Sunday 3-26 Our Trip Begins

I’ve been talking about going on a camping trip with the Minnie and you are probably wondering where we’re going. Larry has been thinking about following the Mississippi River from where it ends in Louisiana to where it starts in Minnesota for over a year. There is a road that follows the Mississippi called the Great River Road, it is a National Scenic Byway. The road takes you through ten states. A few months ago when we decided to take a Spring trip Larry suggested the Great River Road, I told him it sounded great to me. Larry normally requests information from all of the states we will be traveling through but this year he got a small amount of information mailed to us from the Great River Road website, using this information and maps from each state that he already has will get us started. He plans to find anything else we might need via the internet. Much less to carry and it should prove interesting. Got to change with the times I guess. As the we were getting closer to leaving I was getting more excited.

Today we started our adventure to the Great River Road. We left the house at 9:00 am. The wind blew very strongly the entire day. We stayed mainly on two lanes highways. The only interstate we drove was I10 which we picked up a bit east of Houston and drove it to Baton Rouge. The drive through Texas to Louisiana was pretty with wildflowers and beautiful tall pines. After driving through Orange Texas we hit Louisiana which turns to swamp land. We drove on a bridge that went over swamps for miles and miles. As we driving across the swamp area we saw fishermen fishing in the swamp. We drove over a couple of big cool bridges. As we were driving through Lake Charles, Louisiana along the beach area we saw people enjoying the beach and the park on the beach. Some people were swimming in the water. Larry was going to stop at a casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana but when we got to Lake Charles we decided to continue on down I10 to Baton Rouge.

The bridge we drove to get over the Mississippi River

Larry asked me to call the Hollywood Casino and see if there is RV parking at their casino. The lady said we could park our RV anywhere in the parking lot, they didn’t have a RV Park. She was very nice. We programmed our GPS to take us to Hollywood Casino. By the time we arrived in Baton, Rouge Larry had driven about 450 miles, we were on the road for 10 hours.

We arrived at Hollywood Casino at 7:00 pm and the sun was starting to go down so it was cooling off. Once we got settled in I fed Flo and then took her for a walk. When we got back Larry and I went over to the casino to check it out.

Hollywood Casino is located in downtown Baton Rouge so it’s very convenient to other attractions in the downtown area and on the Mississippi River. It looks like an old riverboat, that was used years ago that paddles down the Mississippi River. It has three floors and a deck that goes around the boat on the second floor. You’re allowed to walk outside and look at the Mississippi River but most of the deck is chained off. As you walk through the casino you can look out the windows and see tug boats moving barges down the river. During the day when we were entering into Baton Rouge we crossed the Mississippi River via bridge but at night it is lit up and looks cool. As we were going into the casino I asked a guard if there was a non-smoking area. He told us yes and gave us directions to the area. The non-smoking area was very small. It was right next to the smoking area with nothing in between the areas so you still had to put up with smoke. After checking the casino out we went back to the Minnie and had dinner.

Entrance to Hollywood Casino

Hollywood Casino billboard at nighttime

The State Capitol Building at nighttime

After dinner Larry walked me over to the casino so I could give them some money. I like to play the penny slots and Larry’s not into gambling. I was there for almost two hours and gave them $4.00. As I was leaving I called Larry to let him know. He met me at the casino and walked me home. I could have walked back to the Minnie by myself considering the parking lot is very well lit. I really didn’t have to walk back because they have a shuttle to take you back and forth to the casino. We had a long day but we had fun.