Home

Hard to believe that 12 days and nearly 3,000 miles have already passed and that we will all be sleeping in our own (large and stable) beds tonight. The trip went by very fast and with far more laughs than we ever imagined could take place. Especially when considering that these were three very independent people in a somewhat cramped environment travelling on many unknown back roads using a GPS system that did not like us at all and no sense of direction or the difference between right, left, forward or backwards. Without question (at least in my mind) I could have continued this journey longer (aside from being homesick that is).
We met extremely nice people everywhere we went and had interesting conversations with folks engaged in various occupations and economic situations. There was very little talk of sports between us (nice), but a lot of discussion concerning the nation's current financial situation. A card dealer and 42 year resident of Las Vegas felt this was the worst of times he had ever seen, our plantation tour guide in the back country outside of New Orleans noted that business was down on their tours, managers of RV parks, bartenders, waiters, store clerks, etc. all echoed the same opinions that business was slow and getting slower and that like never before they were worried about the future. Much of our lengthy daily drive time saw discussion on how we planned to deal with this situation, both at home and in our business lives.
But more than anything else aside from the occasional teasing, a little bit of (me) grumbling this was a stress free journey. I am very fortunate to have my two co-travelers as life long friends. On the surface we may seem to be somewhat of a mismatch of backgrounds, but I got a lot out of this trip and would do it again without hesitation. I learned a lot and will be using much of the advice I got as I phase back into "the real world".
We live in a great country and if you ever have an opportunity to undertake a similar trip I hope you are able to go with the quality type people I went with and have the experiences I had, it will never be forgotten.

Cabela's Hat Trick

Today we are scheduled to achieve our goal of visiting three Cabela's stores in the southwest (Gonzales La., Buda Texas and Glendale Az). Nice thing about traveling in a cavernous RV is that if there is an outstanding sale taking place we have the room to store it on board. So far we have not broken anything at Fred's house, which with Jim's luck in the RV is a very noteworthy accomplishment. I am replacing John's vehicle a piece at a time (and fortunately at about $1.99 at a time).

The Candy Bar

Truck stop gift shops are not a good place to visit. We saw candy bars we had not seen in years, so we had to purchase some old time favorites, and we created a new type of bar.

The Bus Hits Tucson, Locals Run For Cover!

Fred Pilster becomes today's star host and Murielle learns more about Fred than she probably cared to. Easy drive from Los Cruses to Tucson. The drive saw some very pretty terrain for John and Jim. We picked up Phil at the Tucson airport and we were guests of Fred at his very nice new home. A lot of laughs, saw Fred and Jim's Sun Devils humble the lowly U of A Wildcats on TV in a super basketball game. Thursday with some luck we see the Glendale Arizona Cabela's store then either Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon.

Lost Crossroads AKA: Los Cruces

While Phil is off doing several more auditions in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, John and Jim are toiling over long and desolate stretches of Highway 10. Never seen more road kill in my life. El Paso lived up to its name and next time we will el paso on stopping here. Warning-if you pass through Los Cruces and a local restaurant says it closes at 8:00, it actually means 6:00, but Dominoes does deliver. This part of the country needs water, greenery and more teeth in its residents.

Observations

Austin is the first area we have seen on the trip that was not physically or socially impacted by hurricane Katrina in August 2005 or the more recent one Ike. The massive physical destruction we saw in New Orleans and the other parts of Louisiana was staggering and after nearly 3 and one-half years much of the damage remains very visible making it hard to imagine the conditions left at the time. In Texas, especially Houston, the social impact is obvious as more than 200,000 people left Louisiana with most coming west. These displaced people left behind very poor living conditions and were in no position to upgrade when they reached their safer new destination. The locals in New Orleans voiced no criticism of how the federal government handled Katrina, but they remain very vocal in their criticism of their state and local handling of preparation for the storm.
Today we will start heading south and then west and parts do not look overly scenic but we anticipate being exposed to very different lifestyles than we are accustomed to in California.
The hospitality given to us by Bob Plate will be hard to replicate and unfortunately (for us at least) we were not able to see Sarice as she had to head to the Bay Area for meetings this week. But we appreciate the time we were able to spend here getting a taste of true Texas living.

The Plates Get Hit Hard

We drove after a very fried dinner in Guydan La. to a Wal Mart parking lot in Beaument Texas last night. Today we went through Houston again and reached Austin early afternoon and Bob and Sarice Plate's home. We are now cooking steaks, local shrimp and ranch frenchbread outside on the deck looking over Lake Travis and the Colorado River. Nice to have a home cooked meal, even if the cooks are John and I. Tomorrow we explore the area and hit our second Cabela's store. Fun times.

Houston and New Orleans

We arrived in Houston Tuesday afternoon but the Internet seems to have missed the flight so this is my first chance to access any service. We missed the pretty part of Houston (never came close to it). The drive between Houston and New Orleans was outstanding-especially the Gonzales Cabela's store. New Orleans is literally freezing cold but we have seen and done things nonstop-river boat trips, bus tours, jazz clubs, walked every where, after very well- fantastic food, people, architecture, etc. My camera gave out the first day so need to borrow Phil's pictures to post.

The next Marlon Brando/Brad Pitt/Kevin Coster got a jump on us and is already in Baton Rouge. We will be joining him Wednesday afternoon and then the adventure begins. Sure hope we can find him, if not more room for us in the RV!

Argh!

I wonder if Brad Pitt's friends face as many challenges as Phillip Austin's friends do?

Can we get from San Jose to the connecting flight in San Diego then to Houston and then with just minutes to spare reach the RV lot by 5:00 next Tuesday? Haven't even left yet and already facing challenging deadlines. At least we finally have the plane tickets, right Phil?

The Road Home

The trip begins in about 8 days, time to start thinking about getting plane tickets to Houston, maybe eventually getting a road map so we can figure out what is where and all of that stuff. And there must be a major highway connecting Houston and Austin. If not I am sure we will see some interesting small towns.