Lowes Motor Speedway/Tom Johnson RV

Made our way up through Georgia, South Carolina to North Carolina to Tom Johnson Camping and RV at Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte North Carolina. This is my second time in this location nestled between ZMAX dragway, "The Dirt Track" and Lowes Motor Speedway. We stopped here three or four years ago and got the oil changed in the motorhome and I was very impressed by their service center and how we were treated. We also stopped at their other location not to far from here in 2011 I believe. It's a busy place tonight as there is a car show going on this weekend and there are hundreds of RV's towing show cars pulling in. 



Tomorrow we will continue our trek back home........

Gulf Shores Alabama

From New Orleans we headed East to Biloxi MS where we spent one night dry camping next to the Grand Casino. Got off to a bad start when setting up as there was a loud bang while putting out the living room slide. Turns out a shear pin on the drive system broke so only one end of the slide was moving. I was able to make a temporary fix with a bolt I had in stock and the next morning with info in hand from researching on the internet I made a trip to Loews and got an appropriate hardened bolt to hold us over until I can get the proper one shipped home. I spent way more time than I wanted under the slide in the course of fixing this problem. The creepy crawler I purchased last summer sure was a blessing as I never could have made it in and out from under that many times without wheels. By the way no luck at three Biloxi Casinos.
The next day Friday we headed to Gulf Shores State park. We have stayed here two times before and it's the nicest State park you would ever find with a super pool:



Great beaches:

 

Large campsites:

And exotic pets:

The also have a boat launching ramp, golf course, tennis court, basketball court and horseshoe pits and more.
Next we head North to Charlotte NC for service for the motorhome and generator. Should take a couple or three day to do the near 800 miles.
Later............

Irish/Italian parade

Tailgating before the parade.

Let me tell you this was a parade of parades. Not a lot of bands or marching dance teams just float after float after float throwing beads and all the fixings for a boiled dinner. Potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, garlic and lemons. Well I don't know how the lemons fit in but they had lots of them. We collected over twenty five. This time we only kept five cabbages after giving away about as many and turning down the off from floats to throw us more. We learned a few years ago that you could not store cabbage in the lower compartments for a long period of time.
Now beads don't go bad so.......

Notice the sealed packages. They contain a dozen beads each, we got six. The krews run out of time to open the bags and end up giving you the whole thing. On the right had side of the table are toys and trinkets the also throw, oh yea and the Boa that Joanne was given.

I think this was the only band.

 You do have to keep your eyes open a cabbage thrown from this height could really hurt.

Waiting for the action to begin. Now there is a strong chair!

No big plans for the rest of the week. We leave here Thursday headed for the Gulf shore of Mississippi.

Today we went to the Louisiana Crawfish Festival. Let the pictures do the talking:

So much to choose from. I got fried oysters, I know but I'm not a big crawfish fan. Joanne got shrimp on a stick. They were both very good. 

Tomorrow is the Irish/Italian parade in Metairie. Think cabbage throws...

Later............

Back to Louisiana

From Victoria we drove to Liberty to the Coushatta Indian Casino in Kinder, LA. We had been there before and knew that they had a nice campground and nice casino.

They also offer a shuttle service that picks you up at your site and takes you to the casino so there is no need to unhook your toad. 

After settling in we called for a pickup and headed out to get rich. Well we didn't exactly get rich but we did leave the casino to come back to the motorhome a few hours later with $360.00 of their money in our pocket. 

This morning we left at the crack of ten o'clock to head back to the Big Easy. We are back in Bayou Segnette State park for another week and tomorrow or Saturday we are going to the Louisiana Crawfish Festival in Chalmette, LA. Some of the food featured:

CAJUN CRAWFISH ROLLS	CRAWFISH AND CORN SOUP
CRAWFISH BREAD	CRAWFISH CAKES
CRAWFISH CHEESE DIP	CRAWFISH CREOLE
CRAWFISH ÉTOUFFÉE OVER FRIED GREEN TOMATOES	CRAWFISH JUBILEE WITH WHITE RICE
CRAWFISH FRIED RICE	CRAWFISH JAMBALAYA
CRAWFISH PASTA	CRAWFISH PIES
CRAWFISH POBOY	CRAWFISH QUESADILLAS
CRAWFISH STUFFED CRAB & POTATO SALAD	CAJUN SAUSAGE SUBS
CRAWFISH WRAP	FRIED CRAWFISH TAILS & FRIES
ALLIGATOR SAUSAGE ON A STICK	ALLIGATOR WRAP

Nuff said I'll let you know. 

Later............

On the move

Ok I've been slacking but who wants to hear about spending the day driving on the beach laying in the sun and then going to Happy hour and supper.
Today we left paradise headed towards New Orleans. It will take a few days at our rate to get back there depending on what we find along the way to stop at. Tonight we are staying in Victoria at the city's RV park. It's a nice park with full hookups for $12 a night. We found this place by luck a couple of years ago and got the last space available today.
Some pictures from the beach:

later....................

Boca Chica Beach

Yesterday we drove up to Boca Chica, after this weekend the spring break traffic will prohibit leaving the island and we collected some really nice shells here before. You have to travel up to Brownsville and then south for a total of about 40 miles to get to the entrance then after traveling six miles north on the beach you are across the channel from South Padre Island.



We were very dissapointed because there were next to no shells on the beach this year. Much better shelling back where we are camped.


The other end of this beach ends at the Rio Grand River the boarder of the US and Mexico. This picture  is looking across the river into Mexico.

Back to North Beach on South Padre today.....

Back to the beach

Well Wednesday was a beach day, I decided to find the end of North Beach. We have traveled fifteen or so miles up the beach before but never got to the end. This time we kept driving and found out it's thirty miles to the end. Not many people past the ten mile point.

We did find a couple of turtles that had washed up. The first was in good condition and couldn't have been dead for very long.

The second had been dead longer and had lost it's head.

We also found a good deal on a boat but getting a trailer to it would be a problem....

This weekend begins Texas Week when Texas A&M and the high schools are on spring break. Hold on to your drinks!

I'm Back

Sorry about the gap but having company for a week threw my posting schedule all off. My "Office" became a bedroom at night and the early morning post's were a thing of the past. Mike and Angie got off to an early morning start with a trip to Brownsville International Apt at five AM. I went food shopping and was still home at 7:30am. I did think of going back to bed but by then the sun was shining.

Over the past week we went horseback riding on the beach, visited the Birding and Wildlife Center, the Sea Turtle Rescue, Mexico, did a Dolphin Watch and drove many miles of beach. Not to mention shopping and flying a kite. It was a lot of fun being able to share some of our favorite places with them.

White sails in the sunset

The Corona in Mexico tradition continues

Downtown Progresso MX

The sign speaks for itself. Sometimes half the road is covered.

Headed North, it goes on for twenty miles.

The big one that didn't get away. Redfish catch and release.

Winter Olympics

Sunday was the annual Winter Olympics held at Boomerang Billy's beach bar. This function is held by the International Idiots Club.


One of the events is Ice Hockey played like shuffle board with ice pucks.

There were three rings a 5, 10 and 20 point and each contestant got three shots for a combined score.

In each event the three top teams were awarded a Bronze, Silver and Gold medal.

They were cheered on by a large group of onlookers. 

The club itself supports two scholarships to students from Port Isabel High School and is given to a student with a C/B average to give support to some of the family's who's children have to work after school to feed the family.

The Bobsled run.....