Road Trip - Day 11

This morning we woke up to the kids "mosquito hunting." We seemed to have a continual influx of mosquitoes throughout or stay and couldn't figure out where they were coming from. It was so bad (and they love me so much) that I had to sleep with everything but my nose and mouth under the covers...and even then they bit my lips!!! Ugh.

After everyone regained consciousness for the day, we made a mad dash to pack up camp as there were some heavy duty rainclouds encroaching upon us. It started to sprinkle as we drove out.

Of course before we headed out of town to our new destination, we had to run some last minute errands, like attempting to find my Nike Free Run's at Sports Authority. It was a bust. And then run by the Redbox for a kids movie. And then by the used book store for a book for Russ...which I didn't find, mostly due to the place being completely overrun by books (they were literally stacked to the ceiling. And although they were in sections, there was absolutely NO organization whatsoever...makes it tough to find a book written by a specific author...). However I found a book!...not that I was looking for one.

And then the duluge began. Seriously, the heavens opened up and even though it was only 11am, it seemed as though everyone and their dog were on the roads. And I cannot tell you how frustrating New Orleans streets can be....talk about stress....

And THEN we had to check out Books A Million for Russ's book, which of course wasn't there. Blah.


So on the road at 11:30am. Can anyone think of a reason that this isn't a good idea???? Duh--a half hour on the road and it's time for freaking lunch. So we stopped at Tony's Seafood in Baton Rouge. It was rated just shy of 5 stars, and I hadn't tried any authentic gumbo yet, so we gave it a try.

When we pulled up, in giant letters they advertised (among other lovely things) FRESH ALLIGATOR MEAT and FRIED FROG LEGS. Awesome. We must be at the right place. We were all starving and it was hot, so we couldn't leave the dog in the car, so Russ ran in and grabbed us some food.

I must say, I don't think Louisiana food is for me. Fried catfish, pork n' beans, seafood gumbo...I did like the sausage and rice though.


Anyways, back onto the road. We didn't go far before something didn't sound right. We pulled over so Russ could look things over, but nothing seemed amiss. So we got back on and kept going.

At our off-ramp, Russ decided to pull over and check everything else out again, and guess what he found. We'd blown out another tire. Sigh. I must say though, Russ is getting pretty good at these flat tires...in and out in 10 minutes!

So we got back on route onto our off-ramp and ended up on this really awful road. We realized we were in the "boonies" when all of the houses started looking like the one below (and this was one of the better ones!). There were ones made out of any and all different materials, and another that was two single-wide trailers on top of each other. You just can't make this stuff up, people.

And you want to know the most hilarious part??? Every single house had a name. Yup, a name. There were at least 40 of these houses along this little stretch of road. We liked "His" and "Hers". And "Dad's Pad When Mom's Mad". We had a giggle about this one as well:

Then the road ended in this crazy bridge, which had a big UPS truck coming down on it at a million miles an hour so we had to slam on the brakes.

We finally wound through more back roads and found our campground in the absolute middle of nowhere. Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. I went in to talk to the woman in the ranger station to get our pass, and no joking you guys, I could not understand a word. Or I should say, I had to filter it all.

For example, she said, "Wundays I gunna fahout dishere char." I'm sure she thought it a bit odd as I just stood there with a stupid look on my face for a few minutes until a lightbulb finally went off and I realized what she said.

She mention, "Yer a long way frem home." "Yup, we're making our way to California. Our last stop was in New Orleans." She gave me a face like a mix between baring her almost-all-there teeth at me and looking like she smelled something awful. "Wull, they just be crazy in Na'olans. Them is plum crazy." Yes, I did my best to keep from busting out laughing right there and then.

We found our campsite and the kids got out of the car. Well...Brooklyn got out of the car. Sam was supposed to be getting out...I asked Brooklyn to go check on him. She came back with her hands on her hips and huffing, "He said he just wants to sleep on the floor!!!!!!!" So I went to check for myself....the poor kid had gotten 1.5 socks on and just couldn't.handle.any.more.

We unloaded his bike and he was up in a flash. There is a loop at the end of this road, so he'd ride down to the loop and back to camp. He did it at least 6 times that evening, which was pretty impressive.

This is Brooklyn, showing off her swinging vine (just to the left of her in the photo) that she found.

Weeeeee!!!!!

She swung on it for a good 10 minutes. Then I gave it a try. Then Sam. ...then Russ. And that was the end of the Swinging Vine. Brooklyn was so angry, she stomped off to our dock. This is her "what the heck do YOU want?!" look...

Then she decided she wanted to do some school work. So we did letter tracing, Madlibs, flash cards...lots of good stuff. She amazes me at how much she loves to learn. I hope she never ever loses it.

Here's our campsite. Although we really are in the middle of nowhere (Russ's phone has absolutely no reception and gets a blip of 3G service every 6 hours or so...thankfully they have wi-fi for the computer, but Russ's phone won't connect to it for some silly reason). We really enjoyed the contrast between New Orleans and this place. It was quite stark....minus the mosquitoes...

Russ felt bad for breaking the vine, so he rigged up a rope swing for the kids. It was a hit!

Then it was dinnertime and everyone passed out.

Tomorrow: A rainy day as Tropical Storm Lee begins to make his appearance.