I forgot to post that we are home as of April 1st. And it has been snowing nearly nonstop since we got here :(
No more blogging until the next RV trip!! Bye for now.

We have been very busy for the last 2 weeks with friends and family and neglecting the blog. We spent a few days visiting old friends Linda, Jim and Margaret near Treasure island Florida.

A visit to Siesta Key Rum with Jim and Linda and Denny

Next, it was on to Sebring to visit Sue Fak in her RV park.

Up next, the Everglades and a visit to Bill and Julie and their new penthouse condo overlooking the ocean. As beautiful as Marco Island and the surrounding area are, the prescribed burns left the area very smoky. Not fun! When we left a week later, I felt as if I had started smoking again!

The haze on the horizon is smoke.

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve boardwalk

While we we there, Julie helped me find our 100th geocache of our trip.Woo-hoo!

Time to start the trek home. We stopped in Georgia to see my sister Mary Jo, husband Terry and their kids and grand kids. We happened to be there at the same time as my brother George and his wife Mary were visiting. We had a great mini-family reunion!
We are now attempting to visit Mammoth Caves but finding most of the tours sold out! Then, on towards home, hoping to arrive April 1st. I am excited to be getting home and hoping for little snow and the start of spring blooms.

We left New Orleans for the Gulf Coast National Seashore, staying in a park at the west (Davis Bayou, MS) and east (Fort Pickens, FL) ends of the National Seashore. Neither were new to us but still enjoyed.

Hurricane Nate did a number on some of the infrastructure!

Young alligators and turtles basking in the sun together.





Between the two parks we stopped for a pleasant afternoon at Bellingrath Gardens near Mobile, Alabama. The azaleas were in full bloom and beautiful.

After a lovely few days at the seashore, a beautiful sunset and a time change we moved on further into Florida.

We stayed at Blackwater River State Park while getting accustomed to the new DST time and before we move on to the Eastern time zone. Changing time twice in just a couple of days is kind of like experiencing jet lag! I think Blackwater is one of new favorite parks. Clean, quiet and lots of water, trails and geocaches!

New Orleans....things have changed. We are in for a few days of city living and dining, not a mountain or trail in sight! First up, dinner, drinks, and blues at the RV parks Lighthouse Bar and Grill. Music by Dex and JamX. They were very good!

The next morning we took the RV parks shuttle to the French quarter and spent the day walking around absorbing the sights.

 An old livestock exchange, now an eatery.

Street acrobatics

Street jams

Muscovy duck at Louis Armstrong Park

On the second day, we took a Hop On Hop Off tour and ended up in the commercial district looking for a CVS to pick up meds for Kismet. After that mission was accomplished, we happened upon Juan's, where we had an excellent lunch.

Next up, a walking tour of the Garden district, a section of old beautiful house and mansions. We even saw Sandra Bullock's house!



Corn fence, installed by a wealthy financier whose wife was missing her home state of Iowa!

The home where Jefferson Davis died

We spent a little time at Lafayette cemetery. Sooo interesting! Apparently, each plot is a piece of real estate owned by the family and multiple family members can be buried there. We were told one tomb had 77 people in it! Sadly, when there are no living family members to maintain the "real estate", it falls into disrepair.

The two oldest tombs, there are no records of who is buried in them.

When pieces fall off, they just stack them against the tomb.

A well maintained tomb

Note the added piece of marble on the left to add additional names. We were told that such intense heat builds up, the the bodies are essentially cremated. When the next body is added, the old casket is taken out and the ashes and bone fragments pushed to a cavity underneath and the new body added. That is how so many people can be buried in such a small space!

Louisiana state parks have free laundromats! Sam Houston Jones state park is a small old park with infrastructure damaged by hurricanes but is beautiful nonetheless. Since there are swamps within the park, the Louiisaina state bird (the mosquito) thrives here and found me immediately!

One of several bat houses

On our second day, an RV like ours pulled in to the campground. We don't see many so we were discussing that, when it backed into the spot next to us. And, then we saw Michigan plates. Just like that...new friends from Grand Haven! This was a short stop but we exchanged addresses and I hope we meet up again in Michigan!

Mary moved with us, rain and all, to Goliad State Park.  I wondered why the map showed the campground as a rectangle but upon arriving to our parking lot campsite, I understood.

Good thing this is only a two day stop! Day one, visit the onsite mission and walk to another mission nearby and birthplace of General Zaragoza. His feats in battle are commemorated by the Cinco de Mayo celebration. So, in May when you are drinking a margarita or having a cervesa, send a silent thank you to General Zaragoza.

 

On the walk back, we ran across this little fixer

 upper.

Since we had exhausted this little park, the next day we took a day trip to San Antonio. There we experienced the river walk, had lunch at a little Mexican riverside café and visited the Alamo. Denny and I were last here in the early 80s and oh my, has it changed!

 Listening intently to Mary and looking like my mother!

The Alamo

The Alamo Courtyard

Mary moved with us again to Brazos State Park, a lovely park with lots of water birds, black vultures, and lots of alligators! You are supposed to stay 30 feet from them but when they are laying on the side of a path that's only 20 feet wide and the other side is a swamp, it's hard. We just hurried by quickly and nonchalantly. It must have worked because all of our limbs are intact!

Black vultures on a fishing pier

A BIG alligator on the side of the lake

A rare American Bittern, they stand like this to hide. Silly birds!

Lunch time at the dam

Mary is sporting a new knee and we gave it a good workout with nine miles of hiking!

We were happy to see that the black vultures continue to roost each night in the same group of trees as they did 4 years ago.  There must have been a couple of hundred. Impressive!

Mary had to return to the north but Denny and I continue on with our journey. We will soon be leaving Texas for the gulf coast.