Keep on keeping on

Well, we wandered to Gulfport, and had our RV serviced at Foley RV. Not a glowing recommendation to be had for these fools. My windshield wipers were obviously not working, and they tightened the bolts and called it a day. Needless to say, they did not actually fix the issue, just tightened the bolts and sent Thor a bill. I hope Thor doesn't pay it.

They asked if we had any other issues, which we did, a few little things-the drawers in the kitchen no longer stayed closed (super cheapo latches that broke within a week of us moving in) and the door that closes in the girl's beds had literally ripped off of a hinge due to the hinge slipping and getting caught into the bar along the top, with only K (an 8 year old girl) pulling on the door, so it obviously wasn't a great deal of force applied. Also, the trim above our microwave popped out every time we brought the slide in, which we had used as a kind of sensor that the slide was all of the way in. We also had a little leak at the front of the slide, where water was coming in when it rained.

They fixed the microwave trim, and the front of the slide, and tightened the bolts on the windshield wipers, all under warranty. They also fixed the other issues without telling me in advance that I'd be paying out of pocket, so I ended up paying $84 for three drawer latches and $80.50 to fix the door in front of the bunk beds, neither of which were caused by negligence and neither of which were approved by Thor for warranty work, which was disappointing, but nor even remotely surprising at this point in the game.

So we left Gulfport on a Saturday, a little poorer, but with some minor repair work done. As we hit the highway, the wipers failed, again.  I went to a local trucker repair place, a Firestone, where the guys were nice enough, but also were unable to fix the wipers. Being Saturday, the RV repair place was closed, so it was the best I could do. It stopped raining, so we hit the road, through Alabama, heading to Pensacola, FL for an overnight. We stayed at the Blue Angels Recreation park, which is military, but off base. It was nice enough, I suppose, but we were in for a wild ride of thunder, lightning and tornado warnings OH MY! I couldn't wait to get out of there! We skipped church, because of the tornado warnings, and as soon as they were lifted, got the heck out of there.

Which led to a lovely week at Panama City Beach. The RV park on the Naval Support Activity was a great stay, made even better by a visit from Grandma and Grandpa and cousin Maggie, who spent a lovely few days spoiling the kiddos and I rotten, taking care of everything and everyone and bringing a daily dose of Dunkin Donuts to ruin our diets and sugar levels, but exactly providing what we needed, a little bit of spoiled time. We went to Gulf World and the kids got to shake hands with dolphins, which pretty much made their year and Wonder Works, which made me nauseous. But overall, it was a wonderful week despite K's first sun burn and far too short amount of time with the in-laws.

Following their departure, we moped for a few days then headed out of PCB, down the Gulf Coast. I did check with Camping World in PCB, but they couldn't get us in to look at the windshield wipers until a week after we planned to leave, and as much as we enjoyed PCB, we felt the need to keep heading out. The guy there suggested that I remove the offending passenger side wiper so that I could at least see with one eye, so to speak, if it rained. We drove southeast to Crystal River, FL, where we stayed overnight, mostly to get out of the rain. And oh yeah, wiper of the driver's side doesn't work on it's own either.  But at least the rains were light until we hit downtown Tampa Bay, which is NOT RV friendly, despite what Google Maps might have to say. And the suggested route took us along the bay, with low hanging branches and narrow roads, but we made it fairly unscathed, and are now parked safely and staying in place until next week.

There is a Mobile RV Tech, who has been amazing and discovered the issue with the windshield wipers.

Cracked motors will ruin your day

Can't help but wonder if Ford did this putting the engine in. We haven't been around rain until TX.

So, I am back in contact with my friend at Thor, and hopefully the engine will be on it's way and the wipers will get fixed before we move on again... Stay tuned for the next installment to see if it actually happens and we get the wipers fixed!

Yet again

Because we cannot simply go enjoy the day somewhere without the inevitable monkey wrench, our trip to New Orleans, which was lovely for the most part was marred by two inconveniences. First, poor B has gotten a decent head cold and by this morning was feeling really rough. Of course the other kids were raring to go, and we had booked two WALKING tours of New Orleans, so I bundled her into the car with her blankie and prayed that she'd feel better for a while. (I'll tell you about the other one in chronological progression)

We got to New Orleans in great time, and found parking four blocks from our first destination with an Early Bird rate of $6.00 for the day (or $10/hr).  Um, okay, early bird it is. Woke B again, she said she felt great, so we started our VooDoo tour, cautiously optimistic. The tour was really good - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history, religion and rituals of voodoo, as opposed to the media representation of what voodoo might be. Our guide was fabulous and entertaining and the kids had a great time learning about voodoo as an alternate religion and it's union with/deception within French Catholicism.

Statue in Armstrong park

Congo Square and our guide

Looking from the center of Congo Square where forbidden vudo rituals were held, up the road to the Catholic Church, the only approved religion

Where Marie Laveau once lived (not this house, it was razed, but this address)

Plaque at  1020 Rue St Ann

By the time the tour was over, B was feeling much worse, and the kids were getting tired and hungry. We had been talking about beignets and cafe au lait for days, so it was decided that we should find somewhere to procure such sustenance, and Cafe Du Monde was the suggestion, but when we walked there, it was lunch time and there was a line, and everyone was too hungry to wait, so we went across the square and are beignets and drank cafe au lait that was, I am sure, just as good as those at Cafe Du Monde with no waiting, and the stuffed beignet with crab stuffing and creole rice was absolutely to die for.

I think he likes it

Probably not on our diet, but this is a one off

She may look unsure, but after about 5 of them, it was on!

Once everyone had eaten, the sun came out and the streets of New Orleans got steamy and HOT as they tend to do on rainy mornings. The kids started wilting all over the place and of course, someone had to be the first to fall, literally.  K was running to go relax in the shade on a bench and fell flat on her face, and landed hands and knees roughly on the rough stones of Jackson Square. By that point, the afternoon was an absolute wash and we decided that the second tour just wasn't in the cards, and I notified the guide that we would be skipping, and we headed back to the car and back to Gulfport.

Jackson Square just before "the incident"

Or so we thought. Just as we came upon Slidell (again) the tire light came on to tell me of low air in a tire. I pulled off just before the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, and the gas station of last resort had an air pump in their lot. Unfortunately, it didn't actually work. The two workers inside said the nearest station was across the bridge. Red Headed local boy concurred that I should be fine driving across the bridge unless it was "totally flat." Hmm...

I took the Irish Bayou bridge instead (smaller bridge, one lane in each direction), and the first station on that side of the bridge had an air pump that worked too.  Unfortunately, the air did not remain in the tire, and it was flat before we hit the interstate. Fortunately, the light came on just in front of... a tire store. Unfortunately, they were booked for at least four hours, but he sent me off to another tire place. Fortunately, they were able to get us in immediately. Unfortunately, they did not have a single solitary tire in the size I needed, but they were willing to at least throw the donut on for me, so I could once again make slow haste down I-90 and across the border into Mississippi with an eye toward getting tires on base.

But, of course, it was quite a long drive at 35-40 mph, so I happened upon a small tire shop in Waveland, MS and decided to pop in. Thankfully they had not one, but FOUR tires in the right size, all of which are now on our car. So, in the end, although our luck has continued, we did make it safely home and had a lovely time in New Orleans, having done almost everything we had intended to do.

Eastward

Since leaving San Antonio, we have had a wonderful time catching up with friends and family with much more to come in the next few weeks. We left San Antonio and stayed at Live Oak Ridge State Park at Belton Lake, near Temple, TX. This was our first experience with a COE (Army Corps of Engineers) park, but likely not our last. It was a beautiful place to stay with access to the lake for boats as well as kiddos. We went down and launched a small toy "boat," built a small wall of rocks, explored with roly poly bugs and played with snails (ew!).

We also had a chance to go visit with one of my Great Aunts (I have a few), Jackie, who is one day older than my mother. They have a two dogs, and my kids are not really great with dogs, but these cute pups won their hearts pretty quickly. It was great to hear stories of my mother growing up and the two families interacting with each other.

Petting a puppy is HUGE in our circles

Even a smile or two while doing it

Sad to say goodbye

From Lake Belton, we headed southeast to League City to visit with a friend from my Navy days (Kitty Hawk West-pac 1995-6, I was with VAQ 135, she was with VAW-117). We stayed up too late, laughed a lot and got to know each other's midgets. We also headed to Schlitterbahn Water Park in Galveston on a torrentially rainy day, cut short slightly by thunder and lightning and the closing of the park, but it was still a great time. The rains continued as we toured the sea wall in Galveston, and headed back to her home. I guess I should have paid a little more attention to the weather, as rain is in the forecast for the foreseeable future as well. BOOOO!

Belton Lake

 A lot of what we hoped to do this trip

Rockin' it

Loving it

Will this rock skip?

He had a blast in the lake

Launching their "boat" (yes, we retrieved it)

"Our" snail

After a bittersweet farewell to Krista and family, we headed east and out of Texas into Louisiana. We were fortunate to find an RV park with a pool (Coushatta Casino) for Monday night, and the rain held off long to allow the kids to get to swim for a short while. They also had cable and internet, so the monkeys were happy.

We got up and out of there early enough, and headed east, yet again. I had watched the weather channel that morning, which I don't normally do, and noticed that I-10 was going to have blinding rains and potential flooding along the entire route all day, and decided to take a smaller route, I-190, which also lead east, but on a more northerly tract, which turned out to be a blessing. Because, as has been our luck on this adventure, something broke.

Uh oh!

Driving along on a small highway with a great big shoulder, the wipers stopped working. As in, I turn them on, and the passenger's side blade flipped over under the driver's side blade and got stuck, blocking both blades from working. I'm 53 miles from my destination in a fairly heavy rain, with no windshield wipers. I pulled over and looked to see if there was anything I could figure out that would make them work, and tightened the passenger's side blade a little, by hand. Nope. Pulled over again and called Thor. The closest repair shops were either 53 miles forward in Gulfport, or 43 miles back. Poop! Of course by this time, it was 5:00 p.m. and local repair shops are closing, and no one I called can help me out.

So, I pressed on, slowly using back roads rather than major highways, but there aren't many ways to get across LA to MS. Route 90 follows the beachline, much of which had been destroyed during Hurricane Katrina, and I was a little concerned about the choice, given the amount of rain. I called Frank's uncle Hank and aunt Judy, to be sure the RV wouldn't meet any complications with low bridges or small bridges unable to handle the weight of the RV. They have been local to the area for years and familiar with the route and gave me the all clear (with the caveat that the rains may have flooded parts of route 90).

Whew! Getting there...

I'm starting to remember my years in Gulfport and some of the issues we faced here with weather. It was kind of interesting that these flashbacks started at Schlitterbahn, where they had high water lines for Hurricane Ike, which hit the area September 13, 2008. For those who remember my experiences in September 2008, we had evacuated Gulfport in late August, about 36 weeks pregnant with C, when Hurricanes Gustav, Hannah and eventually Ike were on the horizon. While there was no immediate danger to the area, hangovers from Katrina were fresh in everyone's minds, and it was best for us to leave. C was born just after Ike devastated Galveston, safely up in Massachusetts.

In any case, back to today, we are safely parked in Gulfport, heading out to get the wipers fixed, now that I've had some time to take a few breaths.  Hopefully we're here for a few days, before continuing on east, yet again.

Family on a mission

That's right, following the week of Easter, we have been touring the Missions of San Antonio, which are pretty amazing. First off, if I had it to do again, from the very beginning, we would have brought our bikes straight away and started at one end, and then rode to the other or something, but as it was, we went first to Mission San Jose, which is actually the one in the middle.  The reason I say this, is that there is an amazing system of bike rentals here in San Antonio, called B-cycle. Basically, you can rent a bike from their stand, and return it within 30 minutes and it costs you only $10 for a 24 hour period. If you fail to return it within the 30 minutes, they charge $2/per 30 minutes. In any case, a great way to see the Missions of San Antonio.

Riding the trails

Mission San Jose

Fresco at the Mission San Jose

A pretty cool looking gate, pretty sure not original

Restored entrance to the chapel at Mission San Jose

Inside of the chapel was beautiful

One of the side corridors at Mission San Jose

The Missions are located within 15-20 minutes of one another, even at our speed (letting 4 year old B set the pace). So we rented a bike for me at 2:00 p.m. and rode through the afternoon, starting at Mission Espada and riding to Mission San Juan de Capistrano and back on Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, we headed back to Mission San Jose and rented another bike on the same 24 hour $10 fee, and rode to Mission Concepcion and back, which was the longest ride. We had already been to the Alamo, so we did not ride in, largely because I was a little afraid of the kids riding in the city, more so than the distance, although they are very astute riders, following the rules of the road and using bike lanes responsibly.

Mission Espada

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

Mission San Juan's church

Rustic beauty of Mission San Juan

The kids stumped the docent asking about the origin of this cross and the surrounding cacti

Mission Concepcion

Mission Concepcion had an amazing Easter display on the altar

Each surrounding alcove was more amazing than the last

This fresco on the ceiling led to a discussion of the history of ladders

Token cute turtles we saw while riding along the River Walk

The missions here are amazing and they make me wish we had more time to spend here, and regret that we "wasted" so much of last week, but honestly, I think we needed the relief of a day relaxing at Sea World, SA. Yeah, I said it - Sea World with my kids was relaxing. Mostly. For some reason, Good Friday was a long day of being open, but there was no one in the park. I mean, no longer than a 15 minute wait for a ride and no crowding at the shows, no one. It was truly amazing to be able to just relax and enjoy all of the rides with the kids and see the shows that I normally eschew because I hate sitting crowded in with strangers. It was an overcast day, but warm enough to enjoy the water rides, and we had a wonderful time. We did come home for supper because we had a hard time finding a meal that was meat-free for the final Friday of Lent, but we were gone from the park for less than 90 minutes and were there right after opening until the park closed and it was about a perfect day.

Token Shamu show shots

In all of his Sea World glory

And the other Shamu - in bad lighting

Riding the Carousel late in the evening

Glad they still love Abby Cadaby

Posers

This type of ride used to be C's fave for the longest time

Leaving after having gotten our money's worth

I couldn't find a good place to add this, but if you are a Catholic and visit San Antonio, I have two suggestions - Saint Mary's Church downtown is truly lovely, and I would also love to go to a noon Mass at the Mission Concepcion, because they have a Mariachi performing the music and I can think of nothing I'd like to see more... Next trip, perhaps!