Day of Reckoning

 

Hurricane Milton will hit tonight and through the night.  Cat 4 as of 2 pm, may drop down to a cat 3 before reaching shoreline.  The unlucky loosers, the ones taking the burnt of the storm, appears to be between Tampa and Sarasota.  But this storm is and will affect from as south as the keys to as north as I-10, because many tornadoes are popping up throughout this section of the State.  Here in Tallahassee area, it is calm, balmy, 74 degrees with 76% humidity. 

We are safe in Coe's Landing Campground, a Leon County park...$27 a night, around 20 spots near Lake Talquin.  Small quiet inexpensive park that we can stay here until Saturday morning.  Just right...

So now it is wait and see...will we (condo) get hurricane strength winds?  They say we might get 6' of rain throughout the course of the storm...so flooding can be an issue, but not storm surge.  Time will tell...

Sweet Home Alabama (for a night)

 

We awoke around 6 am, but did not really start coffee and get stirring until 6:45.  By 7:30 we were on the road.  It is a 70 mile drive north and then west to get to I-75 just north of Ocala Florida.  It took us 90 minutes.  Got gas at a Pilot Travel Plaza and that cost around $115 for 27 gallons of regular gas.  This is going to take some getting use to, that's for sure.

By the time we pulled out of the gas station and headed north on I-75, we can see lightening, hear thunder, and it looked real bleak...but that was to the south.  Yes, we hit some rain, but it was not much at all...our timing could not have been more perfect.

You can see along the highway the amount of standing water...this area has received a lot of water over the past few days.  Again, we had no issues to face, and skies soon cleared up.

Indy had no problems with the weather or the travel.  She stayed in one of the chairs for most of the trip...until we stopped of course, when she then wanted to go out and sniff, smell and "P".  

There were plenty of motorhomes and RVs (Snowbirds) headed to I-75 too.  Say license plates from Canada, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, and this one directly above with the bikes from California.  There was two times that four different cars passed us in a row and all had non-Florida plates...and out of the eight cars, seven states were represented by them.

As we got closer to I-10, Marcia caught a few winks of sleep...not sure if she even knew we turned onto I-10.  I saw this low flying helicopter and quickly grabbed the camera and clicked this image of the the helicopter flying supplies to a lineman putting up a new utility line.  I think it was a large pulley wheel since I saw many of the poles with pulley wheels, but this one does not.  This type of work was going on for at least 100 miles along I-10, but it was the only helicopter I saw.  Some of the new poles had lines running through them, others did not.  I remember them working on this last year too...sometimes it takes time to get things done here in Florida.

Much of I-10 in Florida looks a lot like this shot above.  Lots of green trees and shrubs and grass.  But then...

...a large storm such as Hurricane Michael (the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992) hits in October 2018, and trees go missing, brush goes brown, and it is a real mess.  But four years later it is nearly all cleaned up, and mother nature is restoring the landscape (with some help from man, of course).

After another couple hundred miles we say goodbye to Florida...

...and hello to Alabama.  We only drove 14 miles into Alabama and stopped at the Wilderness RV Park near Robertsdale...we have stayed her before.  

It is a Passport America Park and we are in the same campsite as we were in December 2021 on our way back to the Condo.  For $20, you just can't beat it.

Indy and I sat outside for about 45 minutes, and she even met a little friend (no pic of friend, sorry).  It was a cool 75 degrees, slight breeze, and lots of blue skies.  

Now we will see just how far we get tomorrow...

14 Miles Shy of Florida

We had a very restful night at the Atchafalaya Welcome Center in Louisiana, as we have every time we have stayed there since they finished the work on the Welcome Center.  The first time the cars, RVs and Trucks all gathered on the 'other side' of the freeway where the trucks now have their own resting area.

We did not want too early of a start since Baton Rouge is only a half hour away.  So we were off around 8:15, and driving into Baton Rouge by 8:45.  Yes, there was traffic, but it did not last very long.

Above is a picture of the Mississippi River.  The 'red' arrow is pointing out LSU's "Kitty-Cat" stadium.  (My long time blog readers know that I have two children who graduated from the University of Arkansas, and for many of those years the LSU Tigers were our rival (now it is Missouri according to the SEC...but there is still a non-SEC rivalry between the two schools), and my Rotary Club in Pine Bluff at the time had a few die-hard LSU grads who always got my attention...better known as 'ribbing', despite the fact LSU typically beat the UofA.

It is always to see patriotic billboards...this one is by DOW.

Gotta give Louisiana credit, they were working on a lot of the roadway, but nothing slowed us up for the most part.

The gas prices slowly go up ever since we left Texas...Here is Louisiana it is $2.79.

In Mississippi the same type of Love's Truck Stop was up to $3.07!

And at Buc-ee's here in Alabama near the Wilderness RV Park we are at it was only $2.97.

(NOW that I have PO'd all my friends and family in California who are paying well over $4!  SAM'S in Citrus Heights is currently $4.19, and with a LONG LINE!!!  Marcia says "YOU ARE BAD Dave"...I have to agree)

We have had pretty good weather for our entire trip...until we got close to Mobile, Alabama.

As we got closer and closer to the tunnel, it was really raining.

As we got through the tunnel and at the start of the causeway across Mobile Bay, Marcia got this shot of the Battleship Alabama, shrouded in mist from the rain.  It rained from Mobile all the way to Buc-ee's Gas Station, when it suddenly turned into a sprinkle.  After getting gas, we continued the three miles to Wilderness RV Park,  another Passport America park which, for two nights, came to under $40 for full hookups, which is why we stayed 14 miles short of Florida!  When we arrived, the sprinkle had turned to a mist...and the rain held off for a few hours so I did not get wet setting up.  Tomorrow I will take some pictures of the park providing the rain (which is pretty hard right now) lets up.

We are at Now...

 

First, recap of yesterdays hard drive through San Antonio and Houston...

Above is one of the first pictures of the day...look at those flags...they show you that we had a strong wind, and it lasted throughout the day, but was not as windy as we got closer to our destination, Baytown.  Now and then the wind was behind us...most of the time it was hitting my side of the motorhome and knocked us about left and right (left is my steering, right is the wind).  We also had a touch of rain throughout the trip.

As we came into San Antonio a decision needed to be made as to using the 1604 loop (bypass) or just stay on I-10 through town.  There is a message board which pretty much said that both routes were within a minute of each other.  I first decided to go I-10, then changed my mind and picked the 1604 loop...and that is what we did.  Immediately we hit stop and go traffic for about 2 miles, then it opened up the entire rest of the way back to I-10.  In total, it took about 35 minutes to travel the 26 mile route.  Most of it is freeway, but the last 8 miles is more a highway with some stoplights which you need to be ready to stop for...one of which made me come to a very hard stop, but we stopped just at the line where you are suppose to stop at.

After we stopped at Love's for fuel and a doggie run, we got back on I-10 and just a few miles later come across a Buc-ee's Gas Station.  This Luling location was built in 2001, Buc-ee's first travel center. Two and a half years ago we came across our first Buc-ee's in Alabama, and you can read that blog posting here.  The COVID era slowed down Buc-ee's growth a bit, but it has still opened a number of stores since my post was written 2 1/2 years ago.  As we got closer to Katy, we saw another Buc-ee's which was three times the size (my estimate) than this one in Luling.

A few miles after passing Buc-ee's we stopped at our first rest area and had breakfast and let Indy out again.  Did not see any ants at this stop...did not get pictures of the rest area later that we did see Fire Ants at...but the mounds were a foot high!

Coming into Katy, Texas, population 21,000.  Its population nearly doubled in the last ten years.  The highway widens, a HOV starts up in the far left lane, and they are ready for another 50,000 in population between Katy and the other feeder cities to the west of Houston.

Here is a picture of what I like when they do it...put the Interstate Embalm on the highway to let you know what lane you are in...if you are smart enough know what Interstate/Highway you are suppose to be on.  Sure helpful for us.

Here is a picture Marcia took of downtown Houston.  I-10 hugs the northern portion of the downtown area.

Well, we are past Houston now.  This Flying J is the first place we fueled our 40' American Eagle way back in November 2011.  We have bought two motorhomes in Houston at a place called PPL, a consignment dealer.  Less pressure, good website, honest folks.  Found the American Eagle to be bit big for my liking, and the cost to fix was going to be too much for our blood.  Traded it in for a 32' Jayco Melbourne in 2013, which burned down in a RV Storage Fire in the early spring of 2014, then bought our 28' Dynamax Isata a couple of months later and we have traveled in it ever since..

Here we are parked at the Bayou Bend RV Resort, $50 per night but only $25 with Passport America with 3 night max at discounted rate.  When I checked in the clerk told me that the park is heavily filled with Oil Industry workers.  Some work four days per week, travel back home for three and come back to work again.  He said that with the current political climate, the industry is in a huge flex...and about 25% of those who stay at the park have gone home through Christmas time...he hopes they will all come back in January.  That building on the other side of our motorhome above is the bathrooms/showers and Laundry...a very modern building.

The park is concrete and grass.  There are few trees within the park.  The Internet is awesome, they must have eight WiFi antennas putting out the signal.  First time I had a park say, "It is ok to hook your TV up to the Internet and stream movies if you wish."

I have noticed that some of the RVs don't have cars in front of them day or night, so some have left and kept their RV here at the park.

Of course, sometimes family is going to come and visit, and there is a nice playground for the kids.

Along with a few areas to have small group gatherings for a BBQ or whatever.

Here is the swimming pool right next to the office.

To compliment the 100+ RV pads, they have 13 cabins at $130 per night (3 night minimum), or $500 per week, or $1,300 per month + electricity.  There is a full kitchen, small living room, a bedroom and a loft.  3 person max with one being a child.  

Near the RV park is a Super Walmart, numerous eating establishments, gas stations, emergency health clinics, etc. etc.

A call to the RV park near our Condo found that the earliest we can get into the park for three nights is Sunday.  Tomorrow we are going to pull out late morning and go around 200 miles to a place in Louisiana that we have parked before, way away from trucks, near the Atchafalaya River Basin (America’s largest freshwater swamp).  Then we will go through Mississippi, enter Alabama and stay at another Passport America park which we have stayed at before, this time for 2 nights.  Not sure what we will do Saturday night, but we will be within an hour or two of our Condo and finally be home.  So that is the situation we are at now...close to home, but a few days delay.

Tale of Two Days – Mount Magazine, AR

At Camron Bluff Campground, Mount Magazine State Park, AR

WOW!  What a day Friday was.  Compared to the pictures I got Thursday, today the sky was as blue as could be, with a few faint clouds, and it was 70 degree weather.

  

SPRING was certainly in the air…

Here is the newly redone Amphitheater.  The original Amphitheater was made in the 1939 as part of the WPA program.  It had 24 tiers of seating made from native stone (seat and back) held together by mortar.  However, by 1970’s the mortar had fallen apart, the stones loosened, and it was too dangerous to use any more.  The new Amphitheater seats 300, with ADA sites from where this picture was taken.  Everyone takes the ramp down to the ADA level, then stairs down to the rest of the Amphitheater.  The views from here are amazing, and it is used for interpretive programs, concerts, weddings and just about anything one could think of in this setting.  Yes, it is for rent for much of these activities.  Back when the original Amphitheater opened, it was used for Sunrise Easter Services.

This Air Force C-130 passed right overhead…giving me the inspiration to climb to new heights.

 

Real close to the campground is the Signal Hill Trail, with a nice hike up to Highpoint, the highest point in Arkansas.

      

So the trail starts out at the 2,600 foot level, goes .4 of a mile, and ends at the top, climbing to 2,753 feet.  Now THAT is my type of hike...short and not too much climbing!

At the very top they laid out an image of the state of Arkansas with these native rocks. From this vantage point, you are looking at the State as you would a map with the north at the top.

   

Embedded in the map is this official Geo Survey showing the highest point (2,753 feet), and the ‘STAR’ representing Little Rock, the capitol.  Above the star running at an angle you can see a wide swath of mortar…that runs through the map which represents the Arkansas River.

On the way up I met these four gentlemen, and as we do in Arkansas, got to talking a bit.  Found out that the oldest guy was celebrating his birthday today by going to the top of Arkansas.  Heck, what better way to celebrate your 90th, yes 90th, birthday with his two sons and his son-in-law (who knew his brother-in-laws before he was dating their sister).  Asked where they were from…the father said he was from Hot Springs, the others were from Iowa.  I made the comment that they (state park) should have a few benches along the way.  The father said, “Yep, in Hot Springs they have benches along all the trails, all in memory of someone.”  A son speaks up and says, “Well pop, if you don’t make it to the top, we will be sure to put a bench along this trail just for you!”  I went on ahead, looked back and took this picture, and I just had to call Marcia and share that joke with her.  After I got back to the motorhome, it was such a nice day we both sat outside for awhile, and we took  a drive around the park.  And that is the tale of one day…

…and then there was today.  WINTER came back with a fury.  Rain, Cold, Wind, more Rain with occasional lightening and thunder.

This is what the weather was like at 5 pm….it is now 8 pm, and other than the sun going down and the temps dropping 2-3 degrees, nothing has changed.  Other than when I let the dogs out, and emptied the garbage, we have been inside, heat pump on, oil-filled radiator heater going, just staying warm.

They say Sunday will be a better day…hope so because we are meeting Marcia’s cousin over in Fort Smith for lunch.  Our hearts and thoughts, however, will be with Aunt Vera's family as they lay my sweet aunt to rest.  Our thoughts and prayers to all of my good cousins...