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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Touring and an inverter question

I truly decided to relax this morning.  After making my bed, I stayed in my PJ�s until 11:00 in the morning.  It�s been decades since I�ve done that.  By noon, though, I�d had enough of that so I showered and headed out to do a little exploring.

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This is where I ended up.  I decided to visit the Oakland Plantation outside of Natchitoches.  Lots of plantations were located along the Cane River back in the day.

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It turned out that this was National Junior Ranger Day at this National Park.  There were quite a few youngsters moving around from exhibit to exhibit, but the crowds weren�t stifling. 

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I was there for the 1:00 tour of the Main House.  It was built in 1821.  It still retains most of its original heavy cypress timber construction and bousillage-filled walls.  Bousillage was a new word for me today.  It�s kind of like adobe, but uses Spanish moss in the mixture instead of straw.  It was used to insulate the walls.

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We had a good park ranger for the tour group.  The area leading to the front of the house is lined with giant live oak trees.  Just what you would expect in a southern plantation.  The canopy of trees provided a tunnel for the breezes off of the Cane River to flow down into the open windows of the house.

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I also learned that these first Creole plantation owners drank a lot of French wine.  They used the empty bottles to line their flower gardens.  Many of these bottles are from the early 1800�s.  So I guess recycling isn�t really a new thing.  Winking smile

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I walked some of the grounds, but although my hip doesn�t hurt one bit, my stamina isn�t what it was before the surgery yet.  I need to figure out some lower back exercises.  Any ideas out there?

I also stopped at the Natchitoches National Fish Hatchery on the way back to the rig, but the only part open was a small aquarium featuring local river, lake, and pond species.  I had forgotten that most FWS staff don�t work on the weekends, so the ponds with the fish they were growing were closed to entry.

I have a long, for me, drive coming up tomorrow to get to the Maumelle COE campground outside of Little Rock, Arkansas.  In all my years of traveling with a trailer or motorhome, I�ve always turned off the fridge while driving.  As Emma and I were sitting outside this evening, I got to wondering about my small converter.  Since I have a residential fridge now that only operates on electric, could I use the converter to keep it running while I drive down the road?  This is the first rig I�ve had with an inverter, and I do next to no boondocking, so I really haven�t used it.  With the small solar panel on the roof that charges the batteries, and running the engine, won�t that be enough charge to keep it running for six hours or so?  The temps are likely to be in the 80�s for my travel day.  Don�t know why I haven�t thought about this before.  I would appreciate any input from those of you that know about inverters.

Thanks for stopping by� talk to you later,  Judy

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