Bailey

Cramped spaces but a picturesque park.

They say, in Florida, where there is water there are gators.

Allan on patrol

Gators = zero    Fancy birds = galore

We are learning a thing in these parks are jams, so we’ll go

Tropic Star was Rock & Roll, this one more country.  Not a country fan, hot tub here we come.

Travel day!   Wake up to frost Goodbye Cottondale.   Goodbye to Bobour favourite Love’s

287 mile, 4h drive time, starting mileage 63,007km, leave at 848a

Hello Bushnell!  and the Paradise Oak Resort

Hum, a little more like a parking lot than a resort…

Console ourselves with

Monster Truck day!!!

Don has another client coming at 1, Allan decides we’ll go over and watch his run then Allan will go.

Excitement rules! First walk the track to learn where to goNext sign your life away…

Suit up, climb on board.

Instructions under way

And Allan is off…

Per tradition, drivers sign the truck.

Next stop

Meet another sweet character!​

Last fire for a bit, next park doesn’t allow them.

This is a cute park; no pool or hot tub but paddle boats, corn hole and other games.  The major attraction however is, Radical Racing!  What’s that?? You drive Monster Truck!

Start the day with a tour of the park.  This is the smallest camp we’ve stayed at with 24 sites.  Getting our 10k daily steps will be challenging.

Vonda, the park’s fabulous owner hooks us up with free fire wood and a mat for outside Bailey.  Some of the other campers.                      The resident horses

Caution! Some of the devastation left behind by Hurricane Michael

Vonda stayed, in her camper,waiting out the storm for 8 hours.  Must have been, beyond terrifying.

The neighbour loads his vehicle on this contraption and hauls his 5th wheel. Would love to see them on the roadMore bunnies 

This is the Monster Truck.  Vonda tells us we should have a chat with site 13 as they have  driven already.

Site 13, aka Joan walks by our site and fills us in on what to expect.

This, barely there lane is named!

Viewing Bailey from above lane

Hangman tree.  Now on the real quest! Remember no wine at Walmart.  Google spirit stores, one each way on the highway but the walk is 45m and looks scary with no sidewalks.  Maybe the Love’s  on the corner, across the street carries wine. First we encounter side of the road boiled peanuts.  Will pick some up on our way back.

At Love’s, “no” they do not have wine only beer.  The associate says there is a spirit store 6 minutes down the road – 6 minutes walking?  Oh no, driving.  We say we are walking, she says “I’ll get my GM, Bob, to drive you.”  “No, we’re good”  She gets Bob, “sure” he says, we say again “no it’s OK we don’t want to impose”  “No imposition, I won’t mind getting away for a bit”  Off we go in his shining Jetta, aka wine mobile!!6 minutes down the road is the spirit store but….  it opens at 11a and it’s only 1045a.  We say it’s OK let’s go back – no there is another spirit store Bob knows will be opened.  Off we go, this one was another 30m out.  We feel bad for putting Bob through this but it was interesting learning about his Love’s employment.  Such a good family owned company to work for!  We get there, make our purchase which includes this big guy Bob even drives us back to Bailey. Gotta love small town people hospitality!

We have dinner 

Then a fire 🙂Tomorrow will be road side, boiled peanut run and better yet Monster Truck drive day!

 

 

 

Travel day to Cottondale, Fl.  We crossed 4 States in 1 day.

Water everywhere

First state Louisiana,  second state Mississippi,  And then!!  More water        Alabama (missed welcome sign)   This is #LoveDowntownMobile

Oh no!  Coming up too quickly a tunnel, the George C. Wallace Tunnel.Allan dislikes tunnels as much or more, than I dislike narrow bridges. Allan “Are we too high?”  My thought is – if it’s not marked we fit.  A tractor trailer races to the tunnel.  We know we are good.  Turns out, no concern required!

 

We made it through! Next up FloridaThe Welcome Center is huge! I thought one of us took a photo of the building but apparently not.

Allan gets to update our travel map as it’s Bailey’s first time in Florida.Some excitement on the road.  Not captured in the photo but the guy is in handcuffs and there is a sniffer dog at the back of the “suspect” vehicle.

Starts raining at 118p.

Allan’s preferred cruising speed is 65mph – best fuel economy.  It is, very strange, when an escorted wide load passes us.

We stop in Chipley’s Walmart to stock up. on produce and wine.  We take note of the “No Over Nite Parking” sign.  This is the worst Walmart we’ve ever been in.  Little produce, many empty bins, no wine, they did have beer which we didn’t need.  Plus side – we got a rotisserie chicken for dinner.

15 minute drive from here to our next stay, HitchinPost Corral and Campground RV Park.

The road in, still raining

Love the entrance.

First rain set up 🙁 

Set up almost complete; still raining so flag out tomorrow.

 

 

It’s Mardi Gras Parade day!

Back peddle a bit these are the actual boiled peanuts

But first must share the story of our across the road neighbours.  The gentleman comes over to say “Hi Mary-Ann” Me; deer in the headlights!! Him sensing this, “You don’d remember me”? Oh no who is this??  Fortunately he didn’t string us along much longer and revealed he saw our Follow Us lettering viewed our blog and therefore though it a perfect opportunity mess with us.  Which he did perfectly!

I was so frazzled I didn’t catch his name. Meet again, this jokster! says his name is Whitney (turns out Whitney Houston clouded my name judgement) his wife’s name is Michael or you know, Mike. I never heard of a female Michael, him messing with me again? Next day, a TV show I’m watching,  one of the female contestant’s name is Mike. Now I’m more confused, Whitney are you messing with me AGAIN 🙂

Back to the parade!​

Forth coming casualty!!!

Result

Got the goodies!

Hot tub then fire time. Fire

“Would you like different awning colour”   “Yes that would be nice”

Whoops not to be…  where the heck is that sweet spot!

Awning 1 – Allan 0  lol   Allan did get them to turn off.

Wake up to dark and chilly conditions!  We’re in Ponchatoula. Where is this warmth they speak of?

Find this awesome card in my email

Then this wonderful voice mail.

Weather is co-operating today.  Looking out of a side window

Difference a day makes.

Today’s treat! Never before had boiled peanuts, aka caviar of the South.When we find something new we think share it with our kids but whoops our DIL, Megan is allergic to peanuts.  We are not trying to make her ill.

Google search = can we cure her??  If so, we can all go to Big Bad John’s  next time we’re in Victoria.  Taste is similar to mashed potatoes.

Allan made a super spicy, delicious wing (my favourite) dinner.  Should not have gobbled it so quick as no photos. 

Ended the day at the hot tub.

Another birthday done.

Unfortunately, the forecasters were correct and it poured and poured today. It woke me up at 335a.  All day it fluctuated between showers, heavy rain and torrential rainfall.

We passed the time playing crib, (Allan was today’s champion) and snacking on a #OhSnapPickles    

Puddles and mini lakes galore.

Just for fun…  Accurate for Allan & myself 🙂

Allan is enjoying the “Amber” beer selection availableWe did make it to the hot tub 🙂

Forecast is better for tomorrow.  Fingers crossed.

We are happy to be leaving this resort and it’s well drilling noises. Fingers crossed we love Reunion Lake RV Resort.  We pull out at 745a – 61,951 km.  It’s a 5h51m drive. We try to stop every 2 hours for a break so that with the

traffic we encounter, like this bridge one lane only, will likely make it a 7ish hour trip.Back in Louisiana

Bailey peeking…

Get set up at Reunion Lake RV Resort

Weather still dreary but it is a nice park, complete with swim up bar but that’s not open till summer.   Love the hot, hot tub!

Side bar…  Used car sales + technology = Carvana The company is known for its car sized vending machines, and in 2018 it was reported to be the fastest growing used car dealer in the United States. I’m fascinated with their vending machines.

Closest we have is List Auto.  Not quite the same.

It’s leave South Padre Island and head to Lake Conroe / Houston North KOA which is in Montgomery, TX.  Just a little confusing. We plan to overnight in Walmart, Victoria, TX as we did on the way down but we leave earlier than expected after saying our farewells.  Leaving SPICauseway

We see the marine yard we saw from the water yesterday from the road today.We drive by Victoria about 1230 I suggest we  keep going to maybe El Campo.  Allan asks how safe that town is.  We decide to keep going to the RV resort.

We pass through an inspection station where they search for illegal aliens and also use drug sniffer dogs. 

Next fun?  Tolls!! Sam Houston Tollway. We don’t know who that is but Allan says he must be rich!  We cross 3 tolls in about an hour each $3.75

Today’s history lesson = Sam Houston!

We arrive at the KOA at 520p.  The office closes at 5 so we do after hours check in.  Across from our is a structure that has a relentless diesel hum sound with an occasional thump when they pound a pipe into the ground. As seen from Bailey’s spot

Surely this must stop at night.  We prepare and have dinner.  We check out the hot tub – the gates are locked!  We settle on having a fire.  What do you see in the flame?

The noise goes on ALL night.  Our 7 night stay got shortened to 2.

Everyday can’t be a gem.