Finally in Louisiana....

On Sunday, March 23rd we woke up at the rest area and I will emphasize again that Texas has some nice rest areas.  Check these pictures out!  Mosaics in the bathroom?  Really?

That morning we took our toothbrushes into the restroom and had to laugh.  We were feeling like hippies...hot, tired, dirty, living out of a trailer on the road, Don complaining about his long hair....we felt compelled to take pictures.....we needed a hot shower and breakfast!

Don the hippie...

Julie the hippie...

So it was time to go the last few miles out of Texas, but not without a few stops, Home Depot (the 4th stop??) and an auto parts store. First, the truck stop in Winnie for a shower.  Since the Love's truck stop had been our best shower yet we figured we would have a similar experience.  Well....for Julie it was fine, but not so for Don who paid $7 for a cold shower!  Oh well..can't win them all!


Next stop Home Depot in Beaumont, Texas.  While the repairs in Allen as the Drurys was a necessity and definitely made a huge difference it wasn't enough.  Don wanted another steel bar to go across the front, which he cut in the parking lot, and we needed to tighten the bolts for each individual tower post.  

The bolts in each tower needed to be tightened

I hope she makes it!

Back to work...

 Next stop the Auto Parts store where we bought new lights for the "kitchen" and free-on for the AC.

Did we say that this was a lot more work than we thought?????

And did I say that was the last stop?  We drove out of Beaumont toward Port Arthur (last stop in Texas).  Julie assessed the map and realized that we were likely not going to be anywhere near a gas station for some time so we decided to go into Port Arthur for gas.  My iPhone failed us....there was no gas station and it was a pretty depressed town.  Just as we were about to give up we found one....it was cash-only and we were definitely the minority.  Big bonus, a free soda with $30 purchase!

Then we were over the bridge and in Louisiana.

Our friends from Mustang Island told us to stay off I-10 and so we took back roads through the Lousiana Bayou along the coast.  It was really beautiful and different!  Julie was researching parks to stay and snapping pictures along the way.....here is a sampling...

Another ferry...

  


















And then we decided it was time for lunch so we stopped at the local pizza joint for lunch.

We heated up some burritos in the microwave and took a group picture!!!









 And some more pictures from the drive through the Bayou.....

And finally we got to our first Louisiana State Park.....near Abbeville, in SW Louisiana.