Catch-Up Time, Again

We're behind, again, on our blog. Here's a quick update and then we'll fill in any missing details in a future post.

Walt Disney World We had a GREAT time in WDW with Marie, Dave and friend Mark. Although, rain had been forecast for the whole week, it held off until our last afternoon and evening. We camped in Fort Wilderness right next to a pretty creek and really enjoyed the over-the-top Christmas decorations put up by some of the RVers. Several of them had music-timed lights like the viral YouTube video of years past. As usual, the meals were a highlight of our Marie and Dave WDW "tour". In fact, I'm getting hungry, now, just thinking about the great meals. Favorites were Tusker House, Sushi from Yakitori House, and the new Iron Chef Cat Coura restaurant, Kouzzina. Other highlights were the shows - Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Nemo. The favorite ride, of course, was Toy Story Mania. I'm not sure it would work out for us to meet-up in WDW with Marie and Dave in 2010 but it would be great fun to do it, again! And, many thanks to Dave, who plans the great (and detailed) itineraries and makes the dining reservations.

Sunrise, FL Today, we wrapped up five nights at Markham Park in Sunrise, FL which is just west of Fort Lauderdale. It's a Broward County park and has great spacious RV sites PLUS a great lake to kayak, a model airplane field & landing strip, and a huge Rifle/Pistol Range. The bike ride around the park was almost 5 miles and took us past the Range which shooters were aiming at targets and flying clay pigeons. One of the guns we saw was a HUGE automatic weapon probably larger than most marines use in wartime. We also stopped by to see the model airplanes which included helicopters, models up to 3 feet long/wide and one jet that looked like a miniature Blue Angels jet. Sometimes, it was hard to tell which were the model airplanes or the aircraft flying from Miami Airport.

We were able to see some former Danbury friends while we were in Sunrise, We attended Erev Shabbat Services at the synagogue of Rabbi Bradd Boxman who had been our Rabbi in Danbury, and helped Geoff with his choice of Judaism. We also had lunch with Jodi and, her son, Jacob. We went on a walk in a great Nature Preserve with them to look for alligators. We didn't see any alligators but we did see MANY beautiful birds. In fact, I called it the birdie-est place we had visited. It's such a great perk of our travels to catch up with so many longtime friends.

Our most touristy day was a trip into Miami. First, we had Cuban Sandwiches in Little Havana. We sat on stools at a street side cafe where it seemed like we were visiting the cooks' home kitchen. Then we drove to South Beach to look at the Art Deco Architecture. We walked about 3 miles around the downtown area and through the Lincoln Road mall area and Espanola Way, and all the way to the Holocaust Memorial. We even walked a short distance on Miami Beach, although it was somewhat deserted.

From “D” to Shining “D”

Orange County, California to Orange County, Florida. 4518 RV-miles. 2 1/2 months. Disneyland to Disney World. What is the constant? Dave and Marie Cole, of course.

Acadiana Pit Stop

Hi! It's Ellyn, tonight. Geoff is already asleep - usually we write the posts together and he posts the photos but I wanted to get something posted so it's just me and no photos.

We're camped in the heart of Louisiana Cajun which is nicknamed Acadiana and a blending of Acadian and Louisiana. Acadia is now known as Nova Scotia and the French Catholics, there, were expelled by the British back in the 17th century. They were dispersed and then, ultimately, resettled in Louisiana. They became known as the Cadians which evolved into being called Cajun. It's an amazing story of cultural survival that, after 300 years, their culture, language and cuisine have survived - well, actually thrived.

We had intended to stay here only 4 days but our car is in the dealer service center awaiting brake parts so our stay is extended to at least 8 days. It's not a bad place to stay. The food in incredible in this area and we've only been eating in the local small places....more on that, below.

And Betty's RV park is the smallest and funnest campground people, ever. Last night, 12 of us went out for a crawfish dinner and tonight Betty made YUMMY Chicken Sausage Gumbo for us all PLUS she brought in a 3 piece band made up of a guitar playing vocalist with a bass and a lead guitar player. The vocalist was incredibly good and the guitar players were fantastic musicians. We both had wished the music was a bit more cajun instead of country-ish but we loved it and it was great to be part of the enthusiastic audience in Betty's RV Park gathering room. The gumbo was supurb - very much a long simmering rich chicken soup with cajun but not too spicey flavors.

The evening's festivities capped a day of driving in the country side. We had hoped to do some bird watching but we only got to see egrets which still do delight us. It was a sunny sunny day but chilly (starting out at 34F!). We did see a lovely little cemetery, had a great lunch at Suire's Grocery and Restaurant. We met one of the owners as we were walking in. She asked where we were from which happens with everybody we meet, here, and we answer "Connecticut" even though that isn't quite accurate, anymore. The owner went on the to tell us that a TV crew had been at the grocery just a few days earlier - I think she mentioned that the chef with them was Chef Besh and that he told her that when he was done being a chef in New Orleans that he would come there to work. We shared one crawfish and one shrimp etouffee stuffed pirouette (fried dough). Here's an article from the NY Times from 2002 that is a great description of where to get the good food here and mentions Suire's.

We also stopped in a Cajun jam session at a small cafe, in Erath, for about an hour. There were six musicians including an incredible acordian player playing incredible music. Plus we stopped by Delcambre to see the shrimp boats, which we saw, but there was no action on them as it's the weekend. We love driving by the countryside - seeing horses, cattle, crawfish fields and the occasional egret. It's very very flat here as it is all part of the deltas from the Mississippi and its offspring.

All in all, today was a heavenly day - beautiful sunny drive through the countryside, two venues of incredible live music and great food. Ahhhhh....the RV life! Now, if only our car is fixed on Monday! 


Update by Geoff, 12/9/2009: We have left Acadiana and headed off to Florida and the rest of our lives. But we would be lying if we did not say that our time in Abbeville had not changed us. When we arrived, I thought "Gee, this is a pretty basic RV park" as all was gravel, the sewer lines were above ground, the electric connection had no local breaker and the box door would not close over the connection. However, we did get right off to a fast start because there was a "happy hour" going on right as we arrived, so we got to meet most of the other campers. The camp owner, Betty, was hosting the party, had snacks out, and everyone brought their own drinks. This went on every night from 4:30 until about 6:00 or whenever people decided to head back to their rigs. We quickly learned that it was something to also show up for because everyone got to share what they had done that day and we could get ideas of other places to go and, especially, places to eat. Also, Betty was always planning outings for whomever was interested, usually to go for dinner or lunch. One evening she made gumbo for us and invited in some local musicians who were wonderful. We had a great time that night.

Between the great times with Betty, all the cultural things we got to see, we even met the mayor of Abbeville, and listening to a radio station with lots of Cajun music in both English and French, we feel like we have truly experienced Acadiana.

Houston and Acadiana Visits

We had a great time in Houston visiting with all four of Ellyn's cousins from her Father's side of the family and her Uncle Lou plus "new" cousin, Abbey, and her family ("new" = recent connection through family genealogist, Fred). Many thanks to all of them for all the food and laughter and good times during our visits. In addition to family, we visited the beaches on the Gulf two times, had a great bike ride, visited the beer can house, and bought cowboys boots & hat. Plus we did do some just plain relaxing and paperwork including finalizing the refinancing of our RV.

On Sunday, we resumed our eastward travel. Our first stop was in the beautiful little Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, LA. It was great to be camped right near a swamp including water fowl, Spanish Moss, and Cyprus tree knees. It's amusing to see the ducks on the Gulf because there are white ones with red faces and other which have cow-like black and white coloring.

Our next stop was Jennings, LA where we went straight to Boudin King for boudin, a Louisiana sausage stuffed with spicy pork, onions, rice and herbs. The woman at the counter could tell we were visitors (our accents?) and offered us two inch samples of our choice of mild or spicy boudin (we chose mild). It was great tasting but there was so much else good on the menu that we decided to take one pound of boudin for dinner and to eat something else for lunch. Geoff had rice & beans with sausage and Ellyn had fried giblets and okra. Yummy.

We next went next door and visited the W. H. Tupper museum. What a wonderful time capsule of a rural store from the late 40's plus a telephone museum! And an extra treat was that the woman who showed us around was the Great-Granddaughter of the first mayor of Jennings so she knew a lot about the town history and people. Third stop was the Visitors center which had three big alligators and a baby alligator that we could hold. We remember us stopping to see the alligators with Logan and Brian, in '93, when we four drove around the US in four weeks.

Our next destination was Abbeville, LA, where we are currently parked in Betty's RV Park which is only 17 spots. A funny  thing is that our friends, Norm and Shelley, also camped here but we didn't even know that until after we had made plans to come here. Betty is the owner and there's a BYO happy hour each evening. Today, Betty provide home backed banana bread that was fantastic.

Today wasn't one of our better RVing days. First off, it is cold and rainy. Second, our car started making a loud clacking noise when we heading out for Avery Island, this morning. We were hesitant to continue driving it so we called a tow truck and then the car stayed in the shop the rest of the day but they couldn't find the problem. So, Geoff retrieved the car and when we drove it to dinner, tonight, it stopped making the noise. We had a great dinner at Shucks! I really liked the vinaigrette which had a nice sweet and tart taste. When I saw bottles of the Shucks Cane Sugar Vinaigrette at the cashiers and asked how much they were, she said I could just take one. A fun end to a day that started pretty gloomy.

So, we'll head for Avery Island, again, tomorrow. Hope the drive goes better than today's did.