Hot Rod Cafe

3/20/12 UPDATE: Hot Rod Cafe closed their doors and went out of business in either February or March of 2012. Such a BUMMER - as it was such a great place to go. Here's to hoping someone will eventually resurrect this place when economic times are better.

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We've been staying at the Coeur D' Alene RV Resort in Post Falls, Idaho for about a week.  We had hoped to find a good park in Spokane, or Spokane Valley but found that many weren't all that great.  No place to open your awning and let the kids play, or no yard, or just bad locations.  We finally found the park here in Post Falls and fell in love with it.  They have an amazing staff, an indoor swimming pool, exercise room and the whole park is really well kept.

If your in the area you can find them at:
2652 East Mullan Avenue
Post Falls, ID 83854
(208) 773-3527

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Anyway just down the road is the neatest little cafe!


The parking lot alone is fun to drive through, even on a slow day.








Love this car, very stealth.


1934 Ford

We actually saw much more in the parking lot but I'll stop here and show you inside.


This is their waiting area.  The boys were happy as clams to sit here!


The entrance/exit.








This was an ice-cream station you could access from the other side, the boys went and checked it out while I took the other photos.


And when you order a children's meal, they bring the fries in these lovely fry baskets, aren't they neat looking?

We have several other photos of the Hot Rod Cafe if you'd like to see them.

It's a great place to stop in and have a meal (the food is pretty good), they also have weekend car shows all the time in the parking lot.  In fact at one point during a drive by we saw huge smoke plumes and on closer look from the highway discovered it wasn't some enormous building caught fire, but people smoking their tires during a car show, lol!

Anyway if your in the area and want to stop in, the Cafe can be found at:
1610 Schneidmiller Avenue
Post Falls, ID 83854-7065
(208) 777-1712

New Orleans, Louisiana

We were able to stop in and spend a few days in New Orleans. Wow. What a town that is!

We stayed at an RV park inside the French Quarter called "The French Quarter RV Resort". Although it was more expensive than we would usually pay, 1.) it was within walking distance from the center of it all, 2.) it was a bit like a fortress with high walls and 24 hour security, and 3.) they had loads of amenities which worked perfect for a 2 night stay. Getting to sink into a steamy hot tub was SO nice. One of the few things I miss about our house is my soaker tub. I took some photo's around the park if you're curious, click here to see the first photo and then hit "Newer" just above and to the right of the photo to see the rest of the park.

When we rolled into New Orleans it was getting dark but as we drove by the back wall of the RV park we saw a high brick wall with crumbling tomb roofs peaking out over the top. I have never seen a New Orleans style cemetery with tombs, it was even weirder to see such a little peak of decay.

In New Orleans the water table is said to be to high to bury people underground, so they are laid to rest in above ground tombs.

I really wanted to go see the cemetery the next day. When I asked the receptionist at the RV park about it she and another guy both said we should not go into that cemetery AT ALL. Not even in the day. I have to admit I was a bit annoyed at that answer. We were really in awe with the sneak peak we had seen, how could we not see the rest?? She explained that the RV park was right on the edge of the French quarter, the other half of the park faced "Tremes", one of the worst area's of New Orleans (according to her). She said the projects lined the side of that cemetery and was full of crime. She repeated back to me like 3 times, "do not go over there".

That wasn't what I was wanting to hear.

I went back to the RV and googled and googled and found the cemetery is called St Louis Cemetery No. 2. and dates back to 1823. From what little we saw, it looked that old. One website said of all the cemetery's in New Orleans this one was in the worst shape, not because of hurricane Katrina but because of it's location. I also saw a few of the websites warned not to go into this particular cemetery claiming the location was in such a high crime area. I just couldn't imagine people just standing by in the middle of the day waiting to pounce on those wanting to visit a cemetery. Call me naive, call me stupid, call me sheltered, but I just kept thinking people must be making a mountain out of a mole hill by saying one shouldn't visit a cemetery in the middle of the afternoon. In the middle of broad daylight. In the middle of a city. After all I didn't run across any reports of people being robbed in the cemetery...

So the next day we drove by and saw people in the cemetery taking pictures and touring as we had wanted. One lady looked like she was from Wisconsin wearing a cute patterned sweater. So we decided it looked like a pretty safe crowd to join.

I'm so glad we were able to see it.

What a strange and amazing walk that was. We've really never seen such a place. We are not at all into cemetery's, the dead, or even horror shows - this just seemed different. Historic. I don't think I've ever been in such an old place - aside from the earth itself.

Beauty within disrepair.

Apparently each tomb doesn't belong to one person, but whole families. When a person dies they are laid to rest in the family tomb. After two years there is said to be nothing but bones left. One website said it can get up to 800 degrees in those things (wondering if that could really be true?) to explain the quick decomposition.. So anytime after that 2 years (some cemetery's only require a 1 year wait) the family can open up the tomb once the next family member passes away. I guess they just move the previous persons bones to the back or off to the side and put in the next person in. Wait the period of time deemed by the cemetery and you can add another deceased family member. And so on for centuries.

It was just mind blowing.

Some of the tombs were in good shape, but many were crumbling down. A few very old were even crumbled open and 2 even showed the bones. Not laid out, but a big heap. Left like that for years. One tomb we saw had so many buried in it the bones were a couple feet deep inside. I just couldn't believe such a place existed in the U.S. Our walk through the cemetery can be found here, but be warned 2 of the photos show the bones.

It was amazing, yet chilling, and sobering.

And I haven't even told you of all the strange voodoo practices that involve certain tombs. Such a different place New Orleans is....

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Anyway, enough of graves and cemetery's. We were able to tour the French Quarter...

The Garden District....

Tremes, which has so much beauty in the old buildings, many of which were abandoned.

Just about every part of New Orleans was like visiting a completely different world from Alaska. I'd love to go back and explore the city more someday.

Carrabelle, Florida

After around 3 weeks here in Carrabelle, Florida we're finally getting ready to pull out today.


We've been staying at Carrabelle Beach RV Resort.


I'm tellin ya, this RV park is one of the best parks we've stayed at. The town is very small and not much to it, but the RV park is right on the beach,

all paved,


has a pool, laundry, dog run,


it's own playground - and with it being winter we nearly had the place to ourselves.

I'd really like to come back to this place in the summer when we can go swimming. It's been a bit cold around here, and even got down to 20 degrees Fahrenheit one night. Brrrr.


Carrabelle is a neat little town on the water too. I wish I had the chance to explore it more but I guess that will leave something to do on our next visit, lol.


It's been odd too because most of the houses along the beach are on stilts.



Very weird to see, but just right for storms and rising waters.

Many of the buildings are empty. I asked a local about it and he said during the peak housing boom people were buying, building and selling like crazy. He said houses were selling for more than double what they were worth now. Unfortunately it all came to a bitter end when the economy took a dive. He mentioned many houses and new developments around town that were brand new and completely empty - empty and for sale for ages now.


This is one of the places he mentioned.


It has it's own dock that went on forever.


The whole complex is pretty big, brand new, very nice looking, and completely deserted. Kinda sad and eerie all at once.

I have more beach pictures to share from Christmas, I'll try and post them ASAP.

An Affordable Park for Disney

In planning our trip to Disney World we discovered the RV parks closest to Disney are pretty spendy. Thankfully we were able to find an affordable park about 30 minutes away.


This is Central Park, of Haines City, Florida.



This park was so much different than any of the others we've stayed at so far, because many of the residents live here either full time, or seasonal. Either way, most of these folks have put down some kind of roots.

The park is about half full of travel trailers that have had additions built on. So many of the homes here are no longer able to travel, but still have to stay pleasing to the eye. The other half of the lots scattered through out are used by people like us - here for a day, a week, or a month.

There was such a strong sense of community here, people know their neighbors like you would in a regular neighborhood, only they have taken it further by getting together several times a week to play shuffle board, going for a walk, doing the laundry together, and/or competing for who has the snappiest golf cart.

And I'm talking some beefy golf carts here...

Have you ever seen a golf cart with knobby tires and a lift kit?? Although it was very odd to see, that side of me who loves a big lifted truck with knobby tires was totally amused.


Golf carts were used more in this park than vehicles - but there is NO golf course anywhere near. It's just a preferred mode of transportation to go visit your neighbor, go for a game of shuffle board, visiting the pool, or to go check the mail box. Super amusing, I'm tellin ya.


Most of the golf carts were normal carts, but I was just fascinated with these monster carts (for lack of better name).


The pool was heated. Even though it was stifling hot outside, it's still nice to have a heated pool. The steps were big and just perfect for little LJ as he doesn't like to venture out into water he can't stand up in. He was just happy as a clam to play with his cars on those steps.


They also had these Sandhill Cranes always hanging out (their huge!), and Egrets, which I didn't get a picture of.

Our most favorite part of the park, was not actually apart of the park at all...

There is a cow farm next to the park and we just loved visiting the cows.

The boys are still missing those cows a week later, lol.

Saying Goodbye...

We said goodbye to Scales Lake RV Park Sunday October 24th and the new friends we had made there.


We said goodbye to the petting zoo and sweet "Poncho" our favorite little Donkey. It makes me laugh looking at this picture. Poor thing never gets much attention because of the signs and yet he is so sweet. The day we left he was licking our hands and face and he even likes to put his head right down the middle of our front for a good snuggle. I will definitely miss that little donkey.


We also had to say goodbye to our 5th wheel. There was a bit of a mistake that was made with our 5th wheel before we ever picked it up. I won't go into details and bore you but Gulfstream has had planned ever since to put us into a hotel for the week and, take it back to the Gulfstream factory and do some service work.


After staying in a cozy little hotel we drove up yesterday and stayed in one more an amazing hotel in Elhkart, then this afternoon we drove over to the Gulfstream plant in Nappanee Indiana to pick up our 5th wheel. It was soooo good to see it sitting in the garage, I definitely missed our home. It's amazing that after only a month and a half this little RV already has our hearts.

Anyway the factory did some amazing work, we are so happy with everything they did and our home looks great. I got several interior shots this afternoon but wasn't able to get the garage. I'll be able to get a shot of the garage tomorrow before we hit the road and will do a post giving a tour of our home (before we load it up with all our junk) as I have been promising some of you.

I also have to tell you all about this charming little town after I get a few more pictures to show you, there are some little bits around here that we have just loved to see driving by. It would be nice to see this place in the summer when it's warmer and greener. We actually had frost on our truck windows when we came out of our hotel this morning! I tell you what, it is time to get outa here quick because I have seen enough of that, lol!