First trip in the camper!

Thursday, February 9th, I left work early and we headed to south Louisiana for A+ RV Park and Motel.  We wanted to get the camper on the road and test it out before we take any major trips.  Lake Charles is about 210 miles from the house so it was the perfect test trip.  It was a beautiful weekend!  Rain was predicted but we never ran into any.  The cloud cover cooled things off, but the wind was crazy!!  We came in from our Saturday ride about 2:30 because the wind was blowing about 18 mph and gusting who knows how high.  The camper and truck did great although we found a few things not working properly on the camper so it is now back at Campers World to be fixed.  South Louisiana is so very unique and has so many industries - cattle, cropland, crawfish ponds, oil and gas industry, ports for all kinds of boats, fishing...and we saw a little of all of those in one day!  It was an awesome trip and we are so blessed to have this little camper and the opportunity to travel...:)

 



Heading out!!

Set up in the park - here is our view.  I really enjoyed sitting here, watching cars go by, people walking and fishing-very enjoyable.

 

Kenneth talking to our neighbor, John, from Michigan

Dinner at the camper the first night. 

 



Everything hooked up easily and worked great!

Getting ready to head out Saturday morning.  Heading south for Holly Beach and the Gulf of Mexico!

 

Water on both sides of the road almost all the way down to the Gulf.  People were fishing all along the way.

Gulf of Mexico at Holly Beach

It was a gorgeous day, but a bit chilly! There was a guy stuck in the sand to the right and we visited with the lady who was renting him a house when she came to check on him.  Got her card - who knows?  We may rent a spot on the beach one day!

Rode Hwy. 27, the Intercoastal Hwy., all the way to the ferry!

Loading up

Out of order, but this is the ride we did in south Louisiana on Friday

First time on a ferry on the bike

Docking in Cameron, LA

We went from these magnificent live oak trees to....

....palm trees!!!

One of the walls at T-Boyz

Cold beer, fried oysters, fried shrimp, and the best onion rings we've ever had - REALLY!! Good thing I'm not on a diet.

When we docked in Cameron, I found this cool little place on my phone and we headed here to eat.  One of many great stops.

I've seen crawfish ponds, but never this many!!  This is the crawfish capital of Louisiana, I think.  And I've never actually seen them being worked.  The men were out in just about every pond in these crazy little boats, picking up traps, emptying them into their boats and dropping them back in the pond.  The way these boats "crawl" through the water was a sight to see.

A south Louisiana cemetery - all above ground.

Made a stop at the Lafayette Harley Davidson store.

We asked the cook at T-Boy's where to get the best boudin and she sent us here.  Got a couple pounds of boudin and some peeled crawfish to make some etouffee when I get home!

Speaking of crawfish, we went to The Boiling Point restaurant close to our camper and got this great meal!

Back to the camper for an evening of this...we seemed to get a lot of feet up, relaxing in on this trip.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed for the Harley shop in Lake Charles.  We did not know it was the oldest dealership in our state!

We headed north today for our ride to DeRidder - my sister-in-law Karen's hometown.  I think the last time I was here was for her and my brother's wedding 32 years ago!  It's a really nice, small town.

Lunch stop for some excellent Cajun food and a local draft beer, Cryin' Eagle.

My goodness-catfish Opelousas, jambalaya, red beans and rice, gumbo...a little of everything.  SO good!

Got hung up by a train on the way out of DeRidder and rode with these folks some of the way back to the camper.

 

 

When we got back to the camper, we had a few beers, napped, grilled some boudin for dinner, took a walk around the campgrounds and again, propped those feet up and relaxed for the evening! What a wonderful way to spend the last night of our little getaway!!  On the way home Sunday, we spotted these five helicopters in the sky and I caught yet another shot of our flag flying.  Can't wait for our next adventure!!