The Adventure Continues...
The mountains overlooking Biosphere 2!
We left Quartzsite, Arizona on January 29th and started heading east. We loved the visit and couldn't believe that 8 people actually lived in there for two years. They have an indoor ocean, mangrove wetlands, tropical rainforest, savannah grasslands and fog desert. The plants, trees and cactus were endless.
We left Oracle and headed for Tombstone, Arizona. We watched a play at one of the old saloons in town and it was fantastic. The play gives you a feel of what the old west was really like, definitely rugged and violent!
We left Tombstone, Arizona and headed for Texas. We arrived at the Sonora Caverns in Sonora, Texas a few days later. Even though confined spaces sometimes freak me out (not Pinky) we decided to pay the cave a little visit. They said it would be warm and humid but it was actually quite comfortable. The stalactites and stalagmites were amazing.
We only stayed one night in Sonora and headed towards Austin, Texas. West Texas is fairly uninhabited or so it seems for the interstate and the cell service really, really sucks. We arrived at my brother from another mothers house and set up in his driveway. We planned on staying for a week and had several sights to see. We certainly visited the Alamo and although it's magnificent to see, you really have to wonder how in the heck 200 men defended that place against an estimated 6,000 man army!
Our sites then turned to the Riverwalk in San Antonio. It was lunch time of course so we had to find a good place to eat and my friend recommended Casa Rio and the food was outstanding. I had the Elephant Platter. It's not really called that, I just realized when it arrived that it was enough to feed an elephant. The local pigeons attacked every table as soon as the patrons got up to leave, but the service was great and the margaritas were cold! We also visited one of my favorite BBQ Restaurants in the country, The Saltlick! I had the sausage, brisket, turkey and beef ribs and Pinky got the 1/2 chicken platter. Needless to say everything was great and we still have some of the sauce in our mobile refrigerator (our RV House)! I also loved the potato salad, coleslaw and always have to get me a Big Red! It tastes like bubblegum and who doesn't love that taste! We also had to visit one of my favorite hamburger places, Whataburger! I love those burgers, but Pinky wasn't as impressed. I would put their burger in my official top ten, but that's another story!
Does anyone else other than Pinky see a trend in our visits? It's a lot about the food for me! We had to say goodbye to our friend and headed towards NASA and Houston, Texas.
We stopped at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. You would have to spend a month in this place to see everything! It was marvelous. We walked onto the space shuttle and viewed crew portraits of all of the NASA missions. We'll definitely go again!
We made it to the Welcome Center on I-10 East right across the Texas/Louisiana border. It's the best rest stop we've ever seen! When I walked into the restroom and smelled lavender. I was shocked. It was very clean! We will boondock here again for sure!
We were getting hungry and decided to stop in Lake Charles, Louisiana to get a few bites to eat!
We stopped at Steamboat Bill's and as you can see we had to get the boudin balls, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee and giant seafood platter! Everything was just like I remembered it growing up, DELICIOUS! The restaurant was clean and the staff was great! We will return for sure!
Now we're ready for New Orleans and MARDI GRAS! We stopped in Slidell, Louisiana right outside New Orleans and had lunch with my cousin at Copeland's and once again the food was on point! Pinky had the crab and avocado salad and I had the blue crab claws and shrimp jambalaya and it was absolutely amazing! It was great seeing my cousin after 25 years. I promise it won't take that long to see you again!
We'll catch you up on Mardi Gras in our next installment of thegroovyrvlife.com Travel Log!