The drive to Page was interesting, for a few reasons…
1.) The scenery was actually quite nice regardless of being told otherwise.
2.) There were roughly a million tumble weeds on the side of the roads.
3.) I saw a roadrunner for the first time in my life, not including tv, and in my head a voice went “meep meep!”
4.) We drove through a sand storm, for a second I thought we would crash into something before we could see in front of us again…It was wicked and we are still alive, don’t worry.
5.) We stopped in a grocery store parking lot to make lunch in the camper, it is a tradition. Jacob hooks up the generator for the micro and toaster and we have a wonderful warm lunch in the privacy of our little camper. Well in Arizona this we put to a end. While Jacob was hooking up the generator a man walked up asking for money, it scared the Ba-Jeezus out of him!. You’re thinking that happens everywhere, I’m from the city I know this but this was different. There were no random guys anywhere, this guy popped up and then BAM it looked like Home Depot/Lowe’s after Katrina. They were just waiting for us under a tree to say “y’all come on, get in” it was crazy…where the hell did they come from? I think a car dropped them off as soon as we pulled up. Needless to say we got the hell outta Dodge.

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While in Page, AZ don’t expect to have service if you have AT&T, p.o.s. actually, if you have them then you already don’t expect much. But really Page has been the worst, something to do with the Indian Reservation. Page is beautiful! We planned to tour the Glen Canyon Dam, hike to horseshoe bend, tour Antelope Canyon, and boat on Lake Powell. Time is so confusing here, different places around town get to choose “Arizona time” or “Utah time.” In “Arizona time” they follow the time on Indian reservations, Mountain time without daylight savings. The confusing part is that you don’t who’s on what and what the time is where you are might not be the same as where you’re going.

Page Lake Powell Campground was really nice for only $21, not including 10% discount for GoodSam. There are no fire rings, but it’s so windy I wouldn’t suggest making a fire. They have a big laundry with at least 8 washers and dryers, I didn’t count. They have an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. They have clean restroom with great water pressure. Then even have a workout room with treadmill, elliptical, bike, and weights. Roux didn’t appreciate the cacti everywhere, he didn’t learn a lesson the first time he sniffed one.

The Glen Canyon Dam tour was $5 per person and 45 minutes. We loved it, I remembered an episode of Modern Marvels that features this dam and I was so happy to see it for myself. Concrete for the dam and power-plant was poured around the clock for over 3 years, that’s crazy! The dam’s crest is 1,560 feet long and is 710 feet above the bedrock and 583 feet above the original river channel. At it’s full pool elevation of 3,700 feet the lake is 560 feet deep at the dam. Today it is only 49% full, you can see the full line where the rock is white. It took the lake 17 years to fill! Lake Powell is a storage reservoir and it is the largest by surface area in the country, yet only comprises 13% of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Horseshoe Bend hike is rated as a moderate hike of 1.5 miles averaging a minimum of 1 hour. It is a sandy hill changing into uneven rocky ground. Walking up hill in soft sand is exhausting but it’s worth the beautiful view.

Antelope Canyon is located on the Navajo Reservation so you need to book a tour to get access. We thought it was beautiful, and got some great pictures. The best times to schedule a tour is between 10am and 2pm because the angle of the sun shining into the canyon. It is a slot canyon created by water and wind. Upper Antelope is recommended for an easy and more comfortable walking experience, while Lower Antelope is narrower and a more strenuous walk. We chose Upper Antelope because it had better reviews on tripadviser

Boating in Lake Powell was a wonderful experience. The weather was perfect for boating, low 80’s with a light brees. Before hitching up the rental boat I took a hundred pictures of the boat because it had a lot of damage and we wanted to document everything. They charged us $500 as a security deposit and I wanted to make sure we got that back. After everything checked out, we headed for the launch. The launches here are ridiculously long, like a 1 mile slope. We explored the lake from the dam to the 50 mile marker. There were so many beautiful sites, pictures don’t even do it justice. The water was a crystal blue-green, like the Caribbean, and the cliffs above were pinks and oranges. We had a wonderful time.
Until the shade top on the boat ripped from it’s hinges, flapping in the wind. Both of us instinctively tried to grab it. Failing to take hold of it, the metal poles cracked in half swinging wildly in the wind. I hit the deck protecting Roux and my head as a pole hit me in the arm. I arose to discover Jacob’s head bleeding. All of this occurred in about 5 seconds. We couldn’t have a nice day without incident, Jeeze Louise! This happened at the end of the day when we were heading back in anyway. We were pretty worried that we would have to pay for the damages after rereading all the documents we signed with the rental. Thankfully the rental company was understanding that these things break all the time with natural wear and this one was quite old and ratty. They were so sorry that this had happened to us, poor Jacob had a bloody cut above his eye…no stitches required!

Jacob’s BBQ

I missed my daddy for Father’s Day but I found this awesome photo of him on my camera, I’m sure he’ll like it when he sees it!!!

This Year we spent Christmas Eve with Jacob’s family.

I baked a Bouche de Noel and Jacob made eggrolls with his delicious homemade boudin. Sorry, this is not a recipe we will be sharing as we plan to make a living with boudin and other cajun specialities. The Bouche de Noel was just a combination of a few recipes from the web I thought would be delicious.

We attended a wonderful Midnight Mass after dinner and presents. On Christmas morning we slept in late then visited Jacob’s MawMaw. After our visit we headed on out with our camper to our next destintation. We arrived at the campground close to sunset.

Just enough time to set up the camper and make a nice fire. The smell of a wood fire is one of the best things about camping. I try to keep that smell on me as long as possible by not washing my hair LOL, tis true.
Since it was Christmas night, even after the fire out was burned out there was still one blazing on the television.

Gotta love the fire-scape with continuous Christmas tunes! I remember begin little opening gifts at my Grandparents house with this fire on tv, ah I love things that help you remember the past and all the people you love!

There are a few reasons we chose to camp in this park.
1.) We wanted to visit Avery Island, Tabasco Land.
2.) Visit Marc Savoy’s Music Center for a Jam Session in Eunice, LA.
3.) Dancing at La Poussiere in Breaux Bridge, LA.
5.) Walking/Biking trails.

This park was a great choice because it was close enough to all of our destinations. The restrooms were clean, but could really benefit from a renovation. This campground is basically a swam so some of the sites had water very close to the trailer pad, while the premium sites were on the bayou with a small deck to dock a boat. Before making a reservation you can look online at there website to see a picture of each site. I chose site 4, because I couldn’t decide based on the picture so I just picked my favorite number. It turned out to be one of the best, because it was very dry and had an additional tent pad. Plus the site next to us was broken, so we had like a football in between us and the nearest campers.

Our trip to Avery Island was fun and quietly enjoyable, because there was not many people there, I’m not a big fan of crowds. Unfortunately the factory was closed for employees, we assumed, because it was the day after Christmas. We made plans to go there specifically to see the factory in action, as did everyone else there. Therefore, they need to update there website to reflect the correct working/non-working days. There is a short video about the history of Tabasco, a hallway to view the factory (working or not) and small room with displays to visibly describe facts about the factory and processes.

Above is a picture of an oak barrell filled with a mash of tabasco peppers and salt, you can put your nose right up to it and take a big wiff!
Side note: My mom HATES that smell, funny because my dad put loads of tabasco on everything!

Above is a picture of the oak barrel filled with the mashed pepper then sealed up. They top every barrel with a layer of salt on the outside to seal in the flavors and to keep other flavors from getting in.

After the tour, we went into the General Store to have samples of Tabasco ice cream, soda, and a variety of sauces.

I loved the ice cream, I had a few extra samples…shh our secret! We decided to head over to the Jungle Gardens for a tour. The tour is self-guided with a download guide on a smart device. We chose to drive because it is a lot of ground to cover and it was a little on the chilly side. Here are some of the pictures.

Back at the campground for dinner, we made a big pot of chilly. Supervision provided by Roux.

While that was cooking, we scoured the woods for dry, old wood. We made a huge, raging fire! It was so nice and cozy eating homemade chili by the fire….note to self, don’t get too comfortable and use the fire ring as foot rest. The sole of your shoe will not survive.
The following day, Friday, we went on a nice long hike in the woods. There a few trails in this park, all with clear paths and labels. There are pavilions for hanging out with a group and restrooms located at the entrance to the trails.

The picture above is Roux peering over the edge of the boardwalk at the strange creature below. There were TONS of armadillos all over this!

Since this park is in the swam and surrounded by bayous it is a good place to get in some fishing.

We, of course, capped of the night with a fire…hotdogs and smores

On Saturday we drove over to Eunice, LA to visit Marc Savoy’s Music Shoppe. I didn’t get any pictures here just videos of Jacob placing his accordion in the jam group. I wish I could post videos, they are awesome, but I can’t.
We finished off the night with dancing to Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys at La Poussiere. That was such a good time!

Sunday we lit a fire to finish off our wood and played washers. Ask Jacob how AMAZING his wife is at that game. Then I got a call from my mom that broke my heart and had us packing up and heading home. I have an incredible husband, who always knows the right thing to do. He insisted that his dad come get our camper and trade vehicles with us so that we could get home as soon as possible. I was so lucky to get there in time to be with my mom and my mawmaw to see her one last time. I got to tell her I love her and kiss her goodbye before she went up to heaven. Now she is safe, in a happy place with everyone who loves her watching over us.

If I Should Go

by Unknown Author

If I should go tomorrow
It would never be goodbye,
For I have left my heart with you,
So don’t you ever cry.
The love that’s deep within me,
Shall reach you from the stars,
You’ll feel it from the heavens,
And it will heal the scars.

We did not want to leave Acadia National Park, we both cried a little (on the inside). We woke up late and left around 10am for 6.5 hrs. of driving to a Walmart parking lot, in Montpellier VT, for the night.
It’s kind of hard to take pictures on the road. You have to be ready for a shot at all times because there are so many beautiful sites. You want to get a shot of everything but at the same time so many things happen to mess it up for you….dirty windows ( nasty dog nose juice, gross!), crazy driver, camera not on, lens cap still on, butterfingers (hasn’t been a problem with the window down, thank God!), not quick enough with my trigger finger, and, the most common one, I’m not paying attention.
Anyway, here are some that came out ok.

We used to have one of these in Metairie, a hurricane killed it last year.

A butt!

It wasn’t bad though, we were able to do groceries for the week and run the generator for shower, lights, and tv. It was nicer than the campground/parking lot we paid $80/night for in NJ because there was no fear of vandalism or loud partiers.
There were 3 other campers there too.
After we arrived and did the Wally World dance in the parking lot, we shopped for our essentials…bread, beer, milk, eggs, bacon, trail mix and windshield wipers (Dad, they like did nothing in the rain…are you trying to kill us?) This Walmart is actually inside of a mall. You know how malls have the big stores on the ends like Macy’s and Dillard’s well this mall had JCPenny’s on one end and Walmart on the other….hilarious, maybe that’s just me!

Tomorrow is another long day of driving, the longest of this entire trip. Yay 😦
Peace out!