Category Archives: Alpine Coach

Hats Off to Hattiesburg Elks

We had a great weekend here at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi Elks Lodge. On Friday night, we went to the lodge for the steak dinner. It was interesting. They had a list of names for people that had made reservations. When we checked in, we were led to the kitchen where we found a large baggie with two 14-ounce rib eye steaks with our names on it. From there we took the baggie to a table that had a variety of marinades and seasonings. I seasoned our steaks and put them on another table to rest.

We went out on the patio to see what was happening. They had two large barbeque grills fired up with charcoal. A few guys were already grilling. After twenty minutes or so, I retrieved our steaks and put them on the grill. Utensils were provided and the fire was hot. I had the steaks done in no time. Back in the kitchen, they had plates and a table with tossed salad, dressings and also baked potatoes and butter, sour cream, bacon bits and grated cheese. We filled our plates and found a seat at a shared table in the ballroom. The people were all very friendly and we enjoyed the meal and company.

On Saturday morning, we got the Sea Eagle kayak out of the trailer and inflated it. Donna took it out for cruise around the lake. It was a little windy, but she didn’t have any problems.

Donna heading out on the lake

We’ve had a daily visitor since he welcomed us when we set up here. We call him Mr. Mallard. It’s a mallard drake that comes into our site and follows us around like a little puppy.

Mr. Mallard

On Saturday night, we grilled garlic and herb marinated chicken and dined al fresco at the picnic table. It was pleasant out. Donna served it with zucchini that Jamie gave us fresh from the garden when we were in Texas. Donna also made wild pecan rice from Konriko in New Iberia.

Garlic and herb chicken with grilled zucchini and rice

After dinner I sat in a camp chair on the bank of the lake with a glass of Scotch and a cigar while Donna paddled the kayak on the glass smooth lake. After Donna came in from her paddle we sat outside past sunset. We saw a large snake swim out of the cove by our site and cross in front of us. I can’t be 100% certain since it wasn’t light enough to get a real good look, but I think it was a venomous water moccasin. I say that because it had a thick body that was mostly above the surface of the water as it swam. This is a difference between a venomous water moccasin and a harmless water snake – water snakes only have their head above water, the body is submerged.

Glassy lake in the evening

Earlier in the afternoon Donna went to the pool. While she was doing that, I rode the Spyder to a little store about a mile away and bought worms for fishing. I drowned a few worms and caught three small panfish – bluegills. They were too small for eating so I released them.

Sunday was more of the same. The temperature reached 90 degrees both days, but with the shade in our site and the breeze blowing across the lake it felt cooler.

Several rigs pulled into the park and set up over the weekend. Most of the people didn’t stay though. They set up their trailers, then drove off in their trucks. Lodge members can rent a site for $5/day and we were told that many people claim a site early so they can have their preferred spot for Memorial Day weekend. It’s all first-come-first-served.

Mr. Mallard didn’t make his usual appearance yesterday. I’m guessing one of the new arrivals gave him some food, so he’s hanging out somewhere else.

Today the forecast calls for record high temperature – 96 degrees. We may have a thundershower in the evening. Tomorrow looks to be hot as well. We planned to leave tomorrow and head into Alabama, but we may have to extend for a day. I’m waiting on a delivery at the post office. I’ve been tracking it and if it doesn’t arrive in time today, I’ll have to go into town tomorrow to pick it up.

From the River to the Lake

Tuesday was hot and humid in Baton Rouge. The temperature reached 92 degrees and the humidity was heavy. Donna went out in the morning for a bike ride. She took her hybrid knock-around bike on the Mississippi River levee trail. Here are some photos she took on her ride.

I-10 spanning the mighty Mississippi

Casino parking – notice the high water level on the left

Casino on the river

USS Kidd – a floating Veterans Memorial and museum

Raising Cane’s River Center Arena

Opposing statues – two of 22 cast iron and aluminum statues scattered in the downtown area

Baton Rouge is spelled out in large red letters on the levee

After Donna’s bike ride, we rode the Spyder to Garden District Coffee. We needed coffee beans and wanted to try some locally roasted coffee. This shop is definitely boutique and buying coffee from them was a splurge. We bought a pound of the coffee used in the porter Donna tried yesterday at Tin Roof Brewery – Italian/Espresso – and a pound of Ethiopian Sidamo.

Then we made a stop at Trader Joe’s to stock up on produce. Our refrigerator is fairly full, but we can always use fresh fruit and vegetables. We don’t know how accessible a good grocery store will be at our next stop.

By the time we finished running our errands and dealing with Baton Rouge traffic, the heat was taking a toll on us. We spent the rest of the afternoon indoors enjoying air conditioning and a bit of solitude. We didn’t make it to the Old State Capitol. When it cooled down in the evening, we enjoyed sitting outside and watching the horses. The workers at the center put the horses in the stables at night and let them out in the pasture in the mornings.

Horses in the pasture by our site

In the morning on Wednesday, Donna went out for a run in the neighborhood by the BREC Farr Equestrain Center while I packed up the chairs and loaded the Spyder. We weren’t in any hurry but we hit the road at 10:15am. I had the generator running and the front roof air conditioner on while we traveled.

The drive through Baton Rouge to I-12 wasn’t fun. The roads are narrow and in terrible shape. The interstate through the metro area is bumpy and erratic drivers are everywhere. Once we got away from the city on I-12 east, the road surface improved and the traffic settled down. We made a stop at the Pilot/Flying J Travel Center in Hammond. Donna bought a couple of Arby’s roast beef sandwiches while I pumped $160 worth of diesel to top up our tank. We rarely eat fast food other than an occasional  Subway Sandwich or a taco, but the Arby’s was convenient and it hit the spot.

Our destination was the Elk’s Lodge near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This was our first time in Mississippi. I was surprised at the number of pine trees lining the interstate. I was expecting to see cotton fields. Our original plan was to exit the interstate at Covington and take state highways. We changed the plan on the fly. The road surface was good and the driving easy, so we followed I-12 to I-59.

We had to drive for about 8 miles on narrow county roads to the find the Elk’s Lodge. The lodge is located on an amazing property – I’ve never seen a lodge like it. They have 1400 acres of land and a lake – Elk’s Lake – behind the lodge. They have 50 RV sites available for Elk’s members with fresh water and 50 amp electrical service for $10/night! Many of the sites are on the waterfront.

The area around the lake is forest with many tall pine trees. Maneuvering our rig in the park was difficult. I had to get us turned around in a limited space to drop the trailer and back into our site. It took patience, but it was worth it.

Our site on the lake

There’s a little cove to the left of our site

Donna’s looking forward to hiking in the area and getting the kayak in the water. Tonight the lodge has a special steak dinner – we put our reservations in. The forecast calls for a high of 92 today. The hot temperatures will continue through the weekend – but the lodge has an Olympic size pool that will open tomorrow! I need to run a couple of errands and may take the Spyder into town today.

 

Spoonbills, Alligators and Horses

We jumped on the Spyder Monday and headed east from Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville on highway 14 past Delcambre. Our destination  was Rip Van Winkle’s Gardens. We weren’t that interested in touring the gardens – our intention was to visit the rookery to see the birds and look for alligators.

Click to enlarge

The rookery is a favored nesting ground for roseate spoonbills, ibis and egrets. The birds congregate on the three islands in the pond created by water recycled from the gardens. They prefer to nest in islands where alligators keep snakes, raccoons and other predators away from their eggs.

A little hard to see, but these trees are full of birds

Donna and I walked the path around the pond – it’s about three quarters of a mile around. As we reached the far side of the pond, something thrashed in the water. There it was – an alligator – eyes and head popped up looking at us. Then I saw a much larger ‘gator swimming in the channel between two of the islands.

We continued our walk and met a woman from Baton Rouge who was visiting the area and photographing the birds. She warned us about taking I-10 into Baton Rouge. She told us there was construction before the bridge into Baton Rouge taking the interstate down to one lane. She said there are crashes reported on a regular basis as an inattentive driver slams into the suddenly stopped traffic. It’s always nice to have local knowledge – we planned to avoid the I-10 bridge over the Mississippi.

As we made our way around the pond, we heard a sound. It was almost like someone snoring. We moved slowly toward the sound. The sound stopped. A few more steps and there he was – an alligator just a couple of feet from the shore. I estimated him to be between five and six feet long.

Alligator snoozing

He didn’t pay any attention to us and only opened his eyes a couple of times.

Zzzzz

We rode into Rip Van Winkle Gardens to visit the gift shop and look around. We found several peacocks and hens by the gift shop.

Peacocks and hens

Peacock in a tree

Donna bought a couple of items and we headed home. I got busy stowing things in the trailer and getting us ready to move. We had our final Betty’s Famous Happy hour – until next time. The name Betty’s Famous Happy Hour comes from an app called Untapped. On this app, people check in and rate the beer they’re drinking. Someone checked in and put their location as Betty’s Famous Happy Hour! So now, if you open the Untapped app at Betty’s, you can check in and it’ll give that name for the location.

On Tuesday morning, I finished making us ready for travel. I moved slowly as it was hot and very humid. I kept the air conditioners running until the last moment before I unplugged from the 50-amp pedestal. Once I had the trailer hooked up, I started the generator and turned on the front roof air conditioner for the drive to Baton Rouge.

We took a roundabout route that took us up US167 to Lafayette and up to Opalousas where we hit US190 east. The road surfaces were atrocious, but I figured I-10 probably wasn’t much better and we would cross the mighty Mississippi into Baton Rouge on the US190 bridge avoiding I-10 altogether.

The drive through Lafayette and Baton Rouge wasn’t much fun, but metro areas never are in a big rig. We found our way to the BREC Farr Park Equestrian Center. This is a large park on the east bank of the Mississippi River. They have 108 RV sites with water and 50-amp electrical pedestals. We squeezed our coach and trailer into site A4 – a pull through site – and left the trailer a little crooked to make us fit without hanging into the road.

Site A4 – a tight fit

After setting up and showering, Donna and I rode the Spyder to town. We went to Tin Roof Brewing for a cold one. It’s about five miles away from the park. Donna had a beer called River Rosé – it’s a mild ale like a Gose but it was brewed with beets. She liked it and said it was refreshing.

River Rosé

On the way back, I rode up on the levee of the Mississippi. We saw a large tow of 28 barges behind a couple of freighters. I wrote about barge tows here. The river is very high right now and there are flood warnings in effect. The levee here is so high, I don’t think we have any worries.

Barge tow behind the freighters

Later, we sat in the shade of the coach. I puffed a cigar and we watched a group of girls riding horses.

Girls horseback riding

It was very quiet and peaceful last night. However, Ozark the cat didn’t let us enjoy a restful night. For some reason, the cat kept waking us up. This morning, I thought I could hear a rooster crowing. When I stepped outside at 6:30am, it turned out to be a horse whinnying. He was kicking up dust prancing around the pasture and making a racket.

Feeling his oats and kicking up dust

Today will be another hot one. The forecast calls for a high of 90 degrees. Donna and I want to explore a bit and go to the Old State Capital Museum. Tomorrow we’ll head out and make our way to Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Tail Lights and Cajuns

Saturday was Cinco de Mayo. It also happened to be our wedding anniversary – Donna and I were married on the fifth day of May, 2006. We usually go out to dinner to celebrate – this year we celebrated with dinner at Shuck’s – The Louisiana Seafood House – a day early on Friday evening.

We both started with a cup of seafood gumbo, followed by a crab cake plate made with locally caught blue crab. Donna had hers house style, served with a dill sauce over the cake. I had mine smothered with crawfish etoufee. Crawfish etoufee is a Cajun dish  with crawfish meat in a gravy-like sauce. It was delicious. I had a bottle of Abita Amber beer to go with it. It was a rich and very filling meal!

The forecast called for thundershowers on Saturday. I started the day by changing the tail light housings on our coach. I found replacement parts on Amazon and they arrived on Friday. The tail lights used by Western RV on our Alpine Coach were original equipment on a Ford Econoline van from the 1990s. Our tail lights were hazy and had cracks in the lenses where someone previously over-tightened the mounting screws. The replacements I bought were made in Taiwan and are an exact copy of the originals. Installation was easy. First I removed the four tail light housing mounting screws, then gave each bulb holder a quarter turn to release them.

Tail light housing removed and bulb holders hanging from the harness

When I first fitted the new housing, it wouldn’t fit flush. Then I noticed they had extra mounting points. There were four holes that lined up perfectly with the originals, but there were also two stand-offs molded in the plastic back plate that interfered with the body of our coach. Apparently they use a one-size-fits-all back plate on the housing and these extra points are for another application. I snipped them off with side cutters and the housings fit perfectly.

The new tail lights look much better. Along with the headlights I replaced in Mesa, we’re looking sharp on all four corners!

Old tail light

New tail light

I tracked the storm front in the forecast on the Radar Express app on my phone and it looked like it would stay to the north of us. Betty mentioned a farmers’ market in Delcambre, about 10 miles away. I looked it up and we decided to check it out. We’re finding Louisiana to be interesting – it’s culture is unique.

Delcambre farmers’ market at Bayou Carlin Cove

This market is seasonal and only open on the first weekend of each month. When we arrived at the farmers’ market at the Bayou Carlin Cove, I knew we were in for a treat. This was the first farmers’ market we’ve been to that had shrimp boats tied up to the dock selling fresh caught shrimp.

Shrimp boat

The locals came to the market prepared – many had coolers with ice to pack the fresh shrimp and crayfish for sale. We walked through the vendor area and sampled food and sauces. The owner of Brasseaux’s Hardware in Abbeville had a Traeger demo set up and gave us free pulled pork sliders! Another vendor had Creole tamales and gave us one for a sample. Creole tamales are different than the usual – these had pork and beef ground very fine to about the same consistency of the corn meal used and it’s all mixed together. They were delicious and we bought half a dozen. Donna also bought a jar of persimmon pepper jelly – another food new to us.

At another vendor, I saw a guy shucking fresh oysters. The woman there put a little olive oil and garlic on the oyster on the half shell, added shredded parmesan and then put them on the grill. Donna bought a plate with half a dozen oysters. I’m not much of an oyster eater, but after trying one, I had to have another! At the next table two ladies were mixing up Bloody Marys – we each had one with the oysters and they were the spiciest Bloody Marys ever.

Char-grilled oysters

We came home around noon, then headed out in the other direction toward Maurice a little after 1pm. Our destination was Touchet’s Bar – the locals call it Two-checks. They had a Cajun jam session starting at 2pm. It was a fun time. We sat back and I had a beer while Donna sipped a Bloody Mary. The people were all so friendly and the music was good. I couldn’t understand half of the lyrics as they sang in a mixture of English and French patois. Actually I had a hard time understanding the dialect spoken by some of the people at the bar.

Cajun jam session

Last night we sat at Betty’s famous happy hour and everyone planned a potluck brunch for today and fish dinner for this afternoon. One of the guys here, Mike, caught a bunch of redfish and our neighbor Daniel volunteered to grill 10 pounds of fresh fish filets! Yum!

Potluck brunch this morning

The forecast calls for abundant sunshine today and a high in the mid-80s. Tomorrow will be slightly warmer. I’ll need to prepare for the road tomorrow. We’ll head out on Tuesday and probably make our next stop in Baton Rouge.

 

Tabasco and Rice

Yesterday Donna and I headed out on the Spyder. We left Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana around 9:30am and rode to Avery Island outside of New Iberia. The route took us out LA14 through Delcambre – which I’m told is pronouned Dell-come by the locals, rhymes with welcome. Seems like a lot of letters to spell Delcome and it’s certainly not the French pronunciation you might expect.

Anyway, the shortest route from Abbeville to Avery Island took us through a lot of turns on narrow parish roads, but we found our way. Our destination was the McIhenny Company’s Tabasco plant for a tour of the facility where they make the iconic Tabasco hot sauce. I’ve been a Tabasco user for nearly 50 years.

A self-guided tour of the plant costs $5.50 for adults – military discounts are given. The walking tour starts in a small museum and takes you through five different buildings to observe the process of making the sauce – from growing the peppers to shipping the product.

Sign on the walkway to building two

We saw a small greenhouse with a variety of pepper plants. Tabasco peppers are a variety of chili pepper – capsicum frutescens.

Tabasco peppers

Habanero peppers

Jalapeno peppers

The peppers are picked by hand. The pickers compare the color of the pepper to the color of a red stick they carry to ensure uniform ripeness.

The peppers are crushed and put into oak barrels. The barrels are used whiskey barrels that are re-purposed. The coopers at McIhenny scrape the charred interior of the barrel to expose clean oak, then they remove the iron bands and replace them with stainless steel bands. The crushed peppers with a little salt added are put into the barrels to age for three years. The tops of the barrels are covered in salt to prevent bacteria from entering. By the way – Avery Island is a salt dome! The air was heavy with a pungent odor at the barrel aging buildings.

Freshly filled barrels ready for aging

After about three years, the contents of each barrel is tasted. If approved, it goes to the next step where seeds and skins are removed. Then the contents are put into a large vat where it is blended with pure distilled vinegar for two to three weeks. The hot sauce aroma was evident in the blending building.

Blending vats

The bottling process was similar to what we’ve seen in beer breweries. It’s mostly automated, but people are on station to operate the machinery and provide quality control. Once the bottles are filled, a digital camera reads the bottle to ensure it’s filled to the proper level before capping.

Filling bottles

Checking and capping

Labelled and ready for packing

They had an electronic counter with a digital display showing the number of bottles produced. At 11am, it was over 184,000 for the day and quickly counting upwards.

Donna peeking around a giant Tabasco display bottle

At the end of the tour, we visited the gift store where we sampled jalapeno ice cream. Donna bought a bottle of the standard red Tabasco and a bottle of the green sauce for $2 each.  You can buy Tabasco sauce by the gallon at the store here! The self-guided tour had a number of informational kiosks and video presentations. I thought it was worth the time.

We skipped the driving tour of the Avery Island gardens and headed into New Iberia for lunch. A cafe was recommended by Betty – the Bon Creole Cafe. She told us they had the best shrimp Po’ Boys around. A Po’ Boy is a Louisiana standard – it’s a sandwich made of a hoagie roll stuffed with fried seafood – usually shrimp, crawfish or oysters. It can be made with beef as well. We ordered a full shrimp Po’ Boy and split it. It was more than enough for two people. I added a couple of dashes of Tabasco to mine.

Shrimp Po’ Boy with lettuce, tomato and sauce

It was short ride from there to the Conrad Rice Mill – the oldest independently owned rice mill still in operation in the U.S. It was built by Phillip Conrad in 1912. He named his company Konriko (Conrad Rice Company with Ks substituting the Cs for trademark purposes).

The leading rice producing states in the country are Arkansas followed by California, Louisiana and Texas. The mill wasn’t operating Thursday afternoon so we skipped the guided tour and just watched a video and did some shopping instead. Konriko also owns the brand Hol-Grain which makes a line of crackers. Donna loves them and bought a box of their brown rice crackers. Did you know that brown rice and white rice are the same thing, just processed differently? Brown rice has the hull with bran intact while white rice has the hull and bran polished off. Donna also bought a couple of pounds of wild pecan rice.

Donna’s spoils from the day out

It’s been warm, humid and windy here. Today the forecast calls for a high in the mid 80s. As I type this at 9am, it’s 73 degrees with 93% humidity. We’re debating our weekend plans. We’re hoping to go to the crawfish festival in Breaux Bridge.

Hello Betty

We hit the road Monday morning a little later than I intended. By the time we had the trailer hitched up and rolled out on to the highway, it was 9:40am. Our route took us from Aransas Pass up TX35 to Angleton where we hit TX288 north to Houston. This was a familiar route as we came this way in 2015. There was plenty of water along the way in the creeks and lakes, but the fields weren’t flooded like they were in 2015.

We made a stop in a Walmart parking lot in Bay City before we reached TX288. I walked over to Subway and bought a sandwich for lunch while Donna made a salad for herself back in the coach.

TX288 took us to I-610 – a loop around Houston that ostensibly avoids the traffic crossing the city. In fact, I-610 is just as congested as any other portion of interstate through a large city. There were construction zones and sections of rough pavement. Once we hit I-10 east and headed away from Houston, the pavement was rough for several miles. Eventually the road surface improved and the traffic thinned out.

We drove through a swarm of bugs – there were so many of them hitting the windshield, it sounded like large raindrops were falling. I don’t know what kind of insect they were, but they were all over the front of the coach.

We hit a swarm of these

We made our second stop at the Pilot/Flying J travel center in Baytown and topped up the tank with $203 worth of diesel fuel. Donna found a free overnight boondocking spot at a county park in Winnie, Texas. This park is where they hold the Texas Rice Festival and they have dozens of RV sites with 20 amp electrical outlets. The electricity was turned off so we didn’t bother with the RV sites and parked on level pavement outside of the livestock area. The place was deserted when we arrived a little before 4pm.

Level dry camp

In many of the photos, our coach looks like a low rider. That’s because I dump the air from the suspension, lowering the coach before I put the jacks down. The ride height going down the road is four or five inches higher.

We took a walk to town a few blocks away. By the time we were heading out, several people had come to the park. A couple of families were having a picnic dinner near the children’s play area and several other people were walking laps of the park for exercise.

A block away from the park we saw a sign that said “The Secret Garden” and another sign that said,

“The kiss of sun for pardon

The song of birds for mirth

One is nearer god’s heart in a garden

Than anywhere on earth”

Secret Garden

We couldn’t figure out what it was all about. It looked to be someone’s backyard garden.

When we came back to the coach, Donna heated up a cowboy casserole she had made the day before with leftover cornbread, chicken and vegetables that was very tasty. We ate outside and after dinner, I lit up a cigar. Jamie and Francisco gifted me with a bundle of four cigars they bought at the Texas Sand Fest. Although I said I wouldn’t make a habit of cigar smoking, it’s quickly becoming a habit. Two other smaller rigs pulled into the park and spent the night. It was mostly quiet and I wouldn’t hesitate to spend a night there again.

Donna walked over to Burrito Express in the morning and picked up two breakfast burritos that were excellent and very filling. We got back on the road at 9am. The wind was blowing from the southeast, but it wasn’t too bad. I wanted to follow a route down through McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge and Sea Rim State Park, but Nally – our Rand McNally RV specific GPS wouldn’t route us that way, even when I put way points in. I took that to mean the road wasn’t suitable – maybe a low overpass or weight limited bridges. So we headed east on TX73 through Port Arthur and Bridge City.

There are huge refineries there and waterways from the Gulf through Sabine Lake for ships to offload at the refineries. To cross these waterways, the road had high – I mean very high – and steep bridges. These bridges allow clearance for the tankers to come through. I was happy to have mostly a tailwind over these high bridges – a strong crosswind would not have been fun.

When we got back on I-10 about five miles from the Louisiana border, we hit what has to be the worst stretch of Interstate pavement anywhere. It was ridiculous. After we crossed the Sabine River and entered Louisiana, the road surface improved. Although Donna and I both have been to New Orleans several times, this was our first trip to the state in our motorhome. We left the Interstate near Crowley (The Rice Capital of America) and took a series of county roads – narrow and often rough – to our final destination at Betty’s RV Park.

We booked a week at Betty’s based on a recommendation from our friends John and Sharon Hinton. Our friends Brett and Cheri also stayed here. John send us a message a while back telling me the park might be tight for a rig our size. I looked at it on Google earth and saw what he meant.

We were feeling some trepidation as we rolled through the narrow streets of Abbeville and saw narrow driveways on several properties. When we pulled off of State Street at the park entrance, we were relieved to see that parking would be a piece of cake. Betty had a spot picked out for our trailer and it was easily accessible. After dropping the trailer, I made a loop of the small park out onto the street again and re-entered to back into site #4.

Parking spot for our trailer

Site four

The park is small – maybe a few acres with 17 sites. The attraction here is Betty, the owner, and her daily happy hour potluck gathering. Everyone meets at a covered patio area at 4:30pm to share hors d’oeuvres and stories over their beverage of choice.

Happy hour potluck patio

I’m not the most gregarious person, but in a park this small, getting together with neighbors is inevitable and Betty makes it fun. We’ll be here for a week and plan to explore the area.

We’re at an elevation of 30 feet above sea level. The weather is warm – highs around 80 and very humid. Looks like thundershowers may arrive by the weekend. I hope there isn’t too much rain as we want to attend the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival!

Castles Made of Sand

Wow, our time here at Aransas Pass has flown by. On Saturday morning, Donna and I rode the Spyder to Rockport for more pickleball. The games there are loosely organized. There were about 10 of us on the courts by the high school with various skill levels represented. We had fun and got a couple of hours of play time.

Francisco came back from his delivery run to North Carolina Saturday morning. In the afternoon he and my daughter, Jamie, and his son Trey along with Francisco’s sister Ruby came to the RV park to pick us up. We were headed over the Redfish Bay causeway to Port Aransas on Mustang Island. To get there we crossed a couple of bridges on the causeway, then had to take a short ferry ride. We were going to Port Aransas for the Texas Sand Fest – a beach sand sculpture event.

The Sand Fest draws a huge crowd to the beach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We waited in line over 45 minutes to get on the free ferry. They had four or five ferries running to accommodate all of the traffic. The ferry boats are fairly small – the one we took only held about 15 vehicles. They’re nothing like the ferries found on Puget Sound in Washington.

View across Humble Basin toward Roberts Point Park in Port Aransas

Ferry boat departing behind us while another one loads at the dock

Oil rigs and a tanker near the ferry dock

There were three large oil rigs near the dock. We think they were towed there for maintenance work. A large tanker ship passed through the narrow basin where the ferry boats crossed.

We found our way to the Beach Road on the southeast coast of the island. The Beach Road is an unpaved one-way thoroughfare on the sand. The sand on Mustang Island is very fine and seems to have clay – I couldn’t find any information to confirm this. But the sand on the road was packed solidly and had fine particles of dust along with the sand. I think this would make the sand ideal for sand sculptures as it sticks together when moistened.

The area of the beach where the sculptures were being made was fenced off with temporary chain-link fencing. Entry costs $10/person. There was a vendor strip with food and goods and a beer tent. Many of the Master’s Class sculptures were cordoned off with yellow or orange tape and many of them were still being worked on late Saturday afternoon. Here are some of the sculptures I was able to take photos of.

Entrance to the sculpture area with sponsor acknowledgements

Detailed eyes on this dog

Artist still at work

How were they able to do the top of this sculpture?

There was an anatomically detailed heart in the split of this bust

Another tall one

One for all the cat people

We spent a few hours admiring the artwork and browsing the vendors. Between pickleball in the morning and walking the beach in the afternoon, I had well over 12,000 steps for the day. The ferry ride back was just as crowded with quite a traffic tie-up. We were on a larger ferry boat this time, but still nothing like the ferry boats in Washington.

Ruby, Trey, Donna, Jamie and Francisco at Port Aransas beach – that’s a sand tower in the background

On Sunday morning, I watched another crazy Formula 1 race from Azerbaijan where the two Red Bull teammates spent the race racing against each other, eventually taking both cars out!

Then I got busy. I had noticed a few drops of oil under our generator. A quick inspection revealed a loose oil filter – I tightened it. This is the second time it’s happened. When I change the oil, I’ll have to inspect the filter flange. I suspect that the O-ring from an old filter may have stuck to the flange. This creates a double O-ring situation when the new filter is put on. I usually inspect the filter every time I remove it to make sure the O-ring came off with it, but the last time I changed the oil and filter on the generator, we were in Nebraska and I was recovering from a virus. I may have neglected to check it – the only way to know is to pull the filter.

I also checked tire pressures on all 10 tires – six on the coach and four on the trailer. Then I cleaned the Weber Q and Traeger, relined them with foil and packed them in the trailer. I cleaned our battery bay and batteries with baking soda solution and filled the 6-volt lead acid batteries with distilled water. Phew!

By the time I showered and changed clothes at 2pm, Jamie and Francisco had arrived. We went to Redfish Willies Waterfront Grill for a late lunch/early dinner. Donna and I both had the blackened redfish plate – it was delicious. Jamie had the blackened salmon special with pineapple pico de gallo and Francisco went for the bleu fish sandwich. The food was good and we enjoyed a panoramic view of the marina.

Me and Jamie by the marina at Redfish WIllie’s

Tomorrow morning, I only have a few chores to make us ready to roll on toward Louisiana. There’s a 15% chance of showers by noon, but we should be well on our way and heading away from the weather. It looks like we’ll see a high in the upper 70s. Our plan – if you can call it that – is to travel about 200 miles or so and find a place to boondock overnight. Then we’ll head to Abbeville, Louisiana where we have reservations at Betty’s RV Park.

Are You Overweight?

Someone posted a question on an RV Facebook group yesterday asking how to determine the carrying capacity of their RV. Weight ratings can be a bit confusing at first glance. You need to understand a few of the terms first.

You must know the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) – this is the maximum amount of weight the vehicle can support. There should be a placard in the RV that lists the GVWR. Next you need to know the unladen or dry weight. I learned that RVs produced after 2009 have standardized the unladen weight to include fluids and propane except for the fresh water tank. Before 2009, dry weight may or may not include propane or other fluids – refer to the placard.

Weight placard in our Alpine Coach

Our placard shows a GVWR of 31,000 lbs. It also lists the unladen weight plus calculations for water, propane and passengers to find the carrying capacity for our household goods. Another important weight rating is Gross Combination Weight Rating (GCWR). This rating shows how much total weight the vehicle can handle when towing. The GVWR cannot be exceeded – tongue weight of a trailer, for example, will add to the vehicle weight. Our GCWR is 41,000 lbs – we can tow up to 10,000 lbs as long as we don’t exceed the GVWR of 31,000 lbs. The GVWR can never be safely exceeded.

I weighed our fully loaded rig after we bought it. When we bought the new, larger trailer and the Can Am Spyder, I had the rig weighed again. Another important consideration is maximum axle weight. Our 31,000 lb GVWR breaks down into 12,000 lbs on the front axle and 19,000 lbs on the rear axle. When I had our rig weighed I got the axle weights and the trailer weight. The tongue weight of the trailer is included in the axle weight. We’re near our rear axle limit but under the GVWR and our trailer axle weight is well below the trailer rating of 7,000 lbs. Our total weight is 35,000 lbs – well below the GCWR of 41,000 lbs. When I weighed our rig, I had the fresh water tank full and the fuel tank full to give me the actual weight when we’re fully loaded.

My advice is to locate your rig’s weight placard and get your rig weighed. Lots of bad things can occur if your vehicle is overweight, including poor handling, broken axle and/or suspension, and tire failure. Be safe out there!

The main reason we came to the Gulf Coast of Texas was to visit with my middle daughter Jamie and her family. She has four stepchildren and lives near Corpus Christi. Jamie came by on Wednesday evening to visit and we planned to have dinner together on Thursday. Her man, Francisco, is a trucker and is away this week hauling goods to the East Coast.

Donna bought two whole roaster chickens and I prepared them by cutting out the back bones and cracking the breast plates to cook them spatchcock style. I seasoned them with Sweet Rub O’Mine and roasted them on the Traeger wood pellet smoker/grill. I did it differently this time.

One of the issues I had with spatchcock chicken on the Traeger in the past was not getting the skin crispy enough. It can come out a bit rubbery. This time I started the chickens at a fairly low temperature – the setting was at 300 degrees and the pit temperature was about 270 degrees. After 45 minutes, I raised the setting to 350 degrees. Then, 15 minutes later I raised it to the maximum setting bringing the pit temperature up to about 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

That did the trick. The skin was golden brown and crisp. The meat was tender and moist. I think I’ve got this figured out now.

L to R – Trey, Donna, Jamie, Rayleen, Ariana and Jennalee

Donna made sides of southern fried cabbage with bacon and whipped sweet potato. After dinner, Donna and the kids enjoyed a cup of Rocky Road ice cream while I sipped a dram of scotch and puffed a cigar. I think the last time I lit a cigar was more than 35 years ago when my first daughter, Alana, was born. When we were in San Diego, my friend Tim Witucky gave me a few empty cigar boxes for storing odds and ends – Tim’s a cigar aficionado. It turned out that one the boxes still had a cigar sealed in a wrapper in it. I decided to try it out.

I don’t think I’ll make a habit out of it, but I might like to puff one occasionally.

The weather has been mostly agreeable here in Aransas Pass. We had a passing shower Wednesday night, but not the thunderstorm that was predicted. Yesterday was cooler with the thermometer only reaching the low 70s. Wind is fairly constant coming off of the water to the east, making it feel cooler at times. The forecast calls for the low 80s through the weekend. I can take that!

Rockport Rebuilding

As we approached the Gulf Coast region of Texas on Monday, we saw lingering signs of the damaged caused last August by Hurricane Harvey. We didn’t plan on coming here originally, thinking the area had been devastated and probably wasn’t fully operational. Rockport, Texas suffered a direct hit from Harvey with sustained winds of 130 mph on August 24th – just eight months ago.

We learned online that many of the RV parks were operational here and tourism was returning to normal. Northwest of our current location in Aransas Pass – just 11 miles south of Rockport – we saw many houses in rural areas with the roofs or porches missing. I saw a number of what I presumed to be FEMA trailers set up next to damaged homes.

Once we reached town, things were looking good. Many construction projects are ongoing, but so much has already been repaired. The damage from Harvey was estimated to be 125 billion dollars – the equal of Hurricane Katrina. The recovery here seems much quicker than what happened in New Orleans though.

Apartments being rebuilt outside of Ransom Road RV Park

I puttered around Tuesday. I cleaned the bugs off of the windshield, then washed the windshield cover and installed it. In the late afternoon, Donna and I walked to the marina next to the RV park and had a cold one at Mickey’s Bar and Grill.

I grilled ribeye steaks on the Weber Q for dinner and Donna served it with baked potatoes and steamed green beans.

Level, paved site 124

This morning, we rode the Spyder to Rockport for pickleball at the Rockport-Fulton High School. About a dozen players showed up – just right as we had three courts to play on. Rockport is a little more upscale than Aransas Pass. They’ve done a great job of rebuilding there also. We were told the fences around the tennis/pickleball courts were just finished a month ago. The community center where Donna went swimming when we were here in 2015 doesn’t seem to be worse for wear – I’m sure a lot work went into it though.

One of our favorite grocery stores is the H-E-B chain in Texas. The store in Aransas Pass was a little disappointing though – they didn’t have butchers on site like they do in Rockport. After pickleball, we stopped at the H-E-B in Rockport and were pleased to find the jalapeno salmon burger patties they make there – we really enjoyed them the last time we were here. Donna bought four – I’ll grill a couple in the next day or two and we’ll freeze a couple for later consumption.

The weather forecast deteriorated – now they say a thunderstorm will come in later this evening. The rest of the week still looks good with temperatures reaching the upper 70s. You never know around here – it can change quickly.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Hydraulic Miracle

The weekend of racing at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas was pretty much as expected. We watched the bikes scream around the road racing course and walked through the vendor areas in between sessions, shopping and people watching. I’ve been involved in motorcycle road racing both as a racer and crew chief at the club level in the past. I’ve been attending international level races – World Superbike and Moto GP for a few decades.

Donna and I went to our first Moto GP together in 2006. We were newly married and she had a freshly minted motorcycle license when we loaded up our bikes with our gear and rode from our home in Mesa, Arizona to Monterey, California for the Moto GP event at Laguna Seca. We made this an annual exercise and Donna became used to traveling light with two weeks worth of clothing in her saddlebags.

When we moved to Michigan, the USA Moto GP event changed venues and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. Perfect. We rode from Rochester Hills, Michigan to Indianapolis to attend. We made our last trek to watch Moto GP in 2012 – so this is our first event in six years. As always, we had a good time. I’m more into the racing than Donna, but she supports me and I think she likes the people watching as much as the racing.

We had great seats with a view of the back straight where the Moto GP bikes were hitting speeds over 200 mph before braking hard to enter turn 12 in first gear at about 40-50 mph. Then they had a series of 180-degree turns through 13, 14 and 15 – the slowest corner – before accelerating right in front of us to turn 16. We also had a big screen monitor by our grandstand to see the action on the rest of the course.

Part of the view from our grandstand seats – bike on the course at turn 13, big screen monitor at center-right near the pedestrian bridge

Donna and her new friend – even cowgirls are bigger in Texas

After the last race Sunday afternoon, people started packing up and many of the RVs in the dry camping area pulled out. I’m sure many people took a long weekend from their workaday lives and had to head back to reality. We had a quiet night. I grilled chicken thigh quarters that Donna marinated in something called pretty chicken marinade sauce.

This morning we packed up. I talked to the folks at Fleet Maintenance of Texas on the phone about our hydraulic issue. We spent the weekend here with the jacks up – I got as level as I could with pads under the tires – and only one bedroom slide out. I didn’t dare open the living room slide for fear of not being able to retract it if I got it open. The living room slide still wasn’t in the fully closed position – it was nearly an inch open and wouldn’t close any further. After we packed up and were ready to leave, I tried to close the slide again to no avail.

We made the drive across Austin to Fleet Maintenance of Texas. Cameron helped us there. When I described the issue, he came up with the same thought I had three weeks ago. He said he thought it was a fluid level problem or maybe air in the system.

I removed the cover from the compartment housing the HWH hydraulic reservoir and pump system. I was surprised to find the compartment wet with hydraulic fluid and crud. Here’s the thing – I open this compartment every time I get fuel, I store my Biobor JF fuel treatment there. It wasn’t wet when I fueled up on Thursday.  After 15 minutes or so, Cameron came out with one the techs – his name escapes me – to look at it. He checked the fluid level, then told me to run the jacks down so he could look for leaks in the manifold and lines.

I ran the front jacks down. The pump sounded normal – it had a different pitch when the problem started. The jacks hit the pavement and lifted the front of the coach. What? Next I tried closing the living room slide. It popped right in and closed tight.

Have you ever had a toothache that disappeared once you were at the dentist? That’s how I felt. I couldn’t believe it, everything seemed to be working. The tech told me he didn’t see any signs of leakage. He asked me to lower all of the jacks, then operate all of the slides. Everything worked like magic.

I came back outside scratching my head. We talked it over. The tech said he thought I must have had air trapped in the hydraulic fluid – remember when I said that back in Benson? He told me that the air in the fluid is dispersed when the pump cavitates and millions of tiny bubbles are in the fluid making it milky or almost frothy. Of course the air is compressible, so you cannot reach maximum hydraulic pressure. The tiny bubbles slowly coalesce into larger bubbles which then find their way to the high points in the system. The highest point is the reservoir, but to get there the bubbles have to make their way through junctions and valves.

He theorized that the air finally made its way through the valves as we were driving to the shop and burped into the reservoir, causing some fluid to blow through the cap vent, thus the fluid we found in the compartment.

Messy hydraulic compartment after a cursory wipe to check for leaks

I had to agree with him as I can’t think of a better explanation. Cameron voided my repair order and didn’t charge for checking the system. Nice! I’ll need to thoroughly clean the hydraulic compartment.

We drove from the shop to a nearby Walmart to regroup. I hadn’t made any reservations thinking I needed to know what our situation would be once we hit the shop. Donna walked to a pizza place at the other end of the shopping plaza while I looked at options.

We decided to head east to the Gulf Coast. I found a nice RV park in Aransas Pass and booked a week. This will give us a chance to visit with my middle daughter Jamie. We’d like to explore a bit – we stayed near here at Copano Bay outside of Rockport two years ago.

We had a quick lunch – the pizza was very good! Then we made the four-hour drive to Aransas Pass and arrived around 4:40pm. We were escorted to our site where we dropped the trailer and quickly set up in a full hook-up site – jacks down and level, slides out!

The weather forecast for the coming week looks promising – high 70s to low 80s. Not showing much in the way of precipitation, but I know a thunderstorm can kick up around here quickly at this time of year.