Vinton, LA to Brownsville, TX

We had two days of windy weather traveling to Brownsville. Fortunately both were somewhat short days, less than 250 miles each, but it was tiring just the same. Fortunately the coach handles well but you had to keep both hands on the wheel to protect from the frequent gusts. We stayed at The Lazy Longhorn RV Park in Victoria, TX on Thursday and it was a very nice park. Long cement pads, 73 feet, and some grass between each space. The place was full and then some with at least 5 units parked on the driveway area.

On Friday we headed to Brownsville where we will stay for a week. We chose the Rio RV Park based on the Woodall's rating, 4 W, but it is lacking in atmosphere. It is not lacking in guests though as they are stacked in everywhere and the spots are pretty tight. Our spot isn't too bad but it is a back-in and it took a while to get it in the spot. We have a tree right over the satellite dome so we don't get any satellite TV but fortunately the park has good cable with over 70 channels, even some in spanish if you can imagine. The folks that work here are very friendly and we have met some other guests as well. I am sure we will be just fine here.

We drove around a little bit today in the rain. We looked at three other RV parks in the area and none of them looked any better than where we are. We also looked at an ownership park, River Bend, that is built around a golf course and is right on the Rio Grande River. We drove around the property a little but it wasn't anything we would be interested in, other than maybe for a 2-3 week rental. It rained for most of the day, never too hard, but pretty steadily. We made a stop at a Super Walmart to pick up a few things and headed back to the coach to relax and watch a little TV. Alex and I watched golf in the bedroom and took a short nap while Tippy played on the computer and took a nap on the euro chair. We found a church for Tippy for tomorrow morning and we have arranged to have a guy come to wash and detail the coach on Sunday afternoon.

The weather.com site is predicting rain for the next few days here so I don't know how much we will be able to do. We want to travel down to Padre Island, go to the zoo, and take in a movie or two. I guess the movies and Padre Island can happen in the rain so we will start there on Monday. I will try to get a couple of pictures tomorrow along with any other updates that come to mind. In the meantime, be safe.

Lake Charles, LA

I must say that the coach drove like a dream yesterday, and again today. The work Dick did has silenced so much of the air noise that it is the difference between day and night. We can now hear some other noises inside the coach but they are not near as bothersome as the wind noise.

We left the RV Resort before 8:00 this morning and made good time into Lake Charles for our 9:00 appointment at the Freightliner Oasis service center. We dropped off the coach and drove around a bit, did some shopping, and had lunch. We returned to the service center a little after 12:00 to find they hadn't even started on our coach. Apparently there was a problem with a coach that was carried over from yesterday and another emergency that took prescedence. Oh well, sometimes you just have to go with the flow. They started on our coach at about 12:30 and finished about 3:00. The people were very nice and seemed to do a good job although I was not impressed with the cleanliness of the work area.

They did allow us to sit in the coach while they worked so it was more comfortable for us and Alex than being in the car. While we waited I got on the Internet and found an RV park In Vinton, LA, about 25 miles west of lake Charles. The park at the casino wasn't that great and it was almost 60 miles there and back. The fuel cost was more than we paid for the second night so we didn't feel too bad about wasting the money. The park here in Vinton, the V RV Park, is pretty poor for a four W rating from Woodall's. Tomorrow we head for Victoria, TX by way of Huston. More from there. Be safe.

Hwy 165 south of Alexandria, LA

Hwy 167 south of Ruston, LA

Happy folks in Louisiana

Dick's place in Louisiana

Home to Louisiana

We left our new home in Texas and headed to Louisiana on Sunday. We took some back roads through Texas to get to I-20 north of Tyler. This drive was very interesting and we drove by some beautiful ranches and countryside. We drove to Ruston, LA, a small town east of Shreveport. We had arranged to meet a gentleman, Dick Albritton, I met on the Alfa owner’s website and have him seal the air leaks in our coach. I thought this would involve spraying some sealer under the front hood cap but how wrong I was. Dick spent several hours opening up drawers, going under cabinets, taking up the carpet under the driver’s area, and working underneath the coach sealing all of the storage bays. Alfa pays Dick to do this job and he does many coaches each year. I am not sure why they pay him, and others, to solve this problem rather than doing a better job themselves. While we were there we also had him install a microwave vent opener, put some trim on the front cowl, insulate the front door, and install a soap dispenser on the kitchen sink. These are all things he has done to his Alfa coach to improve the ride and look. He also does some other things but we didn’t feel we needed them at this time.

Dick finished the work late Monday afternoon and drove the coach out of the garage and back to our parking space. We spent the evening there and enjoyed the sound of rain for most of the evening. We hope we are also getting some of it back at home. He has a great facility at his home. It used to be a terminal for a trucking company, on 10 acres, and has large doors on each side wide and tall enough for any motorhome or truck. They remodeled the inside of the building to make a living space and still have three large working spaces. In addition to his motorhoming he has an AC/Heating/Electrical business and also drag races in his spare time. He has a dragracer, his son has one, and his grandson has one. His wife Trish also drags a pick-up truck that runs gas but has been significantly modified. Dick and Trish are terrific people that welcomed us like relatives and did an excellent job on each item they did on our coach. They are suffering through their grandson’s battle with a cancerous tumor so take a minute to say a prayer for all of them.

We left Dick’s place this morning under cloudy skies and a cool breezy day. We drove the 170 miles to the Coushatta Grand Casino Luxury RV Resort in Kinder, LA. Tomorrow we will take the coach to the freightliner facility in Lake Charles, LA for a 6K mile Initial Maintenance. The park here is pretty nice but not really a Luxury Resort. There is lots of grass area and a small lake but it really isn’t anything special but it is comfortable which is fine with us. We are going to the steak house at the casino tonight and then head for freightliner early in the morning. We will return here tomorrow night and then head back into Texas on Thursday. I will post a couple of pictures of us with the coach and a couple from our ride today. I will try some more tomorrow so until then be safe.