Jeanie and Randy

On Thursday, June 10th, 2010, we left Baton Rouge and programmed our Garmin to take us to Disney World in Florida. We were celebrating our grandson, Landan's 7th birthday and our daughter, Kim's 25th! Wow Kim~a quarter of a century ...! Our family had visited Disney World during the park's 20th anniversary back in the nineteen hundreds, no seriously, we went in 1991 when my children were 4 and 5 1/2. I had heard things had changed since then. The thing I remembered most was the HEAT, but I was pretty sure that had not changed. It was August when we made that first trip to Disney World and I didn't think June was going to be any cooler. But nevertheless, the dates were chosen, plans were made, reservations secured and we were Disney bound. Randy, ... read more

We started our 3 week vacation to Yellowstone National Park on Thursday, May 28th, 2009. Our route will take us up I-49 North into Arkansas, then US Hwy 71 until we catch I-29 which will take us as far north as we will go. Then in Fargo, ND we will take I-94 west to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park. At approximately 9 am we departed from our home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We spent several weeks researching our trip route and plans for Yellowstone National Park and about a week packing and shopping. Having been to Yellowstone in 2000, we were able to see only part of the park as it is so massive and at that time we were in a rented RV. We started out I-10 west and then north on I-49 ... read more

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Traditionally, our family including me, ALWAYS has the Ham, Black Eyed Peas, Cabbage and Coleslaw for New Year's Day. This was the first New Year I deviated from the norm. However, we were fortunate enough to be able to escape for 4 days over the New Year weekend. We packed up Woody, our dog, and left about 11:00 AM on New Year's Day and headed east toward Mississippi. Even though the Natchez Trace Parkway is one of our favorite trips in Mississippi, we rarely travel east on I-10 much anymore. Since we are in Louisiana, east only gets us to Mississippi, Alabama or Florida, unless of course we head north from either of those states. We have done those states to death. However, Mississippi has the greatest State Parks so Randy was thrilled ... read more

Day 1, or should I say Day 3 and counting down, until Hurricane Gustav slams into the Louisiana coast.  We are in Baton Rouge which is about 75 miles from the coast and expect damaging winds, torrential rains, major power outages and possible structural damages to our homes and vehicles.  Whew, this is a big one!  Winds are up to 145 mph and strengthening.  They forecast it to impact our area by Monday evening through Tuesday.  Throughout the last 3 days Randy and I have been preparing.  We have purchased the canned and packaged foods, batteries, bottled water; we've secured all of the outdoor things.  We are leaving my outside ferns and things until tomorrow so they are not in the dark too long.  We have 2 elderly parents, Randy's mom who is in a nursing ... read more

We arrived at Trailer Village on Monday June 4th 2007 and headed straight to the Permit Office arriving there around 4 pm. We told the ranger that although we knew the possibility of getting a campsite at Bright Angel Campground might be slim, we were hoping to get lucky. He typed on his computer and then asked "How many nights?". We were ecstatic and told him just one. In hindsight, I wish we had opted for 2, but who knew at the time. We left with our permit and we were on Cloud 9! We got up at 5 am and caught the shuttle to the South Kaibab Trail and hit the trailhead about 5:30 am. It was just getting light as we started our descent and FREEZING. We started our hike in flannel shirts ... read more