Day 42 - February 5, 2018 - San Antonio

Crossing Louisiana, we traveled miles of elevated highway, over swamp and wetland.

We were held up for quite a while on I-10 due to an accident.  We were lucky to have been able to exit and travel along a service road for a few miles.

The cause of the delay was serious, perhaps deadly.  A burned out vehicle of some kind and a horse trailer.

As we drove past the site, a medical evacuation helicopter was preparing to land.  Hope it was in time!

We arrived in San Antonio about 5 p.m. and, after checking in, headed directly for the Riverwalk.

And had dinner at the Hardrock Cafe.

In honour of my good friend Sven, I once again ordered Norwegian Salmon.

After dinner, we encountered a bachelor party.

This guy insisted that we take his picture.  Don't know the significance of the hats.

On the walk back to our hotel we passed The Alamo.

We plan to revisit both Riverwalk and The Alamo in the morning before continuing our journey west.

Day 41 - February 4, 2018 - French Quarter

We headed for the French Quarter after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.  As usual, there were buskers everywhere.

And, the usual assortment of painters, psychics and mimes around the central square.

We watched the Mystic Krewe of Femme Fatale parade along Canal Street.  

I let my little buddy have a spot by the fence.

Lots of marching bands, and floats throwing beads and noisemakers to the crowd.

And, other stuff.

After an hour and a half it was still going by so we moved on and stopped for lunch at Gumbo Ya-Ya.  You can see the beads that Mardi collected at the parade (and she didn't have to show you-know-what).

And then we watched the Dragonmasters put on a show.

Mardi and I first saw them 14 years ago.  They've been doing this gymnastics/break dancing gig for over 30 years and are now approaching 50 years old, but still amazing! They really entertain! Check out Dragonmasters on youtube.

There was a separate parade in the French Quarter for dogs.  We missed the parade, but saw lots of participants.

Crowds were loud and noisy on Bourbon Street.

And occasionally, belligerent.

But, certainly colourful.

Hey guy - the parade was for dogs, not goats and a chicken.

After about six hours in the Quarter, we headed back to the hotel.  We prefer New Orleans when it's not so busy.

Tomorrow our destination is San Antonio, Texas.

Day 40 - February 3, 2018 - Lousisiana

We headed out after breakfast at the hotel.  While yesterday had scenes of horse farms and pine forests, today was almost entirely pine forests.  Many large tracts had been replanted, so I assume that the trees are logged either for pine boards or for pulp and paper (or both).

We did see an unusual sight that made us both laugh.

"POOR WHITE TRASH" and a small sign at the top of the centre window says "ARTIST".  Lady driver - either a disgruntled voter, or a humourist doing some advertising, take your pick!  Or, perhaps maybe a white supremacist I guess.

We covered a couple of miles of raised highway over the wetlands.

But, while Florida has lots of beautiful bridges.....

this time we passed under the river, near Pascagoula, Mississippi, through a tunnel.

Arrived at our hotel in Metairie, Louisiana, about 25 minutes from the French Quarter, at about 3 p.m.  However, by that time it was down to 10C and rainy.  We're staying put for the rest of the day.

So, how about Christine Elliott deciding to run for the Ontario PC leadership?  Haven't felt this positive about my party since Elizabeth Witmer tried to gain that position several years ago.  Mardi and I intend to sign up as members (must be done by February 16) so we can vote for her.  Let's bring sanity to, and get rid of Liberal dishonesty in, our province!

Disclaimer: This message is not brought to you by the Christine Elliott for leader campaign, but by a heretic in the PC wilderness.  

Tomorrow we get back to tourist news.

February 2 - addendum

After winding down with a couple of drinks, we decided to go out for dinner.  Walked 0.1 miles according to the hotel book, to the Wahoo Bar and Grill.  Mardi had lobster and I had a salmon burger - $12.69 each!  Live music was good.  Food was excellent!  

We now head to New Orleans for two nights....a week before Mardi Gras.

Day 39 - February 2, 2018 - We're heading out on our own.

We packed up this morning and checked out.  Then, we took Jill around the Orange Lake property to show her the features of our Florida "home".

Including the Lazy River and its connected pools.

And waterfalls.

We then headed to the Olive Garden for a nice lunch before saying goodbye to Jill.

Thus ends our four week stay at Orange Lake, and we are off for another adventure.  Tonight we are in Tallahassee.  Tomorrow we head further west.

Day 38 - Feb. 1, 2018 - Sanctuary Ridge

As previously reported, the gals and the guys split up today.  We drove Mardi and Lois to The Reserve, on site, where they met Mardi's cousin Jill.  Then, Bob and I headed for Sanctuary Ridge.

The pictures do not properly capture the dramatic elevation changes, but here goes.

This is hole #2,  185 yards from the blues, with an elevation drop of about 100 feet.

The drive on #3 requires a carry of almost 200 yards to clear the sand at the end of the cart path.  My ball ended up in the hollow of grass left of the path.   From there it's all uphill.

Hole #6 was playing just over 170 yards uphill from the blue tees.  Anything drifting right is a BIG problem, so I bounced my shot off the hill to the left and kicked down to the fringe.  Bob flirted with the bunkers, ending up just above the deepest part. 

The hole to the left, #9, is one that the ladies hate.  My tee shot ended up about where the golfers are located.  

My second shot almost made it to the top centre of the hill and then rolled back 75 yards to the bottom of the hill on the right.  Now I remember why the ladies hate it!

Then we hit #10.  The green is located about 75 yards behind the trees out at the corner on the right of the fairway, and out of sight until you get to the trees as you will see in the second picture.

Sanctuary Ridge has waste bunkers and sand traps everywhere, many of them very deep.

I forgot to take a picture of #17.  Your tee shot is severely up hill, and in many cases will roll back several yards.  My second shot today was only about 108 yards, but it was about 75 degrees uphill to a blind green.  I took a 7 iron and hit a full shot.  It landed about a yard from the top and rolled about 25 yards back down into a waste bunker.  Three shots later I had made it to the green.

Despite the challenges, Bob had an 81.  I did not!  But we both thoroughly enjoyed one of our favourite courses.

We were matched up with a local, who had moved to Florida when he retired eleven years ago.  Good golfer, but a chatty Cathy.  Towards the end of our round, when Bob whined about having to go home to shovel snow later tonight, Greg opined that he was glad to have left New Jersey so he didn't have to deal with snow, ice, blacks and browns.  I resisted the urge to shove my club down his throat!

After returning home, we had a quick dinner and I took Bob and Lois to the airport.  Then Mardi and I enjoyed a drink with Jill while I created this post.

Tomorrow we leave Orange Lake.