Where’s Pluto?

[WeLovePluto]

We did our Saturday walk around the outside of the track. It’s kinda sad how scaled down that’s become. Part of it is covid, but it’s been heading this direction for a while.

we were able to work our way into the Xfinity race. A pet peeve of mine is that NASCAR charged silly prices for the support series races when the crowds don’t justify it. We’ve tried negotiating with our ticket reps with no luck. We asked at the ticket window for the cheapest price for the xfinity race. They wanted $50.

when we walked away, someone offered us tickets and we got down to $10 each. I’m pretty sure they’d get a lot more people in for lower prices and make up the money on concessions.

here’s a picture from the end of the first stage. A quick rain storm brought the end of the race with 30 laps left.

 

[bama_ed]

Sunday?

 

[WeLovePluto]

Oh Sunday......The weather was awesome. We made our way to our seats for most of the pre-race.

we were treated to a flyover during the national anthem by the Navy planes from Belle Chase that fly over our house weekly



Then we got the command to start engines by hit Geico commercial duo Tag Team



The race was entertaining. As much as I dislike the addition of stages into nascar races, they do serve to keep the restrictor plate races from becoming single file trains for lengthy periods.
Brad Keselowski won the race. I took way too much advantage of bringing in your own ice chest, so I “fell asleep” before dinner (or while in the middle of cooking it). The ride home today was decidedly not fun.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

I took way too much advantage of bringing in your own ice chest, so I “fell asleep” before dinner (or while in the middle of cooking it). The ride home today was decidedly not fun.

I may have done that at Bristol when I was young and dumb (now I'm edging on middle aged and dumb). We got there on WED. Went to every practice, qual, race...if there was an engine running, we were at the track. By SUN I was totally gassed. Between being completely wiped out an working on the silver bullets in the cooler, I think I slept in the stands for a solid 200 laps.

Ah the good old days.

Looks like a good trip. The cup race was pretty exciting for a plate race. I'm going to the truck race in Kansas this weekend. The cup race is sold out for the limited capacity at the track unfortunately.

 

[WeLovePluto]

Looks like a good trip. The cup race was pretty exciting for a plate race. I'm going to the truck race in Kansas this weekend. The cup race is sold out for the limited capacity at the track unfortunately.

It was a good trip. I did forget to mention that we lost a pop up tent when a straggling shower blew through. But we protected the awning, tv, and everything else outside. So I’ll gladly drop $40 for a new tent at academy this week.

I don’t really like plate racing as a concept (I’d rather the people that bring the best car be rewarded...alas, NASCAR has done everything possible to ruin that everywhere else too), but for in person viewing, it keeps everything exciting. And I fully understand the need to restrict speeds at Daytona and Talladega to protect drivers and fans.

The cup race was sold out for limited capacity at talladega too. It had to be something less than 50%, as every other row was empty and the ones with fans were spaced out. The ticket folks say they’re hoping to not have restrictions for the fall race. We want to at least make it back to our old campsites.

 

[WeLovePluto]

We boiled crawfish today for my birthday. I didn’t get any pictures, but I got a Navy fighter flyover that I didn’t need to drive 6 hours for.

next weekend we’re doing our first stay at the state park across the river from us. I tried to do a stay there last year right after things opened up, but it was still being used as a covid emergency spot. Our friends got their camper last weekend, so we’re staying really close for their first trip.

 

[WeLovePluto]

We are set up at Bayou Segnette state park, which is about 15 mins from home.

if you want to camp in the swamp, this is the place for you!! (Hard to see in the picture, but everything left of the cypress tree is water).One of the rules is no parking on the grass. You’d definitely only do that once.

the site has a picnic table and fire ring to the rear of the camper. I’ll probably park the truck parallel to the road across the front of the site to give us some room

Our friends will be in the site behind us.

 

[bama_ed]

I camped at Bayou Segnette once, Pluto. It's a state park with decent facilities that is close to the Big Easy. Would stay there again.

My one regret on that trip is that I did not allot enough time to fully enjoy the WWII Museum. We went in the morning when they opened and had to leave for a late lunch and cut much of our visit short. I need to go back and spend an entire day geeking out on the history and importance of WWII.

But it's local for you so have fun. Hope you have good weather down there this weekend.

Ed

 

[WeLovePluto]

We’ve visited the playground and comfort station and they are very nice. We’ve also seen armadillos and rabbits and ducks (it’s like a not scary wizard of oz).

we did some breakfast this morning, went back to the playground. And now it’s time for Kung Fu

 

[WeLovePluto]

I totally forgot to finish this up:

Saturday after kung fu we did a little bit of fishing and had some steaks for dinner. Then started a fire and made some s’mores.

we had Mother’s Day at the campsite with all of the grandparents coming over. We grilled burgers and hotdogs. The kids ran around on scooters all day.

the campsite was nice overall. If it ever stayed dry long enough to be able to use the grass on your site, that would be a plus.
Glad we left Sunday evening though, as terrible weather came through that night

 

[WeLovePluto]

Work went haywire the last couple weeks, but heading out in a little while to set up camp at Buccaneer State Park in Waveland. We waited until Feb/March to book, so I had to use my FW practice and check daily until we were able to get a spot.

 

[WeLovePluto]

Made it to our campsite (67) around 4 this afternoon. The spot is very roomy. the loop is not at all. tire tracks on the inside of the curves all the way around. and the person across from me had parked his truck across the road in exactly the spot that I needed. so I had to exit the loop, circle another loop, come back and try a less traditional approach to my spot. I was also doing this solo cause DW and kids didn't leave until after school. I was able to get it. The neighbors returned from walking there dog right as I was putting it in park.

And apparently something spilled in the fridge at the end of our last trip, so I had a whole lot of cleaning time when I got here prior to setting up camp. Will need to get a picture once the sun comes up tomorrow.

When all that was done, we went exploring the playground (it's very nice), then ate dinner, made a walmart trip for Ice/TP/Chemical, now trying to get the kids to sleep. And then hoping work doesn't wake me up in a few hours.

 

[bama_ed]

Would appreciate some pics of that state park, Pluto. Wanted to try it a couple years ago but I think it got hit hard by a hurricane and it dropped off my radar screen. I'll also ask for a rating of the comfort station cleanliness from your DW for my DW. Having a trailer, you probably don't get in many of the CS but we have a popup and thus we do.

Thanks, Ed

 

[tiggerdad]

I used to make regular trips down to Waveland to teach trauma classes to nurses. The facility we used was obliterated by Katrina. Several nice seaside mom and pop eateries were there at that time. That park was also decimated.

 

[WeLovePluto]

I used to make regular trips down to Waveland to teach trauma classes to nurses. The facility we used was obliterated by Katrina. Several nice seaside mom and pop eateries were there at that time. That park was also decimated.

my grandparents had a house here when I was a kid. They sold it well before Katrina, but I passed by the lot last summer when we came over. It was difficult to even find the lot, and the whole thing is a pine forest now.

 

[WeLovePluto]

Yesterday we checked out the campground pool. It was very roomy. 2.5’ around the sides and 5’ in the center, the kids had a good time.



After that, the kids friends met up with us and we went to the wave pool for the 2 hour twilight deal. That is one of the things that was here when I was a kid. Back then, I thought the waves needed to last longer and happen more often. Now I have the opposite feeling for some reason. The kids loved it. No pictures because there wasn’t time to get out of the pool and take them. DD1 did get upset because she didn’t meet the 48” requirement for the water slides.

after that we came back to the campsite with our friends and did some burgers on the griddle and s’mores (of course) for dessert.


that’s a shot of the camp spot. Probably as large of a spot as we’ve ever had. They could have stood to make the pads 2’ wider, as our steps are perilously close to the edge.

also of note, despite the fact that 4 of us were refreshing the website for about 6 weeks, we couldn’t find a vacancy for our friends. The 2 spots behind us and 1 across the road are all open.

 

[tiggerdad]

also of note, despite the fact that 4 of us were refreshing the website for about 6 weeks, we couldn’t find a vacancy for our friends. The 2 spots behind us and 1 across the road are all open.

probably green horn campers. Forgot how to hook camper up to truck.

 

[WeLovePluto]

Would appreciate some pics of that state park, Pluto. Wanted to try it a couple years ago but I think it got hit hard by a hurricane and it dropped off my radar screen. I'll also ask for a rating of the comfort station cleanliness from your DW for my DW. Having a trailer, you probably don't get in many of the CS but we have a popup and thus we do.

Thanks, Ed

Sent DW for a recon mission. Some pictures below. It’s not FW quality, which is pretty much her standard or she just uses the camper. 3 standard showers and 1 handicapped one. It was generally clean but had a couple of pieces of trash left on the ground.

there are 2 bathhouses close to our loop (basically for sites 1-104) one in the 105-149 loop.

There does not appear to be one in the 150-206 loop and I drove through that one yesterday. There are some oddly small campsites mixed in there.

The restroom for the beachfront walk-up spots is not particularly close to those spots. And it’s listed as a restroom, not a bath house. Also, this being waveland, there’s not a beach there, but a sea wall.



I also note in these pictures that there’s water on the floor. Both times I went into the men’s that was the case too. Because people aren’t capable of turning the water all the way off. It’s not hard to do.

 

[WeLovePluto]

Back to the TR, we stayed up a little late Saturday night as Tulane’s baseball season concluded. The kids let me sleep in til about 8:30 (when work called anyway).

So I got up and cooked breakfast, but I learned a new lesson. I’d put the eggs on the top shelf of the outside fridge. That was too close to the freezer, so when I cracked the egg, nothing came out. Oh well, had to settle for bacon and pancakes without eggs.

DD2 has taken over dishwashing duty using the outdoor shower. So I did some supervising of that. Then we got all packed up to head to our friends house up the road on the beach (where there is an actual beach, but according to our friends a lot less of it than there was just a few weeks ago.)

the kids played for a couple hours. DD1 wanted to come back to the camper and DD2 didn’t. So we split up and she came back, sat in the camper for a little while then wanted to ride her scooter so we went and checked out the camp store, arcade, laundry.

I couldn’t go in the laundry area because someone was in there already, but it looked small for the number of sites here. And has a 1 person at a time limit right now.

The camp store is also small. And while in there, I learned that theres a fee to use the campground Pool that I wasn’t aware of yesterday. $6/adult and $4/kid.

after that trip she was ready to head back to the beach so we did. And they stayed there the rest of the day. There was a school fair a block away and they wanted to stay for the fireworks. We didn’t realize until 9 that the fireworks were at 10. DD1 ended up falling asleep in a hammock. DD2 made it all the way. They’re both still asleep, which is 2 hours later than normal.

also, I learned that checkout is at 2 today. Which is helpful



Oh yeah, DW got a new toy so she can keep up with the kids

 

[tiggerdad]

Interesting, the pool use isn't included in the campground admission?