We are in Florida! 2 hours north of Tampa Bay.....and, we've seen SO MUCH over the past week......here's a recap (sorry for the length):
4 DAYS, 8 STATES and 3 TIME-ZONES. FUN!
A Great Weekend Visit with Mum and Rick in Laughlin, Nevada
I love how the truck ahead of us, under the "Vehicles Not Advised" is a Rebel truck!
The plan was to meet Mum and Rick at noon-ish in Laughlin. We arrived on time. We called their cell and their hotel room (which they had checked into), but couldn't get ahold of them. We were worried that they were having issues with the poor weather driving, but no, they had been in the casino for 3 hours already and didn't have cell phone reception. We should have taken this as our first sign of how the weekend was to go.We had a blast......and 3 words sum up the weekend completely - BUFFETS, SLOT MACHINES! Steve and I donated several hard-earned dollars to Don Laughlin's coffers and had a helluva time keeping up with Mum and Rick. Seriously - if I see another buffet in the next while I think I'll be sick!
Tuesday - Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico - 3 States in One Long Day
We high-tailed it out of Nevada feeling poorer and exhausted! We can't live the Casino Life forever :) Happily, we brewed coffee, loaded up the truck with snacks and dogs and started east. Arizona was sunny and fairly relaxing. Steve did most of the driving. As you can see, he "mostly" stayed awake while screaming down the highways at 100 km/hr.
Safety First! See the speedometer reading???? 100 km/hr
Ahh! He's fallen asleep!
Add an hour - Arizona is on Mountain Time.
We made a stop at the Petrified Forest National Park to stretch our legs and walk around on the bright red dirt. Very cool.
What did traveling people do before Google Maps? I mapped out our route with estimates of time and fuel cost before we left Reno, and you know, they are very accurate and helpful!
We drove through Flagstaff, didn't get to see Sedona, but may stop there on our way back. Next state is New Mexico. The ground/dirt is very red here and the highway is completely lined with native outposts. signs and teepees boasting "Indian" Crafts, Art, Blankets, etc. It looks like a really interesting place to stop and shop. Unfortunately, we weren't planning to divert our course to explore, but Santa Fe was fairly close to the north, and Roswell to the south. Cowboys vs Aliens? Next time, perhaps.
Crazy names of places - as we travel, we either see very interesting and unique names.....or we see the same name over and over again. An example of the latter, Martin Luther King Road/Highway/Street/Way/Path/Trail. He is honoured in many many places. Less numerous names are towns or cities named, for example, "Truth and Consequences", New Mexico, "Sweetwater," Texas, "Pensacola," Florida, and MY FAVOURITE......"Johnstonville," NV which is literally the NEXT TOWN OVER from "Susanville," Nevada. Seriously! I have 2 towns, side-by-side. I'm sure I could convince them to hold an annual parade from Susanville to Johnstonville in my honour. Ha! That sounded like Steve talking, didn't it??? Oh, and lastly, in Texas, there was a sign on one of the last freeway exits in the state, to "Big Sandy Gilmer." Ha ha! That's all it said....not sure exactly what it meant. This is hilarious because we have a good friend named, Sandi Gilmer.....but she isn't big at all!
So, we stopped at a tiny Casino RV park, for the night, just outside Albuquerque. I love saying the word Albuquerque. Great word. The people at the RV Park registration desk didn't know what to do with us, so they gave us a key to the power box and told us just to go ahead and park. We hooked up to power, stayed the night, then went to pay in the morning and they still didn't know what to charge or what to do with us. A free night for us! Yay! And, no, we didn't go into the casino.
Wednesday - New Mexico and Texas - Yeehaw!
Yuuuuup! We crossed, the Rio Grande, we did! Not heeding the warning of our friend, Libby, we took the northern route through Texas as the mountains of Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico slowly descended into central Texas.
Add an hour - Central Time Zone
It's true, everything IS bigger in Texas. This has to be the most fiercely patriotic state in the union. Almost every building has a U.S. flag, Texas flag or Texas star (The Lone Star State), or all of the above, attached to their property.
Flags
Billboards
Bridges, and more!
Poor Dogs - Loki and Klio didn't like Texas at all! On 2 of their dog walks (bathroom breaks) they both stopped dead (where they usually run wild and free) and just looked up at us with very sad puppy dog faces. We kept calling them to come, but they barely took a step, then painfully limped a step or two. Honestly, they were trying to walk with only one paw on the ground at a time and seemed like they couldn't put the others down. Well - super thorns were the answer. These little beasts were stabbing both dogs, multiple times, on their paws. Poor things. We pulled them out, the first time, and got them back to the truck. The second time, we noticed right away that they were in distress, so we carried them back to the RV. We must have looked like idiots to the truck stop truckers for carrying our 80 lb dogs back from their dog walks. Steve carried Loki and I carried Klio (barely).
Big Hat, No Cattle! Texans love to boast about their largest this, and their biggest that. The highways are full of signs saying as much. And, Texas BBQ is king around these parts. One of the "baddest" places (in Amarillo) offer a 72 oz steak.....and if you eat the whole thing within an hour, it's on the house! Good God. The state is full of pick-up trucks, Cadillacs, and BBQ shacks - it's easy to throw cliche's around. I'm looking forward to returning to Texas when we drive home, to sample the food. Just one BBQ rib and I'll be a happy girl.
Big Sky - those who have traveled or lived in the Prairies know what I mean, but Texas CAN boast its BIG SKY. It's beautiful. The landscape goes on for miles.
It was 1 am by the time we decided to stop driving, so we found a spot amongst the truckers at a roadside rest stop halfway between Wichita Falls and Fort Worth. To give you an idea of how much fun it is to stay at a rest stop.......the trucks leave their rigs running all night so that they can put heat on in their sleeper bunks and/or refrigerate their trailer contents. Trucks are also coming and going all night. So, it's quite loud. Then, because we cannot open the slides of the trailer when we are at rest stops (we have to stay within the width of a truck/trailer parking spot), we literally have approx 75 square feet of living space for Steve, myself and both dogs - including the size of our bed. We are literally tripping over each other. BUT - we have a bed, a toilet, a fridge, a sink and minimal heat. It's a cold way to travel, but it's kinda fun too. Ironically, we both managed a pretty good night's sleep too.
We were trying to make some time during our Texas drive and the traffic in Fort Worth and Dallas slowed us down, so we only managed a small taste of the good life!
Thursday - Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama - Y'all come back now, y'hear!
We tried out our very bad southern accents all day......so fun! One of the gas station ladies called me Darlin' twice and Steve was the recipient of many y'alls. The hillbilly lady buying snuff (5 cans of it) at the truck stop almost had me in stitches as I was telling Steve in the truck about her accent. Now, I know it isn't nice to talk about southern folk this way, but I have to admit, people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama DO have a sound all their own. And they say funny things like: "Happier than a buzzard on a gut truck," or "Sweatin' like a w*#@&! in church." We heard these phrases on the RADIO! Ha ha!
Louisiana - the state I was most excited to see! We crossed the border in the afternoon on our way to Shreveport. It "felt" different being in Louisiana. More small homes, cabins, etc. rather than huge cattle ranches and expensive, immaculate buildings (as in Texas). And, their welcome sign was also written in French, of course. The weather wasn't nice, it was rainy, but it still felt good to be so close to New Orleans. We'll be stopping there (and Baton Rouge) on the way back.
We're going to try to travel through Mississippi in the daylight next time to see it all. Carrying on, we drove into Alabama! Alabama the beautiful! I had the country music on, and we drove until 1 am again. Pulled into a roadside truck stop (a huge one) approximately 1 hour east of Mobile, Alabama and crawled into bed again. Trucker's Tired Bum. Stiff and sore.....ready for bed.
Friday - Alabama to Florida - we made it!
The Gulf of Mexico - Ocean! So awesome!!! We finally were able to wear summer clothes today!
Not having been in high school for several years, we definitely have had a lesson in U.S. geography over the past few days. Well, it seems that Alabama was ripped off (in my opinion) as very little of the state borders the ocean. Mobile is a very interesting city as it's quite industrial and also has a battleship tour in port. Very similar to that in Pearl Harbour, but smaller, where tourists are able to board a ship and learn about the U.S. Navy. Anyway, very little of the state is "waterfront" because Florida wraps around the Gulf.
The Sunshine State! Add an hour - Eastern Time.
Steve and I are sure we saw Maverick, Goose, Ice Man and other Top Gun pilots along the Pensacola coast line!
Pinch me, I cannot believe we are in Florida!
Drove through Tallahassee and made it just past Gainsville. We are staying tonight in a nice RV park in Alachula, Florida. We haven't seen very many trees in the past few weeks, so this park is perfect for us. Set in a little forest, it's beautiful in here. Tomorrow we will look for an RV spot in Orlando and stay for a while. I can't tell you how good it felt to open up the RV, slide the walls out and pour myself a beer. We had popcorn for dinner.
And, the best part....the adventure isn't over yet. Looking forward to exploring Florida. Such a beautiful place (so far)!
Chattahoochee River, nearby - that's right!
We miss you all tons. I hope you were able to make it through this post.
xoxoxox S&S (L&K)
