Casa Rio Natchitoches

... made it to.  Don't things always turn out for the best??? AND we saw THREE ARMADILLOS on our walk tonight (we walk the dogs every night) - none of us (including Tilly and Belle, who were fortunately leashed) had ever seen one before.  Also some white birds that look related to egrets, and pelicans. Lots of plantation mansions today, and the live oaks hung now with spanish moss.  Cemeteries that are filled with above-ground marble tombs, fields of sugar cane stretching for miles. and ...

... and we drove around to see most of the locations where Steel Magnolias was filmed. It's such a great movie. Natchitoches attracts over one million visitors annually. The city has 11 national chain hotels and nearly 50 bed and breakfast inns, including the Steel Magnolia House. The city's tourism center is the downtown river walk. This includes Front Street, which overlooks the ...

... breeze. <br><br>We began to notice a crop in the fields which looked like maize, but brown and dead. We thought at first that maybe it had become diseased and allowed to die, but as we drove further the amount we saw made us doubt that. <br><br>As we drove through the city of Shreveport we crossed the Red River and saw our first paddle steamer. We needed a Wal-Mart but Shreveport is a huge place so when we stopped for fuel on the southern outskirts we asked for directions. We were ...

I am still setting up my motorcycle for the trip. I still havent gotten luggage, a new gas tank, an quite a few other things that I need. Thankfully, I have gotten a lot of the comfort needs out of the way. I did install a windshield and bar risers. I scored a Corbin saddle off of ebay for pretty cheap. I noticed a huge difference in comfort this passed weekend on a 400 mile dual sport ...

... t catch anything all day that way. Initially Huck was busy baiting for Chrissy as the fish seemed very good at stealing the worm and leaving the hook. After a while, to prove his masculinity, MJ felt he should let Huck do some bass fishing for himself and had a go at baiting. All went well until the worm felt the hook and (not unreasonably) started wriggling. At this point MJ had a screaming fit and undertook what he would later describe as a ...

... guy who cuts the hay around-about Hucks estate and he kindly gave MJ a short trip on the back of his jet-ski. It's like motor biking on water. Fab. Once we got back to Hucks we had an excellent BBQ by the river (with MJ falling off the wagon via a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale) followed by another shorter trip back up the river where Kathy and MJ took a swim in the warm murky river for about 30 minutes. It was really blissful. Evening was more dominos.

... land grant set up in 1830s - it subsequently become famous in early 1900s for Cammie Henry who with her husband owned many plantations and this one was used to house cultural artists and writers who lived free as long as they were producing work. One of the famous painters was Clementine Hunter who lived until 1988 at the ripe age of 101. Here's the Wiki: Clementine Hunter (1886/1887 - January 1, 1988) was born around 1886 at Hidden Hill plantation. Clementine's first ...

... and a Randy - a male friend from Pre-Med school they both attend in Alexandria. She was very lovely and the guy was a cool dude. We all took a ride out to town and a walk around the shops followed by a trip to the local college football pre-match tail-gate party. This originated as people eating and drinking outside the stadium from the tailgates of their pickups. Nowadays they seem to have huge gazebos, massive BBQs and no-one spends ...

Long journey today of 300 miles - we headed south west along I-30 towards Texarkana stopping at two Wal-Marts along the way to try and get some wine for Kathy and found a white cowboy hat for Huck which he won't wear for sure. Eventually found a liquor store but not before we stopped in Hope, Arkansas - the birthplace of Pres Clinton. It wasn't much of a place but we took the obligatory pictures and moved on. The drive from Shreveport to Natchitoches down I-49 was ...

... this stuff. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch Chere returned to the KOA and had no trouble getting the refund on the second night's stay. Chere explained that if she could not get to Gmail there was no point in paying the premium for their WiFi. They cheerfully explained that they 'block Google' because it put too much stress on their server..?! Remarkable. To think that people might actually use the internet. While Rory ate peanut ...