Driving To Louisiana, According To My Phone

Well, we packed up Scamper and headed out of Texas to Louisiana in search of better weather. Here's how the drive went, according to my phone. (By the way, the pictures are terrible - which is why we leave most of the photography on the blog to Scott.)

Here's our tiny Scamper parked at the Kemah RV Resort right before we got her ready to go. She looked comically small next to all of the big rigs in the park. When Scott and I step out of it, I think it must look something like one of those clown cars you see where 15 clowns inexplicably manage to cram themselves into an impossibly tiny car. I'm guessing we provided some amusement for our neighbors at the RV park. At the least, taking one look at our travel trailer probably made their RVs feel so much more spacious.

After all of my whining about the weather, someone must have been listening because it was a bright, sunny day with no wind. Scamper prefers it when its not windy. So do we. Except when we're on a sailboat - then the right amount of wind is a very welcome thing.

We took Rte 146 up from the Kemah area to I-10 to head over to Louisiana. Along the way we crossed a number of bridges and causeways. I liked this one - especially the yellow color. Look at the right hand side of the photo. See that ghost image? It's the reflection of a bag of Fig Newtons in my lap. It's important to have snacks on hand on a long drive. Chocolate chip cookies would have been so much better, but since we don't have an oven, store bought Fig Newtons it was!

We've only had Scamper since mid-December, so I still get a bit paranoid when we're towing her. She's just a baby after all. Every so often, I check in the side mirror to make sure she's still there. There she is. And that's me in the mirror, exhaling a sigh of relief.

As we were driving along, we noticed this big plume of smoke. No one else seemed to be worried about it. Never did figure out what it was about.

Of course, oil and gas are big business down in this neck of the woods, so I always get a big panicky wondering if something is going to blow. Smoke makes me nervous.

We cut down from I-10 near Port Arthur and took Rte 82 along the Louisiana seaboard. So interesting to see all of the houses on stilts to protect them from flooding waters. It amazes me how people persevere and continue to live in areas which have been devastated by natural disasters or are at risk to.

Scamper took her first boat ride on the ferry to Cameron. So exciting for her! She couldn't wait to drive up onto the ferry and park next to all of the grown-up cars and trucks. If you're going eastwards on the ferry, it doesn't cost you anything. If you're going westwards, have a dollar ready. It only takes a few minutes to do the crossing.

We crossed over the ICW during our travels. If you're a boatie, you may be familiar with the ICW or Intracoastal Waterway. 3,000 miles long, the ICW provides an inland waterway along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. If we had ended up buying a sailboat in Texas, this might very well have been how we would have taken her to the East Coast. Maybe we should construct a barge for Scamper so we can tow her behind our boat?

And this is how we ended our day after 250 miles of driving - boondocking at the Walmart in New Iberia, Louisiana. If you're not familiar with the term "boondocking", it essentially means free camping. I like free, especially when you're trying to living within a budget. Basically, most Walmarts will let RVs park overnight in the back of their parking lots (except when local regulations and ordinances don't permit it). A bit strange to sleep in a parking lot, but it sure was convenient for getting some shopping done in the morning. 

We drove from Kemah, Texas to New Iberia, Louisiana on 6 January 2015.

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