A little post Nawlins R & R

Been taking it easy for a couple of days after 3 days of New Orleans' madness. We're in Lake Charles LA, in a nice quiet park just chillin'.
I'll let Tara demonstrate up how we felt by the third day.

Washed the Unit today. Seems every time I wash it it rains. It's supposed to rain tomorrow. 
I was sitting under the awning this evening and noticed a street light reflecting on the side of the now very clean Unit. Kind of a neat lighting effect so I took a picture

We ordered take out from what is supposed to be the #1 rated restaurant in the area, Steamboat Bill's. We weren't sure what to order from the enormous menu, (check it out here)
http://steamboatbills.com/menu/images/Steamboat_Bills_Menu.pdf
so we ordered the Captains Platter, a bit of everything.
Wow, enough to feed 6. Stuffed shrimp,catfish, oysters, stuffed crab, shrimp and fries. the only thing that wasn't breaded and/or deep fried was the cole slaw. For an appetizer we got alligator bites, also breaded and deep fried. How's that for an artery clogging line-up?

Tomorrow we're heading to Galveston Island for a few days. Haven't seen a beach in nearly a week and starting to twitch.
Talk later.

Jamablaya and a Crawfish pie.......

.......and a fillet gumbo. 
Haven't eaten any of these here yet but we did make it to the "Big Easy" yesterday afternoon.
The Unit had a lube job in Foley AL yesterday and is feeling much better. It will need ball joints some time soon but I already knew that.
We went into town this morning after much deliberation on how we should get there. Bus/streetcar $6 but 1 hour each way, cab $25 each way, and Uber, about the same as a cab. We decided to drive in and hopefully, park a few blocks from the French Quarter. Expecting the worst, after a 7 minute drive from the RV park we found all kinds of parking lots. The cost was $5 for 12 hours.

New Orleans never disappoints. Not 2 blocks into Bourbon Street we ran across a very large guy about 6'5" wearing a cowboy hat, a pink wig, fishnet stockings and.....yes, you guessed it, a tu-tu.
Warning. If you look at the following picture you will see him, and once you have seen him, you can't un-see him.

I know....Ouch!!!

We walked over 6 km's today according to Dar's My Tracks app. We visited the French Market, had a superb cappuccino and had lunch at Pat O'briens. Just a beer and wine with lunch though. No Hurricanes (if you haven't heard of a Pat O'briens Hurricane, look it up) because we are planning to go back in tonight. Not possible after drinking a Hurricane in the afternoon.
I won't bore you with pictures of flowery balconies and such. I'm sure you've seen it all before. Besides, my camera does a great job of underexposing street scenes in shadow and it was in fine form today.
Maybe I'll get some good pics tonight. No more tu-tu's, I promise.
Son of a gun we're gonna have big fun on the bayou.

Just got back from round 2.
This was Bourbon Street tonight.

We dropped into a little jazz bar, great band, here's a taste. 

And finally, I know I promised "no more" but I'm starting to see a trend here. These guys are wearing what appear to be coolie hats and tu-tu's. I'm obviously missing something because I just don't get it. Fashion statement?

Good night. 

And it Just Keeps Getting Better

A few days ago I posted a $22.49 1.75 litre bottle of CC.
Look what I found yesterday....

...and the $3 discount applied, so bottom line was $16.99
$17 US, $59 CDN....what is wrong with this picture. 

So, we're at Gulf State Park in Alabama. By far the most expensive State Park we have seen so far at $46 per night.
It's a large facility with lots of amenities and would have had free WiFi had it not been taken out by lightning recently.

The beach is HUGE but more crowded than what we have grown accustomed to in Florida..... : )

This place also has the mother of all fishin' piers.

Some of the locals here take their pier fishin' very seriously.

Tomorrow its off to New Orleans, hopefully.....
I say hopefully because the Unit may need a little TLC. It has started to creak and groan at every dip in the road. We have an appointment tomorrow morning at the local Spartan Chassis shop for a look see. Hoping for a quick fix.

When it rains, it pours

We left Carrabelle yesterday morning. It had rained all night and it was raining and blowing hard when we packed up. Hooking up the CR-V in the rain was a real treat.
We headed west on Hwy 98 and just after we passed through Apalachicola, (where the Seafood Festival had been) the sky turned black and it REALLY started to rain.
I pulled off the highway in the parking lot of a small warehouse operation. We had to leave when the water beside us at the truck loading docks reached the top of the loading dock, about 4 ft.
Weather radar showed a small break in the storm coming our way and were able to follow this area of light(er) rain all the way to Panama City.
I took a pic of the phone showing the storm and break in it. We are the blue dot inside the circle.

We are now in Grayton Beach State Park. Nice place but haven't explored it much yet, too wet.
It rained most of last night as well but has stopped this morning. Hoping for some sun this afternoon.
Tomorrow we head to Alabama and the Redneck Riviera.

Killer heat and good food

I promised a picture of the "doesn't get any better than this" beach bar. It's called Paddy's. After going there 4 nights in a row, last night I was entitled to order "the usual". The usual was a Stella, a Coors lite and a dozen raw oyster.
This is the bar.

And this is Darlene with yet another dozen.

We spent some time at the beach yesterday.

There's a reason they call this the Lost Coast of Florida.... There aren't a lot of people, condo's or shopping malls. Pine trees outnumber palms 100 to one. We had the beach to ourselves for a mile in each direction on numerous occasions.

We just went through 5 days of mid 30's temps and mid 90's humidity. Abnormally hot for this time of year in the Florida panhandle.

The boat did see salt water but the motor was unable. It seems the owner neglected to replace the water pump impeller on a timely basis so no cooling water for the motor, no boat ride with outboard power. We did paddle the canoe around a bit but decided to return to shore in the face of unfavorable winds and currents. (an inflatable canoe has the aqua-dynamics of a brick). I was so choked I didn't even take a picture to show proof of a (technically) completed bucket list item. I have however obtained the offending part and will hopefully have it installed soon.

A sunset pic or two.

Took these last night. Sorry about the flares (Dave), cheap camera.

Today we left St George Island State Park and are now at the Ho-Hum RV Park in Carrabelle FL. Andy, You may remember this place from about 15 years ago.

We are parked 15 ft from the water.

The main reason we stayed in this area was the Florida Seafood Festival, which started today in Apalachicola. We got there around 4 PM. We were not disappointed. Although there are numerous artists selling their wares, this party is all about seafood!!! 

This is what we brought back to the Unit for dinner tonight and probably tomorrow.

Deep fried clam strips (Bucket List!!),Gator on a stick, Jambalaya, frog legs, a giant crab cake and a Greek salad.

Life is good. Bye for now.

Still on the island

We now have 2 days left here. The reservation was for 5 days. Would probably stay longer but the place is very popular and getting a few additional nights now would be impossible. 
The Florida Seafood Festival starts Friday in Apalachicola (hope I spelled it right), a few miles from here on the mainland, adding to the demand for RV sites. 
We leave the day it starts but we booked 2 nights in a place about 25 miles east of the festival, the Ho-hum RV Park in Carrabelle, FL, so we'll definitely be checking out the festival. 
Apalachicola is a town of 2,500 which is overrun by "tens of thousands" for the festival every year. Sounds like a real blast. 
Incidentally, 90 percent of Florida's oysters come from this area.
The little town of Eastpoint is about 20 minutes from here and has a great raw bar. Darlene had taken care of half the plate before I could get my camera out.

We're going back there today. It's the epitome of a Florida beach bar, even though its not actually on the beach. Must get a picture for you.

And speaking of beaches, took Tara to one on Monday. She didn't know quite what to make of it. She got her feet wet, drank a bit and stuck her nose in a jellyfish (no harm done).
We will take her again today and maybe a ball for her to fetch, ha, ha... Tara doesn't fetch, its beneath her.

It was cloudy yesterday so we didn't take the boat out. Today its going to be 31 degrees and its all ready to go.

Just tied it on the roof. The boat launch is just a mile or two from here.

No shortage of wildlife in the park.These guys are everywhere and you can get within a few feet of them.

There are cormorants here too and supposedly alligators but haven't seen any yet.

And finally, I just had to post this one. The sand is like pavement at the water's edge. You could ride for hours. All you can hear is the surf and the shells crunching under your tires. Gotta love it

Must go now. Its 27 degrees outside and the humidity is at 92. Time to hit the beach.

The Gulf

After 6 days we finally arrived at the Gulf of Mexico at Port St. Joseph. We were able to dodge nearly all the nasty weather over the last 2 days. It rained buckets 2 nights ago while we were parked at Walmart in Troy AL, near Montgomery. A few showers yesterday but mostly sunny and temps in the high 20's.

Our first view of the Gulf.

After Port St. Joseph it was still about another 50 miles to the park. We had to cross 2 very long bridges about 10 miles in total to get to St. George Island State Park.

In Canada we build something like this so we can get to PEI. Americans built this so they can get to the beach!!

This is our spot in the park. Nice pines for shade and you can hear the surf. Total distance to here was 1397 miles.

Went for a walk on the beach yesterday afternoon. Picked out a spot where we will set up our chairs and Umbrella tomorrow and have a beer or two and maybe read a book.
The sand here is very fine and pure white.

Well, that's it for now. Going to check out the boat ramp later today. Hope to cross one or two off the bucket list in the next few days.