Some kind of rodeo is gearing up in the big arena behind the casino. Horse trailer/RV combos are pouring in and Country Western music is blaring from inside the building. I guess that's why7 the RV Park is filling up. Anyway, I made a strong cup of coffee this morning and put on a big coat against the wind. I packed up the laptop and drove to The Lodge to get on-line before we leave later this morning.
There is no local number on our ISP's list for Kinder, LA, so I had to follow the hotel's directions to create a new Network Connection and use their access. This was worse than figuring out the slot machines last night! I finally created a default connection but got an error message for 'no dial tone.' So I persevered, in spite of my Frothy Monkey travel mug (thank you, Rebecca!) being empty. Finally I was connected and got all of my mail, uploaded journals with pictures, paid some bills and chatted with my brother, Jeff, I think. Alas, Patti was not around so we didn't get to chat. I think I may have held a one-sided conversation with her but I'm unsure as to whether she can read what I 'say' when the automated response is set on her end. Way too high tech for me!
I was back home by 9:00 a.m. We had a quick breakfast, packed up and were back at The Lodge checking out by 11:20. This was the first time we had to check out of an RV Park--I guess they want to settle up on all of your charges at the Casino. That wasn't hard in our case:-) We beat the noon rush anyway. Yesterday the RVs were stacked up three-deep in all of the very long parking lanes in front of The Lodge at high noon (check-out deadline.) We were in and out in a flash.
We inadvertently discovered that we are in a dead cell phone zone here. The phone has had five bars and a 'Roam' signal since we got here on Tuesday, so we thought all was well. But not so....we can't make a call or check our messages. We finally decided it might have something to do with being in the middle of an Indian Reservation. I guess Cingular has no cell tower agreement with the Coushatta, because we are practically under the shadow of a cell tower here. Anyway, a lesson learned. I need to make a call out whenever we arrive somewhere.
Well, we headed east on 190 out of Kinder. The roads in Louisiana are in desperate need of maintenance (what are the odds of LA producing a President anytime soon?) The roads here will rattle your teeth with a trailer hitched to your bumper. At Opelousas we turned south on I-49 through Lafayette (pronounced 'Laugh e yet' here in Cajun country!) We had concerns about towing The Beauty through Lafayette since we had experienced one-way streets and congested roads in this college town when we were here a few years back in our little Casita travel trailer. But we sailed through with no wrong turns and found Maxie's Campground just nine miles south of I-10 on Hwy 90, in Broussard, LA 70518, at 4350 Hwy 90 East, (337) 827-6200. The campground book description sounded better than it looks. "Established in 1968" should have been a clue!
We pulled in and drove to the back circle, bordering Hwy 90. We backed into a site along a creek (always scary here in swampland!) We were all set up by 2:00 and after finding no one home at the office we headed East on 90 towards New Iberia. A mobile home was blocking the dual highway lanes and backing up traffic something terrible. So we did a bat turn back to a little diner (Mel's Diner) on the other side of the highway. 'God Bless America & Mel's Diner too' is the slogan on their menu. Apparently they are the home of 'The World's Best Biscuit' which is only served morning and late night so we couldn't try them. I opted for grilled Tilapia and Bob had the catfish. It was very good with enough left over for a 'go box.' It is across the highway from Le Triomphe, a snazzy golf course that is hosting a PGA Tour event in March (we saw this on the news later.) That explained the sign we saw "Caddie entrance & parking."
The traffic tie-up cleared while we dined so we continued east to New Iberia's Tourist Information Center. We got lots of brochures and found out they had a new PC with Internet access and a modem in the lobby--imagine that in Louisiana! We made our way back west on 90 and found our turn into Maxie's. We read brochures for a couple of hours then walked up to the office to pay up. We stopped at the laundry house to check it out on the way. It looks acceptable so laundry may be in our near future. We found the lady home in the office and paid for two nights until we decide if we're making a longer commitment here. The road noise may be a deciding factor. She was recovering from a very bad case of the flu (so was the propane guy yesterday.) He said his wife and two kids had it too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
There is a McKenzie Lakota 5th wheel parked just up the way from us--same year as ours--at least the decals are identical. I'd love to see the inside. It has three huge slides. Back home, in our own Lakota, we read our freebie Houston Chronicle that Bob remembered to grab as we left The Lodge at the Casino early this morning.
It's 11:25 p.m. and 51.3 degrees.