Lake Charles

For those of you considering the RV lifestyle, here are the procedures when we leave one campground and head for another.

While Nancy cleans up the interior and makes it shipshape, I hit the switch to stow the DirecTV dish flat on the roof of our motorhome.  I retract the metal feet that make the unit level.  There are slides that extend the interior room of the motorhome, and I hit buttons to bring them back in.  Then I go outside and pull some levers to drain the holding tanks.  I disconnect the sewage line, the water line, the cable TV line, and the electrical line.  I do a walk-around of the motorhome to make sure everything is ready for the road.  Finally, we connect our tow vehicle, which is a Ford Ranger pickup truck.  Nancy drives it forward to get it in position, and I attach it to the tow bar and connect an electrical cable between the two vehicles.  She puts the pickup truck in neutral, takes the parking brake off, and turns the ignition key partway so that the wheels will turn freely but the battery isn't drained.  I start the motorhome engine and pump the brakes and use the turn signals so that Nancy, who is standing behind the pickup truck, can tell if the brake lights and turn signals are also working on the truck.  I drive the motorhome forward and turn the wheel so that Nancy can confirm that the towed vehicle's wheels are turning properly.  If she signals that everything is okay, I stop and let her in, and we drive away.

On the morning that we left our campground on the outskirts of Houston, heading for Lake Charles, Louisiana, there was a problem.  With Nancy standing outside as described above, I pulled the motorhome forward as usual, but instead of seeing her hand signal that all was well, I heard a screech from her that indicated the opposite.  The brake assist unit had malfunctioned.  That is a gadget which is supposed to automatically engage the pickup truck's brakes whenever the motorhome's brakes are applied, to aid in slowing down and stopping.  But on that morning the truck brakes were being applied randomly, and if this happened as we were driving down the road, the wheels might be locked and bald spots worn on the tires.

Luckily there was an RV serviceman working on another unit in the campground just a few sites away.  He was unable to fix the problem, but he disconnected power to the brake assist so that it no longer worked, and since I was never convinced that the brake assist unit did a lot of good, we were able to proceed.

Our route took us through downtown Houston, and even though it was Saturday, we experienced the legendary traffic of that city in all its glory.  Driving a big, wide motorhome on multi-lane highways is stressful, especially on unfamiliar roads requiring frequent lane changes, because moving a unit over fifty feet long from one lane to another requires the cooperation of drivers in the other lane, who are sometimes happy to yield and sometimes not.

But we made it safely through downtown Houston. and when we crossed the border into Louisiana, the landscape changed for the better, with lots of trees lining the roads and scenic bayous along the way.  We pulled into an RV park in Lake Charles, a fair-sized city in southeast Louisiana.

We hardly ever go out for breakfast, but on the morning after our arrival we went to a local Waffle House restaurant and had waffles with butter, maple syrup, sausage, and bacon.  Embarrassing to admit but damn! that was tasty.  Not something to make a habit, however, if we don't want to blimp up beyond all recognition.

We visited a grocery store called the Market Basket.  It had a lot of personality, with all sorts of items not common in California.  We bought a bottle of dark Cajun roux (a staple of Louisiana cooking), a can of Creole seasoning, a box of dirty rice, and a couple of pounds of link sausage produced by the store.  Fun shopping, and once again we were delighted by the southern-style friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.

The real estate section of the local paper had a list of Sunday open houses, and we were fascinated by the prices.  We drove to a three bedroom, two bath home listed at $269,000, and talked with the agent.  Here's what that amount of money will buy for you in a suburb of Lake Charles:

The city borders a huge lake, as its name suggests, and there are a number of casinos located there.  For years the laws in Louisiana and other states have required that any casino be located on a boat - although most or all such casinos used a loophole that allowed constructing them just offshore but firmly anchored to land, so that once you entered via a gangplank, there was no sense of being in anything other than a land-based facility.  But you do need a substantial body of water in order to get approval for one.

Sunday night we drove to a casino-hotel named L'Auberge Lake Charles.  Here's what it looks like from the parking lot.

Nothing that huge could be floating on the lake, but perhaps the casino was separate and met the state requirements, or maybe the laws have changed.  Regardless, there were no shows or other entertainment that night, and the restaurant didn't appeal.  The massive casino itself looked like all the others of that type, but I was shocked that the chips at the blackjack and other tables cost $25 each.  I had been prepared to happily donate $100 or so to the casino owners, but the price of gambling there was just a bit too heavy for the likes of me, who had no delusions that I might win big and just wanted to enjoy a bit of time at the tables.  The casino was packed with customers, many of whom were smoking, and maybe it's our age, but it was depressing for Nancy and me to think that so many people, many of whom certainly didn't look prosperous, were simply throwing away their money.  We left the premises with our bank accounts intact.

On our last scheduled night in Lake Charles we had dinner at 121 Artisan Bistro, which had been recommended by a butcher at Market Basket.  Fabulous meal.  Sensational fried oyster appetizer, delicious steak tips with grits, tasty rib-eye steak, and possibly the best bread pudding we've ever eaten.  Foodwise, I'm proud of Louisiana (my home state).

We're staying an extra night at this RV park.  Why?  Because the weather forecast is for snow tonight and tomorrow.  Snow in southeastern Louisiana!  Driving our motorhome to New Orleans in snow and sleet just didn't seem like a smart decision.