We left Clearwater on Wednesday, April 1,2015 We said our farewells to Frank and Donna on Monday night. It was so great to catch up with them again, and to see the incredible progress Frank is making after his open heart surgery. There is nothing like old friends.
My new friend Brenda came to see us off. She and her husband, Rick, were the couple we hung most with at the resort, and we are really going to miss them. We left with hugs and promises to keep in touch. I cannot believe we did not get a picture of us together! Next time for sure. This is exactly one year since we left California. We headed up the 19 to a little town called Keaton Beach.
It is a little sleepy town on the Gulf of Mexico. It is the Scalloping Capital of the South. We were fortunate to get one of the last spots in the park. It is right on the Gulf.
We enjoyed Conference on Easter weekend and painted scallop shells instead of eggs.
The weather was beautiful while we were there, and we enjoyed long early morning walks and bike rides out to the pier.
The sunsets were incredible and shelling was plentiful!
This town was so small that it didn't even have a post office. A marina and a party store is all they need. The architecture was very interesting. Most of the homes were built on stilts, with parking and partying areas below the houses. More than half of the houses were for sale.
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Our next stop was the Yellow River in Holt. This was another sleepy little town, but it did have its own post office and four restaurants. We had a Catfish Blue Plate Special that was amazing. The park was beautiful and peaceful. Ken was able to get some fishing in.
We met a girl fishing on the bank of the river who was packing a gun on her hip. REALLY!
I asked her about her gun, and she said she was afraid of water mocassins.
We thought riding bikes here would bea little challenging because of the dirt roads. I was determined to get to the end of the dead end road where I heard there was a boat launch. The first day we walked for over an hour and did not get there. We did find an old Civil War Cemetery. It was called the Canoe Cemetery. It was a sweet experience to walk through the graveyard and read the tombstones celebrating war heros.
The next morning we set out on our bikes to find the boat ramp. Of course, it was just around the bend from where we stopped the day before! We discovered a very nice covered picnic area, places to clean your catch and most amazing to me was there was no graffetti!
The park sponsored a Game Night the last night we were there. We met a nice couple from Indiana, and they taught us to play "Gottcha". I hope I can remember how to play! It was really fun and challenging to play both offense and defense.
We headed out to Gulf Shores, Alabama next. It rained almost the entire time we were there, but we did squeeze one morning on the white sugar sand beach!
The closest little town to Gulf Shores is Foley. It is exactly what you would expect small town America to look like. Landry's, "home of the hand throwed rolls" is a definite must experience at least once in your lifetime. The food was Southern and plentiful. Servers walked around with the "go withs" and would fill your plate with cabbage, okra, macaroni and tomatoes, and green beans. The coveted server was the guy who "throwed" the rolls. He walked up and down between the tables and threw rolls across the room at diners. They were right out of the oven and amazing!
We left Gulf Shores and headed to Ocean Springs/Biloxi, Mississippi. My brother, Ken, used to live here, and it was fun to walk around his old stomping grounds. Ocean Springs is a quaint little town with two public piers on their beautiful beach. There is a nice marina on the waterfront with some amazing boats docked.
We ran into these two fishermen on our morning walk. There was a dolphin swimming not far off the end of the pier, and it was fun to watch him jump, dive and swim in circles.
We had some severe weather while in Mississippi. It brought out the ducks, and on our walk around the park (between storms) we found ducks guarding their eggs.
The park was really nice. There were cute cabins to rent, a nice, big pool, a play structure that my grandkids would have loved, and a clubhouse for fun and games.
The lake had a swimming beach, fishing area and canoe, kayak and paddleboats for guests use. Too bad the weather did not really allow for any of that use.
Biloxi was a short drive over the bridge. The visitor's center was incredible, and we watched a documentary on Katrina. It was very well done. The town has done an amazing job of rebuilding.
One of the must see things in town, according to the history museum
guide, was the oldest tree. Of course, I wanted to see it, because it was "the oldest." The route to the tree took us through some cool residential neighborhoods and finally to the tree. It was worth the time to find it. It felt almost sacred. There was a hippy-girl practicing the hula hoop under the canopy of the magestic branches.
We decided to make a stop in New Orleans, so we left Biloxi and headed West on the 10. It rained most of the way there. There was quite a bit of water in our site when we pulled in, but Ken was able to get us set up in record time! The sun broke out around three o'clock, and we decided to take advantage of the pool.
We took the shuttle into the French Quarter on Saturday morning. It was pouring rain, but we have umbrellas and we decided to make the best of it! It only rained for about 45 minutes and was actually quite pleasant after that. I took a lot of pictures in the French Quarter.
It was a beautiful city with amazing sights, sounds and food. So glad we did not miss this icon city on our journey. On Sunday we went to Church in the morning and hung around the park in the afternoon. It is really a gorgeous resort.
Monday was our last day in New Orleans, so we drove down to the Riverwalk, Garden District and Art Districts. Our first stop was Cafe Du Monde for beignets.
Here are some pictures from our park and walk day:
my maiden name is Arnold
We spent a couple nights in Lake Charles on our way to Houston. We are starting to see a lot more oil wells. There was a refinery at the end of our road. Perioically we would see huge flames shooting into the sky followed by dark plumes of smoke. CRAZY! There were several oil workers staying in our park. They work long days. My brother, Bill, told me that his son Matt lived in a man camp for a while and worked on the oil rigs.
Our stay was short, as we were anxious to get to Houston to meet up with my brother, Bill, and his family. Super excited to meet baaby Violet and her cousins!
Stay tuned for more living!
