TWG :: vol 33 :: Harbor Lakes RV

Harbor Lakes RV :: Port Charlotte, FL :: KS -> FL Trip

We only had a 3.5 hour drive to our destination, and were going to be parked for a few days, which was a fantastic change!  We pulled in and parked by 1pm, shoved some food in the kids and threw swim suits on, and the kids were in the pool, swimming laps with grandpa as fast as they could!  

I picked a campsite directly across from the pool on purpose and it made things so much more convenient!  We are staying in what looks to be a pretty big Snow Birds resort, so since it's summer, the place is practically empty!  It has a great pool, tennis courts, pickleball courts, lots of empty roads for the kids to ride their bikes around, a bazillion bunnies, and alligators.  Royal saw a handful of baby alligators in the canal that runs through the park, and we all saw a single on at a different time, but I was never able to get a picture of one!  So, you'll just have to believe me.  :)

The boys loaded up on some food before they left to go Tarpon fishing in the afternoon.

Willow and I were planning on making cookies and swimming in the pool all afternoon and evening while the boys were gone, but then this happened.

Willow declared that now that it was raining, we were just going to have to be lazy bugs, and that meant watching a lot of movies because that's what lazy bugs do.  I couldn't really argue, being a lazy bug sounded nice.  :)  But then the rain stopped, and we took Sam for a walk, and he hunted bunnies.  :)

And then Willow went swimming and then had to warm up in the hot tub.

Willow fed the campground bunnies my marigold....twice...not sure it's going to make it now...

Jayden got the one and only tarpon, out of the two different times they went out fishing.  Wayne's been down here 3 different times, with the same fishing captain, and has never had so few fish caught, so this trip was a little disappointing, but at least Jayden got to experience the fight of a tarpon.  It took him 25 minutes to reel it in!

We were happy the boys made it back from fishing!

We also went to the beach in Boca Grande and played in the Gulf of Mexico!

We hit the road again tomorrow and start our long trek to Washington!

TWG :: vol 32 :: Travelers Campground

Travelers Campground :: Alachua, FL :: KS -> FL Trip

We made it to Florida!!!  After the last couple days of what felt like really hard driving, today was pretty darn easy.  The roads were free of construction and for the most part were wide open!

We left New Orleans this morning around 8, without really a destination in mind.  We figured we'd want to at least get to Tallahassee, as that would be the half way point for our final destination, but we'd see how the day went and decide later on down the road. 

We crossed so many long bridges today, it was a really fun drive!  The first being Lake Pontchartrain, right out of New Orleans.

and then Mobile Bay in Alabama, and then also Ecambia Bay and Blackwater Bay in Florida.

We also went through a whole bunch of states, which is also fun!  Makes the trip go by fast!

After Louisiana we crossed into Mississippi!

I really like the scenery of the south!  Turns out, I like the swamps, and the tree lined muddy rivers.  I don't want to live here because the mosquitos like me a little too much, but I like looking at it out my window.  :)

And then we crossed into Alabama!  Which for some reason does not like to welcome it's visitors with a "Welcome to Alabama!" sign, but we did drive right by the U.S.S. Alabama, which was super cool!

And found a little piece of my hometown, soon to be our place of residence.  :)

And then, finally, Florida!

Oy Vey, Florida feels big!  After crossing over Mississippi and Alabama so quickly, it took forever to get inland far enough so that we could head south.

We switched drivers at our last fuel stop, and because the kids had killed Royal's phone battery while he was driving, Royal couldn't check his work email and with nothing to do, Fireball and I caught him napping.  :)

We only had about 5.5 hours to drive today, and around the 6 hour mark, everyone was doing really well, so we decided to push it a little further today to make tomorrow even easier.  That was a big, fat mistake.  After we found a campground and made a reservation, the kids about lost it in the back seat with an hour to go.  I even resulted to making everyone in the truck play "Red Truck", which is a game my dad always suggested us playing.   Fireball and I were really getting into it, and Willow decided she was just going to keep score, which was fun when we found red trucks faster than she could write our numbers down.  Jayden decided it was a stupid game (which it pretty much is, you yell out "Red Truck" when you see a red truck driving down the road) and he proceeded to try and irritate Royal as much as possible.  Not. Pleasant.  But we made it, and as soon as the truck was parked, I had the kids in the trailer changing into swim suits.  This would be the reason I always insist on campgrounds with pools!  Time to cool off and move our bodies!

I really like this campground.  I don't know if I'd like it so much if it was full, but with just the handful of rigs that are parked in here, it's quite nice.  Lots of trees, and places to walk, and a great pool!  This camp also has a big aviary outside with birds in it.  Maybe haivng birds at RV parks is a southern thing!

I am so excited to reach our campground tomorrow in what should take us 3.5 hours!  We could be there by lunch! And park the truck and trailer for a few days.  Willow and I will be getting some much needed pool and beach time, while the boys get to go out fishing!

TWG :: vol 31 :: New Orleans West KOA

New Orleans West KOA :: New Orleans, LA :: KS -> FL Trip

Today was the most frustrating driving day we have had in a long time!  Now I know why I really don't care if our GPS leads us astray and we miss major interstates and take the backroads all over the place.  I'm almost sure I'd rather be having anxiety about running out of gas before we find the nearest gas station, than running into random traffic jams!

We knew we were going to hit traffic leaving Houston this morning.  We thought about getting up really early and leaving around 6:30am, but everyone stayed up really late last night and I thought sleep might benefit us better.  We only had a 5.5 hour drive to New Orleans today, so if we got delayed a little that was going to be ok....only we got delayed a lot!!!!

We got out of our luxurious RV park around 8, hit Houston traffic, but really it only slowed us down about 20 minutes.  We thought we were good to go and just a short time later, we crossed into Louisiana!

And then we got slowed down by this torrential down pour...

And then again we were crawling along because of a broken down truck on the side of the road....but Louisiana, I am impressed,  I think it is really pretty!  I love all the green trees and swamps!  

And then we hit Baton Route at 2:00.  2:00 people and we were in stop and go traffic for an hour!  To go 6.7 miles!  We got cut off twice by two different cars that I thought for sure were going to take off our front bumper, but thankfully Royal slammed on the brakes as hard as he did the horn.  Ha!  It turned a 5.5 - 6 hour road trip into an 8 hour road trip.  The kids were cranky, the dog wouldn't lay down and was making horrific smells, it was just frustrating.  What was suppose to be a pretty easy day of driving, just wasn't.  But nothing blew up or went flat or stopped working and we made it safe and sound, so I am going to be thankful for that!

We crossed over the Mississippi River!  And watched a tug boat push a couple barges down the river.  We could watch it because we were moving at a snail's pace. :)

But finally we made it to our campground!.  I made some dinner, the kids rode their bikes, and then as we were about to walk out the door to go check out the French Quarter, we got hit with another torrential downpour.  We said screw it, handed out long sleeve shirts and went for it anyway!  I was getting my beignets, gosh darn it!  Luckily it stopped raining when we got there!  :)

I loved all the gas lanterns that hung over the walkways.

The kids hated the French Quarter.  Everyone was smoking and drinking, so it pretty much smelled like a bar.  Jayden kept saying it smelled so bad that his throat was closing up.  Willow declared she had blisters on her feet and could no longer walk and that only thing that would fix it was frozen yogurt.  Jayden kept saying he was seeing and hearing inappropriate things and that obviously kids didn't belong here, and he was never living in a big city because it was too noisy, and he didn't care what beignets were, he wasn't going to try them because he already knew he hated them, and we just needed to leave right now, and that he absolutely hated jazz music.  I did not give in.  I did not negotiate with my little terrorists.  I had never been to New Orleans and I only got 2 hours this time.  So, we walked around, I held my breath around people who were smoking, I held my kid's hands and drug them up and down the streets and kept pointing out things I thought were great, even though they kept telling me they were lame.  I bought myself some Slap Yo Mama seasoning and a magnet to go in our trailer.  And finally.  After we had found frozen yogurt to cure Willow's blisters, we stopped by Cafe Du Monde - supposedly the best place to get beignets in the French Quarter.  And by golly, they were delicious!  And the kids did like them!  And it made it all totally worth it!

 

On to Florida tomorrow!!!