New Orleans' French Market

Sometimes we come across cemeteries that are interesting to visit. Today, we started the day at the Lafayette Cemetery #1. The main entrance gates were locked when we first walked up, but a custodian arrived before we walked away and told us they were about to have a movie filming crew there and that we could visit the cemetery until they arrived. Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is one of the city's oldest cemeteries. Originally this location was part of the Livaudais Plantation. In 1833 this area became the City of Lafayette, that is when the cemetery was originally established. Lafayette was incorporated into the city of New Orleans in 1852 and dubbed the "Garden District." We walked around, reading the history on rows and rows of tombs/graves, coming in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, dates and conditions. The cemetery is well maintained and laid out decently well.  It was an interesting walk.

 

From there we headed to New Orleans' French Market and the famous Café Du Monde for our first taste of the world famous Beignets. Beignets are square French style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. I loved them! The original Cafe Du Monde Coffee stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. Today, the Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day.

 

We wandered around for a while walking down and around Decatur St. We heard a band playing some wonderful jazz music and decided that would be a good place to get something to eat. It was a wide open café with overhead cover, a small band and some great food. We stayed there for a couple of hours enjoying the food, a bottle of wine and the amazing music. We walked along the river before heading back to the Naval Base. This was a perfect day; lovely walks, fabulous food, good wine and awesome jazz. 

The Big Easy, New Orleans

Yesterday, the weather man said Hurricane Irma may visit  the Ozark area. We decided it was time to get moving again. We packed up the RV and drove further north-west hoping to avoid the effects of the storm. We drove through Alabama and ended the day at a Flying J Travel Center in Pearl, Mississippi. Enjoyed a quick dinner at Denny's; it was an easy travel day. 

 

Today, we drove to the Aviation Arbor RV Park in Belle Chasse, LA. The base is a Naval Aviation base about 15 minutes from New Orleans, LA. The RV Park is well maintained. The staff is friendly and they handed us a welcome package with lots of information about the park and the area when we checked in.
 

We were really looking forward to visiting the city and enjoying the sights and food; so we didn't waste any time. After setting the RV up we drove into New Orleans and parked the Jeep. This is my first trip to the ‘Big Easy”. We walked the length of Bourbon Street popping into the different establishments. We ate some cajun food and stopped at a couple of bars to enjoy the entertainment and the beer.

 

Ft Rucker and Good Ol' Friends

Another good morning of enjoying the campgrounds by Lake Tholocco and after lunch John took me on another tour - this time we covered more of Ozark, Enterprise and Ft Rucker. Lots of Army aviation history; John showed me many of his old haunts and stomping grounds and I enjoyed the stories about his time here. He has many fond memories; one of his favorites: his son, J.J., was born at Ft Rucker in the Lyster Army Hospital in the early 1970's.

 

Later, we had a wonderful evening out with our good friends Harvey and Sandy who live in the area. Harvey and John attended Flight School together and were assigned to the same unit in Vietnam during their first tour. We had diner at the McLin’s Catfish Restaurant in Daleville Alabama. Harvey and Sandy took us there the last time we were visiting and I fell in love with the Catfish diner they serve. Good stuff!

Very nice evening with Harvey and Sandy. Meeting up with friends on our travels is the best part of the RV lifestyle.

Golf and Visiting an Ol' Friend

We were up early this morning playing golf on the Ft Rucker Golf Course. It has been a while since we've played, felt good to swing the clubs again, we both enjoyed the course and the beautiful Alabama weather.

Later in the afternoon, we visited a friend from John’s past. Rodney and John went to Infantry Officer Candidate School at Ft Benning together. It was a pleasure to visiting with Rodney and his lovely family in their Ozark home, a beautiful southern estate with wooded acres on a lake. I enjoyed listening to the stories of times gone by. We look forward to visiting again in the future.

Engineer Beach RV Park, Ft Rucker, AL

Engineer Beach RV Park, Ft Rucker, AL is a wonderful woodsy place. The park is beautiful, sitting on the edge of a beautiful 640 acre lake, Lake Tholocco. The Outdoor Recreation Office has a variety of boats and other equipment for rent. John spent many years in this area as an Army pilot; he was a superb tour guide, knowing this area like the back of his hand. 

Erma Evacuation Continued

We ate a good breakfast at the Flying J's Denny's and pulled back on the highway headed north out of Ft Pierce at 8AM and drove to Ft Rucker, AL. It was a long 12 hour trip of almost 500 miles. We had one refueling stop and made it to the campground about 9PM. We had a quick and easy RV setup in a nice long pull-through site. It was too dark to explore the area tonight.

Hurricane Erma Evacuation

This morning, there was a note on our RV door handle stating we would need to evacuate the Sigsbee RV Camp at Naval Base Key West by noon tomorrow because Hurricane Erma is headed this way. 

We loved everyday of this wonderful month in the Keys, but now it has come to an end. We decided to depart right away to get ahead of the outbound traffic on the Key bridges. We refueled before we rolled off-base and headed north. Fortunately, the traffic was not too bad, we had one stop-and-go section. It was a smooth trip in our 45 foot Class A motorhome with the Jeep Wrangler in tow.

The Florida Governor suspended all tolls on the toll roads to keep the traffic moving. We drove the turnpike to Ft Pierce, where there was a Flying J Travel Center, great place to catch a hot meal and spend the night.

Beaches & Better Than Sex

We played at the beach each day of this Labor Day weekend. 

We love swimming in the waters of Boca Chico beach, especially swimming out past this underwater cliff - one second we are in shallow water and the next it is over 40 ft deep. Great place for snorkeling, we saw a huge barracuda yesterday!

Tonight, we skipped dinner and headed out to "Better Than Sex".  It is a cute little desert

restaurant, made up of three separate rooms each with it's own romantic feel. John had a red wine and I had enjoyed a lovely port, both our glasses were rimmed with chocolate. We sampled a few different deserts, our favorite was a delicious number called Banana Bazooka.

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times

This week we had the pleasure of getting together with friends, Terry and Denise.  They take their Key West escape every year around this time.  They each have a special talent; Terry bakes the best pies and Denise possesses an amazing knowledge of all the best places to eat and drink - you can name a town and she will list off the top places to dine and par take in some wonderful adult beverages. She is well traveled and is not afraid to get out and enjoy the cuisine and concoctions while soaking up the local atmosphere.  When we were in Alaska last year, she suggested some 'good eats' places and we loved them all.

 

Wednesday, we had a wonderful time with Terry and Denise enjoying dinner at the Blue Heaven, which has the pure Key West vibe with it's backyard bar and casual outdoor dining, complete with chickens walking around.  We started at the outdoor bar for a few libations and then selected a table under a big tree for dinner. It was a great place to sit back and just talk & catch up with each other. I had the scollops which were cooked perfectly, everyone enjoyed their delicious meal. After dinner, it started to rain so we moved inside for desert.  Later, walking along the water at Mallory Square we saw an amazing sunset while enjoying chocolate covered key-lime pies on sticks - yum!  Yes, this was another treat that Denise introduced us to.

We spent yesterday playing at the beach all day - a little snorkeling, a little floating, another nice island day,

Today, it was another fun day with Terry and Denise. Lots of walking, shopping, and dinner at PePe's Cafe and this time another friend Frances along with her companion were able to join us for dinner, . We were intrigued with their tale of a recent trip to Africa for a photo taking safari as we all enjoyed happy hour on the patio. Now, a photo safari in Africa is on our travel bucket-list.  We moved to the dinning room for a wonderful lobster dinner.  A fun little note: our table top was originally a heavy wooden door from an old ship. Later, Terry, Denise, John and I enjoyed some live music at the Hog's Breath and we ended the evening with our newest favorite treat on a stick chocolate covered key-lime pies - yum!