Holiday season greetings from New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA)! We are here at
Pontchartrain Landing RV Park and Marina for a week, celebrating Thanksgiving with
fellow fulltime RVers Glenn and Lynn, and seeing New Orleans.
Pontchartrain Landing is located right on the canal between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. During the flooding of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 the mobile home park that used to be here was under 20 feet of water. The current owners are in the process of redeveloping this property toward making it a multi-faceted luxury RV and boat resort. They have RV sites of all sizes with full hook ups, gravel roads and pads, cabins, houseboats and marina slips for rent.
Amenities include a hot tub and swimming pool,
restaurant and bar with live entertainment, a shuttle to and from the French Quarter, and the standard restrooms, showers, laundry and office/store.
The construction is going on here full force, right through Thanksgiving and the holiday weekend while they are rebuilding or expanding the main building. It's a kind of unusual structure. The lower story seems to be made out of shipping containers. I don't know what the vision for the final product is, but I assume it will look more polished than it does now.
Like the Tom Sawyer Campground in West Memphis, they've got some challenges here coping with the flooding that is bound to happen. (This park, like Tom Sawyer's is also outside the flood wall.) Some of the foundations around the park seem to be left over from the previous establishment, and in places its looking a little worse for wear.
Despite and around the construction, we've already come to appreciate first hand the hot tub, restaurant and the French Quarter shuttle. Being here has certainly been perfect for executing our holiday plans.
For the last two years, since we've been on the road, we've had our Thanksgiving dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It just turned out that way. This year, with the help of our friends, we tackled Thanksgiving in the RV. No, I'm sorry, their RV. Comparing our two rigs, we decided they had more room at their dining table than we did, plus four chairs. We all were very comfortable in their spacious home. (Isn't it interesting how space is totally relative depending on your living situation? I'm sure there are plenty of folks who couldn't imagine Thanksgiving in this kind of space, but it felt homey and festive to us!)
Our day started with snacks and football while Lynn and Glenn worked on the turkey and a marvelous new sausage stuffing recipe, which was the big hit of the day. We brought crudités, cream cheese and hot pepper jelly, a sweet potato casserole and a pumpkin pie.
The day was a success all around (except for the Green Bay Packers)
and we were grateful for the fine company and delicious food.
After dinner Rick put out our first RV Christmas lights, under our 5th wheel. It's an approach to lighting we've seen others do, so thought we'd try it. Pretty easy compared to hanging lights on the house or trees. Par for the course with this lifestyle.
Next post with pictures and stories from the French Quarter will be up in a Louisiana minute.
And a great time was had by all.
ReplyDeleteGlynn