Usually we drive to a campground destination, park the RV, and drive the Hyundai Elantra that we are towing to our sightseeing destination. But sometimes we'll stop along the way and do our sightseeing, leaving SiSi in the RV. On our way to New Orleans we stopped at Bellingrath gardens in Alabama. This is our third visit to Bellingrath in a year. Bellingrath began as a fishing camp in 1917 for Walter Bellingrath. Walter was Mobile's first Coca-Cola bottler and he had been advised by his physician that he needed to relax. By 1927, Mrs. Bellingrath began to beautify the property with gardens, and later they built a lovely 15 room "country estate." While the home is quite beautiful, the gardens are extensive and spectacular. While we missed their peak by about a week, the azaleas were in bloom, and we enjoyed a walk in the gardens and lunch in the tea room.
We arrived in New Orleans on Sunday evening. During our many previous visits to NOLA, we have always stayed at a campground called Ponchartrain Landing. We have never had a problem getting a reservation and it has never been anywhere close to full. When we called for a reservation this time there was no room at the inn. We managed to score the very last campsite at an RV park near the French Quarter. Seems the women's basketball tournament was in town and everything was full. This meant that none of our usual discounts were available. We paid top dollar ($89 plus tax!) for a parking place that was behind walls topped with razor wire and that was, literally, under I-10. The traffic noise was crazy. We were so close that we could have given traffic reports.
The upside to the trip was that Abby and I met with her wedding planner, toured the venue where she wants to hold the reception, and ironed out some of the details for her wedding. And Abby and her fianace, Joe, joined us for dinner at one of Emeril's restaurants called Delmonico. The gumbo was heavenly.
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