We left south Florida on March 1st along with a lot of other RV’ers The regular snowbirds are heading back to Ohio, Indiana, etc, but this year I bet it feels a little early given the national weather scene. The south Florida weather was just getting the way Mary likes it - warm both day and night. We really liked the west coast of Florida from Clearwater to Naples, especially the Sarasota area. The downtown is very nice and the beaches on the islands of Longboat Key, Lido Key, Siesta Key and Anna Maria Island are fantastic.
Our first stop northwestward was at Carrabelle Beach at the beginning of the Florida panhandle. The weather was definitely cooler. We figured out that Spring Break seems to be the beginning of the high season for north Florida, and the end of the high season for south Florida. The sand was still nice (top photo), and the water in this area was clear, but ‘tea’ colored. We took a nice long walk along the beach that was just across the street from our RV park and encountered several dolphins in the shallow waters right along the shoreline. They were chasing fish, and sometimes made quite a splash just few feet from the beach. Every time we see them they warm our hearts, and bring smiles to our faces.
Next day, we drove along the shore from Carrabelle to Pensacola. The bay and Gulf waters around Destin Beach were beautiful, very clear and blue/green similar to south Florida. We also drove through Biloxi Mississippi to our overnight stop at the Hollywood Casino RV Park in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. This area was hard hit by the Hurricanes of 2005. The result is a lot of vacant properties and a few remnants of damage, but there are also some very nice new buildings and infrastructure. There has really been an effort to rebuild the downtowns and many of the areas have some great new schools and public buildings to go with the new commercial buildings. The residential areas are an odd mix of vacant lots, fantastic new homes, some old “survivors” and only a very few derelict houses.
We visited New Orleans for a day to check-out the Mardi Gras action. Getting around New Orleans during Mardi Gras week is tough, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We drove through a very crowded French Quarter, ate lunch in the Garden District, and then made it back to the French Quarter where we even managed to get a decent parking spot. Walking around the French Quarter was very interesting with lots of people and stores made up in Mardi Gras regalia. People were friendly and having fun. The city actually reminded me a bit of Seattle. There is a public market down by the waterfront (Mississippi River), some of the architecture is reminiscent of Pioneer Square, but the beautiful iron work and balcony’s of the French Quarter are truly unique. As you drive into the city on I-10 from the east you can really see large areas of Katrina damage. A lot of large vacant lots, a few new commercial buildings and a lot of damaged residential areas. The French Quarter was not hit hard by Katrina.
Driving west through Louisiana, Mary and I ran into a strong cold front and waited out a few tornado warnings in a truck stop. We later found out that tornados struck about 50 miles west of us. We made it through fine, but have certainly gained a healthy respect for severe weather especially considering we are towing a 35ft long, 13ft tall trailer behind us.
After adding three more states to our map (Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana) we crossed over into Texas. We are now stopping over in Beaumont. This area is where oil was first discovered in Texas. The greater Beaumont, TX/Lake Charles, LA area has a very large concentration of oil refineries and related industries. We made a short day-trip down to a wildlife area along the Gulf near Port Arthur. It was a bit odd to drive through heavy industrial areas and refineries on our way to a wildlife refuge. The Gulf shoreline in this area is miles and miles of marsh with brown sand (bottom photo) and very shallow near shore areas with off-shore oil drilling platforms on the horizon. We did see some shorebirds, but all in all the area has a very industrial feel to it.
We are looking forward to exploring Austin for a couple of weeks. We’ll be visiting with Shoshana, one of Mary’s closest friends. We were sad to say goodbye to the ‘summer’ weather of south Florida, but we are hopeful for a good spring in the southwest.
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