Texas Thanksgiving

We are in a Thousand Trails Campground north of Houston Texas called Lake Conroe. This place is large and really nice. The lake is 22,000 acres big and the campground is 128 acres. The dogs have been swimming every day and have a huge field in which to run and play. We have met such nice people on the road. I always ask about neet places to visit, see and stay.

John was unpleasantly surprised at the highways and size of Houston. He was driving the motorhome on highways with 5 lanes of traffic going in each direction and a speed limit of 70.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with about 75 other people. The campground provided the turkey and dressing and everyone brought a side dish and a desert. It was very pleasant.
We are thankful for the ability to be doing the traveling, meeting such great people and the support of our family and friends.

We pray for health and happiness for all. Happy Thanksgiving

Louisiana Wetlands

As we entered Louisiana, I saw a sign that called the state "America's Welands". I can certainly attest to that. Our only stop was an overnight in a WalMart parking lot.  Our drive was on roads elevated on stilts over miles of byou and wetlands. I think we drove a good 50 miles before the highway hit the ground. But that didn't last long before we were back on an elevated surface over water, of course. The northern part of the state is drier, I'm told. It was pretty, in it's own way, and I saw a lot of wetland birds.
John is anxious to get to Texas. Since it is a large state it will take us some time to traverse. There are things he wants to see and do. I, on the otherhand, am looking forward to Arizona.
Onward...

MISSISSIPPI

We had a short 3 day stay in Mississippi. The place we stayed at was 12 feet underwater during Katrina. They were still repairing and rebuilding. 
We drove to Pass Christian and Gulfport to see the changes.There is still signs of the devistation everywhere. I found this very friendly Pelican watching over the pier that had been rebuilt.
It was the first day of Oyster season so we watched the boats coming and going to the oyster beds, off shore, and bringing back bags of fresh catch. Needless to say we had seafood for dinner.

Sweet Home Alabama

 Since our journey was coastal this year, our time in Alabama was short. We stayed 20 miles east of Mobile, in Robertsdale, but discovered the cutest small town along the Mobile bay called Fairhope. It has flowers on every street corner, artist and craft shops sprinkled among restaurants like Panini Pete's and a small pier and bird sanctary.
I walked out on the pier to talk to a couple fishing. It turns out that he is a truck driver whose favorite place to go is Towanda, Pa. He drives past our Pa house frequently. They were fishing for white trout, so I invited them to stop in Pa next summer to fish in our back yard for rainbow and brown trout. I'll be looking for the "Alabama Fat Kids", their CB Handle, to pay us a visit

The Florida Gulf

Some decisions are good ones and some are not. Our decision to travel west through Florida instead of South was definately one of the good ones. Basically we traveled Route 10 all the way over to DeFuniak Springs Florida. We stayed at a large campground that typlified the "snow-bird" destinations of Florida. We stayed 3 days and that could have been 3 days too many if it hadn't been for our day trip down to sceanic route 98 and Navarre Beach. To quote John, "the place is filled with old people".
Our drive along the coast was really nice. I prefer the Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast. The sand is so white and very fine and there are much smaller waves. It was just beautiful. We had lunch at a small place on the beach called Sailor's Grill. A gas station clerk in North Carolina told us we should stop there, so we did. Food was okay but the view was spectacular.... we were on a deck 50 feet from the water. Navarre Beach is more open, unconjested than other places we saw. However, a typical 1,000 square foot beach house was selling for $355,000.
Westward ho....

Georgia.....Sweet Georgia

Our first stop in Georgia was Savannah. I didn't know Savannah was sooooo square. Square after square after square, each named after a person or event. I enjoyed the harbor best, cobeled stone street and all. I still like Charleston better.

Next was the Okefenokee swamp. What an amasing place. I was concerned about the bugs and small prior to arriving but I was thrilled to find out that there are NO BUGS in October / November in the swamp and that because the water is so acidic there is no foul odor. Just the oposite, we smelled flowers in bloom. Here are just a few of the allegators we encountered. Our guide was a Native American who gave us the history and topography of the area. He also cautioned us not to try and pet the wildlife.

Next we visited an old rice plantation. The main house was very simple and well preserved. The trees on the plantation have been dated at 800 years of age. 

Finally, we went to Cumberland Island. This is a part of our national seashore. The only access is by Ferry. The Carneige's built summer retreats here before donating the island to the government. The ruins of the estate are impressive, I could only imagine what the place looked like in it's hayday. Our guide, Renee Noe, really made history come alive.

We had asked another couple from the campground to join us on our island adventure. Gary and Rhonda Hogan (no, no relation to the wrestler) are from British Columbia, Canada. The 4 of us had a picnic lunch in the gardens, with wild horses grazing 20 feet from us and a flock of wild turkeys nearby. I also saw an armadillo.
After speaking to many fellow travelers we changed our plans and have decided to bypass the mid to southern part of Florida. We are going to travel West through the panhandle and visit the rest of Florida on another trip. Because Tropical Storm Ida was palying around in the area we were headed we extended our stay in Georgia.

Sitting on the dock of the bay...

What a wonderful time !! The James Island area is beautiful and the county park is the nicest place we've stayed. Biking / hiking paths through the salt marshes and palm forests, a dog park with a swimming beach, fishing and crabbing docks and private, nice sites. We met a retired pharmacist who showed us all about crabbing. He's "been fishin these waters since the 40's".
The park was preparing for their annual festival of lights. There were thousands of holiday light displays being set up. They were beautiful. Unfortunately it didn't start until the 13th of November, so we didn't get to see the the finished product. Note to self- schedule James Island park stay between November 13th and January 2nd in the future.

We were spoiled rotten by John's brother, Jim, and his wife Terri. Southern hospitality lives on. Terri took us around the area, to the beach and the Morris Island lighthouse. We left Charleston with enough home cooking to last us for weeks. I had my cat fix for a while as they have 2 cats Mandy and Andy. Jim helped John wash the car. It was filthy from being towed up hill and down.

Since we were there on halloween, I was also able to do the "answer the door to trick or treaters" routine. I haven't done that since my nephews, Frank and Alex, came out to our house one year. Country living doesn't lend itself to visitors, even on halloween.

It's off to Georgia, Savannah and the Okefenokee. John is still waiting to see his first allegator in the wild.