On Into Georgia

Sunday: (03/31) We left St Marks early. Breakfast at Golden Corral Buffet back in Tallahassee. We came back to Tallahassee to visit the Jackson Lake Indian Mounds. We then headed toward Jacksonville, mostly on Highway 90. In Jacksonville we stopped at Camping World and bought a new vent cap for our black tank vent. Also some chemical. I need to inspect our vent for a blockage or leak. We also dumped our tanks there. Still need to find water to fill our fresh water. We were in a rush to get dumped before they closed and we drove out of their automatic gate as they closed at 1700. Dumping was made more fun because their hose at the dump had a split and leaked and sprayed. We then stopped at Walmart to shop and spend the night. The same shopping center had a Cracker Barrel where we had dinner and a Lowe's for any other parts I might need for the vent. As it was, we were asked to leave by security about 2300. We drove up I95 stopping 1 mile into Georgia at a Rest Stop. Maybe Savannah will have any materials we need tomorrow.
(GPS: 30.7533566,-81.6497958)

 

 

Wakulla Springs And Fort St Marks

Saturday: (03/30) Another nice night at Walmart. Breakfast for all at Burger King inside our Walmart. We hitched up the Jeep and rolled South out of Town on Highway 319 toward Wakulla Springs. We caught the first boat tour at 0940. Very interesting tour with alligators, manatees, grebs, coots, osprey, and ? The spring is the deepest spring at 350 feet deep and the flow is up to 300m to 1b gallons a day. The water comes from the Wakulla- Leon Sinks Cave, which is the longest underwater cave in the US. It was also the setting for a couple of old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. From there we drove down to San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park. The fort protected the confluence of the Wakulla and St Marks revers. It is the location of one of the earliest Spanish settlements in Northwest Florida (1679). I’ve been using Google to guide us through the back roads and through the cities. It routed us onto a sandy dirt road for about 5 miles on our way from Wakulla Springs. Interesting. In the cities I’m always in the wrong lane to do what it wants me to do and then needs to reroute. After several of these reroutes, I’ll swear that it then deliberately tries to send us down dead end streets. We explored the Fort at the park and enjoyed watching the boats come and go at the boat launch there. We are planning on spending the night in the boat launch overflow parking area.

Talahassee, Florida

Thursday: (03/28) Leftovers for breakfast. Wonderful nite at the boat launch last night. Nice river view, no one else about. We had a couple of people arrive to launch their boats as we were preparing to leave. We headed on out highway 20 stopping in Blountstown for breakfast at Connie’s Kitchen. We walked about town checking out an antique store, a thrift store and the M&B Railroad Museum. We then continued on into Tallahassee and visited the AAA auto club office for some maps. The we took a walk in the McClay State Park Arboretum. We then settled in at a nearby Walmart for the night. (GPS: 30.5467838,-84.2303069)

Friday: (03/29) Breakfast from the Burger King inside our Walmart. We went downtown and toured the Old State House Museum. It took a while to see it all, very interesting. There were scores of students there as well and the old hard walls were working overtime reflecting the noise they made. W had dinner at a cuban restaurant, the Habana. We were home about 1830 and worn out. Walking lowly and reading is such hard work.

On into Florida, Choctawhatchee River

Wednesday: (03/27) Leftovers for breakfast. We did some cleanup and slowly prepared to depart. We finally left the campground at noon. We stopped at a salvage goods store before getting on the road. We took Highway 98 off through Pensacola, and on to Sandestin and turned onto Highway 331 to Highway 20. We stopped at Choctawhatchee River Boat Ramp (GPS: 30.448926,-85.8998299) for the night. A sheriff was there when we arrived and we asked if it was OK to stay the night. He said Ok but no parties. Lou made green salads for lunch about 1400 in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Lou made chicken nachos for dinner.

Summerdale, Alabama

Saturday: (03/16) I made corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. We enjoyed our night at Camping World. We went across the street to Walmart after breakfast. We needed some stick on pads to quiet a rattle on our bedroom door. We then visited a couple of thrift stores and a feed store. I called the Escapees club Rainbow Plantation RV Park and they had a cancelation for two days they we took. This is my first visit to an Escapees park. We went to lunch at Big Daddy’s Grill then did our laundry at the park. We had shrimp and leftovers for dinner. We are camped Somerdale at the park, GPS: 30.458283, -87.781917.

Sunday: (03/17) St Patrick’s Day. We had leftover French toast and waffles with fresh blueberries for breakfast. Lou and Dan showered at the park showers while I showered at home. Lou stopped by the office and got us a site for the next week. She broke a tooth last night so we’ll be seeing a dentist tomorrow. We drove down to Foley to look over one of the dentist offices and stop at Walmart. I wanted to replace the tires on our Jeep. There is a chunk knocked off of the left front and the tread is getting thinner. I got some BF Goodrich All Terrain KO2 tires. They have a more aggressive tread than the existing but are supposed to be the best AT tire out there. We do have a little more road noise now but should be able to do some real off roading now. Walmart had a good price, had the ones I wanted in stock and were able to install them today. We did have to hang around for about four hours though. I got a burger at Checkers and Lou and Dawn had soup at Applebees. We headed back to the RV park by 1700 and joined the other residents at a potluck buffet. Interesting dishes. Lou got more references for a good dentist here.

 

The old and the new.

Monday: (03/18) I was off to the park office early to register for our new site, then we moved to it. We had leftover corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. Lou and Dawn were off to inspect the thrift stores in Foley and visit the medical museum. I stayed home and worked on our tax return, just collecting information today. I had a hot dog sandwich for lunch. Rice and a weiner for dinner.

Tuesday: (03/19) We were off early to Foley. Lou had an 0800 Dental appointment. She lost a filling a couple of days ago. Dawn and i had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant while we waited. We returned home after a little looking around an interesting home improvement store and a bookstore. At home I got busy working on our taxes again. I finished up most of the data collection today. Lou and Dawn relaxed around home and stayed out of my way. Lou made some soup for lunch. We had chicken with rice and creamed corn.

Wednesday: (03/20) We had old fashioned oatmeal for breakfast. I then continued collection data for our tax return. Then I completed the first draft. Now to review and touch it up. Sausage and noodles for lunch. After lunch we drove over to the Post Office to pick up our mail package from home and send off some boxes. Lou and I then went shopping while Dawn explored a bookstore. Spaghetti and salad for dinner. Time to review the mail and the tax return.

Thursday: (03/21) Leftovers for breakfast. Mine was a biscuit and sausage. We headed off to Monroeville, Alabama, the home of authors Harper Lee (To Kill A Mockingbird) and Truman Capote (Breakfast At Tiffany's). They were neighbors and friends as children. The museum is in the old courthouse, the setting of the trial in the Mockingbird movie. It was used to make a duplicate courtroom in a studio in Hollywood. Interesting visit. We passed through many little towns on our way there and back by different routes for the 90 miles each way. We had lunch at the Sweet Tooth cafe in Monroeville. Leftovers for dinner at home about 2000.

Friday: (03/22) Breakfast at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant. We then visited the Holmes Medical Museum in Foley, Al. Interesting museum in an old one doctor hospital building. We drove out to Gulf Shores later and had lunch at the Skyliner Diner. We had the booth in a 1954 Ford sedan body. Reasonable food. After lunch we walked along the beach out to a pier. Dinner at home cottage cheese and diced apple.

Saturday: (03/23) Lou made biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast. We had a relaxing day at home (camp) today. I washed all the RV outside windows and brushed all the spider webs off the outside. Lou and Dawn went over to a flea market here in the RV park activity building about 1000. They learned it was from 0800-0900, kind of early and short for a flea market. I came over later. We stayed and chatted with a couple from Toronto before returning home. After lunch. Lou and Dawn had showers. Lou and I did the laundry in the afternoon. We had BBQ ribs and potato salad for dinner in the yard.

Sunday: (03/24) I prepared French toast for breakfast. We drove down to Pensacola, Florida taking the road along the coast through Gulf Shores and South Beach. We had lunch at a coop market near downtown. We took a walk in the historic downtown area. We also walked through a cemetery nearby and were asked to leave a little after 1700 because they were closing. Interesting. I thought people were dying to get in?  We got back home about 1830, too late for the ice cream social, like we needed ice cream.

 

 An interesting food truck lot with all airstream trailers in Pensacola. An alligator near Gulf Shores.

A grave tone inside a tree trunk. Seems like maintenance good a little behind.

Monday: (03/25) We walked over to the office and registered for two more nights here, possibly a third. We went down to Foley to the Lambert’s Cafe for an early lunch when they opened at 1030. The place normally has a crowd out the door, very popular. Their motto is “Home Of Throwed Rolls”. It provides true Southern cooked food. I had an excellent chicken fried steak. Servers come by offering things like fried okra, black eyed peas, fried potatoes, rolls (thrown to you) All the add ons from the passersby are unlimited. This is not a health food restaurant. It was healthy though. Lou did not have a reaction to the food so they don’t cook with cottonseed oil or use MSG. I did have a reaction. I napped all afternoon after eating. We stopped for a couple of things at Walmart on the way home. Lou an Dawn went off to an alligator farm in Robertsville. Then they stopped for ice cream at the drugstore counter in downtown Foley. We had leftovers for dinner.

 

Tuesday: (03/26) Leftover French toast for breakfast. We headed off to Pensacola again today to the Wentworth Museum. An interesting collection and some old homes that we toured. Missed dlunch doing to taking the tours. We had dinner at O'Riley's Irish Pub after the museum closed at 1600. I had a reuben wrap, Dawn had shepherd pie and Lou had potato skins. We stopped at Best Buy and got a new DVD player for the RV bedroom and a new voice recorder for Dawn. Then we headed back home after s stop at Walmart for a couple of things.

Mobile, Alabama

Friday: (03/15) Lou made French toast for breakfast. We took a last walk out to see our alligators. The big one was out in the water this morning. We drove highway 90. We stopped in Mobile Alabama for a walk downtown. Along the way we had lunch at El Papi Mexican restaurant on Dauphin Street. Really good. Beautiful old houses and a great tree canopy. Leaving Mobile was a problem. Any road we tried (90, I10, 98) all had a warning sign prohibiting hazardous loads in the tunnel. An RV’s LPG tank is generally considered a hazardous load in a tunnel so I tried one path after another. It was just another demonstration of ignorant traffic engineers. Because 90, 98, and I10 join together at different places the sign was posted. The tunnel was on highway 98 after it departed the Highway 90 I10 route. A little more clarity would be simple to do, but wasn’t. These guys never seem to actually drive the roads they foul up. We took Highway 59 down to Robertsville and spent the night at a Camping World store. They even have electrical, water and a dump. Nice. We stopped early because we intend to take a little side trip North tomorrow. If we had continued just a few more miles we could have made this a three state day going in to Pensacola, Florida. (GPS: 30.534926, -87.707851)

 

The big alligator was out when we left Davis CG. We had lunch in Mobile at Papi Mexican restaurant.

Davis Bayou CG, Ocean Springs

Tuesday: (03/12) Granola and banana for breakfast. We headed over to the Gulf Islands National Seashore to take an early walk on the trails. Nice clear morning, not like yesterday and the days previous. Birds singing, friendly alligators and turtles. Nice morning. We returned to the car at the picnic area and were relaxing. Lou went over to the Davis Bayou Campground office and found out there was a space available for the next three nights so we took it. This was at 1030 so we continued our explorations. I hiked all the trails in the area and Lou and Dawn relaxed.  We enjoyed our picnic lunch. About 1330 we went and moved the RV from the casino parking lot to the campground. That was pretty much it for the day, just relaxing in our new home. I cooked a collection of canned item dinner, black beans, corn, salsa, an onion and some Italian sausage all topped with melted Swiss cheese.
(GPS: 30.396708, -88.795572)

 

 

 

Wednesday: (03/13) I took an early morning walk to see the alligators again. We had leftover black bean concoction with eggs for breakfast. We had the lunch buffet at the Golden Nugget Casino. Sausage and noodles for dinner. Dawn visited a book store while Lou and I checked out a couple of more casinos and explored more of Biloxi.

Thursday: (03/14) I made pancakes with peaches for breakfast. We did some exploring around Ocean Shores. Interesting fishing piers. We watched a guy net fishing off the pier and sharing some fish with the pelicans. We had lunch at the Beau Rivage Casino. Our order got lost so we got a free dessert. Later we stopped at Biloxi Brewing for a few samples. Lou made cajun chilli over rice noodles for dinner. Then home for a rest. We head off tomorrow.

 

 The Little and the big alligators were out..

 

The fishing pier at Ocean Shores.

Biloxi, Mississippi

Saturday: (03/09) Leftover cake and pudding and other leftovers for breakfast. We prepared to leave including getting some LPG for the RV from the park. With the RV ready but not moved, we drove the Jeep down to Whole Foods and bought some gumbo for lunch and filled our water bottles. We stopped on the way back at the library where they accept used parade necklaces to be recycled. We had a big bag full. We then headed off East on Highway 90. We made a short stop at a casino in Gulfport and another stop at a mall for Dawn to visit the Books-A-Million store. We left there about 1600 and were in slow traffic heading on to Biloxi. We stopped for the night in Biloxi at the Golden Nugget Casino parking lot as it was getting dark. Actually a city lot adjacent to the casino with lots of trucks and RV neighbors. We had dinner at Bubba Gumps in the casino.
(GPS: 30.391995, -88.858456)

We stopped at the Golden Nugget Casino parking lot.

Sunday: (03/10) Lou and Dawn were off early for a walk in the fog. I came out later to do the same. I didn’t catch up but did hike both up river and out by the marina and didn’t catch up. I was back at the RV when Lou called to invite me to breakfast at the Palace Casino buffet up river. I have developed a cold so I relaxed in the RV all day while Lou and Dawn were out exploring. They visited the Visitor Center and some thrift stores. Lou found a slow cooker with a removable crock to replace the on we have that has a fixed crock. I had a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Lou made chicken soup for dinner. In the evening we walked over the the casino for ice cream.

A fogging morning.

Monday: (03/11) A foggy day, again. We drove over to a Waffle House restaurant for breakfast in Ocean Springs across the bridge from Biloxi. After breakfast we visited a thrift store, went to the Gulf Islands National Seashore Visitor center and checked out their campground. No space at the CG. A little hiking and looking at the ponds. We got lunch at the Rouse’s Market and did some grocery shopping before heading home. In the afternoon the fog finally disappeared. This would have been nicer in the morning, we relaxed all afternoon. More chicken soup for my dinner.

 

More New Orleans

Wednesday: (03/06) Leftover hash and eggs for breakfast. We decided to stay three more nights and since the holiday rush is over we got a site in the RV park with hookups and less mud. We relaxed at home the rest of the day. Lou and Dawn relaxed, I napped. Leftovers for lunch and dinner.

We moved from the overflow lot into a space today.

Thursday: (03/07) Granola and banana for breakfast. After showers we were off to the Post Office to mail a couple of boxes to home. We then headed off to see the New Orleans Botanical Gardens. We then went to the El Gato Negro Mexican restaurant for lunch. After lunch we visited a couple of used book stores then bought day passes for th transit system and rode the trolley downtown. We found another used book store for Dawn. Next we rode the ferry across the Mississippi River. Then we had dinner at Harrah’s Casino and rode the trolley back to our car and went home with a stop at Walmarts for a few things on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday: (03/08) We drove down highway 23 to the southernmost point of any road in Louisiana. It was as close as we could get to where the Mississippi River flows into the ocean near Venice. The river is just a few inches from flood stage and the road was flooded across at some places.   We stopped a few times to look at the river and watch the ships. We explored Fort Jackson, a civil war era fort intended to protect New Orleans. It looks a lot like Fort Point in San Francisco, but prettier. It even has a motte with an alligator in it. The weather today was quite nice with no wind and being about 70 degrees. Chicken and avocado for breakfast. Lunch at the market in Port Sulphur. More chicken. Pork chops with mashed potatoes and peas for dinner.