About a week before we left Styx River RV Park in Alabama, our next scheduled park, Abita Springs RV Park in Louisiana, called and said we couldn't stay in that park back-to-back from Styx River because they were in the same system. I tried to talk them into letting us stay because we had had the reservation for a couple of months. Well, they still wouldn't let us stay so we had to really scramble to find another park. We found we had a Coast to Coast park about 15 miles from Abita Springs, so we got in there. We were pretty relieved, even though we had to pay $10 per night to stay there. That doesn't sound like much, and it really isn't, unless you are used to paying $0!
The park we found was really pretty cool. It was Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Robert, Louisiana.
The whole park was based on the Yogi Bear characters.
There was a nice pool (although too cold to swim in) and a mini-golf course, with the cartoon characters splashed all over the place.
Every building had a character name--Boo Boo's Video Arcade.
There was a hayride trailer that was kept pretty busy on the weekend.
The park was actually divided in several completely different sections. This one was called Condo Village. The sites were all permanent and all of the ones on the left side of the road were right on the little lake. There was another section that was for members only. They had their own pool and clubhouse and didn't have much to do with the Jellystone theme. Then there were three different clusters of rental cabins, each with their own swimming pools.
We were put in a site over in a separate RV section, but we got a nice spot on a corner and right on a little lake. There were lots of little turtles in the lake, but I couldn't ever get close enough to get a picture of one.
When we hunted for another park to stay in, we wanted to get one close enough to New Orleans to visit. We were only about 40 miles away so we spent a day there. There are several definite areas in New Orleans. We drove to the French Quarters, which is probably the most touristy, and parked there. It is right on the Mississippi River. This is Jackson Square, with a statue of General Jackson on his rearing horse, with the large three building in the picture being a 1879 Spanish government building, the St. Louis Cathedral which is the oldest cathedral in the United Stated and built in 1849, and a 1853 Spanish building now part of the Louisiana State Museum. There is lots of history in this area.
Horse drawn carriage tours are available all along the main street in French Quarters.
On most corners there are street musicians and entertainers. They all have their cans, pots, or hats out for donations.
This mime was very entertaining. He looked like a statue until he started moving. This little girl had taken some money to put in his bucket and all of a sudden he "came alive" and handed her a sucker.
As we walked by this ventriloquist, his "dummy" hollered at Terry and told him that he looked just like James Bond!
This musician's music was so good that a couple stopped and danced to it!
An amphitheater was right along the street, across from Jackson Square, and there was always some group performing--usually getting people from the audience down on stage to help out. It was very entertaining.
We saw two of these decorated floats coming through and they stopped near the amphitheater. Soon the whole area was filled with people in green shirts and all wearing beads and drinking beer. We stopped and asked what was going on. They told us that it was just a "practice run" to get ready for St. Patrick's Day the next week! The said that they always have several "practice runs" to get ready for any holiday. This is very much a party town!
You can see a lot of French influence in the buildings that were all built before Texas became part of the United States.
These were buildings right on the main street.
The roads were very narrow, even for one-way roads. So, we opted to get tickets so we could ride the trolleys for the day.
There was no tour guide on the trolleys, but we got to see a lot of New Orleans just by riding them around. Their cemeteries were very unique and we noticed that there were a lot of the horse-drawn buggy tours to them.
We went through the Garden District where all of the really big French homes are. This was only a couple of weeks after their big mardi gras week. There were trees that were totally covered by strings of beads. The best picture I got of one was out of the trolley windows.
The light poles also had remnants of mardi gras still on them
The homes in this area were very pretty, but close together.
We even spotted an LDS church building right in the middle of the older homes, which is kind of unusual to find there. Usually, they are Baptist or Methodist churches.
We went on the riverwalk and saw a tug boat pushing a large barge down the Mississippi River.
Along the riverwalk there were some very unique shops. This one had everything you would need to celebrate mardi gras--except the beer!
These are stands of some very unusual hats.
They were unloading some very large shrimp--probably prawns. Later that evening, we saw on the news that they had a huge spaghetti feed, topped with shrimp, at French Quarters that night. It was a lot of fun walking and riding around New Orleans. I am sure it is even more fascinating during the nightlife--a little too exciting for us, so we left before it got dark!
We only stayed at Jellystone Park one week. Here is our last look at the mighty Mississippi as we crossed over it, heading for Texas.
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