New Orleans..Day after Mardi Gras

So heres a few more pics of New Orleans...These pictures are taking only one day after Mardi Gras ended, note that Robert has to rest, little old man that he is...also take not that there are few to no people hangin around in the streets of the french quarter....when its over, its over...hard to believe it was just a complete sea of people the night before, hardly able to push your way through. The restaurant for lease, very tempting, but after lots of deliberation, decided we need more rest. Wheres my lawn chair!!

New Orleans

Yes, finally we have some pics and a little something to say about New Orleans and Mardi Gras.....It was great...mostly cause we made it out without getting shot, lol.  Note the pictures of Robert and I with beads...we look a little diswraught, (is that a word?), mainly because I was just finished being rescued from bourbon street by the dominoes pizza vendor....bloody scary way to find out about demophobia!!, and Robert thought i'd been abducted by the new orleans police, however, we managed to meet up a while later, still had a great time all in all....learned a little..we don't like catfish, and don't pay for parking during mardi gras season, cheaper to take a taxi from Texas into new orleans!!!

Gettin Tyred of this!!!

Well, imagine my suprise when we went to take down our bikes from the rack......Flat tyre....thought we was done with all that!!! Pardon me while we go find a mexican to NOT REPAIR OUR TYRE AND PAY FOR IT!!...Well good thing is, its only a bike tyre...easy to fix ourselves...and imagine our suprise when we found "slime" wonderfull little invention, a "never" go flat tube, ya right, but is worth a try. What a gorgeous day for a bike ride!!, a little thing our friends back home would love to do too, just replace the wheels with ski's and your all set....just had to get that in there.. heeeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee!!

---

Make your Messenger window look the way you want. Express Yourself!

Meet GPS Simon

Well, after much interviews and discussions we have made our decision.....Meet Senore Simon, GPS extrodinaire'!!  We had him do a practical, 1480 mile journey...he did very well, little nervous, couple little things, but he's British, so it takes a little time for him to adjust to North America.  He is currently on a Two month trial....stay tuned for exciting new adventures with GPS Simon!

It's with a heavy heart......

Well its been a number of months since we've had to fire anybody....actually i didn't think we had anybody in our employ to fire!!!!  However after having to do some reviewing of our travel status to present.......we have decided that we have been led down one too many wrong roads.....led to one to many dead ends.....misdirected once to many times....With another driving day coming we had to weigh our options.....and it is with a heavy heart we have made our decision to let "GPS Susan" go.....Heavy heart my ass....we fired her ass....she's hideous, laughing at our every wrong road, dead end, and flat tyre.....Well i say to "GPS Susan", TOODLE-LOO!!  Find yourself some other poor saps to lead astray, but no use no more!!  Without further adou, we have shortlisted candidates for the position.....the newbie shall be disclosed after second round of interviews and we check references.  You will be notified as soon as it is done...we must hurry though, we bug out on the 18th....gotta go!!!

THE OTHER FLAT!!

Off I go into the little town of Willis to get my other flat tyre fixed.....hoping that this place will be better than the last...but that doesn't take much.  Drove up, was barely out of the car and a clean, well mannered mexican chap, in a uniformed shirt to state he works there, greets me....OMG!!  I tell him my story of whoe, into the shop I drive....off comes the tyre, dunk tank, proper marking of the tyre, over to the machines, knows how to do and inside tyre repair, WONDERFULL.   Gets it all done, back on the car....charges me a whole 8 american pesos...cheaper than the last joint, and i did not have to do the tyre repair myself....I leave driving back to the motorhome stunned that the whole procedure went according to plan...well, i fully expect it to be flat in the morning...somethings gotta be wrong....i need a drink to numb the shock of it all!!!

Flat tires!!!

So everyone knows my background with Firestone some years ago...so everyone knows i've seen my fair share of flat tires, never bothered me....but of course they was never "MINE"!!  Imagine my surprise when i walk outside of the motorhome and walla....car is leaning...i know all too well that look.  I search back into my memory banks how to deal with this tragic situation....i tell myself not to panic, things go wrong when you panic.  Slowly memory recall sets in, and within hours i have the tire changed over to the spare.  Now the fun bit, lets find a tyre shop.....ask the campground host and go into town on his directions, all the while setting myself up for the big scam.  Drive into what looks like a wrecking yard, got greeted by pitbulls and a stray cat, after a while two mexicans come out of the trailer and ask if i need help, "yes" i say, keeping a cool demeanor.  They take the flat from me...put it on the tyre machine and remove the valve stem.....i know i'm in trouble.....i says to the younger chaloopa "ummm..shouldn't you find out where its leaking from first before takin it off the rim?"  "se", he puts the valve stem back in, gives it some air and dunks it in the tank......we see bubbles right away and he goes to remove the tire from the tank....."sir,i say, should'nt you check the whole tyre in case there is more than one hole?"...."se" says he....luckily only one hole...i'm very nervous.  Removes the tyre and stares at the tyre for a long time, next thing older chaloopa comes over, stares at the tyre as well.  Then turns to me and says....wait for it....."senore, tyre cannot be saved!".....OOOHHH REEEAALLLY!, says i!  Of course these little chaloopas do not know my background, the little hole is clearly repairable and i let them know it with lots of technical garb that i barely understand.  Both stare at me in disbelief....i ask them to repair it....please i say.  Young chaloopa reaches into a drawer, i'm ready to duck for cover in case its a gun, he draws out an old cord style repair device...i look at him and ask what he gonna do with that, he says he gonna stick my tyre with some gooiy cord and tyre be fixed, i say no no, patch from inside please...he say he no not how!!!  Older chaloopa says take some time and be more expensive, i say i don't care, but something tells me to move to a different tactic.  I go out on a limb and ask them if i can pay them and repair the tyre myself!!!??  What a dumb way of getting a tyre fixed, but i don't think they know how to repair a tyre properly....older chaloopa says yes go ahead senore.  Whoa..!!  okay i look around and everything i need is there, but on top shelve and very dusty, like never been used, so i start doing a tyre repair on my own tyre....George would be proud of me!!, what blew me away is the chaloopas wanted to watch and explain what i was doing every step....ohhh great, i pay to do my own tyre repair and have to give lesson at the same time.....welcome to southern states i say to myself, things are done a little backwards....but all is good, pay them for my job well done, $12.00 american pesos, and off i go.......fast forward four weeks later and i come out of the motorhome and look at the car....its leaning....no, not what you think....leaning the other way this time.......ohh god, here we go again......I guess i know what kinda work to look for when i get home.....TYRE REPAIR ANYBODY???

Susan GPS Bitch!!

So we drive away from cute little town of Brownsville and off to Rockport Texas. We love travel days...todays is, according to Susan, 5.5 hours of drive...great as we look forward to our little ritual of a Bologna sandwich about half way with a cup of tea, keeps up the driving stamina. We have been driving for only half and hour and i notice that Susan has re calculated our time down to three hours remaining...Robert suggests that we just keep going and forgo the "ritual" Sandwich this time, i concur...drive on we do. Great drive, George W. has loaded up the state with lots of dough and they have taken care of the roads very well...."prepare to bear right ahead" Susan says....i look down the road with my excellent bat like vision and notice that there are yellow signs on either side of the hiway, lots of them. The Eagle travels best at exactly 62mph, very quiet, comfy and very manueverable, as some of you will know from some time back. "prepare to bear right". Quickly i notice the freeway ends...yes ENDS AS IN STOPS...QUITS...NO MORE...ENDED PERMANENTLY...there is no "bearing" going on here....quickly with ninja like speed i flick on the jake brake, hit the allison 3000 touch pad transmission pad to gear down....hit the brake treadle with all my weight i can muster!!!, remember, no sandwich to keep my exacting strength up, slowly the Eagle seems to take forever, finally after what seems like hours, it comes down to a stop inches from disaster!! I look over at Robert, he says "well, bear right!!, HARD!!". I swing all 60 feet of metal to the right and head off down the road. "in 2 miles you have reached your destination"....driving....driving..."in 800 yards you have reached your destination"....driving, slowing, jake brake, braking, shifting down...."you have reached your destination!!"...i pull over and shut the Eagle down.....pppssshhht (air brake speak for "stopped"). I look over at Robert puzzled, he looks at me and says, "nice Airport"...i respond looking past him..."need propane, theres the fueling plant!". I quietly put down the window, reach for the bitch and go to heave her ass out the window...just as i reel back, Robert grabs her from my slippery grasp, saving Susan from certain death this time!!! He suggests we drive down the road and look the old fashioned way for the address we require....driving....driving.....2 miles down the road, behold, our campground.....thanks be to Alla!! Stay tuned, something gotta change with this Susan GPS GIRLY!! Which by the way, Robert has placed in protective custody until i settle down!!

BIG TEXAS

Well off to the big state of Texas...George Bush is Back home....and we both concur that money has been flowing in this big state, the roads here are the best we have encountered, we won't have to rescrew the motorhome back together after being shook to sh#@ after a long drive.  We are in Brownsville Texas...cute little town, close to south padre island, and home to a great little zoo. both of which there are pictures we have posted just a couple here.  The zoo is unbelievable, no high fences, all the animals are left fairly free...kinda gave us an uneasy feeling when we got to the lions and the rhinos, but they seem content to leave humans alone. Must also note that susan got us to Brownsville without much trouble, we seem to realize she likes straight little drives, with not alot of turns or changes of roads, the easy way out!!  Definite change in landscape, we have trees along with cactus and palm trees...lots of citrus trees all over, and papaya trees right behind our motorhome in the park, very nice...remember where theres fruit theres always LARGE creepy crawlies..oooohhh!  South padre island was fantastic, although still doing alot of rebuilding since hurrican ike rolled through, alot of business' still closed, and alot of buildings and houses getting roofs replaced.  We are also hoping that being winter time here, the cooler season, that more people will show up in next month or so.....very quiet, very very quiet...the merchants are a little worried! Got some wonderfull pictures of new up and coming higher end housing for sale on south padre island, we could get used to living here!

South Padre Island - Texas

What a wonderful little island, big long bridge to get there.....Robert calls it little miami.

Texas - Yahhoo!

The Zoo in Brownsville, small smattering of pics.

St.David Resort