Our very own Manatee

Right in front of our campsite yesterday. Seems they love drinking fresh water and come into marinas to find it. A boat lady in front of us called us over when she attracted this one to her water hose. (BTW, they are not supposed to do that - dangerous for manatee to be in the marinas). This one rolled over and over, loving the water and not minding at all that we were reaching in and petting it. Very leathery; they have similarities to elephants. Look like cows - called Sea Cows.

We are loving this!

Rhythm of the Road

About 5 days ago, everything started falling into place perfectly ...

I think we now have the true Rhythm of the Road.

- Had 7 double-paned windows repaired to remove haze – the better to see beaches through...

- Gregg handy-manned an electrical repair, saving us over a hundred dollars.

- Free boondocking overnight in a huge Bass Pro Shop parking lot in Ft. Meyers

- Bass Pro seafood restaurant had 2-for-1 Margaritas all day

- Costco a short walk away: between the 2 of us we ate samples there 5 times in 2 days

- Stocked up on pre-mixed Margaritas and Malibu Caribbean Rum with Coconut Liqueur.

- Did one that's been on my Bucket List! ...sea shelling on Sanibel Island, right by Captiva Island where Anne Morrow Lindberg wrote Gift From the Sea in 1955. If you've never read it and you are a woman, you MUST read it! It's beautiful. I've read it several times over many years.

- Drove across the Florida Everglades. Interesting to see but we didn't stop.

- Free boondocking at Cracker Barrel in Florida City, south of Miami, our take-off point to drive The Keys, the last boondocking opportunity.

- The Keys – 42 bridges and 126 miles of US Highway 1 that starts at Mile Marker 0 in Key West. Highway 1 then continues all the way up the US to Maine, through 13 states. There are literally Hundreds of islands out here, 800+, just about 30 populated though.

- Went sea shelling at a FL state park on one of the upper keys; saw a living Man of War jellyfish and lots of dead ones on the Atlantic Ocean side beach.

- Found a really nice campground at a price (yikes! - $99/night) that could have been much higher. This is what we have been saving up for with all our boondocking. We'd averaged under $5 per night up to this point.

- We have a marina and our very own flock of pelicans right outside our front window. The RV just 5 spaces down from us had a manatee at their dock our first night here.

- We are within an hour of Key West and spent Easter Day there – gorgeous!
Beautiful flowering trees and plants, breathtaking beaches, fascinating history and architecture, wrap around porches with ceilings painted blue or aqua, chickens and cats that roam freely all around town, (some cats with 6 toes live at the Ernest Hemingway house and museum), a President Truman museum at the house where he vacationed and worked during his administration and current presidents still visit, street entertainers, interesting characters, and lots of shops, bars, restaurants.
I considered doing something radical in Key West like get my hair cut weird or colored a wild color or get a tatoo. I said I considered ... I ended up doing something very Sally-like. Bought a cheap bottle of fluorescent pink nail polish and painted my toes. I'm really happy with my toes!

- I noticed a sign by a webcam in Key West and called my daughter Sarah on Easter Day and she was able to see me wave to her. I showed her a glimpse of Key West by calling over a cute guy with a hat made of fresh palm-fronds - very Key West-y !

- You can see it all here. I noticed the Garden of Eden bar on a rooftop that is clothing-optional. We didn't go .... We've already passed up 2 campgrounds on this trip that are at clothing-optional RV parks. I don't think that fits our lifestyle very well...

- My friend Betsy calls us the King and Queen of the Road. You should see our new capes and crowns – beach towels, sun visors and baseball caps. We are blessed.

Florida pictures --- http://picasaweb.google.com/sschin999/Florida2010##

Lazy Days

We've been whiling away some days near Tampa getting some window haze repaired at a HUGE RV dealer - Lazy Days - so have been living in a service bay by night and exploring by day.
Got over to Lakeland to see Sal's Aunt Marge - nice day with her. She directed us to a great fruit stand in Plant City where strawberries are grown and I appointed myself Strawberry Queen.
Got out to the beach by Clearwater - beautiful weather here but not warm enough to get in the water yet.


Have time on my hands here so I used my friend Marjorie's suggestion to improve my picture of Gregg with the alligator sign...

Finally in Florida!

We are loving the baked oysters fixed with all kinds of interesting toppings --- cheeses, spinach, scallops, shrimp. Mmmmm... Had a fun day in Apalachicola, a tiny historic town that is struggling to create a destination for tourists. Great shops and restaurants but, sadly for them, hardly any tourists. We boondocked overnight in their large city parking lot and had NO company at all. We love finding an out-of-the-mainstream spot like this.
Apalachicola Bay is the source of 90% of Florida's oysters - fresh, fresh, fresh here!

Uh...oh --- jellyfish. But gorgeous beach. This is Mexico Beach - nicely un-crowded.

Met this really cool old guy in a restaurant when I noticed his cap and thanked him for serving in WWII. He was in a battle in Belgium at the Battle of the Bulge where only 18 of his company survived. His cap has the 82nd Airborne AA on it so I asked him about that. He joined the Army in 1941 before there even was an 82nd Airborne and was there when it was formed. Very proud vet.

Great bike ride; you just have to watch the signs!

Mississippi, Alabama

Mississippi - our first look at these gorgeous white sand beaches. Here near Biloxi, a lot of the sand had blown onto the highway.

Alabama - we stayed 3 nights at this nice state park on the bay at Gulf Shores. One of the campground rules: Do not molest the alligators! But we didn't see any - still too cool and not sunny enough for them yet. Good little relaxing break.

Loving Louisiana

We have been having so much fun here! Great food, fun people, fantastic weather, a perfect RV park with free shuttle to the French Quarter.
You can click on this link to see my favorite pictures from Louisiana...
http://picasaweb.google.com/sschin999/LouisianaMarch2010?feat=directlink

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.As we have learned to always do, we toured the state capitol building in Baton Rouge. It is gorgeous, loaded with marble from all over the world, and the tallest in the USA.

Now those of you who know Gregg well will know that he is now trying to figure out how to get this giant craw fish boiler home with us in the RV...

So much to see and do...

We've been to so many museums lately and learned so much that I think we should be awarded some kind of advanced degrees. Well, if we could remember all this stuff and pass the tests ...

Galveston Moody Gardens has a wonderful complex of these 3 pyramids full of great stuff. IMAX movie about the ocean, 4D fun movie - Happy Feet penguins in 3D with wind and water drops blowing on us, an unbelievable multi-story aquarium. We especially loved this place when they let us overnight in their parking lot for free!

Houston NASA Johnson Space Center - so much information there it is just overwhelming. We visited the actual mission control room where all the Apollo Missions were monitored. Interesting to note the phone DIALS and pneumatic tubes and no keyboards. Imagine that - we went to space without computers as we know them today.

Saturn V

BIG engines!!

Now we are in New Iberia, Louisiana along the Bayou Teche. Learned that "bayou" comes from an American Indian word meaning small river.



Toured an historic rice mill today and learned that crawfish are raised in the rice fields during the off-season. This is an operating mill almost 100 years old. Since it is historic, the equipment cannot be updated. Maybe that's why the cats that live there are comfortable sitting on the conveyor belts during a tour?? That just struck me as funny to see...

Good tour at the Tabasco factory on Avery Island. The "island" is actually the top of a salt mine and all Tabasco pepper sauce is made here using this local salt. Most of the peppers are now grown in Central and South America though because the weather here in Louisiana is too undependable. But ALL the peppers are grown from seeds from Louisiana.

Galveston homes on stilts - hurricane protection. Much here appears to be recently rebuilt after last year's storms.

Galveston's off-shore oil drilling museum. Eye-opening to see how oil is found and drilling done and to learn that there have been more than 56,000 wells drilled in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since 1938!