Our first night in Florida was spent in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Navarre, FL. We had to back track about 15 miles since the first one we went to in the middle of the night did not allow overnight parking. No big deal. We expected to spend a lot of time here in Florida and Navarre is as good of a place to start as any.
Today was a travel day. And not just any travel day. Today we are going to be in four different states. Louisiana –> Mississippi –> Alabama –> Florida.
According to the meteorologists we watched on New Orleans news last night, today has an 80% chance of thunderstorms. That might be a problem because it is our last day in New Orleans and we have things to do and places to see. Being the troopers that we are, we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out into the French Quarters one last time.
We knew rain was coming to the bayou and Dan and I embraced it. It seems like we have been on the go for far too many days. Spending our days traveling, sight-seeing and running errands. Spending our nights working and blogging. On top of tending to two kids. We needed the rain. We needed this break. Well, some of us more than others…
Before you get the feeling, let me just tell you that you are going to get a major case of the deja vous. That’s because today, we did the same thing as yesterday. The only difference is that we actually got to go inside and check out all of the places. Since we got a good lay of the land yesterday while riding around in the street cars, we knew that we could just drive into town instead of relying on public transportation. The 4 miles we walked yesterday really wore us out.
First stop, Lafayette Cemetery #1.
Today we hopped on the ferry and then hopped onto a Riverfront streetcar. Our streetcar driver told us to hop on and she would tell us where we needed to hop off in order to catch the St. Charles line. So we sat down and enjoyed the sites of the city. And man is this city proud of their Saints. Who dat? We dat!
When we drove out of the Los Angeles area 31 days ago, we were glad to see that the rest of the country had smooth and beautiful roads. No need to worry about those darn potholes, bumping our heads on the roof of the van or having the Airstream bounce right off of the hitch… until we got to New Orleans. Oh man, the roads are crap here! I think the entire state may have crappy roads. And the turning lanes and layout of the roads suck. And I am not even the driver! So when Dan said he wanted to drive into the center of town instead of hopping onto the ferry today, he got a little more than one raised eyebrow from me.
Today was the day. Today we got to check out the French Quarters in New Orleans. Of all the places we are visiting on this trip, the French Quarters rank amongst some of the highest in terms of must-sees.
We boondocked at a Walmart last night after pulling into town just after midnight. The first Walmart that we planned to stay at had a sign with a silhouette of an RV and a big red X over it. I took it as them not really welcoming us into their parking lot. I hate coming in to town at night only to see that. We had to hunt another one down in the middle of the night thanks to our GPS and Google Maps, we found one just a few miles away. Fortunately for us, it was RV friendly.
That’s more than I can say for this little fella we saw the next morning while checking into the Bayou Segnette State Park in Westwego, Louisiana.
Why is our GPS showing us driving in the ocean? Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?
Our last full day in Texas started with a visit to the Galveston Island Marina. Marlene use to work with this retired psychologist at her previous job on some of her projects and struck up a working relationship. He lives part time in Galveston and we were invited to come check out his trawler that is docked here.
The marina here is a lot different than the ones we are use to. These marinas have covered canopies and docks built out of solid concrete. In California, where we don’t have hurricanes, wooden, floating and anchored docks are the standard.
Our view at Galveston Island State Park is awesome. Our Airstream is sitting at the edge of the bay and because the spots are staggered, we don’t see any other campers around. Just this view! I guess we are finally getting our money’s worth out of these panoramic windows next to our dinette. Mila thinks so too.
