Monthly Archives: January 2014
5 days in the BIG EASY
There are not many big cities on our list of things to see and do while we are away for 8 months – I guess that is somewhat telling about our interests… we are just not big city people. Our stop in New Orleans was all about history and culture – closing off our work on American History, experiencing the mighty Mississippi River and learning about the southern culture through food and music.
- shot gun houses in Algiers
- French Quarter – mardi gras décorations
- French Quarter
- FrenchQuarter – Mardi Gras décorations
- French Quarter
- French Quarter Bar
- French Quarter
- French Quarter
- French Quarter Housing
- French Quarter Housing
To make the most of our visit we stayed at the French Quarter RV Park. As it is 5 minutes north of the French Quarter, it is very expensive and right next to I-10 but well worth it as we were able to park everything and just walk everywhere. It was even a novelty to be able to grab a taxi when it was pouring rain and go out for dinner.
- getting loaded back up in the rain
We woke up on our first morning at the campground to this really cool view out the window – the Ghostbuster car! It turns out that they were here for a VIP event at the NADA conference that was in town. You can rent it from Bob’s Prop Shop in Texas…
- getting ready to go
- Bike selfie
- Louis Armstrong statue
- Louis Armstrong plaque
- Lee on a cruiser bike
- bike tour in progress (yes that is my down jacket…)
- memorial to slaves at a church
- Turkey in Algiers yard
- Tom the turkey
- Hunter and Tom the Turkey
- riding on the levy in Algiers
In order to get a history overview and see as much of the old city as possible, while still having fun, we did a bike tour with Crescent City Bike Tours. Their business is just in it’s first year and is run by a very friendly couple Kristine & Richie and it reminded me very much of Boreale, our local bike company. The tour was close to 3 hours and we learned lots of neat facts while seeing some great architecture and being active. The pace is quite easy and the bikes are big cruisers so it’s a great idea for almost anyone.
- Nicholas Cage’s pre built grave
- historic grave
- family crypt from the 1800’s
Just around the corner from the RV Park was historic St. Louis Cemetery (#1). Right next door to us was the larger St. Louis Graveyard (#2). We stopped into #1 on our way downtown one day and checked out what a historic graveyard is like. Due to the water table here (at, below, or barely above sea level) you are not able to burry anyone underground here. In many cases, families have crypts with up to 8 people in them!
- Hunter at Pat O’Brien’s
- Bourbon street characters
- Bourbon street characters
We took a wander down Bourbon Street late in the afternoon one day to get a sense of the area without the chaos of the evening crowd. At 5pm things were definitely getting warmed up. Hunter thought it was much too loud and chaotic for his tastes. I figure that’s a good thing!
- Sugar factory on the river
- Chalmette Battlegrounds
- Chalmette Battlegrounds
- Lee & Hunter in front of the Creole Queen
- getting some school reading done in a quiet moment
- flag off the back of the creole queen
- big tankers on mississippi river
- barge on the mississippi river
One of our outings was on the Creole Queen – a paddle wheeler that takes people down the Mississippi River for history cruises. We went on the afternoon cruise out to the Chalmette Battlefield – site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. It was a sunny day, which was nice after a number of rainy and cool ones. We enjoyed being out on the river and seeing all the boats, barges and tugs. We were really disappointed to learn that the Battlefield site, which is a National Historic Site managed by the National Parks Service, is closed on Sundays and Mondays. This made it a very flat experience with me reading information off my iPhone.
- zydeo music & cajun food at Mulates
- Tim trying out frog legs at Mulates
- Hunter & Tim at Preservation Halll for Jazz
- musical legends park in the FQ
- Tim & Hunter at House of Blues
- Beignets & Hot Chocolate at Cafe du Monde
- Huck Finn’s restaurant
- House of Blues Gospel Brunch
- House of Blues
- House of Blues
- Hard Rock Cafe on Bourbon Street
Our culture efforts were focused on food and music.
- We started out at Mulate’s (Business District) for live Zydeco music (band there every night) and Cajun Food. We boldly got a sampler platter to start with and tried frogs legs, grilled alligator, fried crawfish amongst other things. They also had yummy crawfish étouffée and jumbalaya
- We experienced live Jazz at Preservation Hall (FQ) and this was Hunter’s favourite and a bargain at $20.00 per person (they let Hunter in free)
- We did the House of Blues Gospel Brunch (FQ) for yummy southern food (waffles & fried chicken!) and amazing Gospel
- Cafe du Monde (FQ) for Beignets and Hot Chocolate
- The Grill (FQ) was an awesome find when we couldn’t get into Deanie’s (FQ) – true diner layout and service, really good food and dirt cheap prices
- Hard Rock Cafe (FQ) because Hunter really wanted Ribs and the House of Blues was closed for a private party
The absolute recommendations that we have are The Grill for any meal, Preservation Hall for intimate Jazz in a historic building and the House of Blues Gospel Brunch for anyone that hasn’t done Gospel before.
- WW2 LTV Transport
- WW2 Tank
- WW2 Tank
- WW2 jeeps
- WW2 jeeps
- display of the normandy invasion (boats & planes)
- USS Tang experience
- USS Tang experience
- at our stations – USS Tang
- Hunter at his station
We spent our last planned day at the National WW2 Museum, which is located in the downtown business district. They have an extensive exhibit section, multiple small videos and then 2 hollywood style movies/experiences. We chose to do everything since we were there. I personally was a little disappointed with the lack of a global focus – it really is about the US’s role in WW2 and there is very little about the events prior to them becoming involved. I found myself doing a lot of explaining to Hunter about what started the war. The scale and scope of the exhibits was impressive and certainly captured Hunter’s attention. We had lunch at the soda shop on site which I would not recommend due to high prices and very slow service.
Our 5 days actually turned into 6 thanks to Winter Storm Leon (I didn’t know that they named winter storms like they name hurricane’s). It rolled in on Monday night from the west (the direction we are going) and brought snow, freezing rains and high winds, which resulted in road closures, school closures & city shut downs. We hunkered down all day Tuesday and then decided to venture out on the back roads Wednesday to try to make some progress towards Texas. It only took us 6 hours to travel 200 miles…
E-ONE Firetruck factory tour
E-ONE Firetrucks is a worldwide designer & manufacturer of Firetrucks, located in Ocala, Florida. We phoned them up to see if there was a chance of getting a tour as part of our homeschool activities and they generously said YES – Hunter was on cloud nine and bouncing off the walls in anticipation!
It was really interesting to see how a firetruck goes from design right through to completed testing and sign-off. There are an amazing number of small details throughout the process, even just picking the colours and lettering!
E-ONE is vertically integrated and makes everything on and in the firetruck except for the engine. They also do all of their own repair work. It was a wonderful experience and we really appreciate their generosity.
- a firetruck control panel
- firetruck cabs after the paint shop
- firetruck boxes waiting to be added to a chassis
- damaged firetruck waiting for repair
- finished firetrucks waiting for final inspection
Manatee do-over brings success!
With all of the recent cool weather, one of the upsides is that the manatees have travelled from the ocean to the inland springs in search of warmer water. We figured we would go and check it out since we were back in the neighbourhood!
Tim, Hunter and Grandma Liz headed out to the Weeki Wachee River (I am benched at home due to bruised ribs due to EPIC crash on Friday) on Monday. It is a short paddle up from a small park and you reach a deep water hole where the water is significantly warmer. It was somewhat busy with 4-5 other kayaks around and the sun was shining so it was lots of fun to swim and hang out with them…
- hunter checking things out
Today they drove up to Crystal Springs to check out the manatee population there. It was a bit more crazy with respect to other people (aka tourists) in search the elusive manatee. It was also a bit chillier, with cool winds and a momentary thunderstorm!
- all those bobbing heads are swimmers
- tour boats surrounding manatee secluded area
- hunter & grandma liz
With all those people the water was fairly stirred up so visibility was much lower.
After our first strike out, it was great to get to see these wonderful creatures in their natural habitat. They are just so gentle and peaceful to watch!
The Civil War comes alive at the Brooksville Re-enactment
It was serendipity when we learned that there was a civil war re-enactment in Brooksville, just down the road from Grandma Liz’s house. It was a good enough reason to head back down to Brooksville to visit for a few days to catch some warmer weather.
- cannon’s getting ready
- successful shot!
It is the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War and this seemed to be quite a large re-enactment. We got there late morning, just in time to catch the cannon shooting contest (yep – 2 cannon’s aiming at targets!).
- lee & hunter at the vendor tents
- period women’s wear
- civil war musicians
We enjoyed wandering the rows of vendor tents and checking out the period clothing, the weaponry and all the miscellaneous things that go with life during the civil war times.
- gun lessons for hunter
- checking it out..
- they are heavy!
- green battalion on the union side
- union battalion lining up
- camp cooks
We really enjoyed being able to wander through the Union and Confederate camps and get a real sense of what life was like during the civil war.
- union marching onto the field
- union marching onto the field
- full union battalion marching onto the field
- confederate soldiers behind bunker
- union approaching the bunker
- cannons are now engaged
We stayed for an hour watching the battle. Although it is “scripted” the actual decisions on the field are real-time decisions made by the Generals. It was definitely interesting to watch, although we were all surprised at how long it took for some of the soldiers to start to die with all the shooting that was going on!
Mtn Biking in the Vortex at Santos State Park
One of the biggest lessons that we have learned through our 5 1/2 months on the road is how to be flexible. Our original plan for the first 2 weeks of January had us surfing and exploring historical monuments along the coast from St. Augustine to Charleston. 2 weeks of abnormally cold weather resulted in us skipping the surfing and powering through the history stuff (while well bundled).
With extra time on our hands and another cold front rolling in, we made the disappointing decision to skip the Columbus Whitewater Park (likelihood of paddling at 0-+5c being slim & none) and started looking for better weather and an adventure to fill the slot.
Mountain Biking – we can do that when it’s cooler and we haven’t been on any trails in over a month! Thanks to the North Florida Mountain Biking Facebook page, we discovered Santos State Park and the amazing work that the Ocala Mountain Bike Association have done. All they need is a mountain and they would be a destination trail system… The cherry on top is that you can camp right next to the trails in the State Park Campground, which is a small, clean park with basic services. There is a fat tire festival in March that would be great for anyone that is heading down to Florida on vacation anyways!
- Lee riding down one of the trails
- Hunter having fun on a dirt berm
There are 2 looped trail sections, an 18 mile (out & back) cross country trail that received IMBA recognition as an Epic trail in 2006 and a total of 80+ miles of trails under the care of OMBA. The trail section closest to the campground has it’s own pump track & skills park. It also has a series of mostly blue and green (yellow & green in their colour coding) trails that intertwine with a handful or black (red in their colour coding) smack in the middle. Yellow is rideable by anyone, Blue is a green trail that has either a lot of roots or some tight turns and Red has some steepness (up & down) to it as it is in the middle of a gully. The majority of blues and yellows that we rode had fabulous flow to them, which just made them fun to ride and chase the rider in front of you
Our first morning was spent on this main section of trail, getting our bearings and sorting out how they rate trails. We rode 12km and then headed back to the camper for lunch (an amazing feature of camping at the trails!). After a 2 hour break, we went in search of the man-made structures and headed over to the Vortex trail system.
- the “limiter” feature
- need to ride it to get around the gate
There is a “limiter” feature at the entrance gate that they state, if you can make it over the access ramp, then you can ride the trails…
Hunter was in heaven as they had a jump park with 3 sets of jumps tracks (small, medium, large) – he’s working on getting air and sooo excited when he does! They were really well made with wooden take-off ramps and sand landing ramps to help minimize the degradation the sand.
There is a double black diamond trail that goes around the edge of an old quarry. The opening image above is the sign that is at the entrance to the trail system and they have another wooden “limiter” feature at the entrance to give you a sense of who should be riding it. On our first time through it (first afternoon), there was a decent amount of stopping and checking out the features (drops, climbs, wooden berms & skinnies).
About 3/4 of the way around there is a section with a big downhill & wooden berm, long narrowing skinny and then a jumps area that just opened last week. We happened to come upon this section of trail just as 3 of the OMBA executive were riding the drop/wooden berm and getting filmed for a promo video for the area. They cheered us on as Tim and I tried the drop & berm feature for the first time and we then followed them over to the new jump area.
- the actual camera set up
- gyro camera in the air
- flying above the ground
- flying above the Roller Coaster feature
The filming was really cool (for those into camera work). The photographer had built his own gyro remote control helicopter with 2 go pro’s mounted on it that allowed him to film in 2 directions at once. He was able to follow the riders down the roller coaster feature (more on that below) and really get a sense of the feature by travelling the ups and downs with them. Check out the link for the video (that’s hunter riding the little dirt berm!)
- hunter on the small drop
- happy grin after making it!
We were pretty pleased with ourselves that afternoon – we tackled the wooden berms (small, medium & large), various downhill drops, some skinnies and the small drop jump. 27km of riding in total and everyone excited to ride again – NICE…
We took a day off and headed down to Brooksville to visit with Grandma Liz since we were only an hour away. We did some errands and enjoyed the internet access.
- Biggest wooden berm
- comes after a 20 foot downhill
- skinny that goes from OK to SKINNY
- as you go around a corner
- and then head uphill!
Friday we were back at it (after the dew had all evaporated off – about a 10:30 start), with the goal of doing a morning and afternoon ride that day. Hunter wanted to head straight to the Vortex trails. Luckily you have to ride about 4km of the green/blue trail system to get there so at least we get some endurance work in. More fun in the jumps park (it’s amazing how many times he can go around and around in that) and then we headed back onto the double black diamond trail. It was a faster ride this time since we had some sense of the trail.
We all graduated to the medium drop, which feels like a 90 degree roll-over (ACK). I boldly looked at the roller coaster feature and determined that it was the same degree of difficulty so let’s do it!!! Rarely am I the first one to do anything – we reserve that for Tim. We send him into public bathrooms first and we send him down, up and over features first and then rate ourselves against how difficult it was for him. I caught his camera work totally off guard when I launched myself off of it vs the medium drop.
- distance view of stages 1 & 2
- flow from section 2 to section 3
- drop #2
- feature #3 and #4
- lee on drop #2
- lee on backside of #3
So – the roller coaster… It’s a series of 4 features that starts with a really scary steep drop, rolls down and up to another drop (not quite as steep), then another up and down (a little less steeps) and then ends on a small up that is tilted to the right and slight down to bring you to the ground. The crosscopter video does it much more justice than my still photos (we are in the background standing around the wooden fences and Hunter is featured riding the dirt berm!!!).
Another lunch break and we were straight back to the vortex area again. This time Hunter decided he was ready to tackle the wooden berms and I think he did the first one 5 times (“again, again… that’s so much fun!”). We were all much stronger on the trail and everyone successfully did the skinnies. Tim and I both did the Roller Coaster drop a few times while Hunter went back and forth between the small and medium drops.
AND THEN… THE EPIC CRASH 🙂
It was 4:30 and last run of the day… I rode up the hill to the top of the drops (in my granny gear) and launched myself happily and confidently down the roller coaster, even getting a little air off drop #3. I hit the uphill on #4, went to pedal and discovered that my chain had come off in the last landing and I spun and spun, which when tilted sideways left to right is not so great. I got my right foot down but gravity was well underway and I fell sideways 4 feet off the feature to the ground, with my bike landing on top of me. UGH UGH UGH – grateful for my camelback which broke the fall (everyone should consider these a piece of safety equipment) and for the fact that I bring 911 with me on all decent adventures (aka TIM). He did the 20 point inspection, determined no major damage and I hobbled to my feet and we slowly rode home. The end result is 2 jammed fingers (they get puffy and nice & purple so easily!), and an entire right side that is bruised, from knee to shoulder and hurts when I breathe or do anything useful. I’m still really proud that I did it (and acknowledge total user error in not changing gears before doing the drop).
We topped off our trip to Ocala with Friday night at the Ocala Drive In – another check off Hunter’s bucket list and a fabulous time. Even better that it was a kids double feature of Nut Job & Frozen.