Louisiana!

We trekked across the ENTIRE state of Texas and are now happily situated tonight near New Orleans.  We left El Paso early on Friday so we could get to San Antonio early and go see the Alamo.  We did manage to get to San Antonio - but since about 5 hours of that drive was in the rain, it took A LONG TIME to get there.  By the time we reached the Walmart we were heading for, I was frazzled and ready for bed.  The problem was, it was so hot and humid the kids couldn't sleep.  I didn't want to run the generator in a Walmart parking lot, so we didn't have the air conditioning on.  They finally dozed, only to wake up (all three of them) at 3 am because they were so miserable.  We gave up on the Alamo, turned the car on and off we went - about 30 or 40 miles up the road to a rest stop where I parked, we turned on the air, and we all slept for four hours.


When we woke up we started on to Crowley, Louisiana, where my Grandpa Little was born.  We met up with my cousin (he's my dad's first cousin) Sam and his wife Judy.  We had never met before, but family is family and it was so wonderful to instantly form a bond!  We went to see the house that my great-grandparents lived in and visit the graves of my great-grandparents and my great-great grandparents and a whole bunch of other family members - we took a lot of pictures, and that was super awesome.

Of course, outside of the restaurant was an alligator to pose with.

 We went back to Sam and Judy's place and looked at a whole box of family pictures - family history is something that I enjoy a lot, so that was super fun for me.  We then asked them if they knew of a place we could get some authentic Cajun cookin'.   Yes, they sure did!  We drove down to Fezzo's and all I can say is YUM!

The kids and I with Sam and Judy Allen

I guess I must have inherited the love of Cajun food from someone, because everything I ate was unbelievably good - even the stuffed crawfish head was scrumptious.  I had seafood gumbo, seafood bisque, and crawfish etouffee.

Luke had a big platter of fried catfish and Michael tried out a Po'Boy.  Isa and Gabi stuck with less risky choices, but we were all such happy campers!

We had such a wonderful time visiting with the Louisiana side of our family we fully intend to visit again the next time we are in this part of the country.





After such a great day, we were not prepared for the craziness to come on the road.  About 20 miles out of Crowley, the hitch that was holding our bikes FELL OFF.  Michael tells me that either the hitch locking pin sheered off, or someone stole the pin itself.  The bike hitch that we had on it Michael made years ago when we lived in Las Cruces, and Michael and our neighbors had fitted it up so it would carry three bikes and the bicycle trailer.  If you can believe it, they did such a great job that when that thing fell out, instead of flinging bikes all over I -10 (yes, it is appropriate to cringe thinking about that), it simply dragged flat on the asphalt (throwing sparks up as it went) until I could pull over, which thankfully was pretty quickly.  Not only did we not lose a single piece of equipment, it took us 5 minutes at least on the side of the road to get all the bikes off so we could smash them into the RV and go off to find a 24 hour Walmart to repair it!   (Good job congrats to Michael, Hayden, and Travis for configuring the setup).  Its repaired and back on the hitch - with a pin that has a lock on it.

Today, for Father's Day, we headed into New Orleans.  Lake Pontchatrain is gigantic!  We ended up on Canal street and headed into the French Quarter.  We needed to find some lunch for the kids - so I figured that Bourbon Street had to have some food......and it did.....but it had some other elements to it that weren't, um, kid friendly......so Michael had us take a quick turn off of Bourbon and we ended up wandering around for a bit.  Eventually we decided we wanted beignets, so we headed to Cafe du Monde.   While we were eating we watched the street performers across Decatur at Jackson Square.

We then headed into the St. Louis Cathedral to see the beautiful building and to get some very needed air conditioning.

 We wandered around New Orleans for about 4 hours - and near the end we spent some time people (and boat) watching on the "Moon Walk" overlooking the Mississippi River.  The kids were having so much fun just being themselves - and as LOUD as possible - because if there is one word that could describe New Orleans, its loud - so they really fit in!

We took a shuttle back to our campground, and our driver took us on a tour of New Orleans on the way back to see some of the cemeteries, the newly built houses Post-Katrina, and some other historic places. That was a big bonus!

Tomorrow we start heading for South Carolina!