Enjoying Betty’s RV Park

We had planned to arrive at Betty’s, in Abbeville, Louisiana,  on the 23rd, but heard from Molly that there was a swamp tour scheduled for that day, so cancelled some plans, pulled in the slides, and were rolling down the road ASAP on Monday. 

Bye Biloxi

The 220 mile trip was uneventful, although traffic seems quite heavy.  We arrived at Betty’s about 3, and after squeezing in we were ready for the daily “happy hour”.  Great seeing old friends, and making new acquaintances.  If you have been here you know what it is like, if not, you must put it on your bucket list.  Of course after happy hour, we were off to eat at Suire’s, a local restaurant that is a real treat, very good food.

Interesting contrast of the white herons and fall foliage. Tuesday we were off for the swamp tour, there were 16 in our group, and our guide and boat were waiting for us.  http://champagnesswamptours.com  So very glad that we made the decision to take this tour.

It was Awesome!

Words are not sufficient to describe what we saw.   Even though a lot of the trees look like they are dead or dying, they were quite healthy. Bryan, (our guide) was very knowledgeable and made the tour so interesting. 

Would love to take this tour again at another time of the year, as the changes would be drastic with all the plants in bloom and the changes in the trees.  The beauty was so unexpected to me, the unusual shape of the trees due to the way that have adapted to survive.  In our travels there are so many places that I’ve just been blown away by.  How lucky we are to be able to see and enjoy it all.  Gives a new meaning to stopping and smelling the roses, and do so appreciate that we have been lucky enough to do it.

Natural man-made duck blinds.

And then it was off to find some food.  Being as we were to be spending a few hours with out restrooms, most of us had limited our in take and were starving.  Okay, those of you know that Escapees never starve, we travel on our stomachs. But it was a good excuse.

We have not been in this area, so a lot of the menu was strange to me, but Bob tried a combination platter, (crawfish boulette, crawfish macque choux, crawfish pie, fried alligator were just a few items on the platter) and Molly and I managed to taste almost everything, and it was so good, even though we weren’t too sure of what we were eating.  Most of us went for the fried catfish and it was also very good. 

Right now we are waiting on Roger & Barb, http://recesstimeontheroad.blogspot.com as they are coming for a visit, and we are……..what else…….going out to eat.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we are having a huge dinner at the campground with everyone bringing a dish or two  or maybe even three.  Old habits die hard, and seems everyone has their family favorites.

Also have made reservations for a local play on Sunday, Christmas Tuna, which the reviews are raving about.  Should be fun.Monday we will be making our way to San Antonio, where we will park for a few weeks, while hopefully Chuck can get new hearing aids ordered.

Happy Thanksgiving, Life is Good.

Biloxi Days

Having just done a grocery run at the commissary, I have to do a little rant. Do the companies think we are just totally STUPID? I just bought a pound of bacon, (14 ounces) 4 pound bag of sugar, 1/2 gallon of ice cream, (11/2 quarts)and please tell me, how do they put 34 ounces of coffee in a 3 lb can and make it completely full? The darn can did not get smaller, just the contents. Oh, and then we are told there is zero inflation. Yeah, I guess we are that dumb, especially my home state of California. Starting to thread in that forbidden territory in blog land here, so thanks for letting me rant. Had thought that the cost of living in the south was less costly, but seems that everything is much higher than up north. We took in a casino last night, and they have no freebies here, actually they even make you buy the clip cord for your players card. NOT! We did not stay all that long, winning was not happening anywhere we could see or hear. Didn’t take us long to get over getting our dues paid.

Thursday night we went out for pizza with Darrell & Judy. http://wanderingamerica.com Great getting to spend time with them, they have a ERUP lot at the Plantation, so guess you could say they are our future neighbors.

We left the Rainbow Plantation yesterday, and the ride was only about 100 miles, so it was no time till we were here. Our daughter had called and I was yakking and Chuck missed the turn and it took us a bit of a hassle to get back on track, but turning around when your as long as we are is a hassle no matter what. We are staying at Keesler AFB and they are full. We got the last site. Nice campground, river and lake across the road. Will bet no one lets their dogs or cats run loose here.

Same beautiful white beaches, love them.

We will be here till Tuesday morning at which time we will be making our way to Betty’s RV park. Can’t wait to see everyone again, it was the Escapees rally that our paths last crossed.

Happy Thanksgiving to All.

Lunch At Roadkill Cafe

What a great time we had at the See’ya farewell lunch.  Those of you who know us from the RV Dreams, know that our nickname is Roadkill, so we couldn’t get enough pictures.  Actually the food was good, there hours are their own, when they run out of food, they close.  Seems to work, they were pretty full and it was early for lunch.

Last night there was a soup’er supper at the campground.  They had 23 different kinds of soup, and for a few dollars you could have a sample of as many as you wanted.  There were some wonderful soups, and I only tasted four.  My favorite was a curry, pumpkin mushroom.  It was so good.  After that it was followed with the weekly ice cream social.  Today it was all about rain, just a slow steady but wet rain.  A do-nothing day.  Life is Good.

Life As I Now Know It

I  would never trade my amazing friends, my  wonderful  life, my loving  family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.  As  I've aged, I've become  kinder to myself, and less critical of   myself. I've become my own  friend. I don't chide myself for eating   that extra cookie, or for not  making my bed, or for buying that silly  pink flamingo that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde in front of the RV.  I am entitled to a treat, to be   messy, to be  extravagant.

I  have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon;  before they  understood the great freedom that comes with  aging.

Whose  business is it if I choose to read or play on the  computer until 4 AM and  sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to  those wonderful tunes of the 50 &60’s, and if I, at the same time,  wish  to weep over a lost love  ..... I will.


I  will walk the beach in a swim suit that  is stretched over a bulging body, and  will dive into the waves  with  abandon if I choose to, despite the  pitying glances from the  jet set.  They, too, will get  old.

I  know I am sometimes forgetful.   But there again, some of life is just as  well forgotten. And I   eventually remember the important  things.

Sure,  over the years my heart has been broken.  How can  your heart not   break when you lose a loved one, or when a child  suffers, or even when  somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car?   But broken  hearts are  what give us strength and understanding and  compassion.   A heart  never broken is pristine and sterile and  will  never know the joy of  being imperfect.


I  am so blessed to have lived long enough  to have my hair turning gray, and to  have my youthful laughs be forever  etched into deep grooves on my  face.

So  many  have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn   silver.


As  you get older, it is easier to be positive.  You care  less about   what other people think..  I don't question myself  anymore.   I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So,  to  answer your question, I like being old.  It has set me free.   I  like the person I have become.  I am not going to live forever,  but while  I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what  could  have been,  or worrying about what will be.  And I shall  eat dessert every single day  (if I feel like it).

Author Unknown

Love’n This Area

Yes, we have really enjoyed our stay here, could it be that the beach being so close it has something to do with that?  My favorite place in the whole world is the ocean, but don’t want to live right on the beach.  This Escapees park is also very nice, as a matter of fact we are on the waiting list for a lease lot, which will take some time, but will make the decision when we closer to the top of the list.  The main reason would be to have a home base and storage shed, not that we will be stopping traveling, but that decision is not really in our hands, at our age.  LOL

We have been eating so much seafood that Chuck was starting to complain, so the other day we came across Lamberts, the home of the tossed rolls, and we decided that we would give it a try. We had heard about Lamberts but never eaten in one, but we had been told that the portions were huge, plus they keep bring sides to the tables.  No one mentioned that they serve there drinks in mugs resembling a gallon jug, and Chuck ordered a glass of milk. He never orders milk except at breakfast. Well, he certainly GOT MILK!  

Munching down on one of those rolls.

The food was okay, and now it Lamberts is checked off the bucket list.  From there we took a ride over to the beach, watched a volley ball game and just enjoyed the wonderful weather.  It is so awesome, but they are saying that a few days of rain are on the way.

Further up the beach we came across a large work crew moving sand into a huge sieve, then back in the trucks to be placed back where it had come from.  They say they aren’t really finding anything, but the deep cleaning is good pay, and steady work while it lasts.    Such a shame, the sand is so pretty.

Today, Nolan & Donna stopped by for a short time, they are staying not too far from us.  Glad we got to see them as they are on the move again tomorrow.  We are having a lunch on Monday, with some of the people that are here, sort of a farewell, seeya down the road lunch, at the Roadkill Café.  John & Sandy and Jim & Ellie are heading towards New Orleans.  We are staying a few more days, and we are still up in the air on our destination for the next week or so.  Why do I feel like I’m getting no sympathy with all my woe is me, where oh where will we go?  See, it is not all lollipops and roses out here.  Yes, that is being written with tongue in cheek.  Life is Good.

The End of the Rainbow

We arrived at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation RV park yesterday, after a short 60 mile trip.  We took HWY 89 the whole way, and it was a lot of stop lights and small towns, but not a bad ride.  However the inside of the RV looked like a giant egg beater had spent the entire time on high speed.  Nothing broke, just amazing how some times it seems to work like that.  When we got here we knew that John and Sandy, http://themothershiprv.com were here, but there last names eluded us, so we just registered, pulled into our assigned site, and low and behold there they were right next to us, AND Jim and Ellie, http://justravelin.blogspot.com were behind us!  Had thought they had left already.  We had a nice travel day dinner, thanks John & Sandy.  Traveling is pretty good, Arlene & Kevin http://roamingwhenwecan.blogspot.com/ had us over for a farewell dinner the night before.  Thanks guys.

Today we took off to get some shopping done, I needed a keyboard, mine had just quite working, bummer.  But first we made a stop at Camping World, been a long time, got the chairs that Mary demo’ed, and a few other things.  Then picked up the keyboard at Best Buy.  From there we passed a sleep number bed store, and ours, after 20 good years, was in desperate need of being replaced, so ordered that.  By then we were in search of foooood.  In the mall was a seafood place that we decided to try and it was wonderful.  I had a lunch combo with oysters, shrimp and fish.  Chuck went for bacon wrapped shrimp, we will certainly get there again before we leave the area.  Then it was off to Wal-Mart for cokes and OJ.  This is where I hit the mother lode.  They had capris on a large rack, all priced at ONE dollar.  Bought a dozen, for less than the price of one.  I’ve been needing some more (probably not a dozen) and this time of year they are hard to find.  Really glad now. 

We are back home now and it is dark already, darn, I’m not one of those people that like that extra hour in the morning.  No pictures today, I’ll have to do better,  Life is Good.

MAKING SNOW (sand) ANGELS

Yes, that is how we spent some of the day visiting with Kevin and Arlene.  What an absolutely beautiful place this is.  My keyboard has died,am typing this with the on screen one, so is going to be short.

A house we saw that looked like it had been abandoned, actually the whole development of about 25 houses seemed that way.  Soon as we win the lotto tonight,  will have to look into it.

Love the paint job.

Till next time, Life Is Good.

Time at Tyndall

How the time has flown.  We have been fighting colds, and checking the obits, just to be sure there was a reason to get out of bed.  Think that we have finally made it to the land of living again.

We arrived here at Tyndall  well over a week ago.  Got to spend some time with Kevin and Arlene.  We managed to take in several movies,  Secretariat and Red.  Both were very good, funny how the same actor, John Malkovich, was in both of them.  We actually seen Red as a second choice the first day, being as we got our theaters mixed up, so the next day we made up for it.  But the heat and humidity was so high the movies were a good place to be. 

Friday brought some good news, long time friends, who spend their summers in Maine, winters at home in Florida, were making the seven hours trip to spend a few days with us.  I fixed dinner and asked Arlene and Kevin, to join us.  We had a great time, finished up the evening teaching them hand and foot.  After breakfast at the clubhouse, the next day, the guys were off to play golf and the girls went shopping at the Pier Park Shops. 

Believe it or not we just were not in the mood to shop, though we each did manage at least one purchase, but it was very minor.  Lunch was at 5Guys, and they lose to In & Out in my book.  The guys golf game was fast, the club house was already closed when they finished, so they were back at the RV early too.  Spent the rest of day playing cards and talking ole times.  The next morning we had plans to go for breakfast, but my cold had really hit me hard.  So I said my good-byes out an open window, feeling like typhoid Mary.  It was great visit up until then. And I just realized that I did not take one picture of Dick and Jane!

The next few days were not any thing to write about, sneeze, cough, cough and then did it all over again. Yesterday felt much better, did some laundry and few other “round-to-its”.  Which leads me to today, and it was pretty much a wasted day.  It rained most of the day, Chuck had to have his blood work done and it was a bit of a hassle finding some place to do it.  Got my hair cut and that about does it. 

Friday we are moving west about 50 miles to the park that Arlene an Kevin are working at for a few days.  The weather is suppose to cooperate so am looking forward to seeing that area.

Till next time, Life is Good.

Hello Florida

Our trip was totally uneventful, which is just the way we like it.  Except for our trusty, can’t travel without it….. GPS.  Panama City came up as 230 miles  or so, but when I put in Tyndall AFB it added on 50 miles.  No matter how we looked at the maps it just did not seem possible.  Well, come to find out it wanted us to go 24 miles beyond our destination and make a U turn!  This is our newer one, put the info into the old one and it was right on the bottom.  The problem is that screen is so much smaller and have come to enjoy the larger screen. 

The fall colors were wonderful on the trip down, and most of the road were good.  we have put our jacks down at Tyndall AFB famcamp.  A very nice park, large spaces, literally a jungle between sites.  Large club house, breakfast Saturday, pot luck Tuesday night.  Both Kevin ad Chuck are hacking and coughing so they are not much fun.  Plus we noticed a squealing noise of sort coming from a wheel on our truck that we have to have checked out.  We did take a ride along the coast towards the east, Saturday, and some of the beaches were nice, but the little towns were not ready for tourists. 

Arlene and I did find a great area to take a stroll in the water, and it was warm, hardly any one there.  We found a market selling fish and shrimp, and bought some rock shrimp, which we had never seen before.  Word of advice, don’t buy.  The shells are very hard, which makes it a real pain to shell and clean, and the taste was nothing like shrimp.  Have a feeling the locals do not eat these little rascals.

Today did a whole lot of nothing, the humidity has climbed today, rain is in the forecast.  The guys have a t-time in the morning, not sure if that will be a go.  We are planning on staying here till the 5th of November, and then we will move a bit more west. 

Looks like a great “3 hour cruise” boat.  Life is good.

Defeated Creek, Tennessee

We have thoroughly enjoyed the time we have spent in this beautiful setting. The campground is set around the lake, with the outer rim having FHU’s. Being as I was late to come to the party in making reservations, and it being fall break for school, we could only get 4 days. But once here we managed to come by one of the non-reservable sites and extend our stay. The rate is one of the lowest that we have paid over our years RVing, 9 dollars a night, FHU’s, with the Golden Age discount.

Lisa & her sweet husband Tony.

They have out done themselves seeing that we have a good time. And they certainly have succeeded. Thank you Lisa for getting this set up. Think that we will have to make it a yearly “gathering”.

As usual our get togethers have consisted of “have ya et yet?”, and what’s the menu for tomorrow?

We have taken a few outside trips, Olive Garden, Golden Dragon, and yesterday called for a trip to the original Cracker Barrel. Some of our trips consisted of just the girls, and Lisa was our chauffeur, driving her van, with I Love My Seniors. We did not realize that she was not referring to her students, but to us! LOL

Some unusual scenery along the way one day. Kudzu, a plant brought in to fight erosion, and it has done one heck of a job of that. It covers everything, looks like something from outer space or Disneyland. But no erosion!

Usually our nights are spent gazing in the campfire, enjoying the company.

It has truly been a great relaxing retreat. Not that the life we are living is in any way stressful, but we will be leaving here feeling like we have had a full 10 day massage.

In a few days we will all be heading in different directions, we are dropping down to the Florida panhandle, no place special in mind, just checking it out.

In closing would like to take a moment to honor Bruce and Margie, who will be missed, tho we never met, still felt we knew them. So sad, reminds us that every day is precious.

Hanging Loose

Touring Churchill Downs was the goal of the day.

Tuesday, 10/05/10

Coming out of the gate.

Whooo..their horses have no legs!

The famous twin spirals.

A retired race horse.  The little horse is fully grown, he is there for company, we were told,  horses do not like to be alone.  They said it does necessarily have to be a horse for company, a chicken, duck any animal will do.  Wish the horses were racing, guess we will have to plan it better next time.

Wednesday   We got left behind at “Grandma’s”, as we watched Mac & Netters and Kevin & Arlene pull out.  There was no tourist outing that we wanted to engage in, so we went shopping.  Hit Sam’s, Best Buy, Wal-mart and then looked for a movie.  But there was nothing showing in our time frame, so just came home.  Fixed dinner and watched Survivor.  The next day washed and polished on the rig, did some laundry.  Later in the afternoon Darrell and Judy pulled in next to us.  After they were set-up we went in search of dinner, found a great Mexican restaurant with even greater margaritas.  Enjoyed getting to spend some time with them, and hope we will cross trails again soon.  Mentioned Zappo’s sale, so a trip there was in order.  I found a cute pair of comfy sandals, but decided that I did not need them and Judy decided she did.  So Glad. Would have hated the thought that they were left for a stranger.  Darrell & Judy were off bright and early the next morning.

Used that day to get my toes, nails and hair taken care of.  Good for another few weeks.  Met a couple with a Montana and we spent the rest of the afternoon telling tall tales and small lies.  Nice couple, they had been to the Montana rally a few years ago, but decided to miss this one. Being as they are not full time, vacations have to be put to good use.

And that brings me to today, Saturday, October 9th.  Chuck finally decided to play golf, I was getting a little worried that he had lost his interest in it.  Been over a month, and he was not twitching or anything.  Being as we live in this tin box 24/7 the alone time when we are apart is pretty darn precious!  Love him dearly, but some times well………….

Tomorrow we make the trek to Defeated Creek, Tennessee, can’t wait, everyone there is raving how beautiful it is.

Till next time, life is good.

Surprising Neighbors & Tours

We left the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds campground, around 10, after having a problem with the jacks.  Seems we got them way too low and they wouldn’t connect to raise them.  Chuck came up with the idea of getting one of the forklift drivers to lift the front end of the 5’er and then they were able to extend.  With that fixed we were on the road.  Talked to Barb & Bob, who are in North Carolina, getting their rig “road able”.  She recommended Grandma’s RV, so I called and got a reservation.  When we were pulling in , low and behold, there sat a Landmark with a golf cart, knew it was Mac & Netters right away, and Grandpa said go park where ever you want.  So we are next to them and yesterday Kevin and Arlene pulled in.

Saturday: We started off with a tour of the Jim Beam plant, which was very interesting. 

Old time “still” replica.

There is a lot more than 99 barrels in this building.  The black on the building is a chemical reaction that occurs because of the evaporation.  All the trees are covered with the black film.  People have to constantly fight to keep it off the cars and houses.  There are hundreds of these storage building through the country side.  Not gold in them there hills, it’s bourbon.

From the Jim Beam plant we told Tom-tom to take us to the Makers Mark plant.  Which turned into an adventure, as our road kept getting smaller and smaller, till we were on a one lane trail. But we did come across men harvesting tobacco, which I had not seen before.

   And just about when we were beginning to worry, we were there. 

Makers Mark is a much small distillery, and the tour was right into the production area.  We were disappointed that it being Saturday they were not dipping the bottles in the red wax that they are known for. 

   Of course we had the samples at the end of the tour, and being as none of us were to keen on straight bourbon, but the candy was great!  We made our way back, with written instructions that they passed out, seems we were not the only ones to have trouble getting there. 

Yesterday we laid around, knew that Kevin and Arlene would be here, so planned dinner for the six of us.  Threw everything in the crock pot, took a nap, powdered my nose with flour, (just so they would know that I’d been cooking all day) and we had a great meal.  Actually pulled out our new table to the center of the living room, added the leaf and sat 6 comfortably.  Love it! 

Today we took in the Slugger Bat Company.  It also was quite interesting, and the sample at the end of the tour was a little bat.

Of course there was the gift shop, so having a grandson who is a avid ball player, there were a few things we had to pick up.

Mac on his horse.

Ended the day with a 60 percent off sale at Zappos.  The warehouse is very close to here, but think the sale had been going on for a few days, only managed to find two pair!

Life is Good!