Oh Dear readers, we are so enjoying our slow roll through these areas that we have formally driven through as fast as we could go. It probably bears repeating, our goals for this crazy nomad life are twofold – First, to visit every US National Park and Second, make sure we golf in every state. That way we have a reason to visit every state. And frankly, without that second goal, we likely would not have spent any quality time in these two states at all.
At the close of our last chapter, we were heading into Louisiana, and weren’t particularly excited about it. I am very pleased to share that we had a completely different experience, and managed to learn a lot more about LA and in particular, New Orleans.
We were expecting rain, and rain we had, though in truth, the threat of rain outweighed the actual rain time.Our first stop was to spend the night with friends who live in Gonzales, LA, just south of Baton Rouge. Although we had a tee time booked the next morning, Dale surprised me by finding a course on the way. So we stopped at Carter Plantation, a beautiful home community and golf country club. The staff were so incredibly kind, and we were able to get right out on the course. And once again, we essentially had the course to ourselves…..it was far too cold for southerners! We enjoyed both the golf, and the neighborhood. Made us think for two seconds about settling down, but Louisiana has a tendency to flood a lot, so we simply took away our happiness that we met our “golf in this state” in a beautiful location and before it rained! We went straight to our friends house, set up camp in their driveway, and enjoyed a lovely evening eating a delicious homemade Gumbo and apple pie while the rain came in for the evening. Fortunately, we had just missed the downpour that overran all the culverts in town, so we just got to enjoy the gentle pitter patter on our tin roof. We helped our friends discover a new breakfast joint in their home town the next morning, and headed off to New Orleans in a rainy day.
We stopped to fill up our Propane tanks near the airport, and close to where we stayed during our last visit. We must have done a great job of blocking out those memories, because nothing looked familiar. We rolled into The French Quarter RV Resort and found a lovely spot with our name on it. Eyeing everything with a bit of trepidation, we were happy to be inside this gated park (with a spike topped fence)and have a spot close to the amenities and far from the I-10 hanging over the north boundary of the park. The park was about half full (gotta love off-season travel!) and seemed as if all of us nomaders in small class C’s were visiting NOLA. The resort promised easy access to the French Quarter, so we wasted no time finding out. We spent that first afternoon walking down Canal street, Bourbon street and Jackson Square. It was a Sunday evening so the families were on Canal Street coming from the matinee showing of Elf, the Musical at the Orpheum Theater, the music was LOUD on Bourbon street as every proprietor tried to fill up their establishment, and Jackson Square had the best music going on which we enjoyed from the balcony of Tableau while enjoying lunch. The best news of all is we did not get rained on!
We made the decision to buy a two day pass for the HopOn – HopOff bus, which was SOO convenient as it had a stop two blocks from our resort, right next to City Cemetary #1. Best decision we made! We cruised through Canal street, by the Stadium, through the Garden district, the convention center, and more. We had so much fun listening to the different guides as we hopped on and off, learning some fun and interesting factoids each time. Here’s a few:
- Beyonce and Jay-Z have just sold their Garden District home for $4million
- Half the city is being renovated for the upcoming Superbowl (tick tock)
- We should have gone to see Justin Timberlake in Memphis, because he hurt his back at his NOLA show and cancelled the rest of his tour! (it is a bi*** getting old!)
- Caesars just bought out the Harrahs – and now they need to make money from the gamblers (we helped a little bit)
- The Christmas lights in the Roosevelt Hotel are a “must see”…..and they were
- The prettiest parts of New Orleans are inside buildings!
We shopped a little, ate a lot, and found a new appreciation for the city. We signed up for a cooking class at the Mardi Gras Cooking School and learned the art of making Roux. We whipped up a gumbo and Shrimp Etouffee. The Gumbo was to die for, the etouffee was good, but man is it rich. Now that we know it is a butter roux, we highly caution anyone from over indulging! We also learned a new way of making rice, which Dale is looking forward to practicing. If he masters it, then I’ll share. Otherwise I’d encourage you to take the class yourself. Ask for Chef Raymond! It was a great three hours spent, especially since that was when the rain really came to call!
The only hiccup we encountered was attempting an Amazon order. We have been trying to order a particular item for a couple of weeks. First attempt was aborted because the item never got shipped….and we moved on. We were highly encouraged this time, our last night in NOLA and it was shipped….on route….and delivered……to the wrong address….. Turns out the physical address the resort had displayed on Apple Maps was wrong. So some household two and half miles away got a surprise. Of course, we had no car, so we couldn’t go get it, and by then it was late, dark and rainy anyway. Amazon is good about these things, they gave us a refund, even though it was our error. But now we are really gun shy about trying again! Maybe in January?
We headed back east to Gulf Shores, Alabama. We picked up a car and set up camp at Gulf Shores RV Resort. About a five mile drive inland from the shore. We had a lovely visit! Again, we seem to be visiting just ahead of the post-Christmas Snowbird season, so getting around was so easy. We self-toured around the area, shopped a little, ate a little, and golfed twice! Both were fun courses, the second being at The Peninsula where I am quite sure I was the only female out on the course. We even spent some time at The Hangout on Friday the 13th for Taylor Swift night. It is her birthday, afterall. It was goofy and filled with preteens in sparkly clothes, but we had a good time. I may be a fan of TayTay, but no way was I gonna win the Taylor Swift Trivia contest. At least I got the birthday question right!
But the highlight was our day trip across the ferry to Dauphin Island and up to Bellingrath Home and Garden for their Christmas lights. Since we are now both of the age where SS Benefits are a thing, we arrived around 4pm – before dark, to beat the crowds. We were not alone. We decided to take the tour of the home to kill some time and are we glad we did!
This property was originally purchased as a Fish Camp by the Bellingraths. A family who built their wealth by owning one of the first rights to bottle and distribute CocaCola. And they were very good at it. They built this gorgeous home and developed the grounds into lovely gardens. They were childless, and rather than distribute their wealth to extended family members, they established a fund to keep the property a museum and gardens. Mrs. Bellingrath died ten years before Mr., from a heart attack after a cancer remission diagnosis. Mr. Bellingrath spent the rest of his life preparing the non profit status of his legacy, and honoring his wife’s passion for beautiful things by ensuring they are displayed in the museum. They have done a great job. The house was impressive, I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time ogling the silver collection, china patterns and porcelain figurines, but by the time we got out, the sun had dipped enough that the light displays were on full display. I can only imagine what a spring or summer visit would be like when everything is in bloom.
And now dear readers, we are off to explore the panhandle of Florida. We spent Dale’s birthday in Pensacola, so I’m going to include that in my next post. I promise you wait long! We really want to know what the difference is between Pensacola, Destin, Panama City or any of the other Gulf of Mexico beach towns of the area. And why Florida, rather than Mississippi or Alabama? That should be a whole story right there! So stay tuned as Christmas approaches…….
As always, thinking of you, Lady Wanderingwise
Weise's Wanderings 
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