HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNA SWEETIE We Arrived Safe and Sound in Vadalia, LA 3/31/2008

We both want to wish our little girl Anna Banana a very very Happy Birthday and we hope she has a great day and hope she likes her present.


Well here we are sitting in our RV looking out the front window at the Mississippi River flowing by and it's really going by rapidly. As we ate dinner there was a tugboat pusing several barges up the river. Like I said we are in Vadalia, LA right across the river from Natchez, MS.We got off about 10:30 this morning after I was on the phone for almost 2 hours with Garmin about our GPS and come to find out it was the GPS unit and we have to send it back for repair. Let us tell you one thing DO NOT travel Interstate RT 55 out of New Orleans going north. It was a nightmare and we were so glad to get off it. All you did was go bump, bump,bump and it was terrible. I'm surprised we didn't get a flat tire. Everything fell off the table and all the cupboards were a mess when we opened the doors. Once we got off that nightmare it was a good trip. We got here about 1:30 and were all set up by 2:00. We are staying at the River View RV Resort and it's a great campgrounds. The sights are all concrete pads, the office, bathrooms and game room are all new. As we said it overlooks the Mississippi and it really is a nice view. After we got set up we went out and looked around Vadalia and it's a good thing Natchez is close as there is absolutely nothing here in the way of historical sites. They do have a Wal-Mart so we guess all is not lost. We got catfish from a small restaurant here and it was very tasty after we got back from our sightseeing trip. Mom is watching TV and I am doing the blog. Well time to say good night and until tomorrow and we love you all.

Our Visit to New Orleans 3/30/2008

We left this morning for New Orleans about 7:15 am for our caching and sightseeing trip . We drove down Rt 55 through the Bayou's of LA and past the edge of Lake Ponchatrain. Boy you talk about bayou's for miles and miles and not a house to be seen. We got into New Orleans and started caching the first thing before the traffic go to bad. We did eight virtual caches and one puzzle cache. We started out with a cache at the National WW 2 Museum. The Museum covers the Normandy Invasion as well as the many D-Days that took place in the Pacific War. It is still in the process of being expanded and filled with more stories and artifacts. NO is the original home of the "Higgins Boat" that allowed beach invasions to occur with an ease never before possible for an invading force. There were bricks laid in the floors and concrete outside the museum with information about individuals that have served in the armed forces and we had to get some information about a particular person to log this cache.
Then it was on to Survivor's Park and our next cache. The park was completed in August of 1995 and is the most unique and attractive of all the parks to date. Proceeding from one end there is a Arch of Triumph with a computer inside and a frieze of 72 feet of tiles made by children with cancer representing their feelings about the disease. It has 5 bronze statues showing men, women and children striding through square frames that represent their passage through hardship. It also features a walkway with 14-25' columns which represent different world cultures, emphasizing the universal fight against cancer. The columns feature an American Indian totem pole, a Russian column, a minaret-style Middle Easter column and a NO column which features Mardi Gras doubloons, wrought iron and musical instruments. Each column has an inspirational message on it for people going through cancer treatment. At the end is a beautiful flower display and a fountain in the shape of the Earth.
Next we went to a statue of Ignatius J. Reilly in front of the Sonesta Chateau Hotel the former site of the D. H. Holmes Department Store. Ignatius is a character in the book "A Confederacy of Dunces written by John Kennedy in 1980. The story is set in the 1960's in NO and the central character Reilly, an intelligent but slothful man still living with his mother at age 30 in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, because of family circumstances, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. The statue mimics the opening scene of the book: Ignatius waits for his mother under the D. H. Holmes clock, clutching a Werelein's shopping bag, dressed in a hunting cap, flannel shirt, baggy pants and scarf 'studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste'.
Then it was on to Bourbon Street and a cache at Musical Legends Park or Edison Place named after Thomas Alva Edison. The park was completed in 1976 and now features 4 bronze statues of famous jazz musicians. They are Antoine "Fats" Domino, Al "Jumbo" Hirt, Pete Fountain and Chris Owens. This park has become the focal point for for many groups of local musicians and city officials.
Next was a cache located in a small park in the French Quarter that contained several statues the main one being Jean Baptiste LeMoyne de Bienville who was born in Feb. 23, 1680 and died in March 7, 1767. He was the founder of New Orleans in 1717.
Then it was on to one of the all time favorite tourist attractions, LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop, or what used to be a blacksmith shop but is now a very quaint bar. The building is named after the pirate Jean LaFitte and supposedly used the shop as a front for his illegal activities. It survived the devastating fires that swept NO in 1788 and in 1794. It was built sometime before 1772, and is one of the few remaining "French Architecture structures in the French Quarter. Rumor has it that his treasure is buried in everyone's backyard. It is a popular gathering place for young and old, students and a favorite haunt for the New Orleans Kats and French Quarter Rats.
Next cache was at a statue of Joan of Arc and involved answering 6 questions about the cache. Our last cache was in Saint Louis Cemetery #1 which is the oldest and most famous in NO. It was established by Royal Spanish Land Grant in August 14, 1789 and was the main burial ground in the city after the fire of 1788. It was originally outside city limits and double its present size. From its beginning in 1789 it has been the custom to make multiple burials in the tombs and vaults. When a space in the tomb is re-used the remains of previous burials are lowered into a receptacle below the ground level or placed in the back or side of the vault. Of course the burials are in above ground vaults required here because the ground water levels make burial under ground impractical. Our cache involved the tomb of the "Voodoo Queen" Marie Laveau the most well known American voodoo priestess to have lived to date. She was born in 1801 and died in 1861 and was an American practitioner of voodoo. She married a free Creole of color who died under unexplained circumstances in 1820. She then became a hairdresser and catered to wealthy white families. Of her magical career little definaite can be said other than she had a snake named Zombi. Oral traditions suggest that the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic beliefs and saints with African spirits and religious concepts. She took charge of the voodoo rituals held at the Congo Square and sold gris-gris throughout the social strata. One legend has it that Marie never died but changed herself into a huge black crow and still flies over the ccemetery. It is said if you have a wish you make 3 X's on the tomb, knock 3 times ask for your wish and leave an offering in front of the tomb your wish will be granted. I have included a link at the bottom of this blog if you want to read more about her and her legend.
We finished caching found a place to park and went sight seeing. We walked the streets of the French Quarter for about an hour and a half, stopped to have a beignet and coffee at Cafe Beignet located in Musical Legends Park (beignets are French doughnuts made from deep fried dough and sprinkled with confectioners sugar and they are yummy), went into a gift shop at the Sonesta Hotel to get a couple of souvenirs, explored Bourbon St which kind of surprised us as all it was was bars and strip clubs. Daiquiri's are very big here in NO and almost every other bar is a daiquiri bar, strawberry, peach, lime, lemon and almost any other kind you would like. Many many restaurants of all kinds, not to many gift shops but a few t-shirt shops, lots of live music places especially jazz. Most of the buildings that have shops or restaurants have apartments above them and some of them are very very ritzy, so much so that rentals run anywhere from $1200 a month to $3000 a month for a one bedroom on Bourbon St. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!
Then it was on back to the RV and Muffy and Raggs. We got back and Mom did the logs and I showered, we called Tim, Chris, Scott and Sean and watched the NCAA games and the NASCAR race. We ate dinner and now I am doing the blog. Well time to say good night and until tomorrow from the great Mississippi River and Natchez (Vadalia, LA) MS. We love you all and miss everybody.


Picture List:1,2-Bourbon Street, 3,4,5-Rental apartments over stores, 6,7-Businesses, 8-St Theresa Church, 9-Rev Zoombies Voodoo Shop, 10-Jazz Emporium, 11-Antoine's Restaurant, 12,13,14-Survivor's Park, 15,16,17,18,19,20-St Louis Cemetery 1 (pic.16 is Marie Labeau's tomb, 21-Musical Legends Park, 22-Al "Jumbo" Hirt, 23-Antoine "Fats" Domino, 24-Pete Fountain, 25-Chris Owens, 26-Ignatius Reilly, 27,28,29-LaFitte's Blacksmith Shop, 30,31,32-Cafe Beignet, 33-Daiquiri Bar





http://www.csicop.org/sb/2001-12/i-files.html

No GPS and Raining....GREAT Day 3/29/2008

Well today wasn't the best day we have had so far as we had no GPS and we were having thunderstorms. I got up and tried loading the maps into the unit but still with no luck. Then I looked all over the Garmin web site and nothing that pertained to my problem. We found a Bass pro Shop Store close to us so we decided that we would go buy another GPS and if it wasn't that then we could return it and we also bought another mapping program which was a newer version of the one we have. We went back to the RV and I started deleting and loading and deleting and loading and no luck whatsoever. See you only get one unlock code to unlock the maps for your GPS unit and I unlocked it for our old unit to see if it was just the mapping program and not the unit, so I couldn't even try it in the new unit. I have to call Garmin on Monday and they will give me another code to unlock the maps with. So we have no GPS for our trip into New Orleans tomorrow for caching. We will have to use our Tom Tom for going and coming back and will have to wait till Monday to talk to Garmin and get it straightened out. I really think the GPS unit is going or gone bad as it has been acting kind of funny lately and not doing some of the requests that I have asked it to do.
After I got done fooling around with the GPS we did take a ride into Ponchatoula, LA to take a look around. Ponchatoula is the oldest incorportated city in Tangipahoa Parish. It got it's name from the Choctaw Indian language meaning "hair to Hang" because of the abundance of Spanish moss on the trees surrounding the area. It is the "Strawberry Capital of the World" and it will be there 37th Strawberry Festival in 2 weeks which typically host 250,000 people which makes it the largest weekend festival in the state. We have seen vendors along the road ever since we left Bay St. Louis selling the Ponchatoula strawberries and we stopped and got some for a shortcake tonight. They are supposed to be the best and sweetest strawberries in the world. Well time for dinner and then we are going to watch tv later and have our strawberry shortcke....yum yum and leave early tomorrow for New Orleans.


Picture List: 1,2-Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival Statue, 3-one of the buildings in the older section of town, 4-Richardson Hardware "everything you need in hardware", 5,6,7-Ponchatoula Depot and train.

Arrived in Hammond, LA Safe & Sound 3/28/2008

We left Bay St. Louis about 10:00 am and drove to Hammond, LA and Punkin Park Campground. It was a very uneventful trip but the traffic was unbelievably heavy going west on I-12. We got here about 11:30 and were all set up by noon, then we ate lunch and decided it was still early so we loaded a few caches into the GPS and went caching. The GPS was acting very strangely from the start but I attributed it to the fact that maybe it didn't know the roads. Well we found 4 caches, one in a small cemetery, one at a Wally World, another at an Penquin Ice Machine and the last was in a lovely park under a wooden walking bridge. We did have a few more but the GPS was acting up so we did go look for them but we couldn't pinpoint them and then it dawned on me I hadn't loaded the state of Louisiana into the GPS when I did it when we bought it. So we decided to go back to the RV and load the states we will need into the GPS. Well that was just the start of the problem it wouldn't load them as I tried over and over, as it kept giving me a error message that the unit wasn't connected. Now I have nothing in the unit as when you reload something it deletes everything you had in there. I called Garmin and they said it might be I needed a program update which I downloaded but that wasn't it. Then they said it could be a bad sector on my Micro SD card and I should get a new one. So we went to Office Depot and bought another card, came back and started over but I was still getting the same error message. Well I played around with it till about 10:30 and still couldn't get any maps loaded so I went to bed. In between all this we did have dinner and watched some tv. Well time to say until tomorrow and we love you all.


Picture List:1,2,3,4-Peter Hammond Cemetery....Peter Hammond is buried under this oak tree and was born in 1798 and died in 1870. He founded Hammond, LA in 1813. Nearby are the graves of his wife, three daughters and a favorite slave boy, whose marker is picture 3 and it is inscribed "unnamed slave boy"....really nice. 5-Dr. Walter Reed the first African-American physician within Hammond and its vicinity, 6-Joe DeMarco, as a young man he immigrated from Italy to Americaand settled in Hammond, LA. He began picking strawberries and eventually started one of the areas three strawberry associations. With his success he developed a reputation for his honesty and generosity to those less fortunate. 7-An old home being restored, 8,9-C. E. Cate and Cate Square, who first settled in Hammond in 1861 and erected a saw mill, a tannery and a shoe factory which supplied many shoes for the Army of the C.S.A. After the Civil War he played a major role in planning and promoting the town and in establishing its first school and church.