Johnston

Having stayed put for two days, we are all caught up and ready to move out. An occasional break is good, but this isn't a trip where we like to sit around in RV parks - we could do that at home, so we were both itching to get out and start enjoying sightseeing again!

My propane tank was almost empty, so I stopped to fill it on the way back to the freeway. Ugh, the canoe leaks (well, Lewis & Clark didn't have propane tanks so I tried to think of an analogy - they certainly had equipment problems). The new valve they installed in Virginia is stuck and won't allow any propane in (It probably wasn't in good shape when they installed it or may not have been the right valve for this tank). We tried an RV service place about 40 miles down the road. After spending a couple of hours running in circles, we finally determined that the part needed to repair the tank isn't in stock anywhere in that area. I am not willing to sit tight for two or three weeks waiting for a part to come in, so we finally drove on to Baton Rouge. (OK, I'd stop if this was a safety issue, but it's just an inconvenience, we can work around it.)

Any thoughts we had about slipping down to New Orleans first before starting west again were eliminated by this delay. Both of us have been to New Orleans before, albeit pre Katrina. Since we have a limited amount of time for this trip, I felt I'd rather see some other parts of Louisana, specifically Avery Island - home of Tabasco Sauce. For Mom, she wanted to see a doll museum in Baton Rouge and really didn't want to see any more hurricane damage anyway.

So, with one almost empty propane tank - we drove on to Baton Rouge. We found the museum, with a little help from a phone call, but I decided not to go through it so I could work on the Propane problem. Mom did go through the museum and really enjoyed it - and has even written it up for the Blog! So you'll get two entries for today.

In the meantime, I fired up the laptop and - ugh - bad internet connection, yet again. This time, I finally bit the bullet and called Sprint. They confirmed that they are having network problems down here and there wasn't anything wrong with my data card or laptop. However, while the service rep didn't quite resolve the problem - she did get me to a screen where I was able to force the data card to use the slow dial up connection. While this is slower, it works. The faster connection doesn't. So for the time being, I'll use the slow dial up speed. The service rep also assured me that the problem shouldn't persist once I get past Louisaina.

Mom got back from the museum as I was finishing up with my Sprint call, so I'll work on the propane issue again tomorrow - try to call ahead and set up an appointment somewhere farther out, so the parts & service can all come together at the same time. In the meantime, we'll stay in RV parks where we won't need propane for heat or cooking and eat out a little more often. Not my ideal choice, but we should be fine.

There were more things in Baton Rouge we had thought of visiting, but it was getting late and we needed to get going if we wanted to spend Thursday at Avery Island. So we went directly back to I-10 and had just started west again when I saw something I just had to pull off for - a Great White Pelican, just swimming around in a pond in a city park just off the freeway. Not knowing whether it was worth the delay or not, I got to the pond and started taking pictures. Mom was looking through the binoculars and noticed that there were more on the other side of the pond (the one I saw was in the middle and quite far away). We couldn't see whether there was a road or not, but decided to give it a try anyway. There was a road, we got to the other side of the pond just fine and the flock of six Pelicans just kept going about their business. They swam in a group, then all of a sudden, would all pop their heads into the water for a minute to feed, then come back up.

This was really a treat. Great White Pelicans are not that common in the US. We had seen one in NJ. Then we saw more at Flamingo Bay in the Everglades - but they were too far out to get any pictures. So here we saw seven (one in the middle plus the group), and got to enjoy them for quite a while.

There were several other types of waterfowl around this pond. Here are shots of a Snowy Egret and Great Egret I also took today at the same pond.

The Snowy Egret is smaller and has a black bill, black legs, and orange feet. The Great Egret has a yellow bill and black legs. For comparison sake, the Great White Heron looks almost like a Great Egret - but has yellow legs and is a Heron, not an Egret (although they are related). This is all from someone who was never much of a birder! I seem to recall back in ND we saw (egrets?) and I had to just call them white birds. I may never be much of a birder, but I have learned a lot.

Amazingly, it was really easy to get back to the freeway and turned out to be not much of a delay at all. Well worth it IMHO. So we headed east to Lafayette, then turned south. We stopped at a nice little RV campground just north of New Iberia, and will have a very easy drive to the Island in the morning. We are really in the heart of Cajun country now - I hope to see a bit more of it after we finish at Avery Island tomorrow - if we don't get side tracked there too long.

BTW - RV repairs along this trip haven't been too bad. In case you're wondering about earlier troubles we've had: Door repairs seem to be holding this time, I added 4 or 5 screws in addition to much glue and bigger matchsticks. Closet shelf repairs (duck tape) have also done the job - no more collapsed shelves. I might be more suited for the Lewis & Clark Expedition then you thought! Oops, I forgot I did hit the roof of the RV on a board while trying to get out of the lumber yard where we tried to get propane this morning. I don't think I did any serious damage, but forgot to get the ladder out to check tonight. Maybe I'm not quite ready for the Corps of Discovery afterall, but will keep working at it...

Logistics:

Miles Driven -150, cumulative for trip - 13,894
Camped at LaBoulaie, Broussard, LA

Shopping Stops (e.g. 2008 version of hunting trips?): Walmart & Dollar Tree (Mom's word puzzles)
Ate at Taco Bell (first time this trip).
Gas - $31.08 for 10.72 g at 123715 in Baton Rouge, LA

Animals spotted:
(a) Domestic: Cattle, horses
(b) Wild: two different kinds of hawks, weren't able to identify specific type, white pelicans, snowy egrets, great egrets, mallards, coots, comorants

You know the routine, bills are due, blog is behind, chores need to be done...

I belong to a couple of RV campground memberships and one of them had a nice campground north of New Orleans on the opposite side of Lake Ponttchartrain, so I made reservations and decided to stay here a couple of days. Originally, I thought we might take one of those days and visit New Orleans. However, we learned the parking there is really bad for RV's, I had more chores to do then I'd thought, and Mom really didn't want to see any more Katrina damage, she got pretty depressed by Bay St. Louis. All in all, we didn't leave the campground.

There were a few interesting things here - they have some Muscovy ducks, I think these are 'mules', or sterile hybreds between Muscovy & Mallards. These aren't that uncommon, however, they look really, really wierd. Mom tooks some bread out to them just for fun.

During the day, Mom spent some time in the clubhouse and got to meet other people who were out RV'ing. She really enjoyed swapping stories and meeting new people, but doesn't find these transitory friendships as fulfilling as the long term friendships she has back home.

When we got to the campground, each site had a fire pit. Someone had left some old wood in ours and Mom just couldn't resist lighting a campfire. We had some hot dogs with us, so she brought out the old camper in her and got to it. (Unfortunately, someone forgot to take the sun hood off before using the flash - obviously the ugly shadow isn't Mom's doing.) BTW - the hot dogs were quite good.

After getting the basic chores done and blog caught up, I decided to try playing around a bit more with the video editing software. I am slowly learning a few more techniques, but am still not very good (of course I could take the tutorial, but no, that might make too much sense). At any rate I found that it takes me about an hour to edit a five minute video. Ugh. Maybe that's why I upload most of the video's unedited? Well, will keep playing around with this - time permitting.

Need to thank you all for your comments & support. We both enjoy hearing from you.

First, a word on the weather. It really was much nicer today then yesterday - but before you throw in your beach towel and head to the Gulf Coast, take a look at the water hose across from our camp site this morning. Not quite Michigan (or anywhere in the north central US), but...

Yesterday, as we turned off the freeway to head to the Davis Bayou campground, we saw a couple of boarded up buildings. That's not totally abnormal for old business districts, so we weren't sure if they were just old, abandoned buildings or hurricane damage. After today, I'm pretty sure it was the latter.

Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast on August 29, 2005, about two and a half years ago. Shortly after we pulled back onto Hwy 90, we crossed a bridge into Biloxi itself where the Highway started to run along the waterfront. There were a few spanking new casino's such as this:

The small Biloxi Lightouse also seems to have survived.

Across the road however, where the whole coast used to be lined with luxury waterfront mansions or restaurant's and hotels - were empty lots. Occasionally we would see a new home or construction activity, but mostly just empty lots. If we looked closely, we could see remains of driveways and sometimes concrete slabs where homes used to be. Most of the badly damaged buildings have been removed, but we also saw a few that haven't, maybe because they're considered 'rebuildable'.

I didn't notice at first, but we also didn't pass any gas stations for many miles. A few small chain restaurants were open, most looked like they'd only recently been opened for business. There were also quite a few 'For Sale' signs and 'Coming Soon' signs, so some redevelopment is starting to occur. However, it's depressing the extent of the damage still visible over two years after the hurricane struck.

We went over a very new bridge into Bay St. Louis, where Hwy 90 again turns away from the coast a bit. I decided to drive through the town since the Ranger at Davis Bayou had told us that Hwy 90 had been cleaned up and to really see the results of Katrina, you had to get off the main road.

Bay St. Louis turns out to be where the eye of the hurricane came ashore. The new bridge has only recently been completed, so the city was largely cut off from the main gulf coast traffic for two years. Many volunteers have come from around the globe to help the town rebuild, but it's a long way from being fully recovered. Before the storm, there were 3,600 people in the core old town area, a quaint city of arts and crafts shops. At least 25% of those have not returned. In spite of all the help they've received, these are just a few of the common scenes we saw as we drove through.

Mom & I had lunch at a cute little restaurant (Mom thinks it was called 'The Buttercup'. I of course forgot to take a picture of it). The food was good and the prices quite reasonable. The waitress, Dawn, also endulged us a few questions. She was fortunate in that her house was damaged, but salvagable. She has received FEMA grants and an SBA loan to help rebuild her framing shop - but of course there aren't as many customers as there used to be. She said she recently took a trip to the Hard Rock Cafe' in Biloxi and was so depressed seeing all the damage, that she doesn't think she can drive that road again. And that's coming from someone who knew what it looked like before.

I'd never heard of Bay St. Louis before, but it will be hard to forget this little town and the damage it suffered.

Somewhat depressed, Mom and I headed back up to I-10 to complete our voyage for today. I had made reservations at a really nice membership campground north of Lake Pontchartrain to get some rest and some things caught up, so for a change we actually knew where we were heading tonight. Just before we crossed into Louisiana, we stopped at a Visitor's Center that also listed a NASA Stennis Space Center - which sounded interesting. It turns out they are closed on Sunday, but it's where they test rocket engines. But they did put one of the Lunar Landers up on stilts at the Visitors Center. I thought it was just a sculpture, but then read the sign that explains it is actually the unit the Apollo astronauts trained on.

We were still a little too early to check into the campground, so drove down to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The hurricane damage in this area didn't seem as bad as what we'd seen in Mississippi, but that's not true further south in New Orleans of course. At least from the lakeshore we could see that the causeway was open, we could see cars driving on it.

So with that little side trip, we headed up to the campground. I paid a couple dollars extra to use their wifi, then found out my data card worked just fine here. Without talking to Sprint, I'm guessing that along the Gulf Coast, they haven't repaired all the damage to their cell phone infrastructure so I was just getting limited internet service as a result. I don't know, but think I'll blame it on Katrina for now.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 106
Camped at Abita Springs - Resorts of Distinction Campground

Today was Saturday, so I thought I'd try to find a Seventh Day Adventist Church for Mom to attend. While she went to church, I thought I'd work on getting the blog caught up from a couple of days of bad or non-existent internet service. This was not to be. I was able to get far enough into the internet yellow pages to see there was one listing for an SDA church in town, but couldn't get any farther to get the address or phone number. I suggested we could try the phone (Directory Assistence) or a paper phone book (they probably had one in the Wal-mart we stayed in last night) - but Mom said she wasn't feeling well and would prefer to just drive today.

The weather was quite stormy; cold, windy and rainy. The rain let up a little by late afternoon, but it remained windy and cold and not much fun for sightseeing (unless you're into storm watching, which Mom is not).

We just started out when I saw a brown sign for the Gulf Coast National Seashore Visitors Center. In spite of the weather I turned off and decided to check it out. Inside, they had a fairly good narrated slide show about the Gulf Coast seashore. They also had a full scale replica of a small section of the USS Constitution.

What the heck is this doing on the Gulf Coast of Florida??? Well, it's about the wood. Southern Live Oak is the most dense wood grown in North America. It weighs 75 pounds per cubic foot (vs 56 for White Oak and 44 for Yellow Pine). I know, they have cubic foot samples of the wood you can try lifting!

The early American Navy used the best wood they could find for their ships. The USS Constitution proved the value of this effort when British cannonballs bounced off her oak planking - earning the nickname "Old Ironsides". President John Adams was concerned about making sure these would be an adequate supply of Southern Live Oak timber for the Navy and directed the Navy to do something about it. In 1928, the first tree farm in America was set up here for the single purpose of providing Live Oak for naval shipbuilding. Technology has a way of making even the best of plans obsolete however, and by the time the trees were mature enough to harvest - navy ships were made out of steel. However the live oak trees from Navarro were used to restore the USS Constitution in 1929. The tree farm also makes a dandy nature preserve for the Gulf Coast National Seashore.

There are pine and other tree's here as well, and I thought the stormy weather might still make an interesting picture - a different sort of beach shot.

Mom got so cold and wet in the short, 30 foot walk from the RV to the visitors center and back, that an hour later she was still cold - even though I ran the heater at full blast. So when we got the the Pensacola Visitors Center, she didn't feel like doing much of anything. I braved the rain enough to go inside and found out the Visitors Center is just across from Emmanual Point.

In 1992 they found a shipwreck just off this point. The ship was from a 1559 fleet led by Tristan de Luna to try to establish a settlement in Florida. The settlement was unsuccessful, but is still part of the history down here. The wreck is only about 40% explored so far, but has already yeilded over 3,000 artifacts. Recently a second wreck has also been found in this area, also very old, but the salvage is not very far along so I don't think it's been dated yet.

The Visitors Center recommened we visit the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. It is the largest Naval Avaition Museum in the world and listed as one of the top three attractions in Florida, believe it or not. I should have gone but was letting the weather get me down also and was a little concerned about Mom, so decided to keep driving. Mom would have been fine in the RV, but wasn't feeling very well and I just didn't feel right about leaving her alone for the that much time. I'll probably be kicking myself for several days about not doing any more sightseeing in Pensacola however. In the unlikely event I ever make it back to this area, I'll be sure to visit this as well as a few of the forts around here.

Unfortunately the bad weather and moods continued as we drove through southern Alabama. Other then the Visitors Center and a gas station, I didn't even stop - not even in Mobile Bay. I am a little embarrassed to confess all this, however it is also true that we had spent over three weeks in Florida and really, really needed to get moving.

We stayed on I-10 into Mississippi and pulled off just east of Biloxi. This is the location of another site set aside as part of the Gulf Coast National Seashore called Davis Bayou. The ranger in Navarro had recommended this for camping, so we thought we'd give it a try. The Visitor's Center at Davis Bayou had been badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, so they are using a 'temporary' one housed in modular units.

When we drove out to the campground area, we crossed a bayou section where a group of egrets were hiding from the storm.

The campground was OK, not the best we've stayed at but the facilities worked and we were warm and toasty for the night. The wind and rain died off during the night, so we expected slightly better driving Sunday. Still had the same problem with the internet - strong enough signal for downloading, couldn't do much of anything however.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 142
Camped at Davis Bayou NP near Biloxi, Mississippi

While we were sleeping, another storm blew in (or a continuation of the earlier one with a day's break in between, I'm not sure). Anyway, this morning it was cold and windy. Cape San Blas was such a lovely place however, we got out a bit to enjoy it before leaving - despite the weather. In fact, I'm having a little trouble understanding why I would even choose to leave this place?

From the RV, I could see several cardinals running around. I took several pictures - none came out as good as I'd like, but I guess this at least proves they were there?

After breakfast, Mom decided she wanted to take a walk on the beach. I was a little surprised because it was so cold, but she hadn't gone out as far as the beach last night, so maybe she just didn't want to miss out on it. Of course, we both picked up more shells (not sure why, there are plenty at home - maybe its some sort of a nesting behavior?)

When we checked in yesterday, the ranger told us that there was plenty of wildlife at St. Joseph SP (please don't get confused, Cape San Blas is the geological land feature, St. Joseph is the State Park on the far end of the Cape). Anyway back to the wildlife - he said there were deer, racoon and bobcats that are seen frequently. We hadn't left the campground (except for the beach excursions), so I wasn't surprised that we didn't see all these things. But on the drive out we at least saw a couple of deer - which was a treat (it doesn't take much to entertain us).

We drove back to Hwy 98, then continued on our journey north and west. The weather was quite bad so we just stuck a CD in the player and took our time. After driving through Panama City, I turned off on Hwy 30A to try to find a public beach we could stop at. Instead we drove through miles and miles of new condo's and beach front rentals. We didn't see many public beaches at all. It all looked more like Orlando (manufactured quaint). I hated it, Mom thought it was cute. It took awhile, but eventually we got back to Hwy 98 which was just strip malls and such. I never thought I'd think of shopping malls along a highway as an improvement!

So, not expecting to stop or do much for the day we happened on a small town called Fort Walton Beach. As I was driving through, there appeared to be a cannon and some interpretive sides by the side of the road and lots of empty parking spaces (probably due to the bad weather). I pulled over just to take a picture or two, but before I got back into the RV, Mom had gotten out and was getting her walker off. I guess she had a little cabin fever and wanted to get some sightseeing in today - weather or not.

Good thing - this turned out to be quite a little stop. First off - behind the cannon was a small hill, which turned out to be not a hill at all, but a Mound. The people who had built it disappeared long before the Europeans arrived, so not much is known about them except what can be gleaned through archeology. This is what the mound looks like today.

This is an artists recreation of what they think the mound may have looked like during it's heyday, and following that an explanation of what they know about the mound (sorry, it's easier then retyping it all in).

Off to the side is a Museum (where I got the pictures of the painting and sign of course). Mom seemed to really enjoy the exhibits. (She also spent a lot in the gift shop if that's an indicator).

One of the more unusual ones were these six sided bowls. These are unique to the Fort Walton Culture, which was gone before the Europeans arrived, so scientists aren't really sure why they were made like this.

The museum also has a few 'hands on' exhibits, such as grinding corn. I was setting up the camera to take a picture of a 'Pump Drill', when one of the staff grabbed the camera and pointed it at me instead. Fortunately, nothing broke as far as I can tell...

The Pump Drill didn't originate with Native American's, but was brought over by the Spanish. The Spanish may have gotten the idea from the Phoenicians and other early civilizations.

Another room in the museum was devoted to a temporary exhibit about American Women in the early 20th century. This was developed by Florida State University and is a travelling exhibit to various museums around the state.

I took a few pictures of these exhibits, but not nearly enough. Most of the information is in signage, but there are also exhibits of common household items that women or families would have used on a day to day basis.

On the other side of the Mound is the Camp Walton School House. This was used for grades 1 thru 8 from 1912 to 1936. Students used slate boards to practice writing during that period, so each desk is carefully laid out with a slate board and cloth to erase the chalk.

I felt like I didn't spend quite enough time at the Fort Walton Beach Mound, Museum, and school house. (There was also an old Post Office, but my pictures of it didn't come out well enough to upload). However, the afternoon had gotten late and we really were trying to make some tracks, so we moved on.

By this time it was too late to make it to Pensacola tonight, so when I pulled over in a Wal-mart in Navarro to get some things, we just decided to stay there for the night.

I also tried to work on the blog - interesting thing that. I could get a signal on the laptop's data card, but an odd one. I could surf the net, read news, and check email - but I couldn't send email nor do anything that required significant uploading. Some web sites worked OK, some not at all. The Sprint data signals for the next couple of days had the same characteristics - seems like some sort of technical problem with this type of signal with uplinks.

Logistics:

Miles Driven - 130
Camped at Navarro Wal-mart