After our day in the French Quarter and Garden District, we decided to simply hang around our campground (Bayou Segnette State Park) while B worked! So our Mon-Fri routine this week has been pretty similar to what it’s been for years.

B has settled right in to working in Woody. He’s doing a great job, as always! He has an amazing ability to have a one track mind… no I’m not talking about THAT track… I mean that he can stay focused on a particular train of thought and stay there undistracted by anything around him. Unlike me who has anywhere from 6 to 57 trains of thoughts open and ya never know which train is in the station and which is coming to interrupt that one.

We stay out of B’s way as he works (for the most part) and always try to leave Woody for a mini adventure when he has a phone call. In our old lifestyle we were outside a lot — but we are outside even more now! Our pace is a lot slower since we aren’t rushing around to activities / errands / whatever it is we used to do to make us so busy ?? Ha

It’s truly been an easy transition and great experience so far and we are enjoying this adventure so much. We understand that the “at home” days and the work God is doing in us personally and as a family is truly the most special part of this whole adventure! Some days we explore and experience more than others – but every day we are learning and growing and we see the blessing in each day.

Where we stayed outside of NOLA, Walmart had the highest quality food choices around (as far as grocery stores), if that tells ya anything. But we still found His beauty in the bayou vegetation (aka swamp muck and fungi):

stray cats like “Kitty Meow” aka “Autumn” here:

raccoons:

crazy big apple snail shells which we found out are an invasive and destructive species to the area:

and lots of birds and pretty skies.

Though we’ve had some strange encounters out n about we have really enjoyed our “this week only” friends in the campground. We have met some great people in both our campgrounds so far. One couple we met here in LA lived for decades just a few towns over from my New Jersey hometown! We also met one mom and daughter who live out in a bayou around the state park. They were waiting for their (boat) ride home! They have no running water on the island no cars or roads and they fish and hunt for their food. Very interesting way to homestead!

We didn’t see any alligators in the park which I was grateful for but I know they are there because the air boat swamp tours go by all day every day looking at gators and manatees.

We met up again with my fellow World Vision Child Ambassador Mel and her family! The kids had a blast together and we love how the Lord let us cross paths again. When Mel & I went to Uganda last March and she told me their RV plans, I told her that B and I had always dreamed of doing that and wondered if we would someday…. wow I would have never guessed in that moment what the next months would hold for us and that we’d end up on the road within the year!

One thing I’ve learned this week that may help others is to make sure to check for National Parks or even state / county parks around where you’re staying!!! When it was too late – I realized there was a National Historical Park and Preserve right down the road from us! So we only got an hour there but it was still fun and informative and pretty. We learned about the landscape, vegetation, “swampers” (loggers), Jean Lafitte, and Native American evidence still present today – 1000 years later. Like this tree that has under it a “midden” – a mound of shells, pottery and other refuse. Those mounds could be 20-30 feet high and an acre large. The tree is uprooted and crooked like that because it was mined for the shells for many decades.

Native Americans and their way of life has been a common family topic and how we wish as a country we could have learned much more from the natives. It’s so beautiful how they lived alongside nature. The more we are traveling and seeing, I think we are more and more heartbroken over the environmental impact humans are making. Lord – we are listening. What more can you teach us about this? What can we do?

We found out too late that there was even a National Park right in the middle of NOLA that we could have visited and learned some history and more about jazz at their level. That would have been great to know and could have enticed me back into the city during the week after that rowdy super bowl Sunday visit. BUT – everything worked out as it should and the kids and I enjoyed productive school days, reading, updating our travel maps, exercise, (doing free laundry), playing with our friends, hiking, and biking.

Saturday (yesterday) we went back into the city to visit the World War II Museum. More tips: use free (!) parking near Loyola Univ. / Tulane Univ. / Audubon on St Charles and then take the Green street car into the garden district , French Quarter, wherever. We loved that “uptown” area where the universities were – and Audubon Park had very fun playgrounds!

I love history and thought I knew a lot about World War II but this museum showed me I know nothing . This was such a great museum and we learned so much. It helped me understand in deeper ways the state of the world and bigger picture of it all, the excruciating and impossible decisions our leaders had to make, how the country pulled together toward the common goal, how small our military was at the start of the War, just how many battles and how much courage and work it took to do these impossible missions. I found myself overwhelmed, teary eyed, perplexed, angry, ethically torn and perhaps most of all – thankful.

I would recommend this museum for middle school age and above. The documentary you can pay extra for – narrated by Tom Hanks – “Beyond all Boundaries” was a great overview and very well done.

I didn’t capture any quality pictures but this picture below was particularly impactful as I know this pontoon bridge was at the Roer River where PopPop won a bronze star for his efforts. He carried the only working radio over the Roer as they crossed and headed toward the Rhine. He was a radioman in the famous 29th Division – 115th infantry. Here’s an article that my PopPop is in (Russell Murphy is my Moms Dad) . There was a lot of info about the 29th division throughout the museum.

My heart broke for him over and over again… and it made me understand how and why my grandma was such a prayer warrior! I thought sharing RR’s words said it best:

“War is so terrible but I’m so thankful they did what they had to. We really were able to do the impossible. What if we hadn’t done anything?”

This morning we woke up with the sun (and Kitty Meow sitting waiting for us. Here’s my scene when I opened the door. Insert mommy crying here):

What a sweet cat. We didn’t even feed her but she faithfully hung around to lick the table I guess ha.

She watched the boys get up the jacks and although I have my own imagination of what she’s saying here, B says she’s a wild cat and is well equipped to care for herself and doesn’t need anybody haha. She definitely worked the system and I saw her use her cute skills to get lots of scraps from others, just not us because sometimes love must be tough. 🙂

Bye site 77 and Kitty Meow!

This week in NOLA felt much longer than a week ha. We’ve concluded that all 5 RRoadsters are on the same page: cities are nice to visit once in awhile but we love being in quiet creation so much more!

Now we’re headed to Texas! As I type we just stopped to get gas and it still cracks me up to think our home is following us haha. I popped into Woody to get a snack and still had the feeling of “home” when I stepped in. It really is still a funny experience to have our home following us and be in so many different places! One day when we were traveling the blinds were open and all the stuffed animals were peeking out the windows ha.

Thanks if you’ve made it this far in another long post! We are grateful for all the prayers and love. We miss our friends and family ! But we see God at work in this adventure so much and we are so grateful.