Ok, we left San Antonio on the 7th, a day earlier than we were supposed to. We were both done with Texas in general and San Antonio specifically. We left, headed for the Houston/Galveston area around 9am Tuesday morning, arrived in that area around 4 hours later and rapidly decided that this was not the place for us, that we were ALL the way done with Texas and we bailed!
Let me state as a side note that driving through Las Angeles was a dream compared to driving through Houston, Texas. I don’t know what it is that people find appealing about any part of Texas, but if they do…they can keep it. We even got flipped off….twice…because we had our Terrible Towel hanging in our back window of the RV. Texans just have no sense of humor. They can keep their fart smelling state all to themselves; I don’t want any part of it. Bill and I have decided that if we ever have to drive through Texas again, we will do it non-stop and just get through and out of there as quick as possible.
It was interesting driving through Louisiana and seeing the leftovers from the hurricanes that swept through that area. There were portions of I-10 that when you drive through, there are trees that are bent over and broken in half like they were match-sticks…and they are all bent and broken at almost the same height, it’s kind of spooky. There was major road construction on the I-10 also, they are working on installing drainage all along the highway…imagine that. For the most part Louisiana doesn’t look like somewhere that I’ll make a huge effort to get back to. We were going to stop in the Baton Rouge area, but the construction held us up and we arrived well after dark (it’s such a pain to set down in the dark, especially in an area you know nothing about), the only reason we were going to stop in the first place was to break up the long drive. We had already had a less-than-great experience in the Popeye’s Chicken (let me just say, there were 10+ people working in this tiny little fast food place, there were only three people in the entire restaurant, Bill and I were two of them, and it still took them almost 15 minutes to get us our food because they were all too busy socializing with each other to actually work) so we really couldn’t rationalize stopping. The only thing we would have taken time to see while there would have been the French Quarter in New Orleans and it’s only 10 days till Mardi Gras, guess where I don’t want to be for Mardi Gras? So we drove on.
Mississippi was uneventful, we only stopped once to get gas so I can say that I actually stepped foot in Mississippi, I have yet to step foot in Alabama cause we didn’t need to stop, although if we stay here long enough we drive back into Mobile. Driving through Mobile it looked like they had a good amount of cool stuff to see, we may do that if we have time. Anyway, we kept driving and finally landed in the Pensacola, Florida area. We arrived around midnight, sacked out in a Wal-Mart parking lot for a few hours, got up and drove to our park and have been here since about 8-9am of Wednesday the 8th. So 24 hours and five states later, we are in Florida and glad to be here.
Yesterday we spent setting up and had a little time to tool around the area. We found the beach, it’s beautiful and we got see the leftovers of the destruction that the hurricane left in this area as well. There are some houses still (probably vacation houses that the owners don’t spend a lot of time in) that are completely ruined, others that have finished rebuilding, there was a grove of trees that we drove by that were all completely bent over, not broken, just bent, it’s really strange, they don’t grow this way…they were bent by the hurricanes. There are massive amounts of construction crews everywhere you go hauling away debris, rebuilding houses, hotels, and the commercial buildings. Slowly but surely this place is rebuilding itself, one step at a time. I saw a gentleman out staining his new deck and smiling while he did it.
So, we are in Florida and mighty glad to be here. Everyone keeps talking about how cold it is here and Bill and I just laugh. The sun is out, the sky is blue, and I don’t care if it freezes, the sun is out and the sky is blue. There isn’t overcast, or rain, knock on wood, it’s supposed to rain on Saturday, but then clear up again. The best part is….its not Texas!!
;-)K
