First 4 days and 2 stops, in 570 miles

Once we finally got ‘Arvey loaded for what seemed to be a 12 month trip, but really only 7 weeks, we topped up the diesel at the Exxon across from the storage at NIRVC. Wonderful news – it let us use our Tom Thumb rewards card and we saved 20 cents a gallon – woohoo. We hooked up the CR-V at the gas station and set off to a truck stop at Canton. Even the low manual effort of loading and hooking up, with the heat, it made my skin leak, time to rehydrate.

Just a note here to cover what needs to be done each time we arrive and leave a site. Once we’re on the site the first job is to hook up the 50 amp electric, which will let us put the AC on sooner. Next is levelling ‘Arvey which is fairly easy with the hydraulic jack system, and then the slides in the living area and bedroom are extended. Outside again and hook up the city water, the sewer hookup is last – on an overnight we don’t do that one. We have shades for the windshield and side windows that really cut down the sun and allow for a little more privacy. Leaving the site is just the reverse procedure.

The first part of this leg to Dukes Travel Plaza at Canton was uneventful – apart from the 47 gallons and the cost of that, better get used to it. Connie took Rusty for a walk around while I finagled the truck pumps. These are intended more for the trucks that have 2 tanks, one each side, our tank is on the left. You have to remove the pump on the right side and lay it on the ground then go to the pump on the left side and fill from there. The first time I came across this setup I went back in to ask them to turn on the pump, came out slightly pink in the face J – a newbie. Once ‘Arvey had been ‘satisfied’ I went back in to get some BBQ for dinner, pulled pork and chopped beef. That was going to be put in the CR-V until we got to the overnight stop, the smell would have driven all 3 of us crazy if we put it in ‘Arvey. Then a few beef tacos for lunch before we left Dukes.

Another 130 uneventful miles we crossed the state line into Louisiana and we pulled into Tall Pines RV Park at Shreveport. We stayed here on our first trip in ‘Arvey nearly 2 years ago, it’s now transitioning to a Kampgrounds Of America (KOA) site, yellow paint everywhere. This was only an overnight stop so we didn’t unhook the CR-V.

After coffee and pulling in the slides we programmed Randi (Rand McNally GPS system) for the next stop just east of New Orleans at Slidell Louisiana. This was going to be the longest leg of our journey, just over 350 miles, and passing over one of the three longest bridges in the United States, and all in Louisiana – the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge – over 18 miles long, Pontchartrain Causeway being the longest at over 24 miles. We were lucky to find a stopping place before we travelled the bridge – we all needed to stretch our legs and eat with 150 miles to go.

Pine Crest RV park in Slidell – home for 2 days/3 nights was a very welcome sight, even though we still had to set up ‘camp’. Once that was done we set up the satellite to get Dish TV and settled in for the night – the BBQ was great.

New Orleans. The first day of no driving, apart from the 30 miles into New Orleans, Bourbon, Royal and Canal Streets. Rusty was really good, apart from his usual stop and smell every 30 feet, sometimes less, again he surprised us by ignoring the crowds of people. We decided to stop at Café Beignet on Royal – there was an outside patio with nice shade, and lots of sparrows.

Rusty was the center of attention for a couple of patrons and one of the servers – and he didn’t run and hide, maybe he’s coming out of his shell. It was really hot and humid, the morning started at 90% humidity and it was getting warmer. We headed back to Slidell and needed to get some groceries so we found the local Wal-Mart just as the heavens opened – really driving rain so we sat in the car listening to the thunder, watching the lightning and the shoppers running to their cars.

On our walks with Rusty we saw a couple of ‘baby’ alligators in the lake at the RV site, though the most spectacular sight was the Anhinga bird sitting on a branch in the lake, proudly displaying his wings and drying himself.

Just as an interesting aside, the RV park was under nearly 5 feet of water after Katrina hit, they lost everything and rebuilt it.

Another night and we’re off to Navarre Beach in Florida, that’s another post in a few days.