We have fabulous timing. Not only are we in Florida during the most popular time of the year (Spring Break!), but we are also in the most popular Spring Break destination in the state. Lucky us. Because the park was booked for the weekend, we had to pack up after only one night at St. Andrews State Park.
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.
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 left Pioneer RV Resort this morning in record time knowing we had a long drive ahead of us. Before you think we are some kind of early birds, let me tell you that the record time was a sharp 10:15AM. That is good for us.
Instead of taking the nearby free ferry at Port Aransas, we decided to drive the long way around since taking the Airstreams on an unknown ferry boat was kind of a risky proposition. That means we got to drive through Corpus Christi one more time. The birth place of a Texas Treasure. Whataburger.
We woke up bright and early today to catch the trolley to downtown Port Aransas. 10 am counts as bright and early, right? And if anyone was still sleeping by the time the girls were ready to roll, they were not sleeping for long. These two love running and screaming.
We got into Corpus Christi, TX pretty late the night before and found a Walmart to boondock at for the night. It was our first night of boondocking since replacing the house batteries in Tucson. I wanted to make sure it was working properly and it would handle our power load when we are not plugged in. The last time we boondocked in Tempe, Arizona, we woke up in the morning with not enough electricity to even run the fridge on propane mode. Our new batteries on the other hand performed like rock stars all night. They provide enough juice to let us even run our TV in the morning for Ava to watch PBS kids before we left for Padre Island with power to spare.
Our 2 days in Austin came and went in a blink of an eye. As much as we wished to stay longer, we’ve got a schedule to keep and people to meet. It is time to hit the road. Thanks for your hospitality Austin, we will be back again soon.
