Dardanelle, Arkansas

Our next move was to Dardanelle State Park in Russellville, Arkansas.  Trish had found us a wonderful lakeside campsite for the next 3 nights. We bought fishing licenses and fished right from our site. Beautiful sunsets, warm days, but alas, not even a nibble!

Arkansas

After 5 wonderful days in Natchitoches we continued north to Little Rock. We had been there in our trip in 2018 and wanted to spend another day exploring the city. Home to the Clinton Library (we didn't go) and a nice downtown filled with good restaurants. We camped on the banks of the Arkansas River, directly across from Little Rock. There was a walking bridge right near our campsite to cross the river into the city.

We enjoyed dining at downtown restaurants, very good food!

Our evening view out of the Breeze was quite nice also.

Natchitoches, Louisiana

After enjoying our time in Breaux Bridge, we moved north 3 hours to Natchitoches. Actually I moved north, Trish had needed to fly home to New England to attend a memorial service for her Mom.  Anyway, the next campsite was at Grand Ecore, a COE campground built on the shore of the Red River. Our campsite was in a former pecan grove, so we had lots of pecans available, literally falling off the trees around us.

After one night I drove an hour to Alexandria airport to pick up Trish, it was nice to have her back, 3 nights alone was enough!

We explored the area, played a little golf and found the town of Natchitoches to be very charming. It is a small southern town with a classic riverside downtown. Plus the were just beginning to turn on the Christmas lights, they call themselves "The City Of Lights"

 Very nice people, pretty town, a place you can imagine living.

Breaux Bridge Louisiana

After 4 nights in NOLA we moved west a couple hours to the small town of Breaux Bridge. We are camped at Poche's Fishing Camp. Fishing ponds surround our site.

Through two days we haven't caught any fish. But we do get great sunsets!

Three nights here then we move on to Natchitoches, Louisiana.

New Orleans

More NOLA pics.

More beignets after a nice dinner in downtown, with live music!

Sad part, the Hard Rock Hotel that collapsed a couple weeks ago. What a mess.

Cooking class

The cook ing class deserves its own post. We went for a hands on cooking class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. The class was limited to 10 people working with the chef. The objective was to cook our own lunch. We started with bloody marys (unlimited LOL) and sat at our dinner table listening to the chef explain Louisiana cooking including creole and Cajun, along with the history of food in the area.

Then we moved to the kitchen where we had our own cooking and prep areas. We had been given recipes for chicken and andouille gumbo, gulf fish amandine, and pecan rice. Our job was to prep and cook it.

Trish cooking the fish.

After enjoying our dinner creations, we went back to the kitchen to make dessert, bananas foster!

Chef showing us how to make crepes.

Me cooking the bananas and the sweet stuff!  Unfortunately I can't share movies on this site or you could watch the flambe of the bananas!

The result, a delicious dessert!

We had such a good time doing this class, highly recommend it if you are in NOLA.

Fun in NOLA

We had fun in New Orleans. A round of golf one day, a walk around the French quarter the next, and a really fun cooking class the next day.

Delicious beignets and cafe au lait at Café Du Monde.

OK, now New Orleans!

Ok, I jumped the gun and posted about our first night in New Orleans. We camped at Ponchartrain Landing RV and Marina, right on the waterfront of the Lake. A nice place in the middle of a working waterfront that is still recovering from Katrina 10 years ago.

Views of our campsite from the front, and water views in back.

Fun campground with a wonderful restaurant and bar.

Alabama

After a wonderful week in Port St Joe, we regretted having to leave. But we headed out to Alabama, our destination was Spanish Fort, Alabama, on an island just outside of Mobile Alabama. Very nice campsite at Meaher State Park

Interesting place with a wonderful nature center on the island. We walked a lot at the nature center and visited the civil war battle site near bye.