Keep on Rolling

Our wheels have just crossed over into Mississippi!

Out of Florida

A few minutes ago we officially left Florida. Our wheels are rolling on blacktop in Sweet Home Alabama!

On the Move.

Today is moving day for Road Hazard. We have a six hour drive ahead of us that will take us through 3 States on Interstate 10. First we will drive through Mobile, Alabama. Our next major cities will be Biloxi and Gulfport Mississippi. We will finally make it to our destination of New Orleans, Louisiana. Now I know that some of you have expressed your concern for our safety if we were to go to NO. We have done our research and found this campground that is 5 blocks from the French Quarter. There is 24/7 security at this place and they have a shuttle that will take us to Bourbon Street. I know that there will be nothing to worry about. I think that we are both "street smart" to know where we should and shouldn't be. Besides, how could we take a trip around the United States and NOT stop at this city. We are excited that we will be leaving the great state of Florida and venturing out to see other States.

I leave you today with our pictures that we finally got developed. These are the pictures that we took when we were scuba diving and snorkeling in Crystal River, Florida. I think the pictures came out great considering that it was one of those disposable cameras that we used. Enjoy the pictures and wish us well on our drive today.

Weekend Recap

With temperatures dipping into the low 70's and rain spitting off and on most of the day Saturday, we had to time our activities around the weather.
We started the day off with washing the front of Road Hazard. On our drive over from Crystal River to Destin I think we hit every bug. The front of RH was multi-colored with the splats of bugs. You had to rub pretty hard to lodge these souvenirs loose but after some effort RH's face looks clean. I think on our future trips the RH Bra will be put in place to cut down on clean up.
By the time we finished the weather had warmed up enough for us to venture out onto the white sandy beach to chill'axe. Because of the high wind the Life Guards had posted a RED flag which means that you shouldn't swim.

No problem, I can spend the day just sitting on the beach.
There was a guy Kite Surfing and he would come in pretty close to shore. You can see how lazy I am because you can see my toes at the bottom of the video. You think I'm going to stand up?

The Life Guards were also out playing in the surf.
Here are the Life Guards out on their Long Boards "training" in the big surf. It's hard to believe that this is the Gulf of Mexico. The waves were huge!

After a day on the beach we decided to check out some local bars. We found this place called AJ's which is right on the water. It had a nice view on the deck where the band was playing. We were the only ones watching hockey and cheering as we watched the Caps win their first playoff game. After the band finished their set we turned around to watch the next show.

Fireworks! Apparently they shoot off fireworks from this location every Friday night.

After a night of much entertainment we decided to head back home but we had to stop at Krispy Kreme first. The light was on announcing that they had Fresh, Hot Donuts ready. You just have to stop when you see that!

Ok, so I was caught by surprise with this picture but these donuts are soooooo good. And you get a free hat!

Sunday was a little worse, in turns of weather. Much colder and more drizzle. Perfect day to try out this restaurant called Fud Puckers. They are also home to over 50 alligators in their front pond.

We ended the day yesterday chasing down a good location to watch the sun set. There really isn't any good place to watch the sun go down in the water. I think we have left those days behind us.

We'll have to keep looking.

Bay Town Wharf

The day was spent exploring an area called "Bay Town Wharf". It's a gated community but you can get in by telling the guard that you are going to the "shops". The streets winds you around beautiful landscaped gardens and golf course's until you arrive at the shops.

There are over 100 shops and restaurants that are broken up by bridges over ponds and the bay.

The anchor hotel is, of course, the Hilton. After walking around and looking at the prices in the shops and restaurants we decided to hit another place that was more within our price range. The Outlet's. Just like in Rehoboth, they have all the major outlets. I have to admit that we spent some money on some much needed stuff.

The whole day was very windy with a cold chill in the air. We decided to take an afternoon stroll on the beach to see the huge waves. No surprise there were very few people hanging out. If you enjoy being in a sand storm it was perfect for you. Even the life guards were hunkered down, trying to hide from the elements. It was interesting to note that there are no shells on the beach. Quite a contrast from the other beaches we visited on the west coast of Florida. I did almost step on a Portuguese Man O War that had washed up on shore. If you look at the picture carefully you can see how far it's tentacle extends. I was about 10 feet long!

With our wind breakers on we were able to enjoy yet another sun set on the beach.

We have been on the Internet closely monitoring the weather reports. A severe storm is heading this way. It should arrive late Friday night and into Saturday morning. We also saw that Memphis is flooded from previous storms and that this coming storm won't help the situation. Looks like our decision has been made for us. We are heading west from here.

Enjoy a few more shots from our day...

Snow Everywhere Outside

Our first day in Destin had us running around with several errands. It always takes longer because you don't know where everything is located. So, you have to ask someone or drive around and hunt for what ever it is you need. After completeing the necessary tasks we drove around to explore the area. We ended up driving west until we hit Okaloosa, another beach town along the coast. These restaurants and shops caught our attention so we stopped to investigate. The "Swamp" is a huge restaurant that turns into a concert hall at night. With a huge stage and speakers everywhere and a nice size bar to accomadate all their thirsty patrons.
The block of restaurants overlooks the white sandy beach's. I can only imagine how crazy this place gets when there is a band playing.

While we were driving around Reta made a comment that really describes the sand in this area well. The white sand everywhere almost looks like snow because it is so white. When you see the dunes of sand it just looks like a huge pile of snow. I have to admit that of all the beach's we have had the opportunity to visit I have never seen sand this white.
This picture shows the city of Destin when we were returning from Okaloosa.

One thing that we have noticed about the people in this area is that their accent is much more southern with slow, drawn out words. People aren't in a hurry to get things done but would rather sit and tell you some experience that they had regarding their dog or pickup truck. Wait, that's usally country music. Now I know where all their insperation for country music must come from. Just sit back and listen to everyone. To top off the drive back we saw this truck on the road. This wasn't the first one we saw but the first one that I manged to get a picture of. I was going to take a picture of the front as well but I stopped when I saw the confederate flag on the front bumper. Is there such a thing as redneck cajun?

We found out some great news yesterday while talking to the camp host. We can wash our vechicles here in the campground! Today we are taking the day to wash Road Hazard and the Pickup. Who cares that they are calling for rain this weekend. They both need it bad.

Back an Hour

We finally hit the road and turned Road Hazard due north until we hit Interstate 10. This interstate will become our friend because it will eventually take us across the country. It felt good to be driving west once we hit 10. It finally feels like we are heading in a new direction. A direction that Reta and I have never been except for a few cities.
The distance from Crystal River to Destin is 368 miles and we stopped twice so that we could switch off the duties of controlling RH. It took us a little over 6 hours. We decided to stop and top of the tank since we hit another station that is RV friendly. You don't find to many of them along the way so when you do, you better stop.

Doesn't this look comfortable? It's like sitting in a lazy boy chair watching the world go by through a huge window in front of you. We both enjoy driving RH but I have to admit that we each also took a nap on the co-pilots chair. The drive up was interesting to see how the landscape changes. It went from very flat to hilly by the time we hit the pan handle. I always enjoy driving over these two lane bridges. You're sitting up so high and all you can see is water. Can those walls really stop a rig this big?
We found our campground with no problem but to getting into it was a problem. This campground only has about 28 spots. It's mostly privately owned but the owners rent out their spots when they're not around. To make the turn into this place was tight. We had to disconnect the pickup so that I could back up about 5 feet to make the turn. Here we are, in our spot finally, all unpacked and ready to walk down to the beach and check it out. Oh, wait! Before we head out the door we had to set all our clocks back an hour. We are now in the Central Time Zone. You know what that means? We're finally moving west!

Short walk to the beach got us there close to sunset. Our first impressions of Destin Beach's are very good. The sand is white and very fine. When you take your flip flops off the sand is cool between your toes. I think it will work just fine...

The next decision we have to make is where we want to go from here. Tennessee is not too far from here and we could visit Nashville and Memphis. Or, we could continue west and try and hit Tennessee some other time. We'll have to check out the weather channel and Internet to see which way to go. The tough decisions we have to make...