LoriBarb

There is a lot to this city besides Mardi Gras, which is a few days away. We have been here almost a week with today being our last full day, as we are leaving tomorrow. So let’s start at the beginning, when we arrived.

We are staying at the French Quarter New Orleans RV Park, which is a 5 min walk to the French Quarter. The location from that perspective is brilliant, however we are right beside HWY 10 overpass, so it is loud. Sirens are blasting all night long with multiple types of emergency vehicles passing overhead on the highway as well as through the local streets. The park itself is super clean, with a nice pool, hot tub, great laundry facilities, modern office, and the people working and staying here are all wonderful. The RV park is gated with high walls covered in spikes and barbed wire. We asked about the area and were told it is okay during the day to walk the dog and to go to town but not to go off the proven path and most definitely not to go out after dark. Overall, an interesting stay. Would we stay here again, probably.

Hop On Hop Off, the best way to see the sights for a reasonable amount of money. In New Orleans, they have by far the best deal we have come across. A three-day pass that included 2 walking tours, one of the Garden District & the other of the French Quarter. All for under $60. We took advantage of it all, as well as the included discounts to other places like the WWII Museum, which we also took advantage of. Here are some pics of the city from the bus.

One of the things you must do when in New Orleans is try the food. They are known for King Cakes (Mardi Gras related), Moon Cakes (Mardi Gras related), and beignets which New Orleans is known for and are proud of, and for good reason.

Do the Americans celebrate any differently than us Canadians? Not really, still tailgate parties, chili cook-offs, potluck get togethers. What IS different, which we were all already aware of, is the commercials. OMG, dare we say again – OMG!!

First commercial was for Dunkin Donuts. Who is working the drive-thru?? Ben Affleck. Who comes through the drive-thru? Jen of course, wanting to know why he was still working and if he could bring a glazed home.

Then we have every other movie/rap/singing star on the planet in all sorts of commercials. Workday (HR company) had all the rock stars in their commercial. What does all this cost???? $6-7 million PER 30 seconds and we can guarantee you, these commercials were more than 30 seconds. What we can also guarantee is that they were only played ONCE. So you had to pay more attention to the commercials than the game itself. NO replays here folks!!

And the half time show, MIKE DROP, WE LOVED IT!! We were expecting something big with Apple and they sure didn’t disappoint us!

Didn’t you just love to spell this one out as a kid?? Missi, ssi, ppi! (which is how Barb recites it) Miss, iss, ippi! (which is how Lori recites it). Funny how we learned it differently.

Not a huge sign, somewhat subtle compared to other welcome signs we have seen. We arrived at our RV destination after getting our stairs fixed at an approved Jayco dealer. YUP, we ran into issues again, and this time Jayco said “no more mobile service calls. You need to go to an approved Jayco dealer.” Fortunately there was one en route called B&R RV Dealer and guess what? The third time was the charm! First fix: change the circuit board. Second fix: hook up the red wire better by bypassing the connector. Third fix: take another look at the red power wire and instead of doing what #2 did, which was splicing, hard wire it outside the connector. The folks at B&R were wonderful, and the bill was sent directly to Jayco. We have learned to go through them first so we don’t have to pay out of pocket; the only downside is you have to wait to get the okay before any work can start. Yesterday we had time to wait; we don’t always have that luxury. So once the repairs were complete, off we went straight to the gas station, and…………..stairs go out, and don’t go in. SO Lori calls B&R back and tells them someone has to come and look at this (we were only just down the street at the gas station). While we are there waiting, Lori gets the stairs back working by flipping a switch. Now we are totally embarrassed, but they are already on their way.

They arrive and start testing the stairs, and they are working perfectly. What was new to us was that when the stair switch is in the off position, the stairs work by the ignition. I.e.: Turn off RV, open door and stairs go out and stay out. Turn on RV, stairs go in. We didn’t know the RV had this feature and have been using the wall switch this whole time to get the stairs to either stay out, or go out and in when the door opens and closes. This probably doesn’t make much sense to our readers, but to us it was a revelation and new learnings 8 months in. We think we are good to go now!!

We are staying at Biloxi Bay RV Resort and Marina. It’s fairly new (or at least recently acquired) as there is construction everywhere. The clubhouse is large and rustic and seems like a fun time. They have a bar and small eatery. They are prepping for tomorrow’s Super Bowl party. Just found out it’s a chili potluck and bake-off for the residents and guests. Sounds fun as the weather is cool and RAINY! Not sure how much rain they have gotten of late, but there are huge puddles everywhere. Thank God for Winston’s rubber booties and Lori’s Vessies (waterproof runners for those wondering)! There is a beautiful walk-in pool and hot tub at the lakeside outside the clubhouse. Very impressive.

Day 1 being a shitty day, we decided to do our grocery shopping. Booked an Uber and went to a local store called Rouses Market. It was like a Fortinos, or any other high end grocery store. What we liked the most???? We could buy the already cooked ingredients for our own seafood boil, a traditional meal around here. So we did and then had it for lunch!

The following day was much nicer and we spent the day in Ocean Springs, instead of Biloxi which is known for their casinos. Biloxi it seems is the Reno/Las Vegas of the south. There are 7 casinos here and 4 more being built. So as we are not gambling folk, we hung out in a quaint little city/town just outside our RV park. Ocean Springs had lots of restaurants, bars, and shops to see. We first went to a great BBQ place for lunch. We ordered smoked wings, Buffalo & sweet BBQ, as well as a rack of ribs with collard greens and potato salad. All of it was delish! We took a pic of the food as well as the smoker before we got kicked out of the cooking area……

There are also things down south that are specific to Mardis Gras:

King Cakes are in the traditional Mardis Gras colours. They are all filled differently so you can choose what you like the most: apple, cream cheese, cherry, etc. The moon pie is also a tradition and is most often seen being thrown off of Mardi Gras floats. Lori’s going to try both as we are headed to New Orleans next!

Some shots of Ocean Springs and our new ride….. one can only wish.

Imagine a campground called All About Relaxing! It’s address is 8950 Three Notch Road – of course it is. It really is living up to its name though. It has a pool, dog-washing bathtub outside, two gazebos, multiple (and we mean multiple) swings, Adirondack chairs, and a HUGE clubhouse. The clubhouse has pickleball, shuffleboard, corn hole, and has a lounge area with leather couches and chairs around a large T.V. It has a bar area, lots of tables, and high tops for socializing. The campground owners boast that they have the nicest washrooms of any RV park in North America. Yes, they were pretty nice! The place is pristine and incredibly secure with locked gates. Would recommend to anyone travelling to park your unit here.

Barb & I also learned how to play pickleball! This is a game like tennis, with larger rackets and larger balls with different size holes in them, depending on the wind determines which ball you use. We have been invited into the evenings tournament. Given that we are now seasoned pros, we may just join. To be clear…..we are undefeated at this moment.

The people were very welcoming here. This is how we were initially greeted when we got to our site. How cool is that!

We had no idea that Mobile was the birthplace of America’s original Mardi Gras, which began in 1703. It was kind of interesting visiting the Mardis Gras museum as we had no idea that there were so many mystique societies. These societies are formed for enjoyment and the competition of the King and Queen of Mardi Gras. You have to have money to be chosen, as dresses run into the thousands of dollars and your family has to be able to afford them. We didn’t take the time to learn the minute details, but suffice it to say the King and Queen, who are chosen, open up Mardi Gras and host multiple events throughout the celebrations.

It is also interesting that there are still balls where the “ladies” come out into society (didn’t think that went on anymore, and if so would be in South Carolina or Georgia). This is a BIG deal and again the dresses are expensive and the fathers present their daughters. Very Downton Abbey/The Gilded Age.

Here are some pics from the museum.

We then went to lunch in downtown Mobile. The street was New Orleans-“like”, just not as crowded. Lunch was good. We each had a bowl of seafood gumbo and shared a Debris Po Boy, with a bag of voodoo chips from a New Orleans company. All excellent. Of course we had to have another bag of chips to try another flavour. Crawtators, not as good as voodoo, which tasted like a sweet BBQ.

We leave tomorrow for Biloxi!

Do you often think, “this looks simple – who needs to read directions?” Or, “I don’t need to read the brochure, I’ve done cruises and am a world traveller.” “I don’t need to ask for directions, I have Waze/Garmin.” You get the picture.

When Elaine and Lori went on one of their earlier river cruises they had LOTS of thoughts on what the cruise line should informed passengers on. The young man they were dictating their brilliant thoughts to was attentive and seemed to agree with everything we said. A week later, Lori happened to pick up the booklet on the ship with the do’s and don’ts that one should know……only to read pretty much everything Elaine and Lori had spouted off to make future guests trips more enjoyable. THAT wasn’t embarrassing. The young man however, went up a few notches in their books, as not once did he tell them they had all that information in the package which had arrived prior to the trip.

RVing is no different than a cruise/road trip. Stuff breaks and needs to get fixed. We had our furnace serviced and we were told (given we had a bit of a wasp nest in the vent) to get a metal cage to put over the exhaust vent to avoid this happening again. Seems simple enough. $12 later we had a metal cage with two little clips. How hard is this to put on. Well after some fiddling, then reading the directions, then reading blogs and watching a YouTube video……we ditched the clips and got some wire and wire cutters from the neighbour and ‘macgyvered’ the heck out of it. Voila!!

We have decided we want to track our journey and have purchased a map that you can place on your RV and then fill in the states that you have travelled to. We saw so many other RVs doing this, it seemed like a great idea. Once we got our map it took us forever to get around to putting the map pieces in their appropriate states and place it outside our RV. Well, when we went to pull the whole map off its backing, it didn’t come off the back paper like it was supposed to. VERY frustrating. So Barb decided to call the manufacturer and complain. They were shocked that this had happened as they had never heard of this before, but agreed to send us another one. It arrived and it took us another month to get around to putting this map together. Then we started peeling it off and AGAIN it wasn’t coming off the back properly!! Hmm. Could it be us? Out come the directions………..and yup we were pulling it off at the wrong spot. Sometimes directions are helpful!

We left St. Augustine after a really nice week. We were excited to get on our way and planned a two night stay at an RV park that Karen and John had told us about on our way to Alabama.

We arrived, set up, and relaxed immediately. It was a smaller park however had a few ‘streets’ we could take a nice walk around for some exercise. Certainly not a place for us to stay for an extended time yet wonderful for a day or two while making our way across the panhandle. The park also had a nice pool however it wasn’t heated and it was a little too cool to swim.

The next day we decided to bring the stairs in just as a test and to our surprise they didn’t come in. Ugh! We are due to leave tomorrow. Back on the phone and we found a mobile RV service company called Florida/Georgia Mobile RV Service.

$400USD and another fix. Once again we were given full assurance that our stairs were fixed. Yippee!

We LOVE food trucks. All kinds. They are brilliant and a great way to taste your way through the culinary world. They aren’t cheap but usually have some great food.

Yesterday we have a wing food truck here at the resort. 1. We LOVE WINGS 2. We already said how much we love a food truck.

Our neighbours John and Karen from Maryland actually told us about the food truck coming in. We didn’t know what kind of food, but they had us at food truck. Shortly after 5pm (when the truck arrived) we headed out! We had at that time found out from John and Karen that it was a wing truck as they had already placed their order of Buffalo and Salt & Vinegar wings with fries. S&V?!?! Another favourite obsession of ours, in the form of potato chips. So off we went and ordered 10 each of S&V, dry jerk, and lemon pepper with an order of fries. Now that sounds like a lot, and it is, but wings are great cold and also great for a snack! So one can never have too many.

The food truck owner was a little frazzled it seemed, and to be fair there was a heck of a line up behind us. Seems we are not the only ones with a wing obsession. Wanting an insulated grocery bag to bring the food back to the RV, Lori left to go get it, as our order was going to take around 15 min.

15 min later Lori marched back to the food truck, only to find out that people were seriously miffed as he had run out of wings, one order behind us apparently. Everyone was upset and talking about how people were ordering lots of wings which wiped him out 30 minutes into his shift. The only thing he had left was a chicken sandwich and fries. So here Lori is, holding a huge insulated bag, knowing that we had ordered 30 wings and an order of fries…..when everyone standing around would have been happy to have just 10. It was a tad uncomfortable to say the least and when our order came up and Lori was stuffing the bag with food, she turned around and stated, “don’t shoot me”. Lori felt certain that she was OK to state that as Florida is not a gun carrying state, unless you have a special permit, but nonetheless as Lori said herself “it wasn’t her brightest moment”.

Now while we felt maybe a little guilty we only ate 5 wings each for dinner (they were huge), it is NOT our fault a food truck serving wings with approximately 20 different flavours ran out! Seriously poor planning!

We did bump into a few of the folks this morning who didn’t get wings, they are still smiling and talking to us, so all is well and we have wings for the next two days!

Isn’t this the age old question. When Sharon and Lori were in Croatia they saw huge sail boats. They questioned whether the size of the mast mattered on a sail boat, and were quickly told yes by an old sailor sitting on a bench. Of course this is obvious given the bigger the mast, the bigger the sail, hance the more wind it can capture.

When you look at RVs/Camper trailers/5th wheelers/toy haulers, we both agree size does indeed matter. How many slides do you have, how much storage do you have, how big is your shower (that’s a game changer), what is your floor footprint (another game changer). But what about what you tow behind your trailer/Class A/B/C. We have seen motorcycles on the front of a truck. We have seen, couldn’t believe it but we did, a golf cart on the front of a truck. We have seen a lot of storage units that house cars/motorcycles/golf carts, even one long enough for a race car and all the tools/tires in it. But never have we seen a double decker storage unit behind a huge Class A. It houses a car/golf cart/bikes/motorcycle/canoes and a full mechanical section. We had to take a pic, because it is the talk of the resort.

Given all the chatter amongst the men, size does indeed matter. In fact it also includes a lot of head shaking and awe apparently.

We were both very excited to go to a restaurant that came highly recommended, Columbia. This is a Spanish restaurant so we were excited to have some paella. Now the BEST part of a paella is the crispy rice, is it not? Getting the crunchy bits in a mouthful of rice and seafood, like really, what is better?!

Well here we go with our experience. The restaurant is huge with three levels and is nicely decorated. Lots of wait staff and they were all very friendly.

We started with cocktails for a change. We always have wine, so why not have something a little different? Lori had a martini with tequila and Barb had tequila with grapefruit Fever Tree. Below is a pic of the martini. We also had a 1/2 loaf of bread and butter to start the meal. Bread was right out of the oven, better than The Keg!

Next we decided on the Blue Crab cakes and the table side salad called the “1905”. Below are the pics along with a little bit of trivia on the name iceberg lettuce.

Entrees were grilled grouper, which Lori really loves, and the paella which was ordered right away as it was going to take an hour. Of course it does, that is how you get the crispy bits!

Unfortunately the grouper was a little dry. The paella did not have any crispy bits and in fact was more like risotto than paella. The chicken in the paella was dry, the seafood however was good. Not sure what they were doing for an hour…..

Overall, we were disappointed. We took home leftovers and will crisp up our own paella for our next dinner. The bread and salad were the highlight frankly, with the crab cakes coming in third. We won’t talk about the rest again, as you get the point.

What is potentially next on the docket?? Pizza Time, yes you heard this right. In Canada, we have Pizza Time and it is not great. Apparently here, the Pizza Time is #2 in the U.S.A. for best pizza. It is cash only, and has pizzas like lasagne and ravioli, just to name a couple. We went in and looked at the slices on display, they all looked incredible. We have 2 more days here, so we’ll see.