Frog City RV Park

Our time here in Louisiana is coming to an end, at least until March, when we will be back for Mardi Gras. We have enjoyed our time here, especially the visits with family. We haven’t done many touristy things but I have learned a lot about the Acadiana area, it is quite interesting. Niece Abby has given me a book on the history of the Cajuns so I will get it read by the time we come back and I can return it to her.

Frog City RV Park has been the perfect place for us. It is about 15 miles from family, 10 miles to the edge of Lafayette but is close enough to be accessible. The park is quiet as far as the campers, the only noise is from interstate 10 and it is not intrusive. We left the camper sit for 5 days while we went to Wisconsin and the managers kept watch on it for us. The sites are gravel and level with minor adjustments, small swimming pool, hot tub, propane, free Wi-Fi (which actually has a good signal), free cable and full hook ups. There are a number of long term residents, some are people working in the area. I would recommend this park to anyone passing through or wanting to spend some time in the area. We will stay here again when we are back in the area.

Here are a few pictures of the campground:

Entrance to Tent area.                              Entrance to the campground

Campground Office                                   Swimming pool, hot tub behind the brown fence

Laundry and individual showers              The entrance of the park

Our unit, fifth wheel.

We had good satellite reception, the trees in the park proper are small, in a few years they may pose a problem for satellite reception.

This is a park I would recommend to anyone, remembering it is not isolated but within a commercial area.

We are off tomorrow for our trip to Sarasota, with overnights in Robertsdale, AL and Lake City, FL.

Dreams Do Come True.

Merry Christmas

Sarah and I want to wish each and everyone of you a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wisconsin Trip

We arrived in Milwaukee on time the beginning of a great time. We collected our suitcase, Sarah was able to get everything she needed into one bag and of course the bag I used was small and I carried it onto the plane. My motto has always been if you do not have it, you do not need it or you can buy it. We on the Canadian Regional style jets, they are small but I like them. We picked up the rental car at Enterprise Rental; I have used them for years and have always found them to be the least expensive, although as all the others they want to have you add insurance and other options to the daily rate.
We left the airport about 4:15 and arrived at Robert and Sarah’s about six. Milwaukee is doing some major road construction around the I-94, 894 & 43 interchange and it looked like they had repairs going on further south of the airport exit on 94 so it took a few minutes longer to get to Beloit than it would have otherwise. Robert had bought some pizza so we were able to have something to eat when we arrived. It was good to see Robert and Sarah and of course, it was good to see Mason (6) and Madyson (almost three). They have both grown a lot since we saw them in October.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Beloit. I like the hotel; we have stayed there the most of any motels in the area. This time though we had a room that was the smallest one we have had there yet. The bed was suppose to be a queen size bed, but it wasn’t as big as the queen bed we have in the camper and I didn’t sleep well but we survived it. I do like the breakfast they have although I only had the cinnamon roll once, I really like the but they have over 400 calories in them. I had yogurt and bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter on them. I suppose the cinnamon roll would not have made much difference in the total calorie count. At least I did not gain any weight on the trip.
Friday we spent the morning with Robert and Madyson. Robert made sloppy joes for lunch. In the afternoon we went to Mason’s Christmas program at school, Mason is in kindergarten. It was fun to watch the kids and how enthusiastic they are in their presentation. I have to say Mason did very well; it was a pleasure watching him. That night we went out to dinner with the kids and Sarah’s parents at Domencios Pizza & Restaurant in Beloit. We have been to this restaurant before and have liked it. They have a buffet or you can order off the menu. We all had the buffet and as usual I ate too much but it was good.
Saturday was the big day, Robert’s graduation at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Sarah and Robert rode with us to Whitewater, we arrived a little over and hour before the ceremony but we wanted to be early to get a good seat for the graduation. Well I believe some of those folks slept there over night, there were many people already in their seats. We did not know which way the master’s candidates would come into the building so we opted to get as close to the front as we could. We took the second row on the right and Sarah Ann chose wisely because Robert marched in right by us.

The program was not too bad, the student speaker did a commendable job and the main speaker spoke to long but overall it was good. They had about 650 graduates in all the programs so it was over in an hour and a half. We took a couple pictures outside and then went to the campus bookstore. Now remember I have a Nook eBook reader but I ended up buying three books, all less than $5 each. I still like the Nook and it is my primarily source of reading but I cannot get out of the habit of picking up a good book when I see one.
Sunday, night we went out to eat for Sarah’s birthday, we went to Olive Garden. It is interesting to watch the kids, both Mason and Madyson love the black olives, they put them on their fingers and eat them. I love that they order their own meal, macaroni, and cheese, I do not remember what everyone else had but I did not hear any complaints about them. No one had any room left for desert so we took off for home.
Sarah Ann had given me an idea for a couple of gifts for the kids, a castle for Madyson and a pirate ship for Mason. These are made out of cardboard, the kids can color the outside, and then you put it together. The castle had arrived before we got there so Madyson opened it, it is huge, so her and Mason began to color it. When they were done coloring as much as they wanted the castle was assembled and took up almost half of the family room. (Robert said the pirate ship arrived Monday and it is huge).

Sunday was Mason’s Christmas program at church he did well there also. After lunch, we all went to the Wright Museum of Art on the campus of Beloit College, http://www.beloit.deu/writht. This is a small private college with a very good reputation and a nice compact campus. Mason goes to a place called Doodles Art in Beloit; they have the kids do different types of artwork. Each year they put the kid’s drawings on the walls in the Wright Museum of Art. It was fun seeing the work of the kids, I did some touring of the Museum by myself, and they have a number of nice pieces there. So if you like art and are in the Beloit, WI area stop by and take in some very nice artwork.

Robert received a Wii for his graduation and Mason wanted to play bowling on it with me. So we played a couple of games Sunday afternoon, he had two strikes on his first two balls; I started slow but gained strength as we progressed. He ended with a 145 and I had a 175 for a while I thought he was going to beat me. I only won because I had a couple strikes in a row. I believe they will enjoy the game a lot. Robert said he played Mario brothers Friday night without feeling guilty because he did not have to study anymore.
We said our goodbyes to the kids Sunday night because they had work and school the next day.
Monday we slept in a bit but were still up by 7:30 and had our breakfast and everything by nine. So we left for the airport, our flight did not leave until 4:50 but we did not have anything else planned and I do not mind sitting at the airport. We got the rental car turned in and checked in with the airline, got our boarding passes and checked our bag, ($25) what a rip off. We did not go through security yet because I wanted to sit out in the main shop area because I figured there would be more choices to eat there. We did eat at a small local hamburger, made to order, it was very good.
About one o’clock we went through security, it was not busy which I liked. I found it interesting in Lafayette I did not have to remove my CPAP from its case but in Milwaukee I did, just goes to show security is not the same at all airports.
There was a winter storm warning for late afternoon and throughout the night so I was happy we were heading south. Those going through Minneapolis or east had some delays and cancelations. One of the Minneapolis planes boarded everyone and sat at the gate for another 45 minutes or so, I suppose they were waiting for a landing slot in Minneapolis before they took off from Milwaukee. Our plane was on time coming in and we all boarded on time, which was good because we had a 30-minute layover in Memphis, I worried about making our connection. They deiced the plane, the pilot said they had taken on a bit of ice coming in, we still departed on time. We arrived in Memphis with 35 minutes to change gates, of course, our plane was departing from A2 and we arrived at B2, they could not get much further apart. Now I have to ALWAYS stop at the restroom, but even with that, we got to the gate with about ten minutes to spare. The trip was uneventful; we arrived in Lafayette on time and got home about nine.
Yesterday was laundry day for Sarah and I spent the day trying to figure out expense and how much money we have left. Actually the trip was going to be made whether we flew or drove, I am glad we did not drive we wouldn’t be home yet, the cost for both was close but I believe flying was cheaper and we enjoyed the trip a whole lot more.
Therefore, that is all for now it was a great trip and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We would not have missed it for anything.
Dreams Do Come True

Vermilionville

We got through the cold night, Monday night, it go down to the upper twentys but the camper was a snug as a bug. Tuesday morning I hooked the water back up so we could take showers. There are some in the campground who do not unhook the water hose and do not have heat tapes on them and the hose seems to be okay. I suppose they may leave the kitchen faucet drip overnight which I have done once but I don't mind unhooking the hose and it conserves water.

We drove out to the airport, we leave tomorrow for WI, I like to know where I am going and so I do a trial run. It is a small airport so we won't have any problem with it. Then we went to Vermilienville, this is a historic cultural center about the area, http://www.vermilionville.org/. We only went into two of the many buildings on the property because we ran out of time and Sarah's foot was bothering her. We went through the Watershed Exhibit, here you see how the area was formed over the past 10,000 years. In the La Maison des Culteres building we looked at the different arrow heads and tools, all rocks, used by the Native Americans. Each building has a guide to give you a tour and answer questions and La Maison des Culteres was no different. We met Alan Simon, pronouced the Frence way, he was extremely informative about the inhabitants. His ancestory is Acadian and he speaks French except he speaks the old French and was one of eleven children. He is also a treater, http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/treater?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744:v0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID:9&ie=UTF-8&q=treater&sa=Search#906. The gentleman was very informative and had many stories to tell. We spent to much time with him but he was very engaging.

After we left there we stopped for a bite to eat and then made our way to Mable's shop. We went with them to Don's Seafood Hut for dinner. Don's was having 25 cent oysters, I had 4 shy of two dozen. I love oysters on the half shell, put the oyster on a saltine cracker with cocktail sauce and horse radish, what a treat.

We got home in time to watch the NCIS programs. A good ending to a great day.

Off to WI tomorrow, we are really looking forward to seeing the kids. It is suppose to be cold but I don't believe there is any snow forecasted.

Until later, Dreams Do Come True.

Cold Front

Another week has gone by, sometimes we forget what day of the week it is. Not much has happened this week, we have just enjoyed being around family and learning about the area from them. I won't try to replecate what is on the web but if you are interested this is a good site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadians.

Tuesday we took the camper to get a propane problem fixed. I searched the web and found Gauthier's RV, exit 100 in Lafayette, to be the closest to us. So we unhooked everything, I even left some items at the campground, I know most campers are honest, but..., it took us about 15 minutes to get to the dealer mostly because I had to sit and wait to make a left turn onto a busy street. We pulled up along side the bay doors and the technichian replaced the hose from the LP tank to the regulator, it was determined this was the source of the problem, it was and it new hose eliminated the noise. You see the tank made a pulsating whoosing noise whenever the furnace turned on because, it was thought, the point in the hose used to keep the tank open was not working correctly and it was opening and closing with as the gas was coming out of the tank. Anyway so far the problem is fixed and we were on our way in under an hour. I strongly recommend anyone needing RV repairs when going  through Lafayette, LA to give these folks a call, they were great.

We have gone into Mable's shop a couple of days this past week and Sarah helped with taking some inventory. Now the problem with this is as Sarah was taking inventory with Mable, she was also looking at new bras. Well guess what, she had to buy also. Oh well she looks good so it was worth it.

Thursday we came down to Thibodaux with Bill and Mable and have spent a nice weekend with them. I'm not sure it we are going back to Lafayette Monday or Tuesday but either is ok.

Last night we played a game of Po-Ke-No or at least I believe that is how it is spelled. I won, but not until the last hand. I don't enjoy a lot of the games out there but this was fun. I wasn't doing so well until I figured out I had the game card upside down, the printing should be on the bottom, and then I started winning.

There is a cold streak going through the area and is suppose to get into the 20's tonight and tomorrow night, but then it will warm up. Much better than snow.

Till later, Dreams Do Come True.

Feeling a bit better

It is Sunday already, I know that for two reasons we went to
church this morning and today was the day for the big paper. I am still not
feeling 100% but I am improving.

This past week we did not do much. Chuck, nephew, is letting
us use his extra car, he uses it for driving around town only, it has over
161,000 miles on it but we certainly appreciate his kindness. It makes me want
to have a car to drive instead of the truck but I don’t want to have Sarah
follow me and I am not going to try pulling it behind the camper. If it gets to
be a necessity, we’ll trade for a motor home and pull the car then.

We haven’t done any touristy things here, we know where the Wal-Mart’s
are and the closest mall but I haven’t felt well enough to do much of anything.

Tuesday we are taking the camper to a dealer five miles down
the road to have a propane problem checked and fixed. Then I would like to go
to the downtown area and see what they have to offer.

Thursday night Isabella, great-great niece, celebrated her
fourth birthday at Chucky Cheese; Sarah went I was not in any shape to go.
Sarah said Isabella had a good time and pictures of here looked like she was
very tired.

Friday we went to lunch with Bill & Mable, they were
heading back to Thibodaux for the weekend, we will see them on Tuesday.

Yesterday I got a burst of energy and cleaned out several
areas, consolidated a lot of items and reallocated some space. I had a bag of
office supplies, pens, posti notes etc. so I gave them to Brenda to use at the
shop. When I would go to meetings, when I was working, I took all the pens etc.
home with me; I had a lot of those and did not need them.

Last night Chuck & Cora took us to Mulate’s Cajun
Restaurant, “The Original Cajun
Restaurant”. If you are ever in Breaux Bridge, LA and want good Cajun food
this is the place to go. It is a bit pricey but the food is very good. They
have live entertainment and a well used dance floor. I don’t dance but I did
enjoy watching all the folks dancing, especially the young lad, 7 or 8 years
old, dancing with his grandmother. Then there was the older gentleman, had to
be 80+, dancing with all the young ladies, he exhibited more energy than I have
felt in a long time. Their website is http://www.mulates.com/.

That’s if for now I am going back to my recliner and catch
40 winks.

Dreams Do Come True.

Sick Today

We went to a wedding on Saturday at http://www.lafrenierepark.org/ in Mataire. LA, it was a very nice wedding. The park had chickens running wild through it, I said something to one of the wedding guests and he told me people would drop off the chickens because they did not want them anymore and the park system lets them run wild. According to my source, some of the roosters get a bit ornery when approached by humans.

Sunday we went to church at St Joseph Co-Cathedral, http://www.stjoseph-cc.org/, click on their website History, this is a beautiful church with a long history. I really like going into different churches to see what they are like.

 

The rest of the day was spent with Bill and Mable enjoying their company.

Monday Sarah gave Mable a perm while Bill and I tried to correct some electrical problems. I have one on the camper; the roadside outside light does not work even though the bulb is fine. I am wondering if when they cut the hole in the side of the camper for the new dryer vent they might have done something to the wiring. Bill is having trouble with some our door lights not coming on at all. One is a motion sensor light, we checked the wiring and Bill got up in the attic but still could not find the problem. I am no help because what I know about electricity could fit on the head of a pin.

 

We are back at Frog City RV Park; we arrived back at noon yesterday. I woke up with a heck of a cold but it did not take long to tear down the camper because all we had hooked up to was electric.

I went to bed early last night hoping I could get rid of my cold, no such luck, I woke up this morning feeling rotten and other than going to the office to pay, our rent for December I stayed in all day and have not ventured out. I am feeling a bit better but will continue to take some cold medicine I got from the doctor the last time I had a cold, it seems to be working. We will see how I feel in the morning.

Until later, remember Dreams Do Come True.