Milton, FL, to Perry, FL

Wed, Nov 11, KOA, Milton, FL, to KOA, Perry, FL:  Finally! The sunshine is back! A beautiful day today. A pleasant drive as well. While we were on I10, we saw a motorhome coming up the on ramp pulling a pickup truck with a motorcycle in the bed of the truck. And, he was carrying a boat as well wedged between the back of the motorhome and the front of the pickup. Not sure how it was secured. It didn’t look safe at all.  We were waiting for him to pass us, but he never did—which was a good thing. We lost an hour today. We’re now on eastern time (ugh!). We arrived in Perry and were hooked up by 3:30. It is so easy to set up this new fifth wheel. 75 today and sunny.

The historic Florida capital building in Tallahassee.

Milton, FL

Tue, Nov 10, KOA, Milton, FL:  Another grey, cool and cloudy day today. We did the grocery shopping and then shopped around for a step stool so we can more easily reach some of the high storage areas in our new fifth wheel. Did some more reorganizing and then had a glass of wine and played cribbage for a while. Tomorrow we leave for Perry on Florida’s west coast. Supposed to be a sunny and warm day. We’ll see.  63 and cloudy today.

Pensacola on a much nicer day.

Milton, FL

Mon, Nov 9, KOA, Milton, FL:  The rain finally stopped, but it was a cloudy, drab, and cool day. Didn’t even go outside. We discovered a leak of some sort on the slide by the couch. Carpeting is pretty wet. Not sure where it’s coming from. But in the process of checking out the leak, we discovered the sofa is a sleeper sofa. We both did some reading, and more rearranging of stuff. Think tomorrow we’ll go out and do something exciting—like grocery shopping. Only in the low 60s today.

Historic Bagdad--just up the road from the KOA

Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA, to KOA, Milton, FL

Sun, Nov 8, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA, to KOA, Milton, FL:  Today started out pretty good, but went downhill quickly. It wasn’t raining when we started out, but we quickly ran into intermittent showers. And it was pretty windy. We got here okay and set up in the wind and rain (sigh). The auto levelers worked like a charm. This time the problem was the cable. We were told we had cable here and didn’t need a box, unlike other times we’d stayed here. So we hooked up the cable and I did an auto scan. When it finished we got a message “run auto scan”. So, Mike went out and changed the cable hook-up and we did another scan. It’s weird cable—sort of like digital cable. Anyway, we got the living room TV set up okay, but then the remote wouldn’t work. The TV in the bedroom is okay, but for some reason the remote in the living room doesn’t do what it's supposed to do. I finally got it to change channels, but you have to be on top of the thing to get it to do anything. Looks like we’ll be getting a new remote somewhere along the line. A miserable day. Rainy, windy, and low 60s. 

Going through Mobile in a misty rain.

Approaching the tunnel under the Mobile River.

New Orleans

Sat, Nov 7, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Returned from New Orleans this morning tired but content. Stayed at the Chateau Lemoyne in the French Quarter. We got there around noon on Thursday too early to check in, so we had a drink on the pool deck and then walked around the French Quarter for a while. A beautiful day—warm and sunny. Checked in around 4:00, unpacked, and had dinner at Desires on Bourbon St. Got an early start on Friday with breakfast at the hotel and then drove over to the WWII Museum on Magazine St. A long day (12 hours) but really interesting. We were able to see and explore a PT boat they’re completely restoring to full running condition which they’ll have in the water by December. We also toured the fourth floor where over 10,000 items are stored, such as American, British, German, and Japanese uniforms and weapons, medals, plane props, a piece of the Arizona that was sunk at Pearl Harbor, a treasure trove of taped interviews between Stephen Ambrose and WWII vets, and on and on. We got to go inside a Sherman tank (I did not). And we had dinner and a show at the Stage Door Canteen where a group of very talented singers and dancers put on a typical USO show the likes of which Bob Hope and his entourage did so many times. The museum keeps growing and is the #1 attraction in New Orleans these days. They opened a new building since we were there last—the Freedom Pavilion. Back to our hotel and had another drink on the pool deck (still 80 degrees!) before crashing. Out early this morning in a light drizzle. Back to our site, unpacked, had some lunch and then did the laundry. We’ve never done the laundry here before. It’s not a great laundry room (two washers and two dryers), but it’s free. So, that’s out of the way. Sat outside reading my new Grisham book and listening to the rain drops on the awning. Tomorrow we leave for the KOA at Milton, FL. We’ll be there for three days.

Jammin' on Jackson Square. These guys were good!

We tried to find a place with some Zydeco music. Nothing. Where's the Zydeco? It is New Orleans after all.

St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square.

View from our table at Desires. A guy walked by in a black leather vest and short shorts and fishnet stockings. He looked vaguely familiar...

The guys from our group checking out the machine gun on the Sherman tank.

Mike climbing out the turret hatch. He was brave. The only one to  go inside. This thing held five men. Can you say claustrophobic?

Mike still working on getting out of this thing.

Our guide set up a step ladder to climb up onto it.

The Freedom Pavilion is new. It houses some historic aircraft and exhibits from the European Theater. The exhibits from the Pacific Theater will be open next year. 

The talented band at the Stage Door Canteen.

Fairview-Riverside

Thu, Nov 5, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Another beautiful morning. Really humid though. Went for an early walk and had some breakfast. Started packing for New Orleans. After lunch we’re heading in for a couple of days. Going to get a docent tour of the new wing of the WWII Museum. Looking forward to walking around the Quarter and some shrimp creole. Not taking my laptop with me, so no post for a couple of days. As they say in New Orleans…Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Tchefuncte River

Fairview-Riverside

Wed, Nov 4, Fairview-Riverside State Park, Madisonville, LA:  Beautiful morning this morning—sunny and warm, birds twittering away outside, and a gentle breeze stirring the pines. I did some cleaning and tried out the central vac system. Works pretty well. Later in the morning we drove into Madisonville to run some errands. Back to our site and sat outside reading for a while. Had some dinner at Rip’s on the Lake on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. A pretty area of really nice homes. Love the architecture in this area, and the beautiful flora. 80 today and mostly sunny.  

Hard to keep my mind on my book with the pretty view.

View from our table on the deck at Rip's on the Lake.

Reflections on the Tchefuncte.