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1 to 15 November 2019 16 to 30 November 2019

Friday November 1, 2019

We are back on the road by 7:30 am.
On our way to the interstate.

The pavement is just beautiful, the sun is shinning, WOW!

I had to make a quick stop to fix temporarily, again, the driver side slide awning.

I can only guess it is a castle, hotel or a prison!

Shortly after we started to drive, we cross into Kentucky

A five military convoy, they sure hold up traffic.

Not much to say about today's drive. The roads were beautiful, so was the temperature. Another 570 km of pavement behind us.

We are at Dad's Bluegrass Campground in Franklin, KY. It is a Passport America park, so it cost 50 % less per night.

Saturday November 2, 2019

Another cold night.

We are back on the I-65, south bound to Nashville. Nice sunrise!

We keep it to the I-65 South.

We have a few fog patches as we got closer to Nashville. The Cumberland River that goes through Nashville.

Nashville was a piece a cake to go through. The road were perfect.

The grass on the shady side of the road is still cover with frost.

Our fist cotton field for this trip.

It was late morning when we entered Alabama.

A space rocket?

The rocket is located at the Alabama Welcome Center on I-65.

After taking the photo, I walked around the MH, checking if everything is alright. No! The front tire shows some unusual wear pattern!
I think we will have to get them changed soon. If just for peace of mind and safety. More info in the next few days.

Again, today the pavement was like carpet.

After years of road constructions, this year there is a lot less road construction..

Three little deers were playing by the interstate. Not safe because you never know what they will do! They moved to the bush, good!

According to my brother-in-law, Patrice, when you are tired and driving, eat an apple it should wake you up for a while. It works for me.

After Birmingham, we leave I-65 behind us to get on the I-20 west.
Welcome to Mississippi.

We found a Passport America RV Park in Meridian, Benchmark Coach & RV Park.
We had a pull-through, but could not get the satellite because of the tall trees.
We moved to another site, this one far from the tall trees. We will be here for two nights. This will give me time to check out the tire situation.
The sites are a little crowded, but OK.

The whole RV Park...

A long day with more than 600 km (378 miles).

Those two days will do us good.

Sunday November 3, 2019

Darn! Another morning with frost on the car!

This being Sunday, most tire stores are closed.
The only one open is the Flying J Tire Shop. I guess on Sunday you do not have your most efficient worker working! I am told to come back tomorrow morning when a better employee is present!!! I will have to check out other Tire Shop.

We are having lunch at Hardee's. OK, but no more than that.

We are going around to the local thrift store and discount stores.

The sun is nice and warm.

Monday November 4, 2019

As it turns out, we are staying an extra night in Meridian.
I spent the morning looking for tires for the MH. I am surprised to find out that all the tire stores have the same answer. The tires will be coming from Corpus Christi, TX. And they will get here in about two weeks. Let me think here, we will be driving by Corpus Christi!
So why not wait until we get to Corpus Christi to get the tires changed. In one of the stores, while I was waiting for my turn to be served, I read some information on tire wear. It turns out the wear on our tire is not as bad as I taught. Of course, nothing is 100% sure either.
We will see what happen in Corpus Christi. If not, we will get them inspected when we are in Donna and changed if need be. This way, time will not be a factor.

Michele wanted to go back to the discount stores today, why not!
Downtown Meridian with its 62 carrousel's horses. This is in honor of the Highland Park Dentzel Carousel that has been in operation since 1909. This is the Riley Center. It is a Grand Theater.

After we got back home, we talked about on next move and watched tv.

Tuesday November 5, 2019

Once again, I am up early this morning. It must be the tow change of time in the last week that is confusing my biological clock.
So, by 7:15 we are back on the road and on our way to Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

We stopped for gas in Jackson, Mississippi.
Cool car, but where are the tires?

I know I have already put up these photos, but I like the names. Maringouin means Mosquitoes and Grosse Tete means Big head!

We leave the I-20 behind to get on the I-55 south. his will take us onto I-10 west.
We drove through Baton Rouge. It can be a nightmare or a piece of cake. This time, a piece of cake.

We cross the Atchafalaya Basin. The bridge is 29 kilometers long (more than 18 miles).

Shortly after the bridge, we arrived in Breaux Bridge. That is where the road became really bad.

In Breaux Bridge, we head to Poche RV Park.
This is the entrance!

Once the MH is all setup, we drive to the local Walmart for a few items.
Like this large pizza for only $3.50.

A satellite view of the RV Park.

The view we have is great! This is not the first time we come here.

Are we close enough to the water?

Michele does not think it is funny to take a photo of her taking a photo of me!

Beautiful site, but the roads are very bad in the RV Park.

The east end of the pond.

We had a nice sunset tonight.

So! We drove 518 km (322 miles) today. This is a very long day of driving for us. We will be here for two nights.

We also have free internet and it is not too bad for a RV Park.

Wednesday November 6, 2019

I wash the MH this morning! I am done by 9:30!!!
I am energetic this morning.

More photos of the RV Park. The mosquitoes are out and hungry. Lucky for us, there are not that many mosquitoes around.

We decided to go to the local buffet restaurant in Breaux Bridge, City Buffet It was just OK.

A relaxed afternoon followed by a nice sunset. Watching TV the sunset and the fire place, life is good.

We will be leaving tomorrow morning.

Thursday November 7, 2019

Time to hit the road. By 7:30 we are rolling.

First stop, garbage run. Boy, I look happy!

We hit some pretty dense fog in certain area, but by 9:30 most of it is gone.

One more bridge, this time crossing the Mississippi River.

Welcome to Texas!

Advertisement of a restaurant serving alligator meat.

Everything is big in Texas! Even the load of tires in the back of a pick-up truck.

As we got closer to Houston, the rain started.

In no time, it started to come down pretty hard.

Notice how much water is on the road?

Regardless of the weather, Houston was easy to go through.
We saw many fields covered with cotton bales.

The rain let up some after Houston. But it started again shortly after.

We finally made it to Magnolia Beach. The wind is blowing pretty hard and so is the rain.
The weather forecast calls for the same for the next few days.
We will be leaving tomorrow morning!

We cannot even get the satellite dish out because of the wind. An evening of reading.

Left-over pizza from the other night.

This was a long driving day and the weather did not help at all. We covered 611 km (380 miles) today.

We got bounced around all night by the wind.

Friday November 8, 2019

I even had to move the MH during the night because of the wind.
We are leaving this morning!

We back the MH with the car still attached (never do this.) I control the car as Michele backs up a little. It is a little hard on the tires of the car, but not too bad.

It is still very windy.

We do not know why this tractor is stirring the water in the pound. A total of 5 tractors were doing the same thing!

This is a very agricultural area and the land is very flat as you get closer to the coast.

A nice deer (buck) crossed the road in front of us.

A medical clinic for kids, nice!

We stopped at the Walmart in Alice for lunch.

As we came in the Rio Grande Valley, we saw this billboard advertising, in real time, the wait time in the emergency room.
WOW! 7 minutes!

It was a little less that 400 km (247 miles) before we arrived at our new home, Bit-O-Heaven, for the next four months.

We got set-up quickly and did nothing for the rest of the day.

Saturday November 9, 2019

A relaxing morning.
I empty the car of all its content. Many gentlemen stopped to chat with me, I could not get anything done! I do not have a clue as to who they are! Oh well!
With the car finally empty, I went around the RV Park because it is the patio sale today and I might find a folding bike.
I came back with a regular bike for only $25. I will use its back wheel to replace the one broken on my bike, cheaper that a new one!
As I was changing the wheels around, the drawers where the tools are kept are full of water!?!?! The water must have gotten in while driving in the heavy rain.

I had to remove the "inner tire" from the old wheel and place it in the new wheel to protect from having flat tires.

With the wheels changed, I emptied all the drawers from the tools and set them up to dry on the concrete patio. I will have to clean them with WD-40 soon. Michele went around the patio she too and found nothing good.

We also went to visit André and Louise to let them know we have arrived.
A little later we went to visit Paul and Anita too.

I re-level the MH and now we lost the satellite signal, No more French Canadian tv!

Sunday November 10, 2019

I washed the MH again this morning. I wanted to do it before it gets too hot in the afternoon (+28° C).

I did not dry it out since it will rain in a couple of days. The rain will make all the "water stain" disappear.

The grass may not seem good, but the rain should get it back green.

Monday November 11, 2019

Remembrance Day. A special thanks to all past and present military personnel.

I got this photo from Kristin as Jeremy prepared to got for the Remembrance Day parade.
And yes, this is a photo of me next to our son. It dates from around 2006/2007.

We had a very warm day today, 32° C.
I puttered around the MH, but it was too hot and humid to do anything. Michele did laundry and it was very hot in the laundromat.
After the laundry was done, we went to the pool to cool off. The water heater is broken and the water was only at 73° F. Let's say we cooled off very quickly. Only the Canadians were in the water.

As I said, it was 32° C today, but as we came out of the bingo at 9 pm, a cold front arrived. Between 9 and 10 pm, the temperature dropped to 10° C. At 11 pm, it was only 4° C. The rain started and so did the wind. The wind was very strong.

Michele won a big $6 at bingo. It cost $5 for both of us to play. A profit of $1. WOW!

Tuesday November 12, 2019

Lots of wind and rain last night.
This is what we see in the front windshield. This is what happen with the sunshade on the windshield. Once it dries, we will be able to see through again.

Rain and wind all day today. Look at the palm tree?

This was the maximum we have hit today.

We spent the day surfing the net and watching TV.

Wednesday November 13, 2019

The rain has stopped, but the cold front will linger for a few more days.

I lied, the rain came back in the afternoon.

We used the day for going to the local thrift stores.

Jeremy sent us these photos. A rock hit his oil pan and punctured a hole into it.
He plugged the hole with marine epoxy. It was -20° C. He got cold while waiting for his girlfriend to come to the rescue.

I cannot wait for the good weather to come back.

Monday we got a text message from Patrice and Manon. They bought a house in Saint Benoit-Labre.
Today we got another msg from them. They will be coming camping with us here in Texas. From January until March. They cannot get into the new house until May 1st, 2020.

Thursday November 14, 2019

After sending text msg back and forth with Patrice/Manon, they are almost sure at 100% they are coming this winter. We cannot wait to see them again.

Monday I had installed the tire covers on the tires since we are here for the next 4 months.

The weather is warming up some. I made the place a little more like home.
I placed the carpet to the road to prevent walking on the sandburrs and bringing them on the patio.

The tables, the BBQ, the chairs and Michele on the patio. We can see the carpet going to the road.
I probably will be making some adjustments over the next few days. We will see.

Another view of the patio. I will put down one of two more carpets between the MH and the green carpet.

The sun is nice and warm, but when it goes, it cools off quickly.

Friday November 15, 2019

We got a text msg from Manon/Patrice asking us to book a site from them from January 10 to March 10, 2020.
Michele and I went right away to the front office to see what was available. A site, two next to us will be open at that time. Our site is 792 and Manon/Patrice's site will be 794. We cannot wait to see them.

After we got the reservation made, we went to the Mercadome Flea Market to check it out. A cold wind is blowing. We only bought some veggies.

The local H-E-B grocery store has this sign for us Winter Texans. It is the same as Snowbirds in Florida.

Just to give you an idea of the impact the Winter Texans have on the local economy. Between the cities of Mission in the west and all the way to Port Isabel, the population is about 700,000 people. Winter Texans add another 100,000 to that number. They are very happy to see us every winter.

Until next time.

Life is good...