There was forecasted a ton of terrible storms for this day, so instead of taking a day to explore we took a day to unwind and catch up on laundry. The pool was enormous and covered, so during the breaks in the storms the boys all went swimming. I on the other hand managed to get the laundry done and enjoyed some quiet time to myself.
Today was very cathartic!
So we woke up early, after approximately 4 hours of sleep, to take the Isata into the service center. This was an hour from our campsite, through Houston. After dodging all the tolls and terrible traffic we got her in and they had 2 motors left in stock. This was going to be an all day kind of repair so we left and got breakfast!
After this we looked to kill a few hours and decided that we would go and see the new Despicable Me movie. The kids, James, and I all loved the movie even though we couldn’t all sit together. But it was like a mini date for James and I. I will forgive the kids for stealing all the popcorn and candy too.
Next up we went to Battlefield Houston. The boys had been looking forward to this stop since I first came up with the activities for the trip. So like a year now. It was my first time trying out laser tag and the boys’ first trying out tactical tag. We all had a blast. The first game was a cops and robber style game, we each took turns trying to steal bundles of cash. The second was a defend the base game and Jude got MVP for his awesome skills of picking off all the opposing players. After each game we got to play a Deathmatch round. I was proud of my 4 kills total of the 2 deathmatches. The boys did much better than I as expected.
We then went next door to Dirty Fingers, a cajun place, were we got some delicious Vietnamese fare. They had beignets and Cafe du Monde coffee too, other then those options we did not agree with the cajun profession.
We got the call that the RV was finished after we took our last bites. We were 45 minutes away and that meant that we would be there after closing but Mirza was willing to wait. The whole experience with Holiday RV of Katy was a fantastic one. They had us crammed into their very busy service schedule and got us out the same using their last 2 motors. We were definitely impressed.
So I mentioned before the adventure in Florida with the mechanic and the late trip into Panama City. Well repeat that only worse, our back slide motor gave out and we were stuck, literally.
This time we were waiting with another very patient camp host for hours for a mechanic to come out and look at the rig. He was very nice and worked hard but the motor was even less accessible than before. We were missing tools and it caused us to be there 6 hours past the checkout.
Knowing that James had an appointment set up for a rv service center in Houston for the front slide we made it a quick fix of a motor removal, shoved the slide in, and set off on our way. It was well after 2am that James pulled into the campground.
Also let me mention the rain had let up only for the repairs. It was still raining buckets even in Houston. Obviously there was not time for pictures however the kids loved the free time in the pool in NOLA while they waited on the repairs.
We woke up in New Orleans and got ready to head to the Satchmo Fest. The festival was being held in an old mint turned blues museum. It was a really neat place to explore!
The boys were able to sit in a vocal artist’s talk of what Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) meant to her and were able to hear music that was fairly new to them.
After a while the boys got bored of the scene and we struck out on the town. Headed towards bugs at the Insectarium.
Interesting fact learned at that insectarium was that the termite is now classified as a member of the cockroach family.
This is a sampling of what the kids were really after. They had several bug snacks available for free tastings. The cookies were actually not that bad.
We headed home after this to get some extra sleep before Jude’s special day.
Miles driven: 540
Total miles driven: 6547
We woke up in Panama City, FL after James drove until 2 am in the morning. We started our trip back through the time zones. So it felt like 3 am for us.
We were able to sleep in and take a walk on the beach that was across the street from us.
The rest of the day we did pretty much nothing and then headed out towards the “Big Easy”.
We made our way down to Fort Myers and then met up with Colbey. It was such a nice visit but somehow he managed to keep us from taking any pictures the entire time we spent with him.
We had all kinds of fun fighting with Thor for the trip here too. Turns out Thor’s storm was named Tropical Storm Emily. There was lightening and thunder and so much rain.
We went on recommendation from Colbey to go on an air boat ride in the everglades. It was super cool to go out on the water and see the areas that alligators live. They were all hiding because of the storm rolling in but we had a good time anyways. That is until the lightening started striking out in the glades with us.
We got back to dry land just in time for the worst rain of the trip to come down on top of us. We were so drenched! but we managed to go to the alligator show afterward.
All the phones were starting to cry from the excess water so that is all we really got. Our phones weren’t the only one’s having issue with the rain. when we got back to the Isata the night prior we discovered the entire ceiling was pouring water. Turns out the skylight over the shower had sprung a leak and there was no way to stop it until the next day.
James and Colbey managed to do a patch job the next day during a break in the rain but the fun only continued. When we went to leave the slides wouldn’t retract and we got to experience our first of two mechanic calls. The campground was super understanding too.
We got on the road but poor James had to drive into the wee hours to get us to the next stop
