Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Dec 12th Perry Fl

We traveled about 140 miles today since we missed our turn for the RV park in Carrabella and landed in Perry, Fl. We are staying at Rocky's RV. Pretty cool layout here for an overnight spot. We went into Perry and it is a nice size town with a number of things to do.

We ate dinner at Pounchey's.  I had their special which was tender loin tips with glazed onion and bell peppers. WOW what a good find, it was great food and an awesome service.

We continue our journey to find warmer weather. Two other RVers one was head further south into Florida and the other to South Texas. All seeking warmer weather.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Dec 11th Panama City

Yea, we have finely made it out of Alabama and had thought to leave the cold behind. When we arrived here today it was 55, about 20 degrees less than what we were hoping for.

Spent last night in Dothan Al, nice place.

Windy here and looks like we are likely going to get hit with a few thunderstorms tonight.

Coming in today it seemed we crossed half dozen large bridges going over bodies of water.

Tomorrow we'll get out and look around taking some pictures.

Unfortunately the weather was icky with clouds and some rain.







Friday, December 2, 2011

Dec 2nd Red Bay, Al

Our stay here in Red Bay could be coming to an end soon.

Tiffin finished our list of items we wanted taken care of. We will have our new TV's put in tomorrow and we're pretty excited and hope it turns out as we expect.

The trays are in the basement and we only had to get rid of a grill and a larger ice chest.

We feel pretty fortunate that we had no issues that we've seen while here.

I'm including a few pictures taken in the repair bays at the Tiffin repair facility. Apparently they made some slides that were being adversely affected by moisture and Tiffin was replacing them with new floors with metal sheath to prevent water penetration.

As you can see it took 10 men to lift the slide up where they then put it on a lift to put it back in place.

Of course being at this repair center you can hear all kind of horror stories, however most still praise Tiffin and how they handle issues.








Sunday, November 27, 2011

Nov 27 Red Bay Al.

Well we have finally made it to Red Bay. There are few motor homes here waiting for service. We drove in drizzle today and fortunately we arrived before more rain and got set up.

We drove thru Smithville Ms. which was devastated by a E5 tornado in April 2011. We saw several new houses and thought it might be new growth until we saw block after block that had been leveled.

The town is in the midst of rebuilding.

More to come in a few days. We are creating our list of things we want to have done while here.

Yuck, to bad the weather has turned out to be pretty icky. It has been raining for 2 days now and has been in the 30's. The forecast is for snow showers and a possible accumulation of 1-2 inches over night. I think Wednesday the low is to be about 23 degrees BURRRRRRR.

I have more shorts and t-shirts than jeans and long sleeve shirts, poor planning on our part I guess.

We will be able to get caught up on TV, reading, sleep and other things that we haven't taken the time for yet.

Nov 26 Gulport-Columbus, Ms.

We drove from Gulfport Ms to Columbus, Ms. We had planned to stay in Meridian, Ms but passed the RV park and circled back and still wasn't able to locate the camp ground we had planned to stay at so we drove further than planned.

Columbus was very interesting town. It was the home of Mississippi State Woman's University. There were many blocks of historical homes dating back to as early as 1828. At some point there must have been some money there from maybe the river?? I have not had the time to research what the major commerce was in the towns beginnings.

On to our destination, Red Bay Al.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Nov 21 Leaving New Orleans and headed to Buccaneers State Park

Buccaneers State Park is in the edge of Mississippi , so not too far from where we are now.


We plan to stay a week to get thru the Thanksgiving holiday.


Once we have pictures and updates on the area(Gulport/Biloxi)  will add more to the blog.


What was left after Katrina. Waveland was what they called ground zero for where Katrina hit land. It appeared the entire community was wiped out and yes after all this time they are still rebuilding. The surge was over 30' and went inland 7 miles with some waves one 50'. The destruction must have been awful for those that lived here.

New house along beach blvd.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Nov 18 New Orleans

YEHA, we've made it to New Orleans.

We drove around and took in some sites yesterday and plan to go out sight seeing today and will have some pictures to share.

New Orleans is New Orleans as we recall it being, however you can see many areas appear to be actually cleaner than I last recall.

We drove through the 9th ward and located the 2 areas where the levees broke. There appears to be a great deal of new growth, although there are still a great number of structures that are still boarded up.

We also drove to to Fort Pike only to learn contrary to what was posted appeared to be closed still from damages sustained from Katrina.

The weather here has been great, 65 - 80 degrees in November, can't ask for anything better.




Friday, November 18, 2011

Nov 17 Baton Rouge

We made it to Baton Rouge.... OMG the traffic here is horrendous, people zipping this way and that.

Made it down town to tour the "old" capital and the "new" capital that Gov Huey Long had built. He wanted it to appear to be a sky scrapper. The building is about 30 floors with a observation deck on the 27 floor.

WOW you know you can feel so out of it when traveling to the casino and thinking you might play the quarter machines to learn they don't take quarters at all. Whats with that??

We leave here this morning headed to New Orleans. We will stay in New Orleans thru Sunday night.

Monday next week we will locate a park near Gulfport or Biloxi





Louisiana's Old State Capitol, a Gothic architectural treasure, stands high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. The 160-year-old statehouse has withstood war, fire, scandal, bitter debate, abandonment and an occasional fistfight. Today, the building stands as a testament to bold, inspired leadership and active citizenship.

In 1990, the Louisiana Legislature placed the former statehouse under the jurisdiction of the secretary of state and appropriated funds for a major restoration project. The building re-opened as the Center for Political and Governmental History in 1994. Now referred to as the Museum of Political History, the Old State Capitol has received awards for its architecture, exhibits and preservation.

"New Capital" of La. Gov Luey Long wanted more space and wanted a skyscraper. Today they allow you to visit the observation deck which is on the 27th floor.

Gov Long was assassinated in the "new capital"

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Nov 16 Lafayette, La

We left east Texas and made our way to Leesville, La, spent the night and now have moved to Lafayette, La.

We are staying at a place that called Poche fish camp. The sites are nice and are all level and are all concrete and are situated around a lake made for fishing.

We traveled into town and enjoyed some local sites.

Tomorrow we are going to proceed to Baton Rouge.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Nov 11, 20011 Henderson, TX

We have traveled to the East Texas area of Henderson/Longview.

We are staying with our friends Kenny and Joe. Our friends Norman and Josh from Dallas also came in for the weekend of fun.

Kenny and Joe were able to provide us with full hook ups right on their property. We all were able to hang out together and have fun together. Kenny and Joe have a new puppy, Dixie who is very cute and fun to play with. She is kept us all busy and laughing for the weekend.

We attended the Henderson Syrup Festival and learned how syrup was made from sugar cane. The festival also had an antique car show and had many antique tractors as well. We enjoyed the festival and were able to sample some local foods, yummy.

On Sunday we rode with Kenny and Joe to Marshall and Big Pine. They took us on a short cut out through the woods and back country area...we drove down a dirt road that had areas where the sides of the road were taller than the truck in which we rode. We all joked about what it would be like to be here alone at night. The road did end and we were back on the main road and we had lunch at Big Pine Lodge. We all ate catfish out on the patio overlooking the river and it was great.

The weekend has been great and photos will be loaded later.

We are one our way to Louisiana, and we will be stopping in Natchitoches, Lafayette, Baton Rouge on our way to New Orleans.




Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Oct 31 Grapevine Tx

Well we have managed to make it back to the DFW area. We've spent the last week taking care of business and visiting family and friends.

The Vineyards campground in Grapevine has proven to be a nice place to stay as well as being convenient location in the metroplex.

We've enjoyed the mild weather as well as some rain that is so badly needed.

After visiting doctors and etc we are about ready to start our journey.

We'll leave Friday heading to Longview to visit friends over the weekend before moving on eastward with our next destination being New Orleans. From there we'll stay along the gulf coast to stay as warm as long as we can.

Shorts and T-shirts are pretty nice norm!!





Saturday, October 1, 2011

Oct 1 Fort Parker RV Park - Grosebeck, Tx

Hey sorry for the delay, we had to return to Texas due to an unexpected health problem that Bill's brother-in-law as encountered. We spent a couple nights in Temple where Mike is in ICU. But his sister has a field of horses that needs daily care, so we moved to Grosebeck and are now feeding and haying horses, can you imagine that??

We are paid to be here the entire month of October so we are about 2.5 hours south of Dallas for anyone that might be bored!!

This weekend it appears they are having an air show at Old Fort Parker. We'll take pictures and send them to you.

Take care

Terry




Friday, September 23, 2011

Sept 22 Petit Jean State Park


We arrived here wednesday, weather was AWESOME! The park is pretty full with folks that are here for the Antique Auto Swap at the Pate Auto Museum.

Enjoyed Wed afternoon, Thursday was a rainy day and not to good to be outside although we ventured out to check the swap meet out and the auto museum.

We're leaving today to move on to Little Rock today. We will likely spend a afternoon at the Clinton Library and do some biking.

Little Rock is a fun place for a few days. An of course we are going to take in another Apple class to learn now about our Mac.