SWEET HOME ALABAMA TO SLIDELL, LOUISIANA!

Hampton Inn, Slidell, Louisiana

Friday, January 30, 2015

57 F, Sunny

We left Travelers Rest Resort this morning at 8 a.m. for the long ride to Louisiana. The roads were clear and the weather sunny.  As TK drove, I watched the southern countryside slide by. Usually I read because we have been the routes so many times, but this time I only did five USA Today crosswords and spent most of the time on watch!

From left to right: TK's Avalanche, the cabana, and Mary Lou and Scorchy's 37 ft. RV

Travelers Rest Resort, Dade City, Florida

While still in Florida’s panhandle, we got the bright idea of leaving I-10 and taking “the back roads are better” Scorchy’s advice. We drove along the gulf for the next many miles until at least an hour later we got the bright idea of using Trip Advisor to find the #1 restaurant in Fort Walton Beach, Florida:  Stewby’s Seafood Shanty.  Then, the heavy traffic appeared.  Finally, another hour later, we came upon Stewby’s, which turned out to be the size of a small McDonald’s with a drive through. Really?  We drove right on by, turned around, and rejoined the heavy traffic. Still on the gulf we entered Alabama where we saw glistening white sand and rich red soil. The white sand looked like snow! We finally found a route back to I-10 as fast as we could.

Entering Alabama!

Beautiful white sand near the Gulf of Mexico

We stopped in Mobile for dinner at Cracker Barrel and proceeded through Mississippi in the dark. What would have been a 10 hour drive (with dinner) turned into a 12 hour drive (with dinner). Lesson learned.

Things we saw along the way: the USS Alabama, a U.S. Navy Destroyer docked in Mobile Bay, sun dogs [(scientific name parhelia) are an atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a pair of bright spots on either side on the Sun, often co-occurring with a luminous ring known as a halo according to Wikipedia], a tunnel under Mobile Bay, lots of roadwork, bayous, only a few palm trees, lots of casinos in Mississippi, at least 4 major outlet malls, gas for $1.75/gallon, and sun!

TK’s Takes: In Florida near the state line we stopped at a Busy Bee. He really liked this gas station with a Dunkin Donuts, Burger King, the largest bathroom stalls we have ever seen (and clean), and grocery store. After that we saw that Tom Thumb gas stations were much more prevalent and very small.

JK’s Take: We were sad to learn that our friends from England will not be joining us on the cruise due to an unexpected medical situation.  Our Wisconsin friend Donna sent us an emailed photo of her husband Lawrence relaxing before the cruise. They are flying out of Chicago tomorrow. We are anxious to see them and our California friends Brian and Nancy who sent us a note that they are flying out of Los Angeles tomorrow morning. We have reservations together at Oceana tomorrow at 7 p.m.!!!!!