"Crawdads" on Dad's Day

Out of Texas and into Louisiana allowed us to complete the goal of "Crawdads and Crocks" from our first time through when heading west! 

What are crawdads?  I don't recall giving much detail about this Louisiana-menu item in my earlier post from Louisiana.  ;-)  Click the link above to learn more.  :)

Well, Mechanic Man *really* wanted to try some boiled crawdads, so he even looked up "how to" eat them.  I was in the other room while he was watching the online video and heard only the ending comment of  "sucking the juices out of the head."   (Count me OUT!)

Without traveling too far off the main highway since we were tractor-trailer sized on the road, we found a restaurant that had a sign for "boiled crawfish."   They even had a parking lot large enough for our rig!  Must be the place to eat 'em!  Well, they were out of the boiled ones, so we ordered deep fried ones.

(Not so scary to look at ... unless you know what's under all that coating!  LOL!)

Everybody tried them except me.  (Remember me  trying the "alligator bites?"  That was pushing the limit.)  They all liked them ... stated they were a tad salty, but they were deep fried so, of course, they'd like them!  ;-)    They all tried to convince me that I'd like them smothered in ketchup.  ;-)   No, thank you.  I just sat there and took pictures.

(I told them before we left to "count me out," so a protein shake was waiting for me in the cooler!)

After lunch, we put in some more hours on the road and stopped at a Yogi Bear campground.  We have never been to one of these before, and it looks like a place of great fun for a long-term stay.   There was a lake and all kinds of water toys at the humongous pool.   Since we were just passing through and staying only one night, we didn't have the opportunity to utilize the facilities outside of the campsite.

Trying to level fifth wheel was troublesome, and Mechanic Man had to make a run to the camp store to buy a level to manually level it since the "auto leveler" decided to give us an error message.  (If the fifth wheel isn't level, then we can't safely pull out the slides.)  He returned with two tiny ones, but they served the purpose.  Another one of those kinks to work through ... or be repaired.

After a restful night, we were ready for Day 3 of our eastward journey!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN ...

We started off late on our first day with the new setup and didn’t put in many hours of driving.  While the proper hitch was finally installed in the truck, it wasn’t properly installed.  Thank God for Mechanic Man who knows his stuff!   Besides having to redo some of the manual labor to set it in there correctly, there was the new routine of preparing to leave.  In the motorhome, it was simply put things away, pull up the shades, and disconnect the electric, water, and sewer.  With a fifth wheel, there is much more involved!  Of course, there is still the disconnecting of the “utilities,” but there is also the slides to bring in, and the entire unit to hook to the truck … not to mention the arranging of items inside the fifth wheel so that they don’t impede the slides and/or scratch up the walls while in transit.  ;-)  It was a bit odd to “pack” the first-traveling morning after spending the previous four days “settling in.”  Items in closets, drawers, and refrigerator had to be situated in a way for being jarred around.  However, I must have packed well because we had no calamities like those I have heard from others.  Every time we hit a bump, I was envisioning items in the pantry falling over or something scratching the closet walls. Thanks be to God all was fine … let’s pray it’s always the case!

 

"Let's get outta here!"

Traveling was an entire different experience, too.   Humor me here … close your eyes.  Really … go ahead and close them … please?   Imagine driving down a two- or three-lane road with your house behind you.   Your entire house and your belongings are being towed behind your vehicle as you do 50-60 mph down the road.  You know it’s secure, but do you wonder if it will pop off the hitch?  (Yes, I asked that of Mechanic Man!) You have those lead-foot drivers who need to be in front of you, or there’s the pokier person in front of you … and YOU have to PASS that car!  Can you feel your body tense a bit??  Well, that is how I felt this first day.   As always, I attribute my faith in our safety not only to God but to Mechanic Man who has a CDL (commercial driver’s license) and knows how to drive tractor trailers and how the towing process operates.  Yet, I still kept looking in the mirror behind us.   All was well, though.

While we all love the spacious fifth wheel, we all commented on the convenience and comfort of traveling in a motorhome.  Everything is accessible when we are mobile in the motorhome.  Not only that, but the kids can lounge in the back (with their seatbelts on) and have more space to do things while we are on the move.  Traveling with a fifth wheel, they have to actually sit upright in the truck, side by side, looking out the window or sleeping with head hanging back on the seat, like Mechanic Man and I had to travel as kids.  Even the Poodle missed having some mobility in the truck as I held her captive on my lap.   Well, we can’t have it all now; can we?  

 

I have to admit that while the new experience of traveling with our house behind us was definitely different that first day on the road with the huge setup, these were simply observations and not really complaints.   May God continue to be with us and bless us on this trip!  (Oh!  We still were in Texas that first-traveling day yet closer to the eastern border!)

 

STUCK IN TEXAS!

As we were trekking through Texas, my dear husband had a calling from God to stick around for a few days.  We were literally so close to our newly purchased fifth wheel that he thought it would be less expensive if we bought the needed truck in Texas.  We could then take the fifth wheel home ourselves instead of paying to have it delivered.  So, that’s what we did.  God had it all worked out so well that we were given a great deal on the truck where they even took our motorhome for a trade!  Only glitch was that we had to wait a week for both the truck and the fifth wheel to be ready.  We know this was God’s plan because both vehicles were to be ready for us on the same day.   So ....

We found ourselves a campground and paid the weekly rate to make the most of the time we had here.  We were able to meet up with my aunt and my cousin (whom I haven’t seen since we were just kids in elementary school!):

 

 

As a group, we visited the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco.  

 

 

 

 Howdy, pardner!  ;-)

 

We had a fabulous time together and are thankful that we were able to see them!

(Thanks, cousin, for making it happen!)

 

This would have been interesting, too, but we didn't have time.  Maybe another visit?

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MOVING DAY

 

  

 While this fifth wheel is nothing in size compared to the house we just sold, it seems HUGE to us after two months of the small quarters of the 22' motorhome that held five people and a poodle!  ;-)  God has His reasons for everything, and we know that the order of these events is to make us appreciative of what He is giving us.   We LOVE the floor plan and ability to walk around.


I still have an island in my kitchen! 

Youngest Child always asked for a house with stairs, and now he has one!  ;-)

We have lived without living room furniture for almost a year when we were downsizing, and now we have THREE loveseats!  (We will be removing one, though, to put in the needed desk.)

We spent months looking this floorplan over online as we were considering what to move into, and it's hard to believe that we now are in it!  God is good!


STUCK within "Stuck!"

As we moved into the fifth wheel, unloading from the motorhome what seemed like endless items, we were waiting for the truck to be delivered.  When it arrived, Mechanic Man noticed that it had the WRONG hauling hitch installed!  Ugh!   We couldn't accept the truck because it had to be taken back to dealer for the correct hitch to be installed, and it would take 4 days to be done!  REALLY??????

We had to have the fifth wheel hauled to the campground so that we could stay the additional days until the truck would be ready.  Again, we knew God had a reason for this.  It gave us some time while near the RV dealership to live in the fifth wheel and work out the kinks.  It was truly a blessing since several things needed to be replaced or repaired.   The tropical storm was also about to hit Texas, and we didn't need to be hauling a fifth wheel (for the first time!) in hurricane-like conditions.  So, we hunkered down and enjoyed setting up our new house.  (We are still amazed at how much we squooshed into that small motorhome! )

 SO -- now that we have learned of God's will concerning our living arrangements and followed through it all, it is time to hit the road again and say goodbye to Texas!  (We felt like temporary residents of Waco and wondered if we were supposed to stay there!  haha)  

Things we noticed about Texas while staying here for so long (twice in a one-month period):

*Lots of churches called “Cowboy Church”

*”Loop Roads” – they drove US “loopy” at times!

*Joe Buck’s Coffee … similar logo as “Starbucks” with a dude on the logo that looks similar to the famous Duck guys.

*Yummy food options – Texas Cattle Company (great steaks), Mexican restaurants (kids are sick of Mexican food), and Whataburger (ate there several times!)

 

Time to complete the trip east so we can visit our family in New York and Maine while making a few stops along the way (including Italian restaurants to satiate the kids' desire for authentic pizza) before the summer vacation is over!  Stay tuned!

 

COMPETITION FOR TEXAS

Just a fun photo here ... this was taken in California at a place called "Superior Dairy."   Five people shared in eating this yumminess!

So everything isn't always bigger just in Texas!  ;-)

HEADING EAST

Due to lack of money and time (we want to see grandparents in Maine), we have changed our itinerary to make this a coast-to-coast trip.   Now that we made it to the Pacific Ocean, it’s time to turn around and head towards Maine. 

 

Leaving California and heading towards Arizona's state line through the dry mountains ...

 

 

We decided to stick to the southern states and visit the northern states’ attractions another time.  So, we took a different route to see more of the South.  We experienced more heat this time across but also enjoyed different scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

Across the Continental Divide again ...

 

 

SAGURO CACTI were an amazing sight to behold in the dry ecosystem of Arizona. 

 

We also enjoyed viewing a little roadrunner cross our path while on the highway, but I wasn’t quick enough to snap its picture! 

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CACTI .... CACTI everywhere in the RV park in Arizona where we stayed ... we just "love" them!

 

 

INTO TEXAS ...........

Driving through El Paso brought us extremely close to our country’s southern border where we could literally see the fencing that separates our country from our neighboring country.

 (Can you see the brown "border" fence?)

We even caught a glimpse of the far-away Mount Cristo Rey .  It would have been wonderful to visit this shrine, but we didn't have time.  I also read that it is best to visit the shrine in groups, such as a pilgrimage, for safety reasons. 

Look VERY closely to see the statue on the top of the mountain.   ;-)

 

 

 

Highway driving permitted us to experience 80 mph speed-limit signs, which we didn’t do with our motorhome.  ;-)

 

 

In Pecos, TX, we saw a large number of oil drills in the fields, and several of them had the "flames" that were burning off the natural gas.

 

 We stopped at Odessa Meteor Crater, which is the second largest crater site in the United States.  It wasn’t as impressive as the largest meteor crater, though. (We saw that one 17 years ago.)  However, it was interesting to read the story of this crater and walk around its rim. 

 

 

 

 

Besides seeing the crater site, we viewed a wild, horned lizard up close in the parking lot!

As you know, Texas is a large state … it could take one several days to make it across to the eastern border, especially when you enter it at the western tip near El Paso!