Meaher State Park, Mobile, Alabama (January 29 - February 1)
Arrived on a beautiful warm day. Very nice campground right on the Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. Campground had some boardwalk hikes, piers and a boat launches into the Bay. We spent the better part of one day touring the USS Alabama, a retired WW 2 Navy battleship. Very cool tour led by a former Annapolis Naval Academy graduate. Awesome detail and very engaging. Drove through downtown Mobile to check it out (nothing special). Learned that this was the original start of Madi Gras celebrations in the US, but New Orleans is obviously more well known.
Spent one on/off rainy day in Gulf Shores, Alabama (45 minutes from our campground). Very touristy and apparently where many people vacation in the summertime since it is right on the Gulf of "Mexico". If we ever come back along this way, we would probably stay there. There are many campgrounds and lots to do. We went out to late lunch at a tasty seafood place with decent live music.
New Orleans RV Resort and Marina (Feb 1 - 6)
Blew through Mississippi on the way to Louisiana (yes, we did stop at a rest stop for Jim to get out and run 2 miles in Mississippi in his silly quest to run in all 50 states).
While arriving to New Orleans we drove through a high crime area (a bit scary) to get to the resort. The campground and Marina were very nice. Some of the premium RV spots had full outdoor kitchens and hot tubs at each site. The weather was awesome in the low to mid 70s. We drove across massive Lake Pontchartrain to go run on a neat old railway trail in Covington, Louisiana.
We did a 2 hour walking tour with a guide in the French Quarter. It was mostly about the history of the city which was interesting, but not much walking or site seeing. After the tour we explored Bourbon Street and Royal Street (but drank no bourbon). It is definitely a party scene with ton's of bars and nightlife that we didn't partake in. Being here the week of the Super Bowl was interesting. I've never seen such a law enforcement presence with New Orleans PD, Louisiana State Troopers, ATF, FBI, Secret Service and 1,500 military police from the National Guard everywhere. Sad seeing the memorial from the New Years Eve terrorist attack.
Spent another full day in the French Quarter. Jim geeked out on history by touring the World War 2 museum (thanks Uncle Chuck for the recommendation). Awesome tour guide with great insights. Jim could have spent another full day there. At the same time Dana went on a steamboat ride along the Mississippi River with a historical tour and a Jazz band. We saw the big Budweiser horse drawn carriage with Clydesdale horses and the little dalmatian aboard.
Went out to dinner and had authentic Cajun food (Shrimp Gumbo soup, Jambalaya, Po'boy sandwich, Red Beans and Rice, etc.) while listening to an awesome jazz band. We would come back to New Orleans again as it is one of our favorite cities on our travels so far.
Whispering Meadows RV Park, Westlake Louisiana (Feb 6-7)
Just a quick overnight in a small town. Nice clean RV park. Most of the workers are oil/gas workers in the gulf. They helicopter or boat out to the oil platforms and work 10 days on and 7 days off. Talked to former worker who now manages the RV park. Oil work is a very difficult and dangerous. Learned a lot about oil operations business as well as his interesting perspective on life. Talking to folks around the country from different walks of life has been one of Jim's favorite parts of our journey.
This entire town was wiped out by a hurricane 5 years ago. Stark contrast between so much being brand new, and old dilapidated buildings and houses that were left abandoned.
Colorado River RV Park, Columbus Texas (Feb 7 - 10)
Interesting how we go from an urban environment in New Orleans one day to deer hunting country in very rural Texas the next day. Beautiful park with the Colorado River (not the one your thinking of) running through the campground. Very nice campground out in the country, yet it has all the amenities. We both sighed in relaxation at waking up to 40 deer in our "front yard". We went to the Super Bowl party in the activity room. It was a potluck with over 40 people attending and tons of food variety. We would definitely camp here again if ever in the area. We went to Houston one day for a long run/bike ride of 16 miles on the George Bush nature trail (cool place).
Sun Outdoors Lake Travis, Austin Texas (Feb 10 - Feb 24)
Stayed a full 2 weeks as this is where our son Shamus is staying. Our son Declan flew in from Sacramento for a week and we had the whole Molony family band back together. It was awesome being together and exploring Austin. The campground we were at was very nice (heated pool, hot tub, ping pong, pool table, workout gym, etc.).
Unfortunately after arriving, Texas was hit with an arctic blast of cold air for 4 days. Temperatures at night got down to 18 degrees. With windchill it was 3 degrees in the morning when taking our dog Gracie out for her AM business. The water valve that feeds our heated hose froze solid and there were icicles hanging from our camper. We used boiling hot water and a hair dryer to free up the frozen pipes coming above ground (not fun). During the cold spell, the four of us played a lot of ping pong (competitive as always), board games and just hung out.
We ran/hiked along Lady Bird Johnson lake in downtown Austin on a warm day. It was amazing and there were thousands of people out using the park and trails. We picked Declan up at the airport and immediately went downtown to the music scene for dinner and a blues band that Jim and Dana enjoyed, but it wasn't our son's thing.
On one of the warmer days, we packed up our paddle boards and the one Shamus has and heading to a nice river under a dam. Dana, Declan and Shamus paddled for a good 2 hours while Jim ran the hills around the area.
Jim and Declan spent a good half day downtown exploring University of Texas campus (music building, football stadium, museum and just walking around. We proceeded downtown for some very good Tex/Mex food and found some good music in a bar to listen and hang out. Shamus and Dana played a variety of board games.
After Declan left, the three of us took in a college tennis match. University of Texas is ranked 4th in the nation for men's tennis and there were very high quality level of play going on. UT crushed Vanderbilt University.
The final day, Shamus took us to his favorite local hiking path: Canyon Land.
Stadium RV Park, Sonora Texas (Feb 24 - 25)
Small town Texas in the middle of nowhere for what we though was a quick overnight. Very rural poor area, yet felt safe in the economically challenged surrounding. Another RV overnighter gave us a recommendation to go check out some caves, so off we went to the Caverns of Sonora about 12 miles away. Very cool place on private property of a local rancher. The caves go down 150 feet and the guide gave a great tour. The stalactites and stalagmites were impressive as were the underground streams. The rancher cutoff exploring further under his ranch, but it is thought that they caves can go on for as far as 80 miles!
We spoke at length with another couple from South Carolina on the tour whose teenage sons work in the Permian basin West Texas oil fields. Quite eye opening. These young men work 12 hour days for 14 straight days then get 2 weeks off. Crazy to make $125k a year at such a young age, but it is definitely a young man's game as the work is difficult in sometimes very harsh environments. It was amazing driving through West Texas, the pan handle and southern New Mexico seeing the vast amount of wells, processing plants and billions of dollars in infrastructure to process all the oil and natural gas we need for our homes and transportation. The pop up RV parks for all these young men to live near the oil fields is mind boggling. The crews have to rotate some to New Mexico as none of them want to work there (state income tax required).
Carlsbad RV Park, New Mexico (Feb 25 - 28)
Carlsbad is kind of a dumpy little town in the high desert (3,300 feet above sea level). We would never voluntarily travel here if it weren't for the proximity to 2 amazing National Parks. Carlsbad Canyon National Park is truly a national treasure. Words cannot describe how incredible it is. The size of these underground caverns is amazing (the big room is 4000 feet wide, 625 feet long and 255 feet high). The underground cavern explorers have traveled over 140 miles underground in different direction. Pictures from our phones don't capture the majesty of the underworld - it appears like you are on another planet. We highly recommend putting it on your bucket list if you have not seen it.
The next day it was off to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Northern Texas. It was just okay as far as National Parks go. Nothing really mind blowing. It's tough to understand why some sites are considered National Parks versus something like parts of Lake Tahoe are not. We went on a 7.5 mile hike up through canyons and found a small shallow cave that had a few stalactites and stalagmites. It was a nice sunny day and we got in some exercise, so that was fun. However, it went from cold to hot frequently and Dana couldn't decide whether to wear pants or jean shorts, so in a fashion statement she wore both. Just waiting on the call from designer Vera Wang for Dana to join her fall line team:).
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