East Texas

We entered Texas on February 19th, headed to Lake Livingston State Park, and found a site overlooking the lake. We spent several days in the park, where we enjoyed walking the trails together, Barkley met a Boxer named Bo from Houston, and Bill had fun building campfires.

Played out after playing with Bo, who could not stop boxing long enough to have his picture taken:

Anhingas taking a break from diving:

These wildflowers looked like the pink Spring Beauties at home in Pennsylvania, except that they were yellow:

There are some interesting buildings in the town of Livingston, one of which was called McCardell Cottage. Beverly Miller spent five years renovating the cottage and now happily hosts overnight guests there. When Beverly noticed Karen taking pictures, she invited her in. Beverly was super friendly and generous with her time. Had we not been hauling our home behind us, we would have been happy to stay there.

Livingston's Fain movie theater:



The court house:

We left Lake Livingston on February 22nd and headed to an RV park called Paradise Lake Resort, outside Nacogdoches. The horribly pot-holed lane leading to the park caused us to recall the back roads of southern Louisiana with fondness and longing.

After setting up camp, we headed to the historic town of San Augustine, where restoration and renovation seemed to be taking place everywhere to varying degrees. A restored caboose greets visitors to the town, and the buidings on the main street were wonderful.

Neither of us had ever seen a sundial on a building before, and this one was huge!

Imaginative use of a ravine at the side of a home in San Augustine:

More great old buildings, this time in the town of Nacogdoches:

The following day found us hunkered down inside, while it rained, sleeted and snowed all day long! Luckily, the park had a great Wi-Fi service, and we were able to use part of our snow day to catch up a little online. We also enjoyed reading Jay Leno's Leading With My Chin out loud and cracking up like loons while we did it.

As we were about to leave Nacogdoches on Wednesday the 24th, Barkley met a friend.

Back on the road, we headed to Kilgore to visit the East Texas Oil Museum. It was fantastic, but we're still at a lack to explain how the oil is brought to the surface.


Just a few miles down the road from Kilgore, we checked in at the
Antique Capital RV Park in Gladewater. The park is new and well
designed, with all pull-through spots, concrete pads for the RVs and
picnic tables, a fenced dog yard, a pond, and wonderful laundry
facilities. We were serenaded often by passing trains.

Gladewater is nicknamed the Antique Capital of East Texas, and we found lots of great shops there. Karen was especially happy to have met Katherine Bowen, the owner of the Pacific East Antique Mall and a fellow vintage jewelry collector. Katherine has gorgeous jewelry for sale in her shop and is expecting much more within the next month or so.



This historic home in Gladewater sold for $200,000 at auction last year! We're told it's in great shape after getting a $10,000 paint job.

Around the Gulf to Louisiana

We left Nokomis on Monday, February 15th with mixed emotions. We were sad to say goodbye to family, yet were excited to get this adventure off to a proper start. Bill admitted to being a little anxious since we had no more safety nets. Just us and the great beyond from here on. Our original plan was to drive to Texas in two days, skipping the southeast for the most part since it has either already been explored or could easily be at a later time. We wanted to get west! That plan was quickly aborted because we don't want to spend grueling days driving when this trip is supposed to be about relaxation and adventure. We'll drive slowly and stop as often as we like.

Day one of travel led us to Suwannee River State Park in northern Florida, which took us about six hours of driving time. Florida was getting some worth out of their convicts because we saw several crews doing various jobs on the side of the highway. Karen was upset that she missed getting a picture of the "Historic Suwannee River" sign on I-10 because it has the opening musical notes of "Old Folks at Home" on it. She thought it was unique and it also spoke to the musician in her. With a little help from our Blackberry we discovered that the composer, Stephen Foster, shortened "Suwannee" to "Swanee" in order to better fit the melody of the song. Karen asserts that 99.9% of yankees have no idea there is a "U" in Suwannee because of the song.

The campground was rather full but quiet and well maintained. There were some nice nature trails that we took advantage of, but couldn't fully explore because of high water levels in the area. The Suwannee was running very high and fast which flooded out nearby low areas and consequently the nature trails. We still had a good walk, which didn't include the dog because he is still rehabbing his leg. This was only a stopover and the weather was still chilly (50's) so we only set up a minimal camp site again.




One of several submerged walkways:



We got a reasonably early start the next morning enroute to Blackwater River State Park just east of Pensacola, FL which took about four hours of driving time. The park was amazing in how orderly and manicured it was. The camp sites were gravel which was retained by a wood border. The gravel was raked and leveled like it was a Japanese garden. As usual, the staff was friendly and helpful. Similar to the Suwannee, the river was running high and had inundated a number of the nature trails. Much of the park was flooded, which might be a common occurrence because there was a network of boardwalks supporting the picnic shelters. This was another one-nighter since we're focused on getting west and it's still cold.







Another quick pack and load job got us on the road again, heading west. Almost as soon as we left the park, we saw Historical Florida State Road 1, an old brick paved road that was built in 1921 and paralleled today's US-90. It was neat to see, but we couldn't get a decent picture of it speeding by in the truck. We did manage to get the following pictures along I-10.

Mobile, AL taken from the truck:



Karen was a little more impressed with the Mighty Mississip than when she first saw it in Memphis a few years ago (where it was narrower than the Susquehanna back home in Harrisburg PA). This is from the truck in Baton Rouge:






We arrived at Frenchmen's Wilderness RV park near Henderson, Louisiana in the Atchafalaya Basin, about six hours after we left Florida's Blackwater State Park. (You might see the trend that we're trying to keep driving days to below six hours.) This was our first use of a private campground, and we were very pleased about the friendliness of the staff and the condition of the park. This campground is literally in the middle of a swamp and mosquitoes have to be murder in warmer weather. We decided to stay in the area for an extra day so we could explore the bayous and Bill could eat some Cajun food. It was still cold and locals were telling us that it snowed there this year and last, and never had snowed before in their memory.

We got on the road the next morning to explore. Bill wanted to get back into the bayous and off the beaten path, and Karen had a couple river plantations that she wanted to visit. The first thing we discovered is how indescribably horrible the back roads of southern Louisiana are. It was a continual bumping and jostling that had us worried that we could lose a kidney at any moment. So we revised our plan to get off the back back roads and switch to the back roads - no improvement. So we got on US90 with a glimmer of hope that this would be better. It was, but only by a fraction. Our route took us south toward Morgan City then back up north toward Baton Rouge. Bill got to see New Iberia which is the setting of a series of books he has read and Karen got to see Oak Alley Plantation which was beautiful. At Oak Alley, we toured the mansion and grounds and were happily surprised to find gorgeous camellias in bloom. Karen found it interesting that the dining table and chairs were rather short because the average height of a male in the mid 1800's was 5'4" and for women it was just under 5'.

We got to see a bald eagle after lunch and there were also many great blue herons out fishing. We were ready to end the day because we ended up going much farther than we thought we would and the roads were really taking their toll on us. There were levees everywhere and we have no doubt that the entire southern end of the state would be under water if not for these.

Various shots in St. Martinville, Evangeline, and New Iberia in southern Louisiana. We should have gotten a video of us bouncing down the road!






Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana:







A casino at every truck stop and convenience store:

Florida....Where it's Warm. Right?

The next leg of the trip was to visit family in Nokomis, Florida. We left Skidaway Island and traveled the 446 miles in about nine hours. The weather front that brought the rain to Savannah also brought high winds in Florida. I soon learned how to pilot the rig in strong cross and head winds. Karen is beginning to master our new Blackberry Storm and researches various things that we encounter along the way. For instance, what is a "Silver Alert" in the state of Florida? You'll have to look it up like Karen did.

Upon arrival, Bill parked the rig in his Mom's (Sue’s) driveway for the duration of our stay in Nokomis. It was not unlike the movie Vacation. Bill's brother, Vince, had pruned a couple ficus trees which allowed us easy entry. The next week or so consisted mainly of visiting family - Maw, Vince, and Bill's grandmother, Carmen. Celebrating Maw's birthday on the 11th was a highlight since we were all together as a family.





We were also able to hit some more antique shops in Englewood, Arcadia, and Sarasota. The shops aren't as good as at home or what we saw in North Carolina, but it's still fun to do. We especially enjoyed the Arcadia shops, where an old theater has found new life as a combination antique co-op and show business museum. Stage costumes, props, playbills, movie posters, and a movie projector taken from a now-closed theater in New York are some of the items on display. We were in the Arcadia area because we did a short five mile paddle on the Peace River courtesy of a shuttle by the Canoe Outpost. We saw a small gator (Karen thought it was huge), a couple turtles, and birds everywhere. We were hoping to see a Kingfisher, but we missed out on that.





Our initial plan was to head south for the warm weather, then move west. That plan is a failure because of the unseasonably cold weather in the south. During our time in Florida there were two days where the temperature reached at least 60 degrees. It has mostly been in the 50's and low temps in the lower 40's. We hope to hit warmer weather as we move west.

Barkley hurt his leg and was nursed by Dr. Kate Brown of the Brandt veterinary clinic. A claw was clipped off and he has a club foot for a few days. He's still gimpy but will hopefully continue to improve. I have to haul him up and down stairs and neither of us likes it.

Through the Southeast

We bailed out on the cold Pennsylvania weather on February 1st and drove south to Rutherfordton, NC to visit Bill's old friend Scott and his wife Suzanne. The drive went smoothly and it only took about an hour for my nerves to settle and to stop worrying about the trailer. The truck is a beast and tows our 7,000 pound trailer with ease.

We were also seeking warmer weather and North Carolina had none to offer. There was still snow on the ground from a previous storm, and the snow melted off somewhat but it was still quite cold. We had a good visit with Scott and Suzanne and did some antique shopping in Hendersonville and Tryon. Karen is always on the hunt for old costume jewelry, and Bill likes looking at the old furniture. We ate at a fantastic little place called the Red Fox in Landrum, South Carolina . If you find yourself in the area we highly recommend it. We haven't gotten into the habit of taking the camera everywhere, so here's a picture of our group:



We then moved on to Savannah, Georgia for a couple days. Karen has always wanted to go, and this seemed like a good time. We stayed at Skidaway Island State Park, which was a great place to camp. The weather didn't cooperate while we were there with high winds and the constant threat of rain so we didn't set up a full camp. The park was close enough for us to easily get to Savannah. We spent a day there taking a bus tour and really enjoyed the architecture, squares and history of the area. A quick stop at the Moon River brewery for lunch based upon a head's up from my beer loving pal Geoff, and we were then off to Tybee Island to see the beach. There was quite a surf with the high winds in the area. The weather kept us from taking pictures in Savannah, but here's one of our simple camp spot:



And a couple from the nature trail that meanders through the salt marsh: