I’ve gotta be honest, about what I’m not so sure about right now. I feel like I’ve been slacking, probably because I have no new video footage of exploration and haven’t stopped at a museum in a bit. I am currently uploading the Kelly’s Korner video I produced onto youtube. I do hope you check it out on https://youtube.com/c/MatildaBugus
So, I left off in Port Arthur. We went to a playground that was all wet and rained out. Galixy ran out first while Atreyu sat inside the bus playing games. But soon both kids were out. Two lovely humans dropped by and told us they stay the nights in this park, so I added it to FreeCampsites.net. They also gave us some food. Very sweet of them! From Port Arthur we drove just to Bridge City and hung out at the Walmart until Samuel decided to fill up our tank. He was sitting in the lot waiting for a call. He told me that I thought him a lot in the last 20 minutes of just sitting here, him surfing our page. I feel very honored. I’m trying to impart more perspective to the world. I don’t consider myself a teacher by any means, but I’m very grateful!
Samual advised going back through Port Arthur and going along the 87 into Louisiana to avoid the I-10. It made a huge debate in my head. On one hand, going along the beach and coast sounds lovely. Avoiding big cities and traffic. But right now my overdrive is acting up again. Maybe it truly is just transmission fluid, but on that level, it’d be a leak and I haven’t seen any drips under the bus since I fixed the powersteering pump leak (did I mention that this was because the mechanic who helped this summer didn’t screw the pressure hose in all the way and my arm was beyond sore from all the little movements it took to get it on proper?) Anyway, the kids decided they wanted to go over the main roads.
We drove through Orange, TX, and then on to Lake Charles, LA. There I did some interior bus adjustment with curtains, and went to the laundromat where we had the honor of meeting Shawn-Dell. She is such a sweet lady, mom of 4 boys, Marine-vet, soccer afficionado, ER- nurse. She hung out with us for a while and stole my kids’ hearts, leaving us with her adress for when we come back through to bring her some shells from the keys.
Lake Charles, the playgrounds were all “closed” probably due to Covid. It makes me a little nervous about the rest of Louisiana and the East coast, but with the same thoughts and reasoning as not to take the more traveled path in life, I won’t let the worry or fear make decisions for me. I’m just exploring this life and seeing what we can find. We’ll still be getting outdoor time and exercise despite closed off playsets. We took a walk along the wharf and the kids did foot races.
Gizzi is healing up rapidly to the point where I may remove the cone a couple days early…..
Oh what I was gonna be honest about! I’ve been grumpy the last few days. There it is. I’ve got the customer service voice and smile down. I’m not about to show a grumpy face while I’m trying to allocate funds. The gray weather gets to me though, and then the kids poor moods don’t help much and the vibe in the bus gets all grumpy. I did try to meditate it out, but the biggest help to me is the sun shining and my doggo, Rhea. Cuddling her. And cleaning up our area, decluttering helps out too. Changing our music to something we haven’t listened to in a while. Reaching out to people we love. Not necessarily saying I’m feeling poorly but checking on their mental health. Hearing my loved ones say they’re well makes me happy and talking through their emotions does, too. Being a support beam makes me feel like I have support too.
So, today we’re in Iowa, LA which is like a couple miles out of Lake Charles. We came to the truck stop for showers. I’d figured we’d be going on the same day, but our neighbor, Kenny, is a very nice extrovert who paid for our shower and dinner last night. He’s lived the van llife for about 3 years and just came back from Nevada because his dad died a week ago. Our biggest condolences.
Now that we’re clean and organized, and the sun is shining, though it’s colder now than the last few days of gray in Texas, I feel a bit more motivated. I still have the video of our Newman’s Castle visit to edit and post, but it will happen… hopefully before I have more footage to sort through. I am tempted to get a tripod for some good pictures of the family and Matilda all together, but I think I’m pretty satisfied with the quality the pictures have on the new camera. Maybe a selfie stick would be better than a tripod. But where shall we go from here? Time to look at https://atlasobscura.com and such. I do have something to do when we get to New Orleans, but until then it’s still a whole length of Louisiana ahead and I’ll be damned if we don’t see something pretty and awesome in ach state we visit. I mean, we spent over 2.5 months in Texas, a week to get across this state would almost be a waste, though, I’m deciding against going further north right now, as I’m cold. I want to see my friend in Crosset, AR and my new friend in Hartford, too. but we may need to wait a bit to do so. Not like it’s snowing there, and I do prefer colder nights to waking up sweating multiple times a night, but I also like warm toes and sun dresses and so I will make my excuses for now.
So this’ll be it for right now.
I do hope you share smiles and are feeling grateful.
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Check out where we’ve been by time traveling back:
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Matilda the Bugus 