New Orleans and East

The City of New Orleans

We drove across Texas as quickly as possible. We spent one night in Beaumont along the way. We chose a simple seafood restaurant for supper and were seated across from a large family of refugees from New Orleans. They were in town for a cheerleading competition. The grandfather was about our age. We started talking to them and found out that their house was destroyed along with their daughter's house and several rental houses. I asked him if he was retired and he responded, "I am now". His job was also destroyed. They are living with relatives while they try to rebuild one of the houses.

Many people had warned us not to try to get into the city with a RV. They said that there were no spaces. I took the campground directory and started calling. Several were full or were closed but I did find one that had one space. It was on Chef Highway, about 5 miles from the French Quarter.

The closer we got to New Orleans the worse the city looked. There were wrecked houses everywhere along with wrecked cars and mountains of trash.

The RV park we found was in a formerly middle-class area. It had been under 27 feet of water. The owner's house was flooded and then looted. Across from the park was a pile of trash crowned with a toilet.

Almost every house had a spray painted symbol indicating the date it was inspected and the number of dead people and animals. Almost every street light was not working. They were replaced by temporary stop signs. If all the people from the city returned traffic would be impossible. However, there were few people so the stop signs worked.

Electric still has not been restored to much of the city. Almost all the street lights are down.
The only area that is mostly normal is the French Quarter. There, most of the business are up and running.

The local government is now suggesting that about 5500 houses will need to be destroyed. I believe that the number is too low. I think at least half the houses must either be destroyed or at least gutted.

And the 2006 hurricane season is just four months away. There is no way that the city can be ready in time and they can only hope that the storms will miss them.

Moving East

Traveling East from New Orleans we came to Gulfport, MS where 95 percent of the buildings were destroyed. In Beloxie, MS about half were destroyed.

Destin, FL

We stopped in Pensacola, FL to pick up our mail from the forwarding service and continued to Destin, FL. A lovely town. We stayed at a wonderful campground on the beach for three nights and then drove to Ocala, Fl and stayed overnight at a Walmart parking lot.
The next day we drove to Tampa and had another treatment for ants and then spent a half day at the Lazydays RV dealership looking at larger RVs.

Sarasota, FL

Finally we got to Sarasota, FL where we had a reservation at the Sun N Fun RV park and met our friends who have a trailer and got there ahead of us.
We got to Sarasota on Feb 18 and will stay there until March 4.
-- Howard

The Texas Hills

Saturday, Feb 11, 2006.
We left Carlsbaad, NM on Friday and started our journey east. Raggles (our dog) had a very bad night. His breathing is getting worse. We were out of medicine for him but we had a perscriptiong from his vet in Maryland. The first Wallmart did not have the pill form. We moved on and at the second Wallmart, I accepted the liquid form. Big mistake. Giving it to him requires holding him down and using a seringe without a needle. Each time he struggles and we get more on ourselves and the RV than in the dog.

We took Rt. 285 from Carlsbad to Ft. Stockton, TX in order to reach I-10. This is very vacant country. We went miles without seeing a house or farm. We drove on I-10 to Keerville, TX and just had enough gas to get to the station. We are burning about 6 miles per gallon.
The Steer-Safe springs we put on the RV make a big difference. Drving is much easier. We do not get blown around as much by tractor-trailers and the wind. As a result we can drive for longer periods of time.

We found a Wallmart in Kerrville and spent the night in the parking lot along with five or six other RVs. Now we are heading east, hoping to get to Lafayette, LA tonight so we can dance to live Cajun music tonight. It will be about eight hours of driving.

This is Lyndon Johnson country.

The Cave

Feb 9,2006
I was last at Carlsbad Caverns in April, 1964. That was the last time I drove across the country. At that time I was in college and I was driving a VW bug. There was me, two other guys and all our luggage for six months. And we fit in a bug about 10 feet long. Now I am traveling with one other person in a 37 foot RV towing a full size SUV. Times change.

And the caverns have changed. In 1064 the caverns had lots of water. There were many active stalagtites and stagmites. Now it is mostly dry. In 1964 I walked into the caverns on a one-mile ramp. This time I took the elevator.

But the caverns were beautiful. Really amazing.

One the way back to the campsite we picked up take out food and ate in the RV. The air was cold and the sky was very clear.

The dog is having problems breathing.

The Hole Thing

Carlsbad, NM Feb 9

Throughout the trip we were having trouble with the steering. It required constant correction and two-handed driving on the Interstate. We heard about the SteerSafe system and were lucky enough that their headquarters was in Deming, NM. We made arrangements and arrived at their factory in the morning. The device consists of springs and attachments to the wheel and the frame of the RV. It made a huge difference! It is not like driving a sports car but it now is easy to drive in winds or on the Interstate.

We left Deming and drove to Silver City, a town at about 7,000 feet above sea level. It is a wonderful, authentic, town filled with galleries, coffee shops and small stores. Yes, they even have a WallMart. We stayed at a small campsite in the middle of town. During the night our water hose froze.

The dog has been having problems and wet the bed for two nights. We arranged to take him to a Vet in Las Cruces, our next stop.

We decided to drive from Silver City to Las Cruces over the mountains -- the scenic route. The road was twisting and steep. It was the kind of road you see in car commercials. There were very few cars on the road and almost no RVs. The Scenery was breath-taking. We stopped several times to see it and take pictures.

The air was perfectly clear. We were well above all the pollution and at times we were at 8,500 feet. That is about as high as I would fly in my plane, when I had it.

We got to Las Cruces in time to check into the campsite and get to the vet. Raggles did have a urinary infection. The vet gave us some pills and we think they are working.

We left Las Cruces yesterday and drove to Carlsbad through El Passo. El Passo is right next to the Mexican border and is very much a Mexican town. We ate lunch in an authentic Mexican restaurant and then drove and drove over the mountains through incredibly vacant land to Carlsbad. We got here in the dark but luckily before the office closed at the campsite. We had our mail forwarded to here and it included lots of bills. This morning I will do some bookkeeping and when we go visit the cave.

More later.

Heading East

Demming, NM, Feb 5, 2006

We are heading East on Rt. 10 between Tucson, AZ and Demming, NM. During the past two weeks we reached California and enjoyed a week in Malibu at a beautiful RV park located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We were able to park the RV with the front facing the ocean so we could see the Dolphins play. We visited with our son who lives in Beverly Hills and had great meals. We saw the Albert Brooks film, "Finding Comedy in the Muslim World". It had it good points and was funniest when it showed the Indian call centers handling US complaints.
After Malibu we traveled to Ojai, CA where I did a day and a half of consulting in return to room, board and free spa treatments. Helen was a secret shopper at the spa. We had a great meal and I played golf with my stepson. I celebrated my birthday while I was there.
We had to put the dog in a kennel while we were there because he tends to bark in a hotel room.
We picked up the dog and headed east. We stopped for two nights in Desert Hot Springs, CA (near Palm Springs) at a very modest RV campsite that had four natural hot springs. I can't tell you how relaxing it was to soak in hot water for an hour after driving through the Los Angles traffic.
We left Desert Hot Springs at 6am and headed East on I-10 in order to get to Phoenix,AZ in time for me to take an airplane to Albuquerque, NM. I had a training assignment there with a hotel and casino. On the way we stopped at Quartzite (one of our favorite towns) top buy a second salt lamp. This one for our son and daughter in law in New York, City. We had spent a night in Quartzite on the way west. It is a tent-town of perhaps 100,000 people in the winter. In the summer it probably has 1,000. The only permanent buildings are a church, a post office several gas stations and 2 or 3 restaurants. The rest are tents, temporary buildings and thousands upon thousands of trailers and RVs. The town started as a place for rock collectors to get together. Now it is also an RV Mecca. There are dozens of places to buy new and used RV parts and tools. There are several RV dealers there also. And there is dust everywhere.
On the way west we paid $5 for the privilege of parking in a hard dirt parking lot. That is all. Just dirt. We used our generator and our on-board water. Coming east we just stopped for a salt lamp. That is a lamp made out a lump of natural salt.

We made Phoenix on time on Feb 1 and after hooking up at the Desert's Edge RV Park, Helen drove me to the airport. I got the one-hour flight to Albuquerque, drove to the hotel and spent the night and taught the next day. Helen had the RV to herself. While I worked she went to the Herd museum, a museum dedicated to Native Americans.

I got back to Phoenix after teaching on Feb 2. I spent Friday running around Phoenix visiting clients and potential clients. I took the dog with me and he helped me make my visits. In the evening we had dinner at one of our consultant's home.

I was not feeling well on Saturday and staying around the RV and napped.
We are still bothered by ants. We finally gave up on over the counter poisons and called a professional exterminator. He came on Saturday and sprayed the RV. The idea is to speed the kind of poison that the workers will bring back to the queen. So far it has not worked and we intend to get another treatment in the next town.

So now we are on the road in a very vacant part of Arizona. Actually, it is only vacant of people. It is filled with desert life and mountains. In fact the mountains, particularly at twilight, are indeed purple just like the song says and they are majestic. The land rolls on forever. It is filled with low lying bushes and the dominant color is brown. It is start and it is beautiful. And it is dry. So dry that we have used a humidifier in the RV at night. Phoenix has not had any rain for 110 days and there is no rain in sight.

We have been on the road for five weeks now. We are adjusting to the life very well. It is very comfortable. The only problem is when we try to work on the two computers. It is a bother hooking up the printers and sometimes the wireless internet does not work as well as we would like. We saw a new, larger, diesel RV for sale in Tucson that had adequate office space. Maybe next year.

We are making our plans for our next RV trips: Alaska in the summer, Mexico in the winter and Nova Scotia in the fall. Not all in one year. Not year.