Day 21: New Orleans to Austin

We set the alarms for 6am to make sure we had enough time to pack before the boys woke.  Obviously they slept in, so we had to wake them.

I had re-read the location of the breakfast joint and discovered that yesterday we were a block out, so today we walked the very short distance to The Ruby Slipper Cafe for breakfast.  Another guy that I work with recommended the place and it was awesome!  I had the Southern Breakfast which was eggs, bacon, a scone, a fried green tomato and grits.  It was delicious and very filling.  Steve had Eggs Couchon which was a scone topped with slow cooked pulled pork, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce and it was delicious too!  The boys had eggs, bacon and pancakes :)  I can't find the photos of this place and the food - grr!

We rolled out of there back to our apartment and finished the packing.  Rohan and I haled a cab and we all went to the airport.  We are now very relaxed with the rigmarole of check-in and security - it helps when you arrive with plenty of time - so there were no problems.  The flight to Houston was just over an hour and was easy compared to the previous flights as we were hardly in the air.  It was a small plane so I had the boys and Steve sat across the aisle.  He passed the time talking to the guy next to him (who was from England and whos wife was a Mechanical Engineer and worked on the rigs!).

Anyway, we arrived in Houston  just after midday and caught the bus to the rental car facility.  We were convinced to upgrade to a larger car/SUV and it took us until just after 1pm to finally leave the airport.  Rohan was exhausted and was fast asleep within minutes.  We hadn't eaten and were going to go to McDonalds (again!) for lunch but Jane had other ideas!  We eventually found one and bought the usual "to go".  It was here that I discovered that the price of McDonalds changes across the country - the same meal here cost $21.77 that cost $36 at the Grand Canyon! We ate in the car whilst Rohan slept (for 2 hours).  He had his cold when he woke up.

We found the countryside in Texas to look a lot like eastern Victoria - around Sale way.

We did see a well head which was a bit unusual for us.

We took the scenic route to Ali and Scott's house as I had their old address - apparently it only delayed us by about 10mins so it wasn't too bad :)  When we arrived, Julian was all shy and Finley hid in the house but it didn't last and soon they were running around like crazy 5 year olds.  Little Charley was all smiles and was very cute especially with her little helmet on :)

The adults stood chatting in the kitchen drinking local wine whilst the children got every single toy out in the upstairs living area!  Rohan immediately fell in love with Hank (the 11 year old, nearly blind, type 1 diabetic dog) - he was all kisses, cuddles and giggles!

Scott made Fajitas for dinner and they were excellent.  All the boys were too excited to eat much and they went to bed much later than normal.  We sat up talking wine and food until we called it quits just before midnight!

Day 20 : New Orleans - Alligators, Beignets, Tattoo

Steve and I woke at 5am local time and the boys slept until 7:30, so those early starts a few days ago have paid off :)  We were out the door by 8am and went in search of breakfast.  The place I wanted to go to wasn't where I thought it was, so we back tracked and went to  Mena's Palace instead.  The waitress last night had said they did good pancakes, omelets and hash browns.  Julian had pancakes, Steve had a Cajun sausage omelet with grits and I ordered a bacon omelet with hash browns.  Rohan had a bit of everything.  The grits were a lighter, tastier version of a porridge consistency polenta and actually completed the omelet nicely.  I would have them again over the hash browns which were just chopped up fried potato.  Julian's serve of hot cakes wiped him out and Rohan out and they were finished by Steve - it was a massive serving!

It was a leisurely breakfast, so we got back to the apartment around 9:30am and did some more laundry washing/drying :)  We packed the backpack with drinks, snacks and a peanut butter roll and headed down to our Cajun Encounters pick up location.  The pick-up time was from 10:30 to 11am and the location was a street corner.  Julian and I had a look in a sweet shop and Steve thought it would be better to go and wait for the bus.  Thankfully we all met up just as the bus arrived at 10:30am.  We climbed aboard and then the driver only made about 4 more stops before we headed out of town to Honey Island Swamp.


On the way out he told us a little about the devastation caused by Katrina and how the rebuild was still continuing.  He pretty much whetted our appetite for the city tour that they also run.  It was a 35min drive out to the swamp where we went into the gift shop to get our tour wrist bands.  Julian was so excited that he nearly refused to go to the toilet before the boat ride.  Thankfully the driver scared him saying that he would have to get out of the boat with the alligators if he needed to go - this worked :)  The boys had to wear life jackets but thankfully this didn't bother them.

We got on board a long 20 seat flat bottomed tinny and zoomed off down the river.  We soon came across 1 alligator which was looking a bit worse for wear.  He had been in a fight with another gator and had a ripped throat, broken jaw and a blind eye.  He was mad keen for marshmallows :)

We also saw a lot of turtles sunning themselves on branches in the river.

Further up the river we saw another 2 alligators just sunning themselves too.  It was 80F/27C today and this is cold for alligators, so there weren't many about.

We saw a nice forest of Cypress tress covered in Spanish Moss growing in the swamp.  These trees sound a lot like Huon pine.

We also saw a Racoon and a very large pig.  We didn't see any snakes much to the disappointment of the captain.

The tour was 90mins and Rohan fell asleep just before we docked.  Julian is loving the gift shops and this time he walked away with a 60cm long alligator soft toy.  Rohan stayed asleep, in my arms, for the next 90mins!  On the bus ride back, I had a nap and so did Julian!

We got off the bus at Cafe du Monde to try their famous Beignets.  Julian had to be woken to get off the bus, so he was complaining a lot about having to eat donuts!  He just wanted to eat the icing sugar.  We ordered 2 serves, along with 2 coffees, and they were devoured by Steve, Rohan and I.  Julian had a bite at the end and decided that he did like them.  So we ordered more :)

A little bit of sugar put some zing back into everyone.  It was now nearing 4pm, so I gave up any idea of riding a tram past some of the fancy houses in the Garden district, and we went for a walk around Jackson Square.  There happened to be a Tabasco sauce shop (it is made in South East Louisiana) where we bought a bottle of Chipotle Tabasco sauce and another 2 stubby holders.

Back out in the square, we were walking around listening to the buskers and then we walked past a woman doing Henna tattoos and I thought - why not!  So I got a tattoo in New Orleans.  We were all fascinated watching her draw on my arm :)  Now I had to be careful not to rub it before it dried.

It was a hot day, so Julian needed Ice Cream and there was a Gelati shop around the corner.  We all happily ate a dark chocolate and vanilla gelati whilst listening to a percussion group behind us.  Rohan was bopping along as usual. It was a short walk to our apartment, so we went back there to change Rohan and give the boys a short break before dinner.

I guy I worked with now lives in New Orleans and recommended a Cajun restaurant about 1km from our apartment.  Julian was up for a walk which ended in fried shrimp, so we walked down to Mulate's.  From the moment we walked in we knew this was our kind of place.  We ordered fried and grilled alligator, southern fried chicken wings, a cup of seafood gumbo, a cup of jamabalaya and a fried oyster Po'boy platter.  Julian had his fried shrimp and Rohan had shrimp pasta alfredo.  It was excellent and Julian even ate alligator and loved it!  Rohan ate everything but he seems to be doing that at the moment.  The only bad thing was the pasta which was nearly inedible due to garlic overload.

Even though the dessert menu looked good, we had all decided that a walk back to Landry's Seafood had to happen so we could have their Banana Foster again.  It is so good!  We were going to walk back along the river but then thought that we were idiots for even considering it at night time!  So we went back and had more Bananas Foster.  We got 2 serves this time :)

Then we rolled home, bathed the boys and they were asleep soon afterwards.

Today was a cracker!  Julian really enjoyed the alligators and he is loving his toy alligator.  Every shop we went into commented on his alligator and he happily told stories about it.  Rohan was excited to have seen so many turtles - he keep pointing at every log in the river saying "Tur-til".  In all it was a wonderful 9th Wedding anniversary!

Day 19: Phoenix to New Orleans LA

None of us had a very good nights sleep mainly because Julian was complaining that he was hungry (!!) and then he had run out of water and then he needed to go to the toilet.  Then he was asleep and Rohan started whimpering everytime he turned over.  Needless to say, they both had to be woken at 6:15am.  We had a reasonable breakfast of toast, cereal and scrambled eggs at the hotel - we left the donuts, sausages and meat patties alone.

The hotel had a courtesy shuttle to the airport and we hopped onto that at 7:25am and 10 minutes later we were checking in.  We now understand how it all works, especially with the car seat and stroller bags, so it was stress-free.  Also the United terminal was pretty empty, so there weren't any queues to negotiate.  We went through the TSA screening and had to have the baby food double checked which took a little bit of time but it wasn't stressful either.  We got to the gates just as boarding was commencing, so we didn't have to wait around in the terminal.

Our flight to New Orleans was via Denver.  The Denver flight was 1h20m and about 20mins of that was waiting for a spot in the take off queue (when we flew out we counted 14 planes behind us!).  It was an easy flight, helped by bananas and muesli bars.  We had a 50 minute transfer in Denver but we were 20mins late, so it just gave us enough to get to our gate, go to the toilet and buy Julian a hotdog (he asked and we could deliver) and us BLT sandwiches.  We bought them from a place called Steve's Snappin'Dogs.

Once again our flight was boarding and now Rohan was getting very hyperactive.  On the plane, he had a yoghurt and half a peanut butter roll and was then out like a light - 1.5hour sleep thank you!  The hotdog and BLTs were absolutely delicious.  With Rohan asleep for most of the flight, it was a piece of cake (it was only 2h10m anyway).

We landed without fuss at New Orleans and called the apartment rental company.  We had to make special arrangements as we didn't have a working smartphone which would give us access to the apartment (In the end it was all done remotely and we had no problems.).   At the baggage carousel, a guy approached us with a massive trolley which we loaded with our 2 suitcases, 1 large duffel, a stroller bag, a carseat and a trunki!  He then took us out to the taxi rank and bypassed the VERY long queue to get us a big taxi.  Steve only had a $20, but for me this was a win.  It was very humid and I really just wanted to get going and to see the place.

It was an exceptionally sedate ride to the apartment - this guy drove normally! - and we discovered that our apartment was in a good location.  We can see the Mississippi out of our lounge windows!  Steve had a lot of fun hauling the bags from the lobby into the lift, then into another lobby and down a short hallway into our MASSIVE apartment.

The apartment has 2 large bedrooms, the master with an ensuite bath, a large open plan lounge/dining/kitchen and a hallway laundry (we have already done a load of washing!).  Even Julian was impressed with the place.  He and Rohan raced up and down the hallway screaming and giggling.  It was now 5:30pm local time (2 hours ahead of Phoenix) but we were all starting to feel hungry, so we headed out.

We are on North Peters Street which is a block back from the river and runs parallel to it.  We walked up to where all the action is and passed some very colourful characters on the street including a woman with cat whiskers drawn on her face!  We stopped at a hat shop to try on a selection of Trilby's which looked dreadful on Steve but fantastic on Julian.  We then saw the sign for Johnny's Po'boys (which are famous and we wanted to try) BUT it is closed for renovations :(

Julian's stomach was bothering him, so we found a place called Landry's Seafood which looked good.  It also had a kids menu with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables -  a winner!  We had to wait for a table but we passed the time talking to woman (who thought we might be locals and was going to ask us for advice!) about Australia as her son lives near Adelaide (she was from Illinois).  We didn't know until then that it was a chain restaurant but we didn't mind too much as the food sounded good.

We ordered a seafood Gumbo bowl and Crawfish bread to share.   The Gumbo was a green/brown soup which tasted peppery, salty and a bit muddy.  It wasn't memorable.  The Crawfish bread was like a crayfish bruschetta and was fantastic.  Rohan loved it and Julian refused to eat it :)  For mains, we shared the Blackened Redfish Etouffee and the Crawfish Etouffee.  The Redfish came with "dirty rice" and Cajun beans and was quite nice.  I found the Crawfish too spicy hot but Steve preferred it.  Julian happily ate his Fried Scrimp and a couple of fries.  Rohan happily ate his grilled fish, a few beans and a lot of my plain rice.

New Orleans Crawfish Bread

Seafood Gumbo

Julian - Fried Shrimp and chips; Crawfish Etouffee; Rohan - Chicken and vege; Blackened Redfish Etouffee (Yes Rohan is trying to eat the plate!)

Now desert was the best bit.  Another classic in New Orleans is Bananas Foster - crepes rolled around vanilla ice cream topped with sliced banana, whipped cream and Foster sauce which is a light caramel cinnamon banana sauce.  It was huge but Julian and Rohan ate most of it.  It was delicious and we all wanted more! We also ordered a Key Lime Pie but it was just too sweet for us.

Bananas Foster (Internet photo - you can see why ours was inhaled as soon as it reached the table!)

Key Lime Pie

We walked back to the apartment and the boys had an awesome time in the HUGE bath.  We have a large bath but Rohan was able to swim laps in this one!  They both happily climbed into bed and were asleep at about 9pm (7pm old time).

We didn't take many photos today because it was just plane travel.  The internet here works and is fast so hopefully there will be some Alligator photos up tomorrow!

Day 18: Camp Verde to Phoenix AZ

Another early wake up - 6am.  Oh well.  We ate breakfast and then proceeded to pack up or throw out the contents of the RV.  This took a while, so we didn't leave until 9:45am but at least we were done and the camper was clean.

We headed down the road to Montezuma's Castle just outside of Camp Verde.  It is a fort built into side of a hill and has nothing to do with Montezuma.  It was built around 1245 and was inhabited until 1425 when the pre-Indian tribe left for reasons unknown.  It was pretty cool and would have been an excellent place to defend as access was by ladder only.  It had a short scenic path which lead to different views of the castle and during this walk Rohan, completely obliviously, stepped on the tail of a lizard and Julian nearly stood on a beetle the side of a 20cent coin!

We left the castle and went up the road to the interstate. There was a Starbucks there, so we had our first coffee in the US and also put a pin in their world map - no one had visited from Melbourne until us.  We then had another food discussion with Julian who was starving so much he was crying.  This meant we went across the road again for McDonalds - our options were McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell or another Taco restaurant.  We weren't up for another Julian tantrum.  Thankfully he ate a bit and didn't create a scene and was his happy self again.

Back in the RV, we headed back onto the Interstate towards Phoenix.  Rohan was asleep within minutes which meant that Julian had the iPad, and we enjoyed the bliss road noise.  Normally there is music playing - Banana's in Pajamas, Big Day Out (Justine Clarke), The Wiggles or Playschool.  We can sing them in our sleep however Rohan LOVES them and Julian happily sings along which makes for a very pleasant journey.

It was 160km to Phoenix and it was a good road.   Up until this point we had had a cactus count going on for Arizona and the tally was at 3.  That was until about 100km out of Phoenix when suddenly they were everywhere and it just looked like in the movies.  We scrapped the count :)

Jane had obviously stayed off the turps last night as she did an excellent job of directing us to our hotel.  We have a 8:50am flight out tomorrow and we decided that an 8am drop off with a 30min drive to the airport didn't leave much extra for any problems, so we had booked into an airport hotel.  This was a new experience for us but so far so good.

We were staying at a Drury Inn and Suites and even though it was only 1pm, we were able to get into our room.  The room has 2 Queen beds and a BATH!  I may have been more excited than Rohan.  When we left Camp Verde it was 65F, Phoenix was 95F.  So we changed into shorts and drove to drop off the RV. I had tried calling them a number of times but could only leave messages, so they didn't know we were coming and I was worried that we would have issues.  Silly me!  Another person was also dropping off early and there were no problems at all.  We inquired after the cost of an ex-rental RV our size (30ft, sleeps 7) and it would cost $US32,000!  New they are $US40,000.  What an absolute bargin!

They called us a taxi and we waited quite a while.  Julian and I watched "The Peoples Court" and Rohan and Steve explored the RVs that were in the showroom.  The taxi driver filled us in on Cruise America - started in Phoenix by an ex-CEO of Hertz and now owned by his 2 sons.  If we had looked a bit further into the showroom we would have discovered their collection of exotic sports cars.  Lucky them.

Back at the hotel, we all had a rest which included quality TV time for the boys.  Julian was getting sick of the advertisements - "They are not letting me watch television.  I don't like them!"

This hotel has some called "5:30 Kickback" which means they serve complimentary food and alcoholic beverages in their dining room from 5:30 to 7pm.  We headed down there for a dinner of spicy chicken, tomato pasta, baked potatoes and hot dogs.  Thankfully Julian ate 2 hotdogs - yay!  It was here that I learned that Bud Light was a low calorie beer not a low alcohol beer.  Good to know.  Steve stuck with the cabernet.

We gave the boys a bath which they loved so much that they didn't want to get out - of course.  They were both asleep (snoring) by 7:40pm.

Today we said goodbye to our home of 13 nights and we will genuinely miss a lot of things about it.  It was so easy to pack up everyday and get moving in the morning.  It didn't matter what time we arrived somewhere, we were already good to go.  It also allowed us to prepare a lot of our meals, to our tastes, quite cheaply and conveniently.  We had so many lunches sitting comfortably in the carpark of a supermarket - something that we wouldn't have been able to do in a car.  However we wont miss the hard thin mattress or the tiny shower and toilet. We are very happy for this experience and we hope that Julian has fond memories of it.

Day 17: Grand Canyon to Camp Verde AZ

Rohan woke us all up at 5:35am.  Thankfully Steve managed to quieten him down until the talking/giggling was getting out of hand at 6:45am.  We all got up, had breakfast and had the RV ready to go by 8:15am.

Rohan was on his last nappy (the local General store didn’t have any at all!), so our top priority was finding a supermarket.  Jane found the nearest biggest supermarket was Safeway in Williams which was 85km away - thankfully we were heading that way anyway.  The road was probably a third tier road, and the scenery was pretty boring considering where we had just been.  Julian was happy as it alternated between forest and scrubby desert because for some reason he likes forests.

We eventually came to Williams and discovered that it was on the famous Route 66.  The main drag was actually 2 main drags, both one way and both LINED with motels!  It was a bit surreal as it had a 1960’s vibe to the place. 

We bought the essentials at the supermarket – nappies (though we still haven’t been able to find nappy bags anywhere!), milk, pasta and donuts.  Unfortunately the donuts were not a patch on the Walmart ones L  We drove out of town to the main reason for heading to Williams – Bearizona.

Bearizona is a drive thru (of course) American Wildlife park.  It has Wolves, Bison, Elk and Deer and of course, Black Bears.  Julian had been looking at the brochure for days and was beside himself with excitement when we finally arrived.  We were given a GPS transponder which linked into our radio so we could have commentary.   There were rules about not stopping or getting out of your car; about having your windows up and doors locked.  Seriously why would you want to get out and pat a wolf or a bear? I like living.

It was all good fun and after we had done the drive thru, we headed to the enclosure area for the Raptors bird show.  Julian sat still the whole time loving every minute of the show.  Rohan squirmed and screeched and wriggled all over the place.  They had a few birds, including a HUGE owl, which swooped low over the audience which was fantastic!

After the show we walked around the other enclosures.  Julian liked the Black Bears but he and Rohan loved the River Otters.   It was feeding time and people were throwing in fish to the Otters.  They had a glass screen down to the water level which meant the boys could get close to the Otters.  Both of them were squealing, they were having so much fun!  After that we left via a really terrible gift shop – Julian was more than a bit disappointed. 

We had lunch in the camper and then headed out to Sedona.  I had been playing with the GPS and had picked the shortest route – big mistake!  Jane told us to exit the interstate freeway and then re-enter the freeway on the other side – how could that be shorter?  We quickly re-did the route to fastest route and it was smooth sailing from there. We drove through the outskirts of Flagstaff and it looked like a nice place.

The road to Sedona ran down into a canyon and followed a river for a while before climbing again.  This area is a state park called Red Rocks and it looks a lot like those in Utah and northern Arizona.  However these hills/mountains have trees on them which makes them look quite different.

The plan was to stay in Sedona tonight.  Unfortunately Jane was no use in finding the RV park.  We weren’t too disappointed as Sedona was a lot like Lorne on a hot summers day but 3 times the size – LOTS of people and cars.  Jane found us another RV park about 30km down the road, on the route we were going to take tomorrow, so we decided to go there instead.

Jane was having a bad day as she made us turn into a car dealership and do a blocky around the back before telling us to re-trace our footsteps!  Not a chance were we going to do that, so we continued further on heading back towards the main road to Phoenix.  I scrolled through the campground options in the GPS and found one on the other side of the freeway.  Unfortunately when we got there this one was full, so we continued another 11km further out to another one.  We pulled up only to discover that this one was also full however there was another one about 100m up the road which the guy thought would have space.  And it did!  It is a lovely campground and it has the best looking showers we have seen so far (we haven’t tried them yet).  Crappy wifi of course.

After we had hooked up, we all went for a nature walk in a leafy forest which was part of the campground.  Julian talked the whole time and Rohan was determined to walk unassisted.   We came back to the RV and made the classic Mac and Cheese (with vegetables).  After that Steve and I started cleaning the RV, so that it was one less thing to do tomorrow.  We skipped the shower again and it took the boys a long time to fall asleep.  Fingers crossed for not another early start.

Bearizona was a good find, especially for animal mad Julian.  He “read” the map telling us what animals were coming up next and he loved racing about the camper to get the best views of the animals.  We were surprised when he said that he liked the Otters best but they were the most animated and the ones he got closest to.  For the rest of the day Julian was pretending to be an Otter eating fish and swimming around.  Maybe they will be his next obsession.

Day 16: Grand Canyon - rim walk

We were woken at 2am after Julian had an accident.  Thankfully we all got back to sleep and woke at 6:45am rested.   As we now had to do another load of washing, we couldn’t get away as early as we would have liked.

We drove out just after 9am, heading back into Grand Canyon National Park.  We planned to leave the RV at the Visitors centre carpark and take shuttle buses to the various viewpoints that interested us.  Even before 9:30am, the carpark was already filling fast.  Julian was mad keen to get going (!!), so we walked to the visitors centre for a little look.  This place was surprisingly small with the only really interesting thing being a replica of one of the boats Powell took up the river on the canyons first exploration.

We had decided to take one of the shuttle buses out to Yavapai Point as our first stop.  We walked out of the visitors centre, straight onto a bus which made it all seem very easy!  This lookout was absolutely awesome as the sky was cloudless and it was relatively warm too.  Rohan was happy in the backpack and Julian still had enthusiasm.  There was a also small museum there which had some marine exhibits and fossils. 

We left there and walked around the rim (about 1 km) to the next viewpoint, Mather’s point, which is at the rear of the visitors centre and carpark.  The drop off from this one is crazy but thankfully there were guardrails here.

Photo by Julian

Photo by Julian

Can you spot the people?

It was now 11:30am, so we headed back to the RV for some sandwiches.  We were planning on giving Rohan a sleep in the camper but changed our minds and thought that hopefully being carried all day he could cope ok without a sleep…

We headed back to the shuttle buses and this time caught one that went to Yaki point.  This was the east most look out but there wasn’t much to do other than take photos (there wasn’t a rim trail).  We waited for the next bus and took it back to the visitors centre.

We then took a shuttle through the Grand Canyon Village to Hermits Rest.  Hermits Rest was another good lookout and also the starting point for the other shuttle bus that went westward.  These 2 shuttle buses were late, slow moving and packed solid with people – not a happy combination.  Thankfully we got around to Hopi point without too much drama other the amount of time all these bus trips were taking.   Hopi point had 180degree views and we saw the Colorado river for the first time today.

We walked the rim trial around to Powell point which was like a peninsula jutting out into the canyon.  Julian was getting more confident with the drop off and I was getting more nervous!  It was now around 3pm and Rohan wanted to be held, rather than in the backpack, so it was time to head back to the RV. Thankfully we got seats on the shaded side of the buses and they weren’t as crowded.  On these bus journeys were saw many Elk and a couple of deer but didn’t manage to snap any photos of them L

We stopped at the visitor centre store and bought Rohan a soft toy bird, a Canyon Wren, which sings when squeezed.  This will happily join our collection of similar toy New Zealand birds.  Rohan had no intention of falling asleep on the trip home as he was happily playing with the bird – flying it around his head J

When we returned to the camp, Julian and I went to the General Store for some souvenir-ing.  We bought a soft toy Elk and a Grand Canyon t-shirt – we were both happy.  Tonight it was a simple Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner which was happily received.  After dinner, I read the last of The Witches whist Steve did the dishes and then the boys had showers before bed.  Both were asleep before 7pm.

We were so happy with how today turned out.  The weather and the views were magnificent and both boys were really good too.  The scale of the canyon is mind blowing and I can see why it is/was one of the 7 wonders of the natural world.  My highlight was how much Julian got out of the experience – he was in awe of it all day.