Good day...sun shine,, (imagine it to music as in the Beatles)

June 7 - I think I really should backtrack a little as I didn’t give the complete details of our first day.  One of the things we had the RV in the shop for was our navigation system.  It hasn’t worked since we got the RV and we finally decided we wanted it.  Well, I spent several hours on the phone with tech support and was told there was no way they were going to be able to get it up and running and we needed to upgrade our radio and get the newer Rand McNally software.  My RV tech was able to get it covered under the extended warranty except for the new antenna and the SD card that actually holds the software.  I wasn’t too happy at the cost but as least it came with lifetime updates on the software so that was a good thing.  Now, fast forward to Monday!  Bill was trying to get it to work and then the back cameras would go off.  Then he’d put Sirius radio on and try to view the map and it would shut the map off.  Then it wouldn’t let him change from map to camera without shutting the system down and rebooting.  So!  I move on to today….

We had a good breakfast and managed to get on the road around 8:30 only to miss seeing the road sign for which way to go on the interstate.  We were looking for I-12 but only saw signs for I-10 until I spotted them in the rear view mirror.  I hate starting my day with a u-turn!  Luckily there was a cross over into a gas station that was wide enough for me to make the turn around!  Phew! 

Oops!

Today was a beautiful sun shiny day with no rain, but the rough and I mean ROUGH road more than made up for the rain. OMG, I thought my teeth would shake out!  We were on I-12 to I-10 then that road disappears and you get routed onto 190.  Believe me when I say, it ain’t no interstate!  We bounced and jounced along and when we weren’t bouncing and jouncing, we were single laned due to construction every few miles.  The toaster oven bounced off the end of the counter and I was waiting for a cabinet door to fly open.  There were NO rest areas so I finally had to take a chance we could get into and out of a truck stop so I could stop and use the bathroom.  Then it was back to bouncing hell!  Along the way we spotted a Pepsi semi off the road and Bill quickly snapped a photo.

Finally we connected to I-49 and it was heaven by comparison.  We stopped a bit early for lunch as there was only one rest area on I-49 before we were due to get off.  While on that stop I called the radio support people and got testy (I tend to get that way when I don’t get a return call after 2 attempts) and told the operator I needed to speak to a person.  They connected me with the same guy I talked to 3-4 times about the old GPS.  This time since Bill was the one trying to work it, I thought he needed to tell the guy the problems.  While they went over it I made our lunch.  To our disappointment, there was no miracle cure but he said I need to register the SD card on line, run any updates to the software and try it again.  It’s possible the card is corrupt or not synced to the radio.  If that doesn’t work, we’re to call and he’ll send a new card.  Where, we’re really not sure.

We arrived mostly in one piece at Nakatosh RV in Natchitoches, LA.  It’s a small but nicely kept little park, close to the Interstate with decent size pull through spaces.  The problem was we didn’t get straight enough in the space and had a devil of a time getting the car unhooked.  Every day is a challenge! 

Pigeonnier

Once we got that remedied, we set up, put out water and food for Molly and headed to Cane River Creole National Historic Park.  It’s about 15 – 20 minutes from the campground along the Cane River.  It’s the old Cane Plantation which was built in 1785 by Jean Pierre Emanuel Prud’homme.  They grew tobacco, indigo and cotton.  They had slaves who over the years became tenant farmers and share croppers here and still have descendants in the area 200 years later.  They only give one tour daily of the main

The house and some of the Live Oak Trees

house and we missed that but could do our own walking tour of the barn, pigeonnier, where they raised pigeons(squab) to eat, store and post office, slave homes and more.  The store was closed in 1983 and the property became a park shortly after and in 1994 was established as a National Historical Park.  The live oak trees are huge and so “southern”.  We really enjoyed the old store.  It looked just like Willie Pleasants Store when I was growing up, the old wooden cabinets with glassed containers on top where all the candy was.  I felt right at home!

Felt like New Orleans

We took the back road along the Cane River into downtown Natchitoches.  We managed to find the historic downtown which is right on the river and it reminds you of New Orleans for sure.  The two story buildings with black wrought iron railings lined the street facing the river.  There were lots of Bed and Breakfast places and seems to be a

Yep, New Orleans!

destination for many who don’t want the crowds and traffic of New Orleans.  We parked along the river and checked out several shops.  One was a kitchen store (my favorite) and they had 80 kinds of coffee beans.  We ended up getting some decaf caramel nut for Bill and I had her mix coconut with chocolate beans for me and she ground them for us.  Should be some tasty iced coffee for the summer!  We had an early dinner (old people time) at Mama’s Oyster House.  Bill went with blackened chicken fettuccini and I had Blackened catfish Creole.  Yum!  We both brought some home for tomorrow. 

Bill stopped for me to get some half and half and to look for New Orleans famous Hubig Pies but they must not sell them this far away.  Rats!  Those are the best!  So my splurge for the day was getting us each a half pint of peanut butter chocolate ice cream and another New Orleans favorites, Zapp’s potato chips.  We each had some ice cream when we got home and it’s delicious!  It was only $1 each, what a buy!

I spent the evening trying to update and download the software info so we can give the GPS another try tomorrow.