Today was our last day here in Crescent City and we wanted to get away from the tourist sites and see, smell, and hear the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. Rather than take the shuttle, we opted to drive the dually right into town. We walked down thru the French Market and over to Bourbon Street. Music, liquor, and food is everywhere as well as some of the strangest people ever, including one chubby woman standing in front of a burger joint yelling “Give me money, I want a cheeseburger “ to passing tourists. My niece Armida suggested a stop at Dickie Brennan’s for a Bourbon punch, it’s more like a Bourbon milkshake, just wonderful! Then next door to the Acme Oyster House. Our dinner was chargrilled oysters and Seafood Étoufee with fried crawfish. Man, can they cook down here! We also saw the St. Louis Cathedral.

I have to say that NOLA is a great place to visit. Our RV park is 45 minutes west of the city, but once there, everything is close by. We bought passes for the tour bus that let us on and off for 3 days and included two walking tours. The first was in the Garden District. The average house price in this neighborhood is about $1.5 million, and is home to folks like Archie Manning, Sandra Bullock, and others. Then to BB Kings for lunch and across the street to shop at the French Market. Day two included the walking tour of the French Quarter. Later, a walk on Bourbon Street and Royal Street with a stop at the New Orleans Jazz Museum. Most of this city was once covered by trolleys, but now there are fewer, but they cover a good part of the city. We rode a newer one on the riverfront. I have been disappointed by the lack of good NOLA food as most is burgers and steak. We are going back today to find that famous cajun food.

Our last stop in Biloxi was to the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum. This place is filled with historical exhibits of all things in the water. There are interesting displays of the evolution of fishing, crabbing, and shrimping. There are several full size boats on display, one of the first shrimp shelling machines, and one room devoted to hurricanes. There are many models of boats and some awesome art here, too.

So, we took a trip to Gulfport – a sister city to Biloxi. Here there are miles of beautiful beaches and marinas filled with boats to take you fishing and sightseeing. Since it was one of the coldest mornings that we woke to since this journey began, we headed indoors to the Mississippi Coast Model Train Museum. Here there are three buildings filled with trains from Z size up to ones you can ride. And it isn’t just the ones on the tracks as the walls are totally filled with anything that could travel on rails. There are the current plastic ones back thru the metal age into the wooden ones. The last small building is devoted to Lego sets. Not my favorite but still interesting.

First, let me say that we sold our house so that we would never need to return to Indiana, but we could if we wanted to. Main reasons: cold and snow. Here in Biloxi, we have had two nights in a row with a low of 31 to 33. Next week in New Orleans we should see upper 60s! Anyway, We started with the parks, first we went to the Gulf Islands Nation Seashore. This park is filled with historical sites, beaches, waterspouts, and hiking trails. Today we stuck to the trails and the visitors center. National parks have visitor centers that are miniature museums. Then on to the next stop, the Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR. This species of cranes almost went extinct before this refuge was created, as there were only 30 of them left. Today there are 135 alive here. Since they are not migratory birds, they exist only here in the pine savannas of south Mississippi. Also, there are quite a few people that maintain the grounds and see to the health of these beautiful birds.

Actually, we stayed in the Robertsdale – Loxley area, midway between Mobile and Pensacola. We made two trips to Mobile and visited the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum (a great place to learn about cargo, navigation, communication, etc. on the seas and in the gulf), and the Mobile Carnival Museum (Mardi Gras started here in the US). We also toured the USS Alabama and the USS Drum in Battleship Memorial Park, with lunch right after at Felix’s Fish Camp. God I love those big navy ships, but getting thru the bulkhead hatches on a sub is getting tough. There is also a large aircraft display both inside and outside including a B52! We also tried to see the air museum at the Pensacola NAS, but it is on the base and the base is sill locked down from the recent shooting. We also visited Gulf Islands National Seashore, Big Lagoon SP, and Gulf State Park. Gulf SP has 500 RV sites and many activities. Liked it so much we booked two weeks for next January! We also got to see our first Buckees – not impressed!

Sadly, it is time to say goodbye to the Sunshine State. We arrived in St Augustine on November 1st and then to Ocala, Citra, and finally Eastpoint, my favorite! This area, known as the forgotten coast, is such a simple place. There are no shopping centers, Walmart is about an hours drive, yet the necessities are all here. The area, all but destroyed by an oil spill and hurricanes is slowly coming back to life. Retirees come for the quiet and beauty. There is good food, fun places to relax and listen to music, good fishing, fabulous state parks, and most importantly – oysters, prepared any way you can imagine. Bar hopping here refers to raw bar hopping. We already have reservations here for next year. So the journey continues.

At a New Years Day get together, one of the locals asked if we had been to Wakulla Springs State Park. The next day we were off to see the world’s largest and deepest freshwater spring. There is a nice lodge to stay at here and there are great trails to hike and bike as well as swimming and even geocaching. We did some hiking, but to really see and learn about the park, you must take a boat tour. Once boarded, we were treated to a song of life here at the springs. Then we spent an hour seeing it all – vultures, herons, ibises, ducks, egrets, turtles, and many more. And probably at least 20 alligators, including some clusters of young ones. The water stays at about 69 degrees year round and during the cold months, this is a warm haven for manatees. On the boat we saw at least 20. One interesting point – these tours have gone on for so many years, the wildlife living here think of the boats as just another non aggressive animal letting them come very close without fear.

St. Marks NWR is directly south of Tallahassee Florida with its southern border on the gulf of Mexico. Established in 1931, this 80,000 acre reserve has 43 miles of gulf shoreline. Of the many species of birds in the reserve, bald eagles are the ones to see, if you are lucky. Many east coast eagles migrate down to this reserve in winter to lay their eggs and raise their eaglets. There are three nests visible from the main road, but we didn’t see any eagles. We started our visit at the southern tip at the St Marks Lighthouse. There is a pool (pond) next to the lighthouse where you can see fish, crabs, and many birds. We also hiked around Tower Pond. A real birder’s heaven.

First, let me wish all a very happy holiday season! Until this year, the weather question for Christmas Day was ‘will it snow’? This year it was ‘do I need long sleeves or short’? I got away with short. We had Christmas dinner sitting by the pool. Dinner was either salmon or prime rib. I had the prime rib and it was prepared by one of our host’s guests – a professional chef. It was superb! between that and the appetizers, we needed to hit the trails again, so we hiked at both Ochlockonee State Park yesterday and St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge today. I knew that when we arrived at the east coast, we would be in alligator country for a few months, but down here along the panhandle, there are signs all along the main roads warning of bears in the area. Thanks to the season, we were able to find some jingle bells to carry on us to warn the bears to relocate. but that does not work for any other species. Do you know that there are six types of venomous snakes here including the cottonmouth, copperhead, and the diamondback rattler? But that is offset by the tremendous amount of wildlife here, including some bald eagles that travel down to this coastline in winter to have babies, then return back north. Coming back from St Marks, we stopped for lunch at rather plain looking storefront seafood restaurant that we would have passed except for the parking lot was jammed. We stopped to see why – glad we did.