Half Way There

Dear Diary, We are half way to somewhere. No idea what we half-way to. Maybe half-way across Texas.

Dorothy notes the slave quarters need maintenance

 At Coral and DD's In Marksville

Pernadles Falls State Park

I juiced this to make it seem that it was not heavily overcast

We started the trip with new cab curtains, new rear window shade, installed third generation window storage trays, replaced hot water gas valve, installed variable speed fan switches for our personal fans, replaced Bilstein shocks, 100m maintenance and several other items we can not recall.

We name our trips. Most do not have very imaginative names, like The Rock Trip. This year I saw a great name Our Trek To The Zombie-Free Haven North Of The 49th. Seems appropriate for going to BC.

Since we will be eating rather than hiking this year, we are already calling it the Eating Trip. Dorothy was talking with a friend with an agile imagination who suggested Gourmet Eating sounded better, so it will be The Traveling Gourmets. We are not going to just toss the Zombie name either.

Tuesday, April 4

Selma is on the most direct route headed west from Montgomery. It was known as The Queen City Of The Black Belt and was one of the wealthiest cities in the US before the Civil War. You have probably have heard of the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma. We had no idea who Pettus was so we looked him up. Turns out he was a civil war hero and a proslavery fanatic. This was the reason MLK picked the bridge as the starting point for the march to Montgomery. It certainly was the site for a lot of head-knocking and bloodshed.

We spent the night at Roosevelt SP, just east of Jackson. A good deal, full hookups for $14

Wednesday, April 5

We are mooch docking with our former neighbors on their estate near Marksville, LA. The property has been in the family for several generations and all of his relatives live here.

Thursday, April 6

We got a fine start yesterday on eating in Bunkie, LA at Dugout Grill and Bar Rocky's Tails and Shells. A gourmet hamburger and sweet potato fries. The potatoes are grown across the street. That was topped that evening by gourmet dining at the Red River Grill in Marksville, LA

The folks we are staying with are natives to the area. His family goes back generations. So they know everyone and every place to eat in a wide area. We are suggesting he put in a one site RV pad in the back.

Friday, April 7

We drove two hours to Baton Rouge and are dry camping at Parr Park. It’s quiet and only $10. The weather is perfect so we have no need for AC. We had a late lunch at a Greek and Lebanese restaurant we have been to before. It was a good as we remembered it. I had three appetizers and Dorothy had one appetizer and the Chicken Korma. We did not need dinner.

Saturday, April 8

I read this morning that Bigfoot kept a lumberjack as a sex slave and his wife says he is no longer the man she married.

We had appetizers for lunch at The Chimes - East. Dorothy had a cup of gumbo and crab cakes. I had a bowl of gumbo and alligator. All divine and we are stuffed.

Baton Rouge has the densest traffic of ANY city we know. Perhaps the flooding last fall concentrated folks here?

Sunday, April 9

We got away early to drive to Lafayette to eat breakfast at Prejean’s. We had such good memories of the food. The parking lot was about empty. That should have been a clue. I should have put my fork down after the first bite and left. I didn’t. A mistake. $40 wasted.

Drove another two hours and parked at Niblett’s Bluff, a city park. Not bad for $22. No bluff in site. Perhaps it is concealed by the greatly swollen Sabine River, the border of LA and TX.

Monday, April 10

You are still reading?

Today’s goal was to gain back the latitude we gave up by going to Baton Rouge and do it without going too near Houston. If took several tries with various waypoints set to force Glenda to take us north of the city. A good FM road, but also lots of stoplights for a time slowed us down. 

We parked at Lake Summerville, a COE campground. It was an area of Texas we had not been in. Low hills, big ranches, some wildflowers. There are two adjacent campgrounds on the lake. I turned into the first one, drove three miles to the check-in where we saw a sign on the window closed for repairs. We thought it would have been nice if they had put that sign at the turn-off. We were even more surprised that the check-in was manned. Yep, there was someone there to tell us it was closed.

Tuesday, April 11

Day 8. We continued west through the southern end of Austin where we found rain. We stopped at Pernadles SP, [Lyndon, a local, pronounced it Perda Nal Lis], because we had not been here before and the rain was getting annoying. Texas parks are a value IF, you are going to stay in several in a year. The park pass is up to $70 which means you don’t have to pay the daily entrance fee per person. That fee here is $6, so add in the $20 site charge and the cost is $32 a night.

Wednesday, April 12

Another hour west brought us to Fredericksburg. I always recall the town from how it was 50 years ago. Every downtown storefront was boarded up. 25 years ago it started its rise to a tourist mecca. Cutesy stores, over 100 vineyards in the area and some great eating.

We were going to stay at Ross and Beverly's, but the city leaf truck broke down and could not remove the pile of leafs where we would park on the street. We found decent accommodations for $30 and that's the low price in town. The city park is now $40. 

Had a superb Red Snapper at a most unusual place, The Hilltop Cafe.

These two look like they need good meal

Thursday, April 13

Laundry, shopping at the best grocery store chain the country, H-E-B and dinner with Ross and Beverly.

Some folks think Whole Foods and Trader Joe's are good. We don't care for them.