Leon, France, Spain, England, a 15-star U.S. flag, Confederate flag, Louisiana state flag, the modern U.S. flag and more.

On the capitol grounds was an Old Arsenal Museum, built about 1838, used by the military during the Civil War, displaying hundreds of kegs of powder, and vents that angled through the five foot thick walls to prevent a direct shot into the arsenal.

Next stop was the Hollywood Casino River boat – gambling not allowed in the state; however, it is allowed on the Mississippi River. There was a very elaborate motel, restaurant entrance with a walkway to the river boat casino (picture).
We drove around the block to get a picture of this mural painted on the side of a building. (picture)
Our next stop was the Port Allen on the west side of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, after 9 Eleven, visitors have been stopped from entering. We did find a small spot outside the government fence to watch six barges being pushed by one tug boat out of the locks.
We went to the Blue Bonnet Swamp for an upclose and personal look at a swamp - to see the lizards, hear all the birds, and see all the water logged cypress trees.
We stopped in Slidell, Louisiana, jut 40 miles northeast of New Orleans. We spent a lot of time driving around in the car looking at the devastation from "Katrina" – "do not crush" sign on a boat, "your adjuster" sign with a phone number, very nice homes all built on stilts (picture) with garage and storage on ground floor, a shopping mall completely closed, army tanks parked, "demolish shed in back only" sign, "evacuation route" sign, and "looters will be shot" sign. In Slidell, the TV weather man suggested a weather watch for possible tornadoes so we stayed put another night. In this particular Wal-Mart parking lot, a lot of people were living in their cars.
We continued on our trek to Mississippi (picture of view over Mississippi) – our first stop at the Visitor’s Center where we found "Southern Hospitality" from the people in the Visitor Center. Notice the picture of their Apollo training module in the park. We went south down to the Gulf of Mexico highway 90 to travel along the gulf to see the Katrina devastation (described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_Hurricane_Katrina_on_Mississippi ). Two main bridges are still not repaired (due to be opened this May). Signs we saw - "Need a dummpster?…call …", "coastal clean-up", "Homes in 8 weeks", "storm debris in water", "do not enter, boardwalk torn up". We saw a Wal-Mart parking lot with no Wal-Mart, stilts left where houses once were, a McDonald’s sign, but no McDonald’s; boat on dry land across from Gulf with sign "I survived Hurricane Camille" from years ago.

Our next tourist stop was (picture of street scene) Mobile, Alabama…we stayed nearby in Daphne, Alabama. Got a few pictures of the Carnival Cruise ship which had just arrived, unloaded passengers, and loading up again for another cruise beginning that night. We toured Fort Conde (notice the picture of the gaslight lit outside the museum) (http://www.museumofmobile.com/html/other_museums.php) and the Mobile Carnival Museum - memorabilia from 1921 Mobile Mardi Gras – gowns (picture), sceptors, crowns, trains http://www.carnivalmuseum.com/ Learned more about Joe Cain's Merry Widows (http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/Bureau/Mobile/joe_cain_procession.htm). There is more about the Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile at this site (http://www.mobile.org/ab_mardigras.php ).

We stopped for lunch at the "Spot of Tea" http://www.spotoftea.net/. Went inside the Immaculate Conception Church (picture); took a picture of an unusual site - store window with suits and matching hats. We also stopped in at the A&M Peanut Shop, open since 1947 - peanuts roasted hourly in a 90 year-old roaster. A pigeon kept coming inside the door to eat the peanuts that fell on the floor.





Next we went to a park with the USS Alabama (picture) and USS Drum sub, http://www.ussalabama.com/. Saw B-52 bomber, "Calamity Jane", Mustang, A-12 Blackbird spyplane, F/A-18 hornet prototype, B-25 "doolittle" bomber, OS2U kingfisher scout plane, vietnam "Huey" helicopter, F-4U Corsair, A-4 skyhawk, F105 Thunderchief, F4C Phantom, F-86 Sabre, 9 tanks and armored vehicles; also another Vietnam & Korean Veteran memorial park.

We took a walk to General Andrew Jackson's Oak Tree (a sign on the way - "beware of snakes and alligators") - Andrew Jackson climbed this oak and rallied 3000 troops in 1814, CSA camped here 1861–65 and Union troops came ashore here en route to Battle of Spanish Fort.






Next we went to the American Sport Art Museum http://www.asama.org/collection/onlinetour/index.asp , check out page 12 (Arman) one of my favorite and page 15 (Rizzi) - fun 3-D pictures (picture) "Just a few moments left on the clock".






Not quite out of Alabama yet, we went to an RV park called Wales West to give Tony his British fix of sitting out in the hot sun and going to a blue grass music ho-down in the evening. http://www.waleswest.com/. After Sharon took a swim in the pool, we got caught up on laundry. Took a ride on the train in the park during the day and another after the entertainment.

We have now learned that our goal of seeing the Atlantis blast off from Cape Canaveral has been postponed for at least another month – can you believe that the lift-off support rockets strapped to the shuttle suffered hail damage in a storm. I guess our tour of Florida will not be on any schedule now. Our first stop in Florida was to see Kathy (Cally & Casey’s Mom) in Pensacola. We then drove on to Navarre, Florida for two nights, waiting out what appeared to be a possible storm, again. The storm was bad in Mobile only a few miles away where we had been a few nights before: at the time of writing ten people were reported dead most of them school kids when a tornado flattened the school during session. I think Tony’s negative attitude is getting us in possible bad weather, and my positive attitude is keeping us out of the possible bad weather.

We took a drive around the area – across a bridge to a very narrow island (beach red warning flag up was for "high water hazard"). Sand was blowing everywhere. With the window just barely open, we were pelted with sand.


We got off the island and drove to the Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin Air Force Base. This was even better than the planes, etc. that we saw at the USS Alabama. We saw the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast or Mother of all bombs - the world's largest conventional weapon); the "fat man" casing - second and last nuclear bomb ever used; a missile with writing all over it – one comment was "this one's for you, Saddam"; and several airplanes inside from different wars – the Mustang, P-47, Shooting Star, and Thunderchief. Outside they displayed a Soviet MIG-21, Blackbird, B-52 and about 20 other war planes. One display allowed visitors to walk through an Airborne Battlefield Command Control Center capsule.

We are going to slowly work our way down the west coast of Florida, possibly take a drive down to Key West. At that point, we will begin heading north and then west for the trip back home.

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages. We enjoy hearing from everyone. As I am getting ready to send this blog, Tony is taking a nap, and we are sitting on the south coast of the Florida panhandle beside the Gulf of Mexico. I'm am loving the view with the waves and sounds. What a way to have a vacation!!

~~Sharon & Tony

Installment #7

On Saturday, we took off in the car for Houston sightseeing –


As always, we hope you can click on the pictures to see a bigger picture.

the Chase Tower (the tallest composite all concrete building in the world);
a beer can house (a house clad in cut and flattened beer cans, wind chimes made of beer can tops)(picture);





an art car museum (pictures). The shell of the car comprised millions of small rectangular pieces of thin steel tack welded to each other (see second close up picture).










the Holocaust Museum (http://www.dallasholocaustmuseum.org/)

and the Galleria shopping Center (picture)
(http://www.texasoutside.com/houston/galleria.htm) (spent hours walking around, watching the ice skaters, looking at the Goddard Gallery (http://www.michaelgodard.com/biography.html) – one of his paintings shown here.



No visit to a city would be complete without a driving mistake – Sharon found herself driving down the streetcar lane – luckily no streetcar on the route at the time, but locals certainly honked a lot and finally a car drove up beside and stopped traffic so we could move over into a driving lane (that car just happened to be a police car).

Sights we saw along our travels
A buffalo ranch
Computer in rest stop, made to look like someone’s rendition of the "first computer" (see picture)









Passed through Sealy, Texas, where Sealy mattresses are made.
U-Haul self storage buildings in downtown Houston
Cotton Exchange building in downtown Houston
Talked to a fellow motorhomer from Seattle – the next morning we watched him leaving the parking lot in the motorhome. Evidently, he forgot to hitch up his towed car. He had to reverse back into the parking lot to get it. This has not happened to us……….. yet!!!!


We spent some time with Sharon Kay (a childhood friend of Sharon’s). The doll picture is of dolls she made – they were amazing. Sharon Kay volunteers at the Houston Zoo and has spent years developing a non profit organization to help Native Americans (http://www.northamericanindianministries.org/)
Sharon Kay works mainly with the orangutans – while at the zoo. She gave one of them a drink – and the orangutan spit the water at Sharon – guess she didn’t like not having Sharon Kay’s undivided attention. Some of the sights we saw at the zoo (http://www.houstonzoo.org/) – underwater diver cleaning window inside an aquarium, snakes, rats, giraffes, lizards, bears, birds, tigers (picture), white alligator, lions (picture) and elephants (some of them painting pictures). Zoo keepers put paint on a brush, put it in the elephant’s trunk (picture), put a canvas up close to the elephant, and the elephant swipes the paint onto the canvas. Then the zoo keepers dip the brush in another color and do the process over again. These canvases are sold to the public. Sharon Kay auctioned some paintings from the orangutans for $400.00 at a fund raiser.




When we were ready to head east out of Houston, Tony noticed the tow dolly had a stress fracture in one of the welds. A trip to Wal-Mart for a phone book, several phone calls, and several hours later, we were ready to hit the road again. The welder we found was only five miles from where we were – a lucky break in a city this size. Unfortunately the heat from the welder caused Tony to have to rewire the tow dolly before we could proceed East.

Our next touring point was the San Jacinto Monument
http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/Monument_and_Museum/Story_of_the_Monument/
and the Battleship Texas (commissioned in 1914, was the most powerful weapon in the world, the only surviving U.S. naval vessel to have seen service in both World Wars) http://www.visithoustontexas.com/visitors/attractions/listing.details.php?category=12412&id=28319
We watched many barges and tug boats while we were on the "Texas". The self-guided tour allowed us to go down to the engine room and about 2/3 of the way up the different levels. This visit was recommended by Sharon’s brother Jim. A GOOD recommendation. On the way we saw Solvay Chemicals – the company Jim works for in Wyoming.


Our last stop in Texas was Beaumont at the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Museum (http://www.famoustexans.com/babedidrikson.htm) - her record for athletic versatility stands at the top for both men and women). Also in Beaumont, we visited the Texas energy museum (here we saw robots describing the finding of oil)(picture); a Victorian Queen Anne home (picture); the Edison museum (http://www.edisonmuseum.org/) ; and the Texas fire museum, with the world’s largest fire hydrant (picture) (provided by Walt Disney after the making of the "101 Dalmations" movie) www.firemuseumoftexas.org



After spending ten days driving across Texas, we arrived in Jennings, Louisiana, via Lake Charles. On the way to Jennings, we stopped at Lake Charles (picture) at the lake where they had an alligator and turtle park. Took a picture of one of the many high bridges we went over (picture). On the road trip we saw what we think is rice fields and a lot of swamp land. This is the worst road surface we have been on. We saw miles and miles where the semi trucks have lost tires – the road is covered with pieces of tread. Tony slowed down considerably and only got honked at one time by a trucker unhappy with our speed of 45 on the interstate.

Thanks again for all the phone calls, emails, and blog messages.

~~Sharon & Tony