ON TO JEKYLL ISLAND

We awoke today to the news of the devastating tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/see-and-hear-deadly-alabama-tornado-20461

Right now it is quiet and beautiful in southern Georgia.  Today we will head up to Jekyll Island, Ga.  We may get rain and some hail this afternoon but no tornados are forecast for this area.

This has been a lovely campground... especially in the early morning.  Dutch was out doing Tai Chi again this am.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Up and out by 8:00 was a new experience for Chris and me. We have been lazy and I have a feeling that the next two weeks may be different. Sally and Dave have organized an wonderful tour and today we are off and running. This is being written the next am and it is 8 and we have a departure by 9. So…


Renee Noe was a wonderful interpreter for the Island but we only saw horses from a distance.

Margy saw wild horses later in the day but we only saw them from a distance.

A few of us near the ocean.

SATURDAY FARMERS MARKET ~ YUM

First Walmart in a long time.

ANOTHER FERRY TODAY

Chris woke up to the realization that she wanted to do something about her hair before we get to Georgia so she is busy trying to find a place.

After looking around the area for a beauty salon she called me and we agreed to meet at the Dauphin Island Ferry.   I, of course, was tearing the Roadtrek apart looking for my Credit Cards. Well… I finally found them in the pants that I had washed. I figured that if I called USAA right away that they would be able to overnight new cards to Mary Ellen’s house. Oh yes, Chris couldn’t find a hair place so she made an appointment to have her hair done in Live Oak, Fl on Monday.

The USAA fella was very thorough, read that “took a long time” and as a result I didn’t make the 12:30 ferry. So, Chris went on ahead and we each had our own little adventures. We tried later to hook up but the roads were confusing.

The ferry ride was wonderfully cool and refreshing. Even though Chris wasn’t on the same ferry the photo shows two Roadtreks. Our neighbors from the evening before where the last vehicle aboard.

As soon as you cross the long bridge from Pensacola there is a sign over to Santa Rosa Island, part of the National Seashore.


After driving through miles of beautiful sand dunes I found a place to stop and take pictures.

A man came up and said excuse me, did you lose a kitty? He had the tiniest little kitten in his hand. They were on motorcycles and the kitten was in the middle of the road. He would have been roadkill very soon. I explained that I couldn’t take him so they asked if I had a box or anything to help them carry him to safety. Roadtreks have everything so we found a box, a bungie cord to attached the box to the BMW, a washclothe to cradle the kitten and an old dish towel to cover the top. Plus, of course, duct tape.

WALK,BEIGNETS, DUMP, LEAVE

The title explains my moves this morning but it's getting late in the morning and I still have to dump...more later.

Best laid plans… I had intended to go for an even earlier walk this morning since we were leaving but had been too exhausted to even email Mary Ellen last night. As we are planning only a day or so ahead I wanted to contact her about possibly staying with her sometime this weekend.


I did get out for a walk about 8:00 and nearly walked through a movie production. I guess Nicholas Cage is here doing a movie. When there was news about him being arrested in New Orleans last week I assumed he must live here. I guess not.


I miss calculated when I was dumping. I had to disconnect the Electric to position to dump. That meant that after my shower I didn’t have a cool van to return to. I turned on the engine while I dressed prior to leaving so I wasn’t in a Sauna. Muggy today.



It’s harder to get out of New Orleans than it is to arrive. GPS was terribly confused.

CAFE DU MONDE & KATRINA TOUR

GETTING NEW GLASSES ~ NEW ORLEANS

MY POOR GLASSES

The GPS said it would take about an hour to get to Lenscrafters in the New Orleans area so I thought that leaving Houma with two hours would be enough. With traffic it took an hour forty five for the drive. Whew!


I had signed up to get my eyes checked (on line) and was impressed with the Lenscrafters operation and really felt the ophthalmologist did a thorough job.

A really nice gal helped me choose frames, did all the measuring and told me they would be ready in an hour. I was really impressed but when I tried on the glasses something was wrong. I had to tip my chin way up to see long distance. It seemed as though they had put the middle distance lenses correction on top and the far distance in the middle. That means that I have to come back tomorrow to pick up the glasses.

Chris and Lacey were waiting at the French Quarter RV Park when I got there. This is a nice park but the real draw is that it is only a two block walk to get into the French Quarter. After visiting with the folks in the RV next to ours (and being told to take a taxi back after dark) Chris and I set out to find Bourbon Street.

CAPRI ~ ???

Pleasant weather and I’m sure we should be out exploring but we are both ready to just relax.
My glasses broke again so I have made an appointment, via the internet, to have a vision test at Lenscrafters in New Orleans. We’ll see how that works!
It’s quiet here and we are taking advantage of it. Opps. WHAT is that noise? A calliope? Oh no… it’s the ICE CREAM MAN.


  Where else OTHER than LOUISIANA

WOULD YOU HAVE THIS SIGN????

We finally ventured out to find 1921 Seafood recommended by Pat who owns the RV Park.

I am pretty sure that I had my cholesterol quota for the trip for dinner tonight.  Oysters, crawfish, shrimp, soft

shelled crab and sweet potato fries.  We shared this along with some good Amber Ale.

GOING ON SOUTH IN LOUISIANA

First thing... we need to see if we can get Chris' van to start.  Going to try my jumper cables.

We got out the jumper cables and pulled my RT up to Chris’, and were starting to put on the cables when a couple of angel men (and their wives) from a local camping club came by to help. That was fortunate since they discovered that it was actually a loose battery cable that was the culprit. We probably would have figured it out ourselves but they probably did it in less time. “Thank heavens for 'little boys'!”

It had been recommended that we go for breakfast at Café de Amis in Breaux Bridge and the suggestion to Chris was that we get there at 8:00. Now we know why. When we finally got there around 11:00 the place was hopping and there was no room. The Zydeco music was great but the band had stopped playing by the time we got a table. In any case that whole area of the town has lots of interesting little places to browse. There was even a swap meet nearby.

I WONDER IF GRANDSON DANIEL COULD PLAY FUR ELISE ON A WASHBOARD??

LOTS AND LOTS OF STUFF YOU DON'T NEED

We were sort of on our way to Houma but not really enthusiastic about the drive by the time we left the Café. I suggested we try our luck at Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. After a 12 mile drive up into a hilly area we found a beautiful park that has been fully reserved for over 2 months. Oh well, the drive up was beautiful and we did take advantage of their facilities. There were spaces available during the week but all the weekends fill up.


LIVING ON A BAYOU



 

WE WERE OFTEN TRAVELING ALONG ELEVATED ROADWAYS.  THIS IS A VIEW OF MORGAN CITY.

It was an interesting drive and we ended up at Capri Court RV Park in Houma, Louisiana.

CAPRI COURT RV PARK ~ HOUMA, LA.

BREAUX BRIDGE ~ RELAX

We said farewell to Sandy this morning after coffee and getting some travel suggestions for the panhandle of Florida.

Thanks to Chris for suggestion that we just stay put for another day. We are both far behind with our chores, laundry, banking, planning life after this trip and so forth. We made a date to discuss the next four or five days, through New Orleans, at 2pm….slipped it to 2:30pm and it is now 2:30. Blogging is so behind for both of us.

THEN:

We had the BIGGEST downpour. I never knew what “raining buckets” meant…. Now I do. Chris and I were up near the office using the WI-fi when the rain started. We stayed under the tin roof for a while but finally decided to dash the hundred yards or so to the RT’s. Our showers along the way have not gotten us as wet as that dash did. Soaked to the skin!

I found out the next morning that north of us, WHERE WE WERE three days ago, was hit by tornados.

BAYOU COUNTRY ~ TABASCO LAND

Coming soon!

NATCHEX MISS. to BREAUX BRIDGES, LOUISIANNA

NATCHEZ

BACK TO YESTERDAY THE 11TH

Monday, April 11, 2011




What could be finer than awakening to a bird symphony? Soft… and then louder; then the sweet sound of a soloist nearby. Apparently Sandy and I had set a date to go walking at 730 but I forgot and she slept in after having been awake in the night. The birds got me up and I even got a batch of steel cut oatmeal made.

Our walk was short because the Mississippi River is quite high right now. The Ranger said that they watch the weather and river in Cairo, Illinois, and can gauge where the river in Grand Gulf will be in eight days.



The small museum at the Park is considered one of the best collections of Civil War memorabilia. Most interesting to me was a rocking chair made in 1905 by Duffner for A.K. Shaifer, whose plantation he occupied during the war. The battle is depicted on the chair.

On to Port Gibson, which General Grant proclaimed “too beautiful to burn” and so… spared it. We saw a very nice exhibit of local quilts but I still like Sharon’s (see Santa Fe) better.



On to the Ruins of Windsor, a grand estate built in 1860, which survived the war only to be destroyed in 1890 by fire. Only the columns remain but you still know that it was an elegant house. Who says you have to go to Greece to see ruins!

TRACE

TOURING VICKSBURG

LEROY PERCY STATE PARK TO VICKSBURG, MS.

HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK

This morning Chris and I spent having breakfast at Granny's and then touring the Fordyce Bathhouse which is run by the National Parks and is in the middle of "bathhouse row". Our waitress had told us that there was a place to fill up jugs with their wondereful water. Apparently people come from miles around to do so. The folks in the picture are from Munroe, about 30 miles away, and it is the only water they will drink.

ON TO HOT SPRINGS... or there about.

TALIMENA PARKWAY ~ Oklahoma into Arkansas

Two days in one spot... fresh water and a dump. Now we are off to see the Talimena Parkway.

Chris took point today and started out while I was still dumping and filling up with good Robbers Cave water. At least I hope it is good. After about half an hour I got a call that she was turning around ‘cause there was a fire right by the road and lots of smoke. I looked at a map and gave her an alternate route to a nearby town. Her GPS didn’t like my route and took her another way. She called in a few minutes to say it was beautiful farmland so, of course, I decided also to go the way less travelled. So…. We ended up on lovely county road 154. We went from different directions... she saw farmland and ranches and I drove a small road down through woodlands along a stream.

The views from Tahimena Drive were lovely but the highlight of my day was County Road 154.

Three days ago, in Oklahoma, all the trees were bare, black trunks reaching skyward. Now, today, there is the bright green of new growth everywhere. So this is what the world is like if you are not in California. Seasons! As we came over the Talimena Parkway it was interesting to see that the west and south sides of the mountains were showing green while the east and north slopes were still bare, as is our camp at Queen Wilhelmina State Park.

We had a so-so dinner at the QH lodge with a great view.

ROBBERS CAVE ~ DOGWOODS & RED BUDS

Robbers Cave State Park is a wonderful find. We had been seeing redbud trees in bloom along the way and we found a campsite with one blooming.

We took a walk and there were Violas tossed like sparkly blue diamonds under the trees along the path.

This is a lovely place. The day is a little overcast and I would love to spend a sunny day here.