WELL WE WON'T DO THAT AGAIN

From the title, I bet you thought this post would be a negative one.  Not necessarily.

We are now about three months into on our southern travels for 2016/2017.  We have been many places and some we will never go back to.  Some only because they are things you only need to do once, or, as my mother would say "once in a blue moon".

We will never try to overnight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.   Not Walmart, not anywhere.  As I was told by the manager of Walmart in Sioux Falls, city bylaws prohibit any overnighting.  We did however find a very nice park in Elk Point, South Dakota because we had to push on.

In Memphis, we did Elvis' house.  Doug did it for me but it was interesting.  Not the kind of thing you would do twice.  The park in South Memphis was great but then why would you go there.

We have been to New Orleans twice now.  We returned because the last time we were there we had our dog, Parker, and could not leave him in the rig alone for the time we needed to visit the French Quarter.  We stayed at the same RV park, Pontchartrain Landing, and really like that park.  We went to the French Quarter but we did not like it.  Not our thing.  Lots of drinking and partying and crowds of people.  We had a great dinner.

And then we went to Betty's RV park in Abbeville, Louisiana!
We went for a week and stayed a month.  I could go on and go about what a great time we had and the great new friends we met but I have blogged that a few times already.  We will return to Betty's year after year.  As Betty says "In Louisana you just have to run over an armadillo and they have a festival."  We did several festivals in that month and we will be back for more.

 We wanted to return to the Padre Island area and we did.  We stayed at Mustang Island State Park.  We will not return.  The camping was way overpriced, the facility old, dirty and sites were very small.  And the humidity.....  We aren't really "beach" people, perhaps if we were.  Well, still no.

On our way to Big Bend National Park, we discovered the best Walmart for over-nighting in Del Rio, Texas.  Designated RV sites, quiet and safe.   We also stopped at Langtry, Texas and visited the Judge Roy Bean museum.  Well worth the stop.  But once will do it.

We will always remember this photo.  It was taken by a guy visiting from Russia.

Okay now Big Bend National Park.  Where does it fit into this theme?  Loved it.  It's gorgeous.  There is so much to do.  The camping is cheap.  Here comes the but!  It's vast.  Huge.  From Marathon, Texas to the park gate was 40 miles  From the park gate to the campsite was another 65 miles.  Back up to the Chisos Mountain area was 30 miles.  We found a different way out via Study Butte but that was 40 miles.

 

Would we go back?  Of course we will but not for many years.  



And now we are at one of our last Escapee Parks to visit.  The Ranch is reputed to be the friendliest park in the club.  Very friendly indeed.  Very well organized.  Free WiFi and reverse osmosis water at all the sites.  We find Happy Hour seven days a week a bit much but we don't go every day.  The weather has been awful.  Cold and raw.  That's not the park's fault though. 

I haven't even taken any pictures.  It's too cold and ugly right now.  

Will we come back.  Sure we will if we are ever this way again.  Maybe it will be warm and sunny.

I haven't mentioned our first two stops.

  First we visited our daughter Charlette in Winnipeg.  As long as she is there, we will visit her.  No more Newfoundland Charlette.  We can't visit you there.

We visited David and his family in Bagley, Minnesota next.  They are making plans to move west.  Perhaps to British Columbia but more than likely Northern Washington.  We will visit you wherever.  We have forty years to make up.  💓💘