Tuesday, January 28, 2014
I’m writing this (offline) as we travel US 98 across the Florida panhandle. It’s 8:30 am and my phone says the local temperature is 39 degrees. I’m listening to the local NPR station as they announce closings right and left because of the weather coming through. They expect to have freezing rain later today and have closed all schools for 2 days and are asking everyone to not go out unless absolutely necessary. Wind chill warning - temperatures will feel like 25 degrees.
They are predicting freezing rain (.1 inch) and snow (up to an inch). The air base at Pensacola is closing early and may not open tomorrow. Only essential personnel are to report. Down here, the real problem is no one knows how to drive in this. And they have all these bridges over bays and rivers that will freeze. One accident on a bridge may shut down traffic the surrounding areas for hours.
We think that’s what we ran into as we traveled across Louisiana. We left Texas in rain and cold temperatures. Houston stations were encouraging people to stay home and reporting salting and sanding of local roads and bridges. In the first 87 miles into Louisiana in Interstate 10, we came to stand still stops 3 times. We got off I10 and headed north to US 190. That’s when we noticed that there was snow in the valleys on some roofs. It was cold enough to freeze the bridges, and as one trucker put it online, Louisiana’s department of transportation was no where to be seen. Steve wondered if Gov. Jindal was consulting with Gov. Christie. Police were out directing traffic but there was no sign of salt or sand on the roads.
We stayed on US 190 through Baton Rouge. Steve thought we might need to get back on I10 to cross the Mississippi River, but US190 has it’s own bridge and there was a warning on line that traffic was backed up on the I10 bridge.
As we crossed the river, I could see the I10 bridge and make out the silhouettes of the semi’s, which weren’t moving. We ended up staying on US190 until we reached Fontainebleau State park after 7 that night in the dark. A six hour drive took 10 hours. It would have been longer without the iPhone. Luckily we had a pull through site and were set up quickly.
I wish we had a day at Fontainebleau, but we extended our stay in Houston. The park is on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans and is filled with beautiful old trees dripping with Spanish moss. When we checked in, the ranger had us take a certain route to the campground and suggested we stay in the middle of the road to avoid low hanging branches. I was wondering why they don’t trim some trees. We have a reasonably tall rig, but there are much taller ones. Well, you don't trim trees that are several hundred year old. The road wove through the trees and we managed to get through without problems.
Up early the next morning, Interstate 12 took us to Interstate 10 through Mississippi and Alabama. Mississippi had obviously sanded its bridges and we had no problems there. We stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center for a break and to pick up a map. Once again we had a lovely building and a display of Mardi Gras costumes. (Louisiana rest stops were OK, but suffered in comparison to Texas).
I tried to get fancy with the formatting and was unsuccessful. One of these years I'll know the secrets of blogging!
At the coast, Mississippi is only 75 - 80 miles wide, so we passed through quickly. Alabama is even narrower. Looking at the maps, I’d love to know how these two states lost much of what might have been their coast line if the state boundaries were mostly straight from north to south. I’ll have to research that.
We made it to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, Florida, in mid afternoon. Since rain was predicted for the next day, we grabbed Obi and went on the short nature trail.
Reindeer moss at Henderson Beach State Park.
I am way out of shape! But we hiked the dunes and saw the ocean. Later I walked to the beach from our campsite and put my toes in the water. It’s cold!
Watching the storm come in.
The state park is IN Destin. Walmart is across the street. But it’s acres of never developed land and protected dunes and wonderful beaches. The sand here is sugar sand, pure white. Its ground up quartz, not shells. Very few shells, as the shallow area extends for quite awhile and the shells get ground up. When I took Obi out for his bedtime walk, we could hear the ocean from our campsite. Each campsite is surrounded by dense vegetation and has a nice wide area to park the RV.
It did rain the next day, so we headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping. A search through the AAA guide found us a restaurant on the beach that served blue crab, my favorite food.
We had a good meal and then hit Walmart for some shopping. Back at the trailer, Steve attended a bank meeting while I did some more organizing. By the time we get home, we might have most things stored where we want them.
Obi’s becoming more comfortable in the trailer. At home, he doesn’t sleep with us anymore. We disturb him when we turn over, so he sleeps in his bed on the floor. Since we’ve been in the trailer, he’s wanted to be in the bed with us. For the last two nights, he hasn’t asked to be lifted up to the bed, so he’s sleeping in his bed on the floor. He’s also going down the stairs to get out of the trailer, although he’s not interested in climbing the steps to get in. He’s still not very happy in the truck, poor boy.
At the moment we seem to be outrunning the weather. The truck says it’s 50 out. Spoke too soon. Steve wanted me to drive and shortly after it started raining. It’s stopped again.
We’ve been passing through Florida cattle country. Looks a bit like Texas. Suddenly the scenery changed. Looks a bit like the everglades with few trees. We are driving through Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. I never thought about prairie in Florida. I relate that to the Midwest. That’s whats fun about travel - you’re always learning something!
After the prairie, came horse country. And this is serious horse country. We passed at least 3 estates that had their own race track.
My blog mentioning my Mac Book caused some feedback. It’s nice to know someone’s reading the blog. Let me start with, whatever frustrations I’m having with my Mac, I wouldn’t go back. First of all, I wouldn’t be using my Dell in the car on my lap. The Mac (actually a Mac Book Air to be accurate) is lighter weight, doesn’t generate as much heat and has hours more battery life than my Dell. It also boots up faster and in whatever state I shut down in.
When Steve told me the Mac had 8 to 10 hours of battery life, I wasn’t impressed. I should have been. I rarely ran my Dell when it wasn’t plugged in, so who needs that much battery life? That has changed. I’m writing in the car. I put it on the counter for my cookbook when I cook. I use it on the bed when I want. I’ve once run it down to 20% battery, but I am pretty good about keeping it charged.
With my Dell, I had 30 years of experience with some of the software and had accumulated various programs to do things I like to do. Invitations, scrapbook pages, T-shirts, photo editing, slide shows, no problem. For the family bridal showers I usually created the invites and thank yous, maintained the guest lists and produced mailing and return labels. I’m not geared up for all that yet. So it’s a learning curve and I get impatient. I also haven’t had the time since I’ve gotten the Mac to spend enough time to know what software I need to get and what’s already on the machine that I haven’t used yet. So while there are some rough spots, I'm not looking to go back.
One more reason to love my truck - heated seats are better than a heating pad for a sore back! This is another luxury that I never would have paid for if it didn’t come standard with all the bells and whistles Steve wanted. And somehow I always need it the mornings we're packing up for a day on the road.
We’re pulled in and parked at a campground near the Villages in Florida. It’s 75 degrees! After 6 weeks on the road, we found WARM weather. I thank Steve regularly for getting me out of the Midwest for what has to be the worst weather we’ve had for years. We’ll visit with Steve’s Uncle Eep tomorrow and head for Bradenton on Thursday.
Keep warm!
Deb
