Well, this is a bit overdue but better late than never right?

As some of you may already know, we’ve actually been home in Edmonton for over a month now.  Life has been a bit hectic to say the least but I wanted to do a quick update post to let you know what’s happening and when you can expect to see the rest of the trip.

Over 160 Days and 17,632 Miles On The Road

In Front of White House

Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms

Victor in Front of Stephen King's House

Niagara Falls Lady of the Mist

Where Route 66 Begins in Chicago

Al Capone's Grave Outside Chicago

103rd Floor of Chicago Sears Tower

Joliet Prison (Blues Brothers Opening Scene)

Family and Friends in Calgary

So we got back June 1st after spending 5.5 months on the road and traveling over 17,000 miles (approx. 27,300 km) in the RV and car combined.  It was quite a journey to say the least.  Once we got home we actually slept in the RV in our driveway for 4 more nights until we could get the house set up to live in again, and really the RV actually felt more like home at that point than our empty house.  The cats, given the choice with the doors opened, chose to go hang out back in the RV on the bed mostly.   We actually had to make them come in the house and not go hide in the basement somewhere.   So when we tell people we (cat’s included) really felt at home in the RV, we really do mean it!

The first couple days back we set about cleaning the carpets in our bedroom, bringing up furniture from its storage area downstairs, and setting up the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom again into a somewhat usable state.    After about a week it finally felt real and we were in the house full time again.

Our Trip Up the East Coast

To give you a quick update on the rest of the trip since our last post, here’s a summary.   After leaving New Orleans we spent a week in Orlando (well Kissimmee), a week in Savannah, Georgia, and headed up the east coast stopping in North Carolina, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York City, Cape Cod Maine, into the Canadian maritimes, and finally west to Quebec for my photography convention.  

While in Virginia, Rob did a road trip out to see Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. He’s the farmer from Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivores Dilemma” and from the movies Food Inc and Fresh. The farmer we buy our eggs and chickens from here in Edmonton is a student of Joel’s and uses the same farming practices. Rob had Polyface Farms on his “Must see” list before we even left. When he got to the farm, they were building a new store and Joel was there cutting his own trees to create lumber for it. Rob was able to shake his hand and share with him how important the work was that he was doing.

In Bangor Maine, we parked the RV in front of Stephen King’s house and took a photo. Our car, towed behind us, was blocking the entrance to his house. Someone leaving the house honked at us as they maneuvered their car around ours. Whoops.

After convention we spent a few days in Montreal and then headed back into the US to avoid the ridiculously high gas prices in QC and ON.   We had been paying about $2.65 per gallon in the States and in QC it was $1.35 a liter which works out to about $5.40 a gallon, yikes! You can see our entire trip log map for a good overview of our adventure.

Our Drive Home From Quebec

We also both wanted to see upstate NY and I wanted to visit the birthplace of Kodak, Eastman Kodak house in Rochester, NY.  

Rob had never been to Niagra Falls, so while parked in Rochester, we drove our toad to the US side first where we took the Lady of the Mist boat ride. Then crossed the US/Canada border to see the falls from the Canadian side. After a few hours there, we drove up to the wine region where we visited 5 wineries before having supper in St Catherines (sushi).

We were lucky to make it back across the border to our RV when the border crossing guard simply could not figure out how we were driving back to our RV which was already in the US. He could not fathom how we drove 2 vehicles around the country and Rob had to explain gently that we towed our car behind us. It was a very unusual exchange of words and we had to be careful about how we described our situation.

From there we started our final journey west and eventually north, stopping in Chicago where we went up the Sears tower to the 103rd floor, saw the start marker of Route 66, had Chicago style deep dish pizza and toured the art gallery. Rob took a day to himself to visit some Blues Brothers filming locations, and Al Capone stuff including his grave site.

After Chicago, we made our way through Millwaukee and North Dakota where we actually saw nothing (there’s a story there but you’ll have to wait for it) and Unity Saskatchewan and Calgary, AB – both of the last stops to visit some of our older family members Rob’s uncles (in their late 80s) and my Grammy also late 80s.

Most of the stops along this journey were short 3-4 days with the exception of Florida and Savannah which were a week each.   So we did a lot of moving, and a lot of touring and seeing new places.  It got really grueling and tiring after a while and I think eventually we were both glad to be in one place for an extended time.    We both even enjoyed the fact we have more than one room we can each go escape to, or friends to go visit for coffee or lunch and have some time apart for a while after having been together basically 24/7 the whole trip.   A little separation was nice as we settled back into our life here.

[Rob's note: Imagine getting married and then living in a small little box for 6 months guys.]

So, you can expect to see posts sporadically quite honestly.   My sister has had a new baby and I’ve got art shows to get ready for this summer, and as well we are attempting to do a house renovation and finish our unfinished basement into a rental suite.  Yes we are nuts!   So we haven’t forgotten about our readers and fans and will get it all caught up eventually, just be patient with us please!

[Rob's Note: we're also preparing for our next adventure, living in Peru for 2 months with a hike up to Macchu Pichu and then a month in Ecuador where we will visit the Galpagos Islands too]

Stats

Miles Traveled: 17,632
Oil Changes: Three. One in Texas, one in New Brunswick and one for the car in North Carolina.
Miles Per Gallon: lowest was 6.25 and best was 7.75 miles per gallon.
Best Fuel Price: $2.39 a gallon in Texas
Worst Fuel Price: ~$4.60 a gallon in New Brunswick
Fuel Anomaly: Paid $3.99 a gallon in Death Valley in the car, but only got $10 worth so we could get out of the valley.
Total Fuel Cost: Approx $4,000 in fuel.
Most States in a Day: 5, from New Jersey to Cape Cod
Border Crossings: Crossed the Canada/US border 6 times and the US/Mexico border once. Twice for Rob.
Interesting Facts: Crossed two of the worlds longest bridges, across Lake Ponchatrain in Louisiana and the Confederation Bridge in PEI Canada.

Photo Credits and Note: All the pictures on this page except for the last one were taken either on Rob’s Blackberry Bold, or our pocket camera.

More Stats and interesting facts to follow in a post on it’s own

Related posts:

1. Home at Destiny RV
2. Places Visited
3. About Rob and Darlene
4. Day 48 – Tombstone to Van Horn Texas

When you’re driving an RV, you travel with your toilet, but while the passenger has the luxury of peeing while you move, the driver does not. I’ve learned that before entering any city limits, it’s a good idea to find a place to pull over and pee because while on the Interstate, there are no pull outs to be found. They say the human bladder can hold 18 oz or 1/2 a litre of fluid, but I would wager it to be a lot more.

No related posts.

Day two in “The Big Easy” (one of New Orleans other names) started off by actually getting on the shuttle bus from the RV park this time relatively early in the morning.  I think we got on the 9:30am, first one out.  We headed straight for Café du Monde’s famous coffee stand at 800 Decatur Street.

Sidebar anecdote:  funny thing, on my first trip here I was expecting to hear French spoken quite commonly.  Many of the street have French names and of course there’s the French Quarter. Nope – not even a little bit. In fact, names I’d expect to be pronounced in a more French way were completely murdered, in my opinion. Decatur is one of those. I expected it to sound more like “deck-a-tour” and when I said it that way they looked at me like I had two heads. They said it “dee-katter”. One of the odd things I noticed anyway. So don’t try and use your French here, it’s long gone.

Café au lait and Beignet

Anyway, established some time in 1862 Café du Monde  has been serving café au lait and their famous beignet donuts for 150 years.   Taken right from their site, here is the history of this coffee stand:

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

This is the sight you’ll see as you approach the sidewalk café.   What appears to be a long line up gets quickly cleared by an anxious server yelling “No line, no line!  Find a table and sit down!”   So you do and often it’s to share with another couple, which we did, or join a partly empty table.  No space is wasted here and quick turn over is their goal – get you in, get you served, get you out – so they can serve more people I’m guessing and make more tips.

I’m sure I saw the lady in the photo below 5 years ago too, and in the TV show The Treme which we actually stepped into the set of by accident one other day (more on that later).    She’s the one that ushered us in hurriedly.  I learned later that they take the customer’s order, go to the back to get it, and PAY for it themselves.  Then they have to collect from the customer to cover what they paid and hopefully get a tip.  I hope they pay less than we would if we walked up to the window, but it makes sense then why they want you in and out so fast. The more served per hour, the more tips they can make.

Cafe Du Monde Beignets

Here we see people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their beignets.  I have to admit I did have some, while Rob abstained.  But the Cafe Du Monde chicory coffee is out of this world!   I love the little girl with powdered sugar all over her face.  She was watching me take her photo, but didn’t seem to mind.

In the photos below you can see the staff, busily serving their tables.  After they collected a plate of beignets and poured the coffees, they’d go pay the cashier waiting for them at the end of the line.  I watched for a while and it’s a steady stream of coffee and donuts coming out.  You’ll also notice the staff counting their money, I saw that quite often too.  I’m sure they wanna make sure they are making more than they’re paying for the coffee.

Then of course there’s Cafe Du Monde take out, so here are three tips on taking stuff home with you.

1. order any canned coffee and/or souvenirs from your server when you order your coffee and beignets.
2. do NOT buy the canned coffee from any of the stores down the street or in the French Market.  A can of coffee is $5.45 in the café and you’ll find it as high as $9 a few steps away.   We ended up paying about $8 a can just because we didn’t want to get back in the take out line at the café.
3. go to the Café du Monde gift shop at 813 Decatur Street literally across the street.  They have the same prices as the café and can ship stuff if you need that service.   See photo of the sign below so you know what to look for.

New Orleans French Market

A short stroll north up Decatur street and you get to the French Market.   As the sign below indicates it was here well before the café, and is the oldest city market in America.  It has changed quite a bit since my fist visit in January 2005.  The junk and tent stalls have been replaced with permanent stalls with secure windows and doors and the vendors have gone from dollar store nick nacks to really nice hand made crafts, food items, art, produce and more.  A place locals and tourists alike visit.

This happy guy’s name is Oscar.  He makes resin jewelry that is very colorful, just like him.  I talked to him for a while and listened to his story of Katrina and how his life has been different since that day.  He talked about how hard it was to come back and for him there were no customers, no tourists, so his market had disappeared here.   He told me he lived in another city, I can’t remember where now, and started coming back on weekends once the market reopened and finally moved back home.  But it was a tough go for him and many other locals.

I talked to two other ladies as we ate lunch and they live in East New Orleans and said many things are still not opened like stores, schools, clinics.  They have to travel farther now to find those things.  All of the people I talked to were super nice and seemed eager to talk about their experience to someone that was really listening.    I feel for the people of New Orleans who, in many ways, have been treated like second class citizens in their country.   I bought a couple books on the disaster, one on a group that rescued stranded pets after they had been left behind by their owners.  The sad thing was the city told the people to leave them behind, that they’d only be gone a day or two at most.  2-3 weeks later many of those pets were still tied up to leashes, left in homes with 8′ of water, or left to wander the streets to find food.  Some were found still treading water as they were tied to something and couldn’t get away.   I don’t want to get on a rant, but this was a disaster of mammoth proportions that was utterly and completely preventable and it’s shameful how the government on all levels (municipal, state and federal) responded.  (stepping off my soap box now).

Anyhow, continuing on  - we had what was probably our best meal in New Orleans at a place in the French Market that I’d found out about on the internet (what a great resource hey?!).

Meals From The Heart

Meals from the Heart advertises low sodium, low fat and no transfat – fabulous!  In a city full of rich, heavy foods this was a great find!   We totally loved the food and have recommended it to others already, and they loved it too.  If you are looking for a nice light, clean meal – this is the place to go.  They also do catering and bulk orders – take home a couple dozen crab cakes today!

Rob's grilled salmon, brown rice and veggies

I had the crab cakes with lemon remoulade sauce, and fresh organic greens - yummy!

Chef Averill Lazard who created our fabulous meals at Meals from the Heart

Related posts:

1. High Desert Market and Cafe Bisbee
2. Day 91 New Orleans Plantations
3. Day 8 – Death Valley California Part Two
4. Day 47 – Bisbee and Queen Mine Tour

St. Joseph Plantation

Inside St. Joseph Plantation's foyer which is on the second floor

We were the only ones on the tour and we which we led by an older lady (not a family member though).  She carefully recited her speech on the stories of the house, but if we interrupted to ask a question she got a bit flustered and had to start that room all over again as she’d memorized it, or so we figured.

Bedroom at St. Joseph Plantation

The tour and grounds were okay and mildly interesting but the plantation itself was still being restored and wasn’t in all the great a shape.  They didn’t have a lot of furniture, it was pretty simple.  Not what I would have though of when you say “plantation”.

We did learn that the kitchens in those days were outside the main house in a separate building.  That was mostly because the stoves were wood burning and fires were very common, so to keep the house safer the kitchens were separated.

St. Joseph plantation kitchen

Stove - St. Joseph plantation

Kitchen St. Joseph plantation

I took a few photos of the outside, the grounds, and the slave cabin.  Every plantation seems to advertise their slave cabins as “the most authentic” or “in the original locations”, etc, in the area.  More on this later but I wondered how different they could be at this point.  They all looked pretty much the same – a plain wooden two room shack, that housed entire families of up to 5-7 people.   It’s bizarre to see how much disparity there was between the plantation homes and how the owners lived and how the slaves were forced to live.   I often wondered how people that owned plantations now, felt about their sordid pasts – more on this later too.

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Slave cabin St. Joseph plantation

Laura Plantation

Our next scheduled stop was Laura Plantation.  It proudly advertised that it was named “Best History Tour in the United States” by Lonely Planet Travel and was awarded the title of “Top Travel Attraction” by the Louisiana Office of Tourism.  I was starting to think they make up awards just to sound good and draw a crowd.  This one however, was way more impressive than the first one.

We paid another $30 to join a tour with about 20 other people, being busy was a good sign we thought.  We were quite impressed with the information, the stories and the actual house at Laura Plantation (so named after the last actual lady to run it).

Kettles like this were used to boil the sugar cane

Laura Plantation main house

They use figures on boards to represent the characters in its history going back 3 generations.  Inside the house were many photographs of Laura, her parents, her grandmother and the rest of the family.  This was a Creole plantation and as such was colorfully painted, compared to those of their European neighbors which were typically white with large Greek style columns.  We learned that Creole families did not wish to show their wealth at their plantation homes because their business partners and buyers would think they were making too much money and that their prices were too high.  They chose instead to furnish them simply and have second homes in New Orleans in the French Quarter or Garden District which were much more opulent.

Figure depicting Laura's grandmother, the first women to run the plantation

The tour covered three generations of this family, starting with the grandmother (who we learned ruled with an iron fist), Laura’s mother and finally an unwilling Laura (who didn’t want any part of the plantation and had actually left but inherited it and got stuck running it).  The homes along the river were built with living quarters on the second floor and pantries and dining room on the ground floor.   (this was due to the river flooding it banks often enough to become an issue, until the put in the levee years later).  This family also had a heavily fortified wine cellar as the grandmothers husband had come from Italy where his family were wine makers.  The family then brought the first wine to this region and sold it from their cellar (notice the bottles in the photo above with the female figure).

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

During this tour I started up a conversation with an African American man.  I was curious what he thought of the history of the plantations regarding slavery.   His first answer when we stared was something like “I’m curious myself, that’s why I’m here”.   Then once we got to the slave cabins, I asked him again and he had a very different answer.  He felt very odd there and that if it had been him forced to endure what they did he couldn’t have done it.   I pointed out that if his ancestors had felt the same he wouldn’t be here today.  It definitely makes one think about life and how can one human being treat another the way those people were treated?   But the sad reality was that it wasn’t just one person doing it – it was many.  Another sad thing is that racial discrimination and hate still abound in the world today and we’re no closer to eradicating it.  I urge you to visit places like this – stand in a slave cabin and look up at the big house and wonder – could you have done it?   What will you to do today to help stop hatred?

Slave cabin Laura Plantation

Cat - Laura Plantation

He was so impressed with the stories of Laura that Rob bought the book created from the papers and memoirs she left behind.  We rushed out after the tour as it was almost 6pm and we wanted to make that shuttle bus in less than an hour (remember it took us an hour to get here?).   We hit some traffic (I have to interject and say that Louisiana roads are absolutely some of the worst we drove on in the whole country) and got back to the RV park just to see the shuttle pass us on the driveway as we were heading in, and it was already heading out.  Damn!  Time for plan B.

Mothers of New Orleans

We now had to drive ourselves in to the Quarter so one of us was now going to have to be the DD.  We got the Quarter (only a 10-12 minute drive) and parked at Harrah’s casino.   I knew where is was on the edge of the quarter and I knew there was parking – so we just did that and started walking.  We had no plan other than I wanted to go eat at “Mothers of new Orleans” (advertised “best baked ham” and last time I was there they had absolutely THE best sweet potato pie!) and wander the area and Bourbon street a bit for our first night.   We waited in line outside Mother’s, then again inside until our order was taken at the front and we were allowed to get a table (you can’t go take one until you’ve ordered).   I remembered the sandwiches being better, but the pie was still great!

Inside Mother's restaurant

The rest of the evening we did just wander.  It was Rob’s first taste of New Orleans so I wanted to give him a broad feel and we’d come back and do the things we wanted specifically another day.  We did see the famous tossing of beads by men (and women I might add) from  balconies on Bourbon Street as they yelled to young women below “show us your tits”, to which many of the women did oblige.   I must admit that on my first visit to Crescent City (New Orleans) I myself did indeed participate in the aforementioned behavior and received my fair share of beads.  I was however much more intoxicated on Hurricanes from Pat O’Briens and this time around I wasn’t feeling it.    If I recall correctly I even drove home that night.

Window shopping New Orleans style

You can find music in pretty much every bar on Bourbon street

Police patrol on horseback in the Quarter and I've seen the horses go right inside even

One of the MANY drinking establishments on Bourbon Street - we learned later that locals have secret spots where drinks are 3 for one.

A new look for Rob? We were shopping for St. Paddy's day hats

One of many diners in the Quarter dating back over 100 years

Bar we stopped to watch a band, had a one drink per set minimum. At something like $8 a drink they may as well just charge admission! We only stayed for one set even though the music was good.

Anyway, after touring two New Orleans plantations, eating at Mothers and walking through Bourbon Street, our first day was done. We headed back to our RV Park and prepared to do it all again the next day.  Our plan is to spent a total of six days in New Orleans, two of which we’ll catch up on some work, a blog post, etc – yeah that probably wont happen!

Related posts:

1. New Orleans Café du Monde and French Market

We drove past this fire truck just about every day when we were staying at Sea Breeze RV Park. Every time I went to the gym or we drove to Corpus Christi we saw it. It just sat there along the fence, under the tree, all alone, asking to be loved. We planned a couple of shots.. some basic ones, some using a special technique that would result in an HDR Photograph of a fire truck and then a technique Dar has used in the past called “painting with light.”

We drove up to the lot where the truck had been parked for what seemed like years. We got out and I began extending the legs of the tri-pod. HDR Photography requires that each shot taken has to be exactly from the same location but then with the different exposures and such within each photo. I am only beginning to understand the technique, so forgive me if I get some of it wrong.

As we took our time having a look, and choosing the angle, a fellow from across the street approached me.

“What Y’all doing?”, he asked.

Ah ha.. the owner of the truck obviously, living across the street, had parked the fire engine here and then forgotten about it. Barking dogs had roused his suspicion, and he must have looked out the window.

“Well, ” I began to say when another truck came around a corner a little up the street and then pulled across the road coming to a stop in front of mine.

I turned my head to see who I soon came to learn was Lupe J Jimenez, the actual owner.

In less than 5 minutes, one fellow was on his way across the street to check us out after having called the owner to say “there’s some people messing around with your fire truck, you better get your arse over here!”

Click the image of the fire truck for a larger version

While Dar continued to take photos, I introduced myself to Lupe and assured him that we were simply photographers wanting to capture this amazing classic vehicle. I couldn’t help but ask about the neighborhood watch they had in effect and comment on how well it worked.

“We all take care of each other”, he said, that much being obvious.

Fire Truck For Sale

We chatted about the history of the truck and what he plans to do with it. In short, we learned that he may have bitten off more than he could chew with this one, and is more interested in selling it than doing any sort of classic auto project. If you’re looking for a used fire truck for sale, I’ve been given permission to give you Lupe’s phone number and email address. You can reach him at 361-728-4373 or by email lupejj (at) charter (dot) com. Might be (dot) net though.

Before he left, we explained that we wanted to do a second set of images taken at night where we use the special “painting with light” technique, and that if he heard any reports of people around his fire truck with a lot of flashlights, not to be alarmed… it was just us again.

Painting With Light

Bear with me as I attempt to explain how this is done.

The photo above is a combination of about 7 different photographs. The tripod is set up and for between 1 and 2 minutes, the shutter is kept open. It’s completely pitch black out, with little or no ambient light. While the shutter is kept open, someone begins to light up or highlight sections of the truck with a flashlight… bringing attention to certain details. For example, the headlights and the chrome around the headlights or the hood ornament, the wheel wells and the door handles. Then the shutter is closed.

That’s right. There are people within that photograph. However, you dont see them because a) it’s pitch black and b) over a long exposure, the person actually becomes a ghost in the final image.

Then, it’s done again, but highlighting a different aspect. For instance, for 2 minutes in one of the shots, I’m behind the drivers side door waving the flashlight into the passenger area, through the front windshield (from behind) and then through the cherry on top of the cab. Then in yet another shot, Dar goes to the read and lights up the rear wheels and the piping along the upper rear of the fire truck.

Details in the truck of the tree and the lower branches are lit up in another shot as well.

The only real “trick” to watch out for is not to point the flashlight directly at the camera. Doing so results in a “hot spot” or “trace” effect.

During processing, all images are combined and the result is what you see above. A 1956 Ward LeFrance Pumper fire truck, in the dead of night, surrounded by darkness, but “pained with light”. Very cool stuff.

It took a day and a night to get the photographs we wanted and I would like to thank Lupe for allowing us access to, and his time spent with us, telling us about the fire truck. It was great getting to know the owner after having driven past it for so many weeks. By all means, please get ahold of Lupe if you’re interested in making him an offer. It’s not too often you find a classic fire truck for sale.

Related posts:

1. Classic Corvettes On The Beach

Meow!  Hi, I’m Pumpkin, Rob’s orange cat.  I’m about 15 years old and my buddy Boo is a black kitty, who’s 16.  This is our side of the story of our current situation.

Pumpkin on the bed

Boo on the couch

We’ve lived with Rob for almost our whole lives.  We’re pretty timid and don’t really like visitors much (I hide under the bed and Boo usually hisses at them).  We also aren’t all that fond of changes to our lifestyle and home.  Being over 15 makes us senior kitties and we’re pretty set in our ways.

How Our Motorhome Adventure Began

That brings me to the beginning of this adventure. We were pretty cozy in our home in Alberta.  After moving with Rob into Dar’s house 2 years ago, we had just finally trained her to let us stay upstairs full time and sleep on the bed.  We were sooooooo tired of the basement.  Dar and Rob started acting all weird and many of the things we were used to climbing on around the house were disappearing and more and more boxes appeared daily.   Strangers would came and walk around the house – we didn’t like that one bit!   We knew something was going on.

My Secret Hiding Spots Were All Gone

Then one day the house was almost empty and even my hiding spot under the bed was gone and the bed was part of the floor now.  Next morning Rob came and picked me up (I protested with my usual loud meows) and took me from the nice warm house, out into a strange place we’d only been a couple of times.  It was very cold outside (I heard them says -35c, whatever that means) and my bladder instantly stopped working.  I was very upset and cold so I just peed – it just so happened that I peed ON Rob, oh well serves him right!

This new place he put me had more of those boxes and Boo was here too.  I think she found a spot in the closet to hide, she’s very good at not being found as she’s black.  This is like a house, with a bed and furniture and stuff, but there wasn’t as much room, and nothing smelled like our familiar things.  We’d have to fix that really soon!

Eventually Rob and Dar came into the new mini house too.  After much cursing and some crying, things started vibrating and rocking to and fro.  Now Boo and I were very confused.  It was like going on a car ride, but it wasn’t a car.  I just hoped we weren’t going to the place we usually go in the car where all the other dogs and cats were and some mean lady pokes me with needles.

Boo and Dar

A New Day, A New Smell

Well, ultimately we didn’t go there – whew!  But we didn’t go home either. Every day the humans would move stuff onto the bed in the morning, more vibrating, and then later they’d move it all to the big window in the front.  Boo noticed that every day when the big door opened it was different outside.  Different smells, sights and sounds – very weird.  At first we didn’t want IN this mini house, then we didn’t want out cause we thought we’d get lost or see strangers out there.  So we agreed it was best to just hide inside.  One night it got very cold in the mini house and I crawled under the covers by Rob while Boo curled up on Dar’s pillow as close to her cheek as she could.  They may not be the brightest creatures, but we love them and have to take care of our  humans and keep them warm.

Very odd that they don’t have fur.

Great Places To Sit

Oh, the small inside issue gradually got taken care of too.  Each day we’d pee in a new spot so everyone would know that was our area.  We also discovered some really good places to sit.  Boo likes to sit in the big window up front when it’s sunny.  She can watch the stuff outside move from there too when the house is vibrating.  Rob gave me a pillow and blanky on the couch right behind his chair, so I was happy to sit there.  He’d reach back and touch me now and then too, so I’d purr.  Lately I’ve been going in the window too and Boo rides on a warm spot on the floor she found.

one of Boo's warm spots

One of my favorite spots on the couch

Exploring The New Places

Finally all the boxes were gone and the ground outside was the same every day, so Boo start going outside to check things out.  She’s the brave one so I encouraged her to go scout and report back.  She said she could see a dog across the road, but he was tied up so that’s safe – and many other of these mini houses all in rows.  Dar and Rob tried to put collars on us and tie us to a table outside – yeah like we’d let that happen.  Boo got out of hers no problem and tangled the line around and around a chair to confuse them and wonder how she did it.

Cats thinking about going out

Boo, you go first and look around

At night we heard strange scary howling, so we mostly stayed inside.  We noticed too it was much warmer, even hot, outside now.  We heard the humans talk about Arizona a lot.

We Pee In The Bathtub – Sort of

So we cats adapted to the new house and got the humans retrained.  Our litter box is now inside this tub we have to jump up into – the humans pee in the same room which is kinda weird for us but put up with them and their smells.  Sometimes we got locked out of that room so we had to teach them about that.  Usually Dar leaves some clothes on the floor by the foot of the bed – so we used that spot to relieve ourselves.  She doesn’t seem to happy about it when we have to use her pillow or pajamas though.  She should be honored we are marking her with our smell, to show other cats we own her and those spots are where we want to sleep too.

I like to sleep here when Dar's not sitting here

After finally getting some routine again, we packed up and move.  We’re smart cats – we figured out the vibrating is the house moving.  The new place had lots of birds and the humans often went to neighbors while there burned things at night.  Humans do such odd things.  Boo went to see what they were doing one night but she got lost and Rob had to use a light to go find her.   That was scary for Boo, but she did get to hiss at the little dog over there so all was not lost.

Boo ventures outside

Visitors To Our House

We have gotten used to the new places, but still don’t like the moving too much.  We’ve done a lot of that now.  One cool thing is we met Kandace (they called it Florida) the lady we’ve heard Rob and Dar talk to on the phone. She brought two small humans of her own with her and a friend of theirs. I sat in Rob’s chair and let them pet me, and didn’t even hide under the couch.  Seems some new people are nice too, maybe I’ll be more open and not hide so much now.  I kinda liked that Mike guy  that came to visit us a few times too,  he’s nice and pets me.  We thought maybe he was moving in with us, but he didn’t.  Just as well, not much room.

Ah a piece of paper to sleep on!

Boo sleeps in the window

Pumpkin and Boo on the beach of Padre Island Texas

To The Beach

One day after moving, Rob took me out far from the house and put me in a large litter-box.  Boo came out with Dar too.  We didn’t know who’s litter-box it was and we didn’t like how it felt on our feet.  Then the earth was moving towards me and my feet were suddenly wet – we I just put it in reverse and backed up.  I was about to leave when Dar took me back home.  My feet needed cleaning and they tasted all salty – weird.  Boo told me her tummy got wet and her feet were stuck (they probably weren’t really, she’s such a drama queen sometimes) and Rob had to come save her.   We didn’t like that place too much. They said something about taking the cats to the beach? Dunno.

So that’s about it for now.  Rob and Dar often go out all day now so when they’re home we all like to curl up on the couch and watch TV.  At night I sleep by Dar’s hip or between Rob’s feet.  Boo sleeps in Dar’s armpit under the covers with her feet on Dar’s shoulder, or her her pillow next to her, or on Rob’s neck.  We’re very happy.

Boo breaks in Rob's new computer keyboard

I can see you Rob

Related posts:

1. Day 79 – Taking the RV to the Beach
2. Cats On the Beach
3. Day 11 – Christmas in Phoenix
4. Day 6 – Two Days in Pahrump Nevada

I was searching the internet for dolphin tours in the Portland area, and somehow I came across The Dolphin Connection.   A husband and wife team, Irv and Sonya Strong, that have been taking people out to MEET the dolphins for something like 16 years.  They know many of them by sight and have named them – and the dolphins know their boat and their sounds too.  They are located in Ingleside on the Bay, TX – basically around the corner of the bay from our RV park.

Their blog says they have their business up for sale and this might be the last year for them doing this, so I booked us in. We were supposed to go on the Monday but it was way too windy and in the little boat they use, we’d have been tossed around the waves in an undesirable manner.  So we waited a day and headed out Tuesday.

Sonya met as at the dock and right away we were loaded up on the boat and off we went.  No formalities, no waivers to sign, no payments first – just hop in and off we went.  I opted for a life jacket (with my paranoia of water) while Rob opted for none.  It was just us two and them – perfect.

Dolphin Connection - Sonya and Irv

See Dolphins or It’s Free

They talked about the dolphins and that their usual schedule has been a bit “off” lately, so we were sure if we’d see any today or not.  They guarantee an encounter with them or you don’t have to pay – hence why no prepayment was done before we boarded the boat – sweet.  Personally I’d rather pay and see them, then go out and see nothing for free.

Irv took us around the bay, looking in the spots where the dolphins usually hang out at this time of day.  They have patterns and tend to hang out in groups he said, but their pattern wasn’t following the usual routine in the last couple weeks so they were having a hard time predicting where and when to find them.  It’s a big ocean – lots of water to cover in a small boat.

We eventually did find one guy, but he wouldn’t come close enough for Sonya to touch him, he was playing coy with us.  But Irv did show us a cool trick where he speeds up the boat and the dolphin basically body surfs inside the wake.  We watched him do it for a while.  Not sure if it’s playing to them, they’re very playful animals, or an easy effortless way for him to get from point A to point B.   It’s like a kid putting on roller skates and bumper riding, same concept.

Riding the wake of the boat

We did see a couple more but nothing close enough for us to touch.  They just were not in the mood today and we didn’t find the big group Irv was looking for.  We still had a great trip though and as was indicated we were not required to pay, but voluntary donations towards gas were welcomed.  We left them some money anyway.

Also saw lots of pelicans, of course

Saw quite a few really large cargo ships too.

We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the ride and I took a few photos on the beach before we headed out.  I’m really hoping they hang in there for another year so we can go back in 2011 and give it another go with them.   Yup, that’s my intention – they will be there and we’ll go again and see the whole herd/tribe/gang – whatever it is you call a group of dolphins.

Texas sunset

Fish bones on the beach, left by the fisherman that cleaned and filleted them here

I thought it was pretty, even with the fish carcass

If you’re in the Corpus Christi or Portland Texas area, I highly recommend doing this dolphin tour.  It’s only $25 per person and you get a small personalized tour with people who know and love the dolphins.

Related posts:

1. Whooping Crane Birding Tour in Rockport
2. San Antonio Riverwalk
3. Day 62 Corvettes and the Beach
4. Day 79 – Taking the RV to the Beach

I had planned our entire Texas stay in Portland to make sure we stayed long enough to go to the Fulton Oysterfest, about 30 minutes north east of Sea Breeze RV park.  I had no idea what the Oysterfest was all about, but I love raw oysters so I wanted to find out for myself.

Fulton Oysterfest Parade

We dragged our butts out of bed late as usual and headed out to get there for around 11am or so.  I had read on the official festival site that there was a parade and free parking at the old Walmart lot, which we just happened to stumble upon a few days ago.  So we parked there and got in line with the 200 or so other folks waiting for the free shuttle bus.  It came and took about 12 people, and round trip is 15-20 minutes, so we figured we were gonna be in line a while.

When we finally got to the festival site the parade was still going down the street, so I rushed to catch up to it.  I do love a good parade – Rob is indifferent to them. As it was coming up to St. Patrick’s Day soon there was lots of green, and locally made floats and school marching bands, and some uniquely Texan things.

Notice it says "adult day care" - what it means is it's a bar! LOL

Love the headline on this one

Only in Texas! Guy in a pick up playing a guitar in a parade

And then we entered the festival grounds!

Let the eating commence!   And so we did.  Rob started with the BBQ turkey leg – I think I got one bite.  Then we each had a dozen raw oysters, then another dozen later.   Rob thought we were going to have like 4-5 dozen each.  They were fairly cheap at $8 a dozen – and really tasty – but that’s still a bit costly, so we stopped at 2 dozen each.

Rob’s comment: As far as I’m concerned, any “fest” requires large amounts of the “fest” item to be consumed. If it’s a beer fest, one consumes large quantities of beer. If it’s an Oysterfest, the same should be true. That’s my opinion anyway.

First round

We even got filmed by a local TV station and ended up on their blog eating our oysters

This is how the shucking is done

They had a whole row of guys shucking non-stop and still couldn't keep up to the demand

The entertainment was pretty much non-stop too

Eating Oysters On Texas TV

We even got on local TV (of sorts). The Corpus Christi Caller Times, a local paper, had a camera crew out to the fest. She came by while we were eating and video’d us. She must have liked us because she came back 5 minutes later saying that her “white balance” was off and wanted to video us again. Later that night Rob checked the Caller Times website and found the video of us eating oysters.

After satisfying our oyster needs and listening to some country music, we went to browse the other tent with crafts, art and stuff for sale.  I actually found cowboy boots on sale for $10, so I had to buy a pair.  There was a photographer with some great bird shots from the area, and some great art.

Me trying on boots. Not my best look

Thought about getting this for my brother-in-law but not for $350 - sorry Troy

A typical Texas style outfit, mini-skirt and boots

Oysterfest Oyster Eating Contest

Next we saw a crowd gathering around the stage as the men’s oyster eating contest began.  We couldn’t really see that well but Rob got a few photos over the tops of everyone’s heads.  I’m not quite tall enough to do that without a ladder.  There were about a dozen guys in the contest and it lasted about 5 minutes.

Oyster eating contest - mens

Notice the plastic beer jugs with grey stuff in them? That's the oysters - they're basically drinking them

After the time limit was up, they had to sit and wait another 5 minutes to make sure they kept them all down.  Any that come up don’t count, or maybe that guys gets disqualified – not sure.  So after the waiting was done they announced the winners.  The top oyster eater swallowed down 200 of them in the allotted time!  WOW!  Impressive.  We didn’t get back the next day to see the women’s contest but I’m curious to know the numbers from that one.  That is a LOT of oysters.

Texas highway patrol - cool looking hey?

Bikes and boats by the marina

We bought this for the RV

shrimp boats

More shrimp boats

I thought this was a cool shot - this is all I got of him

Lots of birds overhead so I tried to get some good shots of them flying.  This one above I thought came out kinda funky with only half a bird.   The one below is one of a bunch of them we saw playing sort of leap frog.   They all sat on their own post, all in a row.  Then when a new bird came in for a landing, he’d almost land on the bird who was last in the row, who in turn would get up and fly up one to land on the next bird and so on until the one at the front got bumped off and had to go find a new spot.  We watched them do it again and again – our video camera batteries were dead so didn’t get video.  Animals do the funniest things – I’ve said it before but will say it again – if you have animals you don’t need TV!

This is one of the leap frog seagulls

Me with leap frog gulls in the background

Fulton Mansion

So we decided we’d had enough and headed back via shuttle to get our car.  On the way out of Fulton we took a detour to drive by Fulton Mansion.   It was closed already so we put it on our list to come back and tour next year.  The Fulton Mansion was built in 1874 it had features that were highly innovative for that time period including:  gas lighting, central heating and indoor plumbing with hot and cold running water.  Rob was interested in their water saving and recovery system – we’ll be going back for a closer look when we have more time.

Fulton Mansion

Great porch

All in all we had a great time at the Fulton Oysterfest and plan to do it again next year when we return to Texas.

Related posts:

1. Days 49-51 – Drama upon arriving in San Antonio, Texas
2. Day 48 – Tombstone to Van Horn Texas
3. Whooping Crane Birding Tour in Rockport
4. Day 62 Corvettes and the Beach

We wanted a chance to park the RV on the beach and do some beach camping on Padre Island, but since we didn’t take the RV south to Brownsville (and South Padre Island) we decided to drive it over to Port Aransas. Our mission was two fold, to get a photo of our RV on the beach, and to let Rob’s cat experience the ocean. We actually have a magazine article that we wrote being published in Good Sam “Highways” and they may use an image from this shoot so we wanted it to be spectacular.

Taking the RV to Port Aransas by Ferry

Getting to Port Aransas and Padre Island by RV requires taking a ferry or driving all the way through Corpus Christi and around from the south west. Taking Victor (what we’ve named our Winnebago Vectra RV) over on the little ferry was interesting.  It only holds about 20 cars and they put us in the middle of two lanes at the front in order to stay balanced.  Funny.

Parking the RV on the Beach

We got to Padre Island and found a solid packed spot on the sand for us to park our RV on the beach. With memories of the other RVer getting stuck in the mud back in San Antonio, we didn’t want to risk it.  Rob felt it was important that the cats got to experience the beach and the ocean.  He took Pumpkin out near the water in the sand and I brought Boo out a few minutes later.  They were none too happy about it and I wish I had video of Pumpkin backing up increasingly faster and faster as the water came towards her. (Rob here, um, we DO have video of that Dar)  Then she almost left with a nice lady that stopped to pet her.

Cats On The Beach

Rob placed Boo in the ocean in about 1/2″ of water.  She just sat there, motionless as the water came up to about 2″ and Rob had to go rescue her.  And NO it’s not animal cruelty or cat torture – they are THE biggest chick cats ever and so far their RVing experience has helped them to be more daring and relaxed when things change.  Now they will actually venture outside on their own, and not run and hide under the couch at even the sight of another person.  So they have grown and this was indeed another experience for them.  After the cats on the beach adventure, we got down to the business of getting the photos we came for.

HDR of 3-4 images combined, then us added

HDR of 3-4 images combined, then us added

The RV on the beach shots accomplished, we tried to find a spot near a marina to get some boats in the photo with the RV.  It was hard to find the right angle, decent lighting and access with a 34′ vehicle.  Not to mention by parking it in front of the boats – guess what – I can’t even see the boats, so it kinda defeats the purpose.

RV at the Marina

Rob texting while I shoot - or he's playing a game on MY iPhone

Around the corner from there we found some pelicans flying around and Rob even saw a dolphin out in front of a big freighter that was coming in.  We love pelicans – find them fascinating birds.  They’re so large but graceful and how they can fly just inches off the water is amazing.

Brown pelican possibly with dinner?

brown pelican

Look at the huge wing span of these guys!

I could watch them all day

With the sun setting we headed for Virginia’s (the place with the piles of oyster shells out back that I didn’t get to eat last time cause we found it too late) for dinner.  Rob parked in the biggest lot we could find nearby and put a note in the window so people would know we were not planning on camping overnight there.  Rob found an online RV Journal that discusses RV unfriendly towns and made note of a few of them. Apparently some towns are not RV friendly at all and in Flagstaff, AZ they may ask you to leave even if you just stop and park to eat dinner.   So now I understand why he left the note.

Beach Camping

While the idea was originally to do some beach camping on Padre Island and then go to Mexico for the day (which we did do), we weren’t actually able to pull that one off this time around. We’d both love the opportunity for beach camping, to let go of the tethers, unhook from the sewage line and do what they call dry camping. To back away from the computer, put out the awning and read instead of type so much would be a wonderful experience. Because of our schedule and events as they unfolded, beach camping was simply not going to occur.

Parking the RV on the beach on Padre Island was not only a safe experience, it was great for the cats as well. Dinner was good with a great view of the sunset over the water.  A great day in paradise.

Related posts:

1. Cats On the Beach
2. Day 62 Corvettes and the Beach
3. Classic Corvettes On The Beach
4. Pump and Boo’s Big Motorhome Adventure

Ever since we left Edmonton and set out on our 12,000 mile trip through the US and Canada by RV, I’ve wanted my cats to experience the ocean. They’re 16 and 15 years old and rarely ever left the house until recently. I’ve wanted them to experience as many things as possible while remaining relatively safe at the same time. If you’ve been following our blog, you’ll know that our first few days in the RV resulted in so much of Dar’s clothing and our bedding covered in cat pee, so we didn’t know what to expect from their time on the beach.

Pumpkin and Boo on the beach of Padre Island Texas

Pumpkin is the orange cat and Boo is the black one. They’re my Halloween kitties, but born in October and named respectively. Boo is about 16 while Pump is 15.

How did this all come about you might ask?

We took our RV to Padre Island near Port Aransas so we could get shots of our rv on the beach for Good Sam Highways magazine. We wanted good shots to accompany a recent article entry we submitted to them, so on day 80 we packed up and left Seabreeze RV Park for the day.

How Did The Cats Handle It?

Another good question. I’ve had some people tell me that they’ve never seen a cat on the beach, nor pictures of cats on the beach and neither had I. I had to walk them out to the ocean as they wouldn’t leave the rv on their own, but that’s not new. Even with the door wide open, they rarely leave the RV to venture outside.

I walked Boo down to the water and put her in about an inch of water. She didn’t move. Her paws sunk about a 1/4 inch into the wet sand. A wave came in and got her underbelly wet. She still didn’t move. I’ve been told recently that what they experienced was this:

They saw water on one side and beach on the other. They dont know what the water was and just saw it as “moving earth” and couldn’t comprehend it. They thought of the beach as a giant version of cat litter and weren’t too happy about walking in it so much.

I do have video of Pumpkin experiencing a wave coming in. She saw it coming and began to back up, but couldnt keep up, so kept accelerating in reverse as it rolled in . I’ll post it when I have time to edit it (seriously lacking time to travel, experience the US first hand AND process images and blog about it).

It was a long way between the water and the RV, so the only thing of familiarity around them was me. They huddled up around my legs. Boo hunkered down and crept her way back to the motorhome. Dar eventually picked her up and she just looked out at various things before we took them back home to safety.

For the record, I love my cats more than anything. I’ll even swear on their life to Darlene if she thinks I’m fooling around about something. That way she knows I’m serious.

At no time were they in danger and I kept them safe next to me at all times. The worst it got for Boo was about 2 inches of water that touched her belly as a wave came in. That was it.

The “cats on the beach” experience was all part of the day we took our rv to the beach, make sure you check it out.

Related posts:

1. Day 79 – Taking the RV to the Beach
2. Day 62 Corvettes and the Beach
3. Classic Corvettes On The Beach
4. Pump and Boo’s Big Motorhome Adventure