Back by Popular Demand

I have heard from home that people are looking for our blog about our current trip. We have been gone for a month so I am not going to try to recount all of our adventures. I will give you the highlights. 

We left on December 14 and headed down I-75. We boondocked our first two nights - once at a Walmart and once at a Lowes. By the third night we were in Florida and stayed at a campground near Lake City, which is pretty much due west of Cape Canaveral. We were able to catch a view of a Space-X rocket being launched. 

Our home for the next two weeks was Hickory Point RV park at Tarpon Springs. It is a small park on the Anclote River not far from the Gulf of Mexico. We were in a park view site that afforded great views of the water on the other side of the park. The campground is a mix of seasonal and transients like ourselves. There was a community centre where there was something going on each day. 

We spent the first week settling into the motorhome again. We accomplished some upgrades that we had wanted to do after our adventure in Alaska and spent some time exploring the area and relaxing.

Scott, Tessa and Kathy arrived on Dec. 23 after driving down. Carolyn was to fly down on Dec. 24, but the blizzard grounded her flight. She arrived on Dec. 26 when we celebrated Christmas. 

We had 4 days with them before we were to head out on New Years Eve day. Our last night with them, we went to the Christmas light display at Largo Botanical Gardens. The display was incredible and well worth the drive of about 45 minutes.

We enjoyed the park and people so much that we have booked in for 3 weeks next Christmas. I know it must be hard for some of you to imagine Lawrie being in one place for 3 weeks, but he is learning to slow down.

We spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day at a Harvest Host on a hay farm near Lake City. We had acres of peace and quiet to ourselves. We found a state park mid afternoon on Jan.1 where they were renting kayaks to go down the river. We went back the next morning and put our canoe in the water and had a wonderful time drifting down the river for a mile or two. Paddling back up against the flow from the springs was more of a challenge!

We spent a total of 5 nights at Harvest Hosts as we made our way along the Gulf Coast. The Tallahassee Auto Museum had a great car collection along with collections of knives, Steinway pianos, outboard motors, motorcycles and dolls to name a few. Well worth the visit. We stayed at a lavender farm and Grover T’s BBQ where we had the best onion rings ever.

We spent 3 nights outside of Mobile. The first day we spent 4 hours at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park where we toured the Alabama and the USS Drum, a submarine. The next day we went to the Gulf Coast RV show at the Mobile Convention Centre. We were expecting a larger show, but enjoyed it nevertheless. 

Heading west again, we stopped for 3 nights at a campground on the beach operated by Silver Slipper Casino about 50 miles east of New Orleans. We had wonderful views of the Gulf and both sunrises and sunsets were magnificent. We went to New Orleans one day. It was a Monday and unfortunately many of the things we wanted to see were closed. Bad planning on our part.

There wasn’t much around the campground and we needed to do laundry so it was time to try the combination washer/dryer onboard. I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked so no more campground laundromats for me.

Two more nights of Harvest Hosts, one not so successful but the other at Champagne’s Cajun Swamp Tours most enjoyable. We arrived by 10:30 but were told there wouldn’t be a swamp tour until the next day. Then there was a knock on the door. A couple had arrived wanting a tour and we could join them right away. Brendan was an excellent guide through the swamp (stagnant water) and the bayou (moving water). We saw lots of yellow bellied turtles, egrets, anhingas and alligators. An alligators age and length can be determined by estimating the distance between its snout and its eyes. One inch equals one foot. They grow one foot a year. So 6 inches would be a 6 year old, six foot long alligator.

Westward we went again to Lake Charles. Our end of the row pull through campsite at Bayou Marino gave us panoramic views of the bayou where we spotted egrets and roseate spoonbills.

We spent an afternoon driving the Creole Nature Trail through the bayous and wetlands between Lake Charles and the Gulf. We did a couple of hikes but didn’t spot any alligators but heard something making some noise in the water in the long grasses. We ate Kicking Shrimp Po’Boys from a food truck. Fresh shrimp right from the gulf, melted provolone cheese, jalapeños and mayo made for a tasty treat. 

We lucked into another RV show. we went for drive to the historic downtown of Lake Charles. As we passed the convention centre we saw lots of RV’s in the parking lot. It was the return after 2 years to Central Gulf Coast Boat and RV show. We spent the afternoon wandering through the massive displays.