A Rainy Pajama Day

We woke to the sound of rain drops hitting our roof.  It wasn’t a bad rain to begin with and it was good sleeping.

and then it all broke loose and the heavy rains came and came.  My back is screaming and so it’s a day being spent cuddling up to the heating pads and a Pajama day! 

 

It doesn’t help that the humidity is 97 percent!  Oh me Oh my i looked at AZ weather and it’s only in the low 50’s there today.  Miami Florida is 78 degrees!  Me O Me sure wishing we’d had went back to Florida!! Why didn’t i go to Florida? 

After the rain let up a bit i took some pictures .. at one time our rug out our front door was covered with water, now it’s just those annoying pine needles they call pine straw here! 

We have lake front property .. as you can see across the path Snuffy and Jean’s rig is gone

  

here is the lake across from where we are parked .. as you can see it’s still dreary and looks like it could rain again.

 

the road out our front door.  Today has been spent curled up and watching football with hubby!  YESSS no Hallmark .. I had seen all they were showing today, but later on tonight i will be watching it again.  So i was a good wifey and snuggled next to my hubby.  He fixed Hamburgers for dinner since I'm on strike and down in the back and it’s still drizzling rain so we are not leaving our comfy home.  Hubby is feeling a bit better, the medication we got him is starting to kick in.  Good thing or we’d be in a mess here with no one to cook for us since  our great friends left us all alone to fend for ourselves.  Did i call them great friends?  HMMMM …

Hope you all had a great Sunday.

A Warm Lazy Day

The temps have reached back up into the high 70’s finally!  It was a slow morning and then we headed to town to pick up a few things.  First on the list was the toy store .. oh i mean Harbor Freight.  The had several items on sale that we needed for our up coming boon docking we will be doing in the desert on BLM land in Quartzsite.

 

We purchased these head lights for $1.99, reg 4.99.  We will need these in the desert where there is no lighting for walking at night, reading and other things.

  

Our big purchase was this 2000 watt/4000 continuous inverter for $129.99, reg 199.99 (we purchased the insurance on it for 19.99).  As i told you this fall our RV refrigerator went out and we decided to go back with a Electric refrigerator, i have loved it, so much more room for when i get in the mood to cook.  We also have a electric small chest freezer (looks like a small refrigerator) we normally travel with it off during the day and when we over night we start up our generator and run it all night to get the freezer ready for the next day.  We do not want to do that while we are boon docking in the desert. So hopefully this inverter will take care of our needs while experiencing life on the grid. I got a electric strip for 1.99, reg 4.99, hubby purchased 2 cargo bars to hold our water jugs and gas cans in place in the back of the truck. 

We stopped by Wal-mart to fill up the truck with fuel .. Ouch!! $ 68 bucks!!  At least we got it for $3.53 a gal, much cheaper then anywhere else. Geeze we have went through lots fuel the past few weeks.  $ 65 bucks last Thursday when we went Lafayette, $30 in Natchitoches (we put just enough in to get us home as it was 3.79 a gallon).  Oh well, we’ve enjoyed our site seeing and it’s been well worth it!  (YESS.. that coming from tight wad me) I needed dog food and a few other items but after fighting the crowd at Harbor Freight i was in no mood to fight the lines and crowd in Wal-mart so we turned around and left.  I hate fighting crowds of people and i esp hate standing in line to be checked out!

Look at the size of this bug!!!!!

 

WOW .. they grow em huge here!!

I spent my afternoon/evening just chillin out and surfing the web and watching Hallmark Christmas shows.  Hubby isn’t feeling good, he has come down with the crud that is going around.  Sure hope he doesn’t share it with me.

It’s not all play

Okay .. I've been showing you lots of play time lately.  Although as much as I know what your all thinking .. it’s not play all the time .. there is some working going on here at Twin Lakes.

Here is brother David getting ready to climb a tree to tie a rope around it

Alton getting ready for David to hook the rope up to this big guy to keep it from falling on the building when they cut it

David cutting the tree so it will fall

 

timberrrrrrrrr .. the tree is down and nothing damaged

One of the new doors installed .. one door down .. several more to go

Tommy taking a window out

Don went and brought a couple of Teen Challenge guys in to help .. This is Justin

Clay is the other guy .. he is a welder

 

Tom is an RVer who stopped in for just a couple days.  Arrived on Wednesday afternoon and left on Saturday afternoon

It’s looking different

metal pilings are getting installed

they are gonna have to do some painting with this old looking tin they are putting up to enclose the windows they are taking out

Clay hard at work

another small door installed in the center of the building where a window used to be 

   

Don doing the dishes after a wonderful lunch together (thanks Don)

Tommy and Snuffy are the professional door installers

 

the only window left in the building is here on the side .. the rest are just in the doors

     

Tommy putting on the finishing touches.  Yep .. the guys have worked hard and now they can leave with a job well done

Tommy and Diane, & Snuffy and Jean both packed up their rigs and pulled out this afternoon.  Their work in this stage is done and now they can go home and enjoy Christmas with their families.  We are all alone here in the RV park.  We will be staying another week before heading to Tommy and Diane’s to hang out for the holidays.  I’m going to be lonely this week but i have several things i need to get done so i will busy getting some needed work done (hopefully i do not get side tracked)

Natchitoches Christmas Festival of Lights

 

The sun has come out and warmed up .. not as warm as i prefer but much better then it was. First on the list today, Diane, Jean and I ran into town for a bit of shopping. Later on around 2.30 PM, Tommy, Diane, Don, hubby and I loaded up in our truck and headed to Natchitoches.  Snuffy and Jean didn’t go as they went last Friday.

First on the list was to stop and see Kaffie-Frederick General Mercantile.  It’s an old store that has been around for a long time and it has all kinds of things, esp old time things.

There is an Oval opening in the roof and it was skylights.  Because prior to electricity they used them to light up the store.

Kaffie-Frederick was a cotton broker from the 1880’s – 20th century.  Cotton bales would be purchased from local farmers and then sold to the buyers that worked for the textile mills.

Diane was taking a picture of me (i was unaware) and Don decided to do one of his silly faces.  He is a hoot when he finally let’s loose.

Downstairs was all kinds of junk and once you got up stairs .. it was a winter wonderland!

 

beautiful Christmas decorations .. expensive ones too!

hubby and I by the one of the many trees

these are the things you see in magazines and only dream of seeing

  

Here i am coming back down 2 flights of stairs!  Yes i had to go up and see the upstairs!  

Next was to tour the rest of the historic downtown area

 

It’s all decorated for Christmas which of course I just love!!

They had carriage rides …

looking for a peppermint to give the good horse who was waiting his turn

 

Yep, i found one and he/she enjoyed it

the stores are down along the river front .. it’s a beautiful area

I think we were waiting to cross the street here

reminds me of New Orleans

 

with the balcony’s and all .. i love old towns like this

 

you could get your picture taken with a live Alligator .. i did that last winter in Miami

another Carriage ride .. the cars have to wait and follow

They had all kinds of vender tents

 

Our wonderful Tour guide Tommy was showing us something here .. his lovely wife Diane was our photographer who is awesome .. thanks Tommy and Diane .. we love you!!

   

There was a lot of traffic .. i can imagine on the weekends it would be a night mare to try to drive on these streets .. by arriving early we were able to find a good parking place and we walked .. on concrete this time so hopefully there is no chance of getting stuck! 

 

Natchitoches traces its history to a French colonial settlement established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, near the Natchitoches Indian village on the Red River. Trade and plantation agriculture shaped the city's early years. The original French settlement lay south of the current town center. As the Louisiana territory became Spanish and eventually American, the town moved north to Front Street. Much of the town's historic architecture has been preserved. The shifting Red River left Natchitoches behind, protecting it from 20th century development. Caring citizens recognized the importance of this accidental legacy.

 

We really enjoyed walking through the stores and seeing all kinds of stuff .. the guys needed a coffee fix ( i think really they wanted to sit down a bit) so we stopped for them to get some coffee and i had to resist getting a cupcake cuz we stopped at cupcake coffee place .. oh it smelt and looked so good.

 

One the sun went down you could really see all the lights.  They were hung across the streets and just everywhere

We have seen this name lot’s lately, it’s really known around this area, Alexandria, Lafayette, Natchitoches ..

There were lights everywhere and the best part this was all free .. no parking fee, no entrance free .. better yet!

this walk way before it lit up .. it would go out and then light up strain by strain .. it was neat to watch and check out the beauty once it was all lit up

 

it was romantic walking hand and hand down this with my wonderful husband .. this couple thought so too

at the end of the tunnel is Santa’s house .. he was gone so all we could do was leave a letter in his mail box

lots of lights .. i love how they look with their reflection in the water

 

saints fans even enjoy their lights

  

love the naivety scene

it really speaks for it’s self ..

  

 

the Christmas tree before it lit up

 

and the lit up results .. beautiful!

Cane River Lake ..

   

Tommy, Diane, hubby and I posing in front of the light (we had another couple take a picture of all 5 of us in front of the tree but it didn’t turn out)

 

Don posing by himself since he took picture of the 4 of us

this light speaks volume for it’s self as well .. because we are very blessed to live in America

 

Jesus is the Reason for this Season and all others .. Christmas for me is more about celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior and to honor him.  It is what i always tried to teach my children as well.

The bridge over the river was decorated and as you left it said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

After lots of walking and seeing we were all getting hungry.  We looked at a couple places and decided that we’d try Papa’s Bar & Grill, it’s menu looked the best

 

While waiting for our meal i think we were watching the ballgame or the posters and pictures on the walls but Diane .. you didn’t warn any of us and she caught some not so good poses .. i just had to share these

the place was packed and it took awhile to get our food but i have to admit it was veryyy good food and the prices were not bad at all!

Tommy had a Shrimp PoBoy with chips, Don had a PoBoy (not sure what kind) with fries, hubby had the Big C burger with fries, Diane had the Big C burger with chips and I had a Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich with chips.  While waiting on our food we had what they called the Ultimate Cheese Fries that we all shared .. OH Man they were so GOOD!  Although for the price we thought there should have been more because those that got fries with their meal had just as many as was on the platter brought out that was 7 bucks!

  

Here i am after eating way to much!

 

Here is the 4 of us standing under the sign except … the sign got cut off ….

We had a great time and as always we enjoyed our fellowship and there is nothing better then spending time with wonderful friends .. We are really enjoying Louisiana and it has so much to do and see.  We got home after 9 pm.  We relaxed a bit and then called it a night.