Wednesday, December 19, 2001

We got all hooked up and loaded, left home and went to Love's for fuel & to dump tanks.  I drove to Woodville, then Donna drove to Beaumont.  We stopped at the La Welcome Center for lunch in the coach.  Left there about 1pm and got to Baton Rouge about 3:30.

We got to Bay St. Louis, Ms about 6pmand stopped off at the Casino Magic.  Donna lost about $60 and I lost about $15.  We ate a quick bite in the coach and hit the road.  I drove trough Alabama while Donna took a nap.  She missed the tunnel in Mobile.

We arrived t the Florida Welcome Center about 10pm and stayed there overnight.  Trip was right at 525 miles for the day, not bad for 12 hours with lots of stops and a trip to the casino.

Thursday, December 20, 2001

We left the Florida Welcome Center about 8:15and about an hour later came upon a Cracker Barrel.  Really good breakfast, and then went to Wal-Mart across the Freeway in Crestview.  We bought a few things we needed, then back on the Freeway about 11am.

We stopped for fuel about 1:30 at a Flyin J.  Florida has great rest areas and we stopped at several on I-10 and I-75.  Great facilities and a good place to change drivers and take a stretch.  We arrived in Orlando about 6:30, took the I-4 toward Kissimmee, and found a Rest Area a few miles past Kissimmee.  We will stay here overnight, then back to Kissimmee to go to Camping World, then on to Okeechobee tomorrow.

Friday, December 21, 2001

We left the Rest Area about 8am, and headed back to Kissimmee to go to the Camping World.  Absolutely no problem finding the store, and was an easy-in, easy-out access. Kissimmee is a beautiful city and the main road (192) is really nice.  Lots of cheap hotels, it seemed, and its real close to Disney World.  We bought a bunch of stuff ( some of which we needed)  :) and hit the road down the turnpike.  At the first Service Plaza we found a Cin-A-Bon and also bought some Popeye's chicken for lunch later.

We had 'parking lot lunch' in Okeechobee, then headed down 441 around Okeechobee Lake.  We saw lots of RV Parks and Mobile Home parks along the lake.

Donna took a nap, while I drove.  Later, as we crossed I-75 approaching Homestead and Florida City, Donna found a brochure for Southern Comfort RV Park in Florida City, called them, they said they had room, come on in and gave us directions.

At the park, a really nice guy checked us in, gave us 2 back in spots, so we didn't have to un-hook the trailer.  Next door was a little Scotty - 10 feet long camper.  Fellow named Jim lived there and his friend Judy was visiting for the week-end.  After getting aquainted with Jim and Judy, we learned that the park had finger food and entertainment at the Tiki Bar at the park, starting at 6pm.

We me Jim and Judy there, where there was a little 3 piece 'country band'.  They were really pretty good, and even had a 'steel guitar'.  Been a while since we saw one of those.

We had a great time, stayed until about 10pm when the band quit, went back to the coach, and sat around outside visiting with Jim and Judy until about midnight.  We had a great time with some nice folks.

Saturday, December 22, 2001

We got up about 7am, had my coffee and just sat around the table watching the clouds roll by.  Looks like it could be rain toady, but we are only about an hour from our next overnight stay at Key Largo Kampground.  We want to get there early enough to watch the Lufkin Panthers play for the State Championship in the Astrodome at 1pm. Fox Sports SW  will carry the game.

We arrive a KLK about 11:30, after leaving Florida City about 11am.  Only took about 30 minutes to get checked in.  Then another 20 to 30 minutes to back the trailer in, unhook it, then back the motorhome in and get hooked up.  We actually drew a fairly big crowd to watch a couple of 'experts' put this big rig and trailer in a spot built for a smaller unit.  We also had to block an intersection while we did it all, but we only held up a couple of folks for a few minutes.  And, they didn't seem to mind, seemed quite enthralled at my abilities. 

With great directing from Donna and a couple of FRS radios to communicate, we put that big sucker in the spot, perfecting positioned, the very first time.  I almost expected to crowd to burst out in applause !!!

By 12:30, we had finished lunch, had the satellite locked in on Fox SW, and were ready for the ball game.  And what a game it was!  After being tied 24 -24 late in the fourth quarter, Lufkin showed their real talent and won the game 38 -24.

After the game we took off on the bikes, stopped by a bike shop where they rented Harleys.. was really a dump, and dumpy bikes.  We then headed south on US 1, just checking out the sights.  Wound up at the Holiday Isle where Jim and Judy were going today, and found them at a beach party with a Reggae band.  Was fun listened to the reggae music and watching the folks dancing.  We met lady from Port Aransas, traveling with her boy friend on a 36 foot catamaran.  They were going to the Bahamas for the winter.

Later we stopped at Snapper's restaurant for dinner.  Snapper's is located right on a little bay, but it was dark and we couldn't see much.  We had great food, Donna had Lamb Shank and I had Snapper Martinque.  We got back to the coach about 8pm, then walked around the campground for about an hour.  Its a really neat place, with lots of spots on the water.

Sunday, December 23, 2001

Nice day to ride.  We woke up fairly early, Donna fixed oatmeal & sausage.  Scattered clouds today, 78 to 80 degrees, so we took the leathers but never used them.  We rode down the keys, had lunch at a little cafe on Fiesta key.  Donna had grouper sandwich and I had the conch appetizer.  Both were really good.

We continued on south down the Keys to Long Key State Park and checked out the site we will have there on the 25th.  Oh, yeah, almost forgot, we went to John Kennecamp Park in Key Largo before heading south.  This is where Mike goes scuba diving.  Its really a nice place, mostly gravel roads in the campground.

We saw lots of bikes today.  On the way back to the coach we stopped at a Winn-Dixie.  We got some steaks and a few other things.  Back at the coach, we put the steaks on the grill and had a nice steak dinner.  We also visited with a guy going shrimping in his little boat with a drop net.  He said he caught about 100 the night before.

Donna fell asleep on the couch by 8, and I hung around watching TV.  Finally went to bed while watching and old Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra movie.  I feel asleep about the time it was over; I remember the ending, but not what came on afterward.

Monday, December 24, 2001

I woke up about 6am to the sound of rain on the roof.  We left the bikes out last night, so they are wet.  Our plans were to go to the Everglades today.. not sure now.  Right now its about 9am, and seems like its clearing up a little.  Maybe in an hour or so we can leave.

We did leave about 10 am, rode north to Florida City, got gas, then went to the Visitor's Center in Florida City.  Were told it was about 50 miles to Flamingo Center in Everglades.  They ladies told us to turn left at the "Robert is Here" fruit & vegetable stand.  From there we went to the Everglade Welcome Center, spent a while there, then into the park, 38 miles to go.  All sorts of different types of vegetation from pines trees, to sawgrass, to mangrove forest.

We took one break on the way, with the last 10 miles or so were major trees with lots of swamp on both sides of the road.  I saw a BIG alligator right on the side of road, Donna missed it, then I saw another one, and she missed it too.  I finally got her stopped (she was leading), told her about the two gators, and she was miffed that the missed them.

We went on to the Flamingo Center, had a great lunch with Donna having a fish burger, and I had a seafood stew in a hollowed out sourdough bun, which was excellent.  And, the best coffee I have ever had.  We then rode around their campground, huge sites, very few campers, but no hook-ups.  We stopped at the marina and admired a few of the boats there.

We then headed back out of the park, and I led so I could point out any gators we might see.  I had about decided there would not be any, when suddenly there on the left was a pretty big one about 10 - 12 feet long.  I slowed down, pointed, Donna spotted it, and almost got beside herself.   We stopped a little down the road, and Donna insisted on leading and sure enough she spotted another one, even bigger at 12-15 feet long.  She nearly came of her bike in excitement !! She pointed and blew her horn !!  Oops, the horn startled the dang thing, he jumped, turned toward her, but she was gone, and he thought I was supper !!.

 Fortunately, he was too slow, I gunned it, and left his sorry butt on the site, wondering where them dang Harleys with Texas plates came from.

After leaving the park, we spotted lots of 'pickers' picking collards and strawberries.  We stopped at 'Robert is Here', got one of their fruit drinks and visited their turtle farm.  You ever seen a couple of BiG turtles making out?   Then we went on to Florida City, and with over 100 miles since getting gas, we tanked up again.

We took a different road back to Key Largo, across a toll bridge.  We loaded the bikes, tied them down, since we are leaving tomorrow to go to Long Key State Park. 

Later we joined about 40 or so folks and went caroling from about 7 to 8, then a get together at the center.  More singing and story telling.  One lady played a Cello.  She is First Cello player for the Akron Symphony and was really good.

Oh, almost forgot..  Earlier we called Gary's and talked to him and Sister Sharon and Maw.  Then called Dale and Michelle at her mother's.  They called back, and I think were confused about where we were.  We've been thinking about David and Kim, but are sure they are at her parents, so probably will try to catch them tomorrow.  Kevin is probably at home, so will five him a call tomorrow, too.

Its been a fun day with ole Alligator Mama (Donna).

Tuesday, December 25, 2001

We hung around the KLK for the morning till about 11am.  We got everything dumped and unhooked.  Re-connecting the trailer was a breeze.  Donna guided me exactly to the right place.  We left there a little after 11am and 34 miles later were checking in at the Long Key State Park, but had to wait from about 12 to 1pm for the site to be available.  The site was a back-in site so we had to unload the bikes, and un-hook the trailer, then come back and back into the site.  We managed to get set up, just in time for Donna to take a nap.

We left on the bikes about 3:30 heading on further down the Keys.  At Duck Key, we toured the residential area with some fantastic and expensive homes.  We rode on further down south, crossed the 7 mile bridge, spotted a campground, checked it out and decided to mover there tomorrow.  We will be there on the 26th, 27th, 28th, and leave on the 29th.  Will be on 38 miles from Key West and will give us 3 days to explore Key West.

We then headed back to Long Key, stopped in Marathan at Shuckers to have dinner.  After dinner, Donna called Austin as we left the restaurant.  Scott said he was nodding yes to the questions Donna asked him.  Scott said he got a car that he can get in and he was really enjoying it.  Scott didn't ask where we were and didn't volunteer any information.

We headed back to the campground from there, about 16 to 18 miles away.  It was very dark and windy.  Just as we pulled into the campground it came a quick shower, but quit by the time we go to the coach.  We battened everything down & loaded up so we could pull out early.  Just will have to hook up the trailer and load the bikes in the morning.

Right now its about 7:30, Donna is researching Key West, and I am watchinkg John Wayne in McClintock.  Oh yeah, while we were eating Diana called, all is ok, and she will get us a copy of Danny's new song.

Wednesday, December 26, 2001

We woke up first about 5am to the sound of rain on the roof.  Finally about 8am Donna got up, the rain had quit and I started drying off the bikes.  We got un-hooked drove down to get the trailer where we had parked it.  We went back to the site, picked up the bikes, then took off.  We drove about 10 miles when we realized we had now stowed the dish, but no damage.. whew.   We got to the new campground about 10am, unhooked the trailer, then park the coach.

We got everything connected and set up, then unloaded the bikes.  We left for Key West about 11:30, and hit a traffic jam at Deer Key, but after getting through that was smooth riding into Key West.  We had a pretty strong wind from the Gulf and was fairly tough riding, with the wind at about 25 to 30 mph.  In Key West we went to Duval Street, and finally found a place to park.  We walked up and down Duvall Street, bought some shirts, a toy for Austin, and a few other trinkets.

We had a hamburger & conch fritters before we went shopping. We left Duval Street, rode around some, and went to the "Southernmost Point in the US", where we had our pictures made.   By then the sun was setting and we headed back to the campground.  Wind was still very strong, causing us to have to ride leaning into the wind for the entire 38 miles ride back.

After a quick and nice little supper, we just sat around and listened to the wind howling.  Decided if it is still this much wind tomorrow, we might head back north since the campground is allowing us to stay on a day by day basis.

Thursday, December 27, 2001

I woke up abut 6am again this morning, which is getting to be fairly normal for me.  Donna got cold and moved to the couch during the night.  I had left the front heater on, but not the rear one.  Guess she just didn't want to turn it on.

Now its about 7am , sun is coming up, looks like fewer clouds today, but still some wind, and its only about 62 degrees.  We talked to Abe yesterday morning and he said it was 17 there, so I guess 62 ain't all that bad.

Its now about 7:30, temperature is now about 60, sun is fully up, and the wind seems to picking up some.  Next couple of hours we will decide if we are going to stay another day, or head on back north. 

Now its 8:30, sun is shining good, very few clouds here, and wind is not real strong.  We just decided to staly another night and go back to Key West today.

We left about 9:30, still fairly cool, Donna put on her leathers, but I decided to be tough, and just take my leathers.  Tough lasted about 10 miles, and on went the leathers.  We got to Key West about 10:15 and found a great place to park immediately.  We walked down to the train station, got our tickets and left on the 12:00 tour.  It lasted about 1 1/2 hours and covered old town really well.  Back at Duval Street, we shopped around in several places.  Donna loved 'Freddie's Fast Buck', going in the store 3 times!!  She bought mostly Christmas Ornaments at 1/2 price or less.  She also bought some gifts for Cathy, Diana, & Michelle.

We left Key West about 5:45 or 6:00, just getting dark, and caught a couple of drops of rain on the windshields, so we decided to boogie home.  I was leading so I stopped on Big Pine Key (about 30 miles) to see if Donna needed a "P".  Was still getting a few drops of rain, but ole 'Two Drop' said "Lets keep boogeying".  Over the next 10 miles back to the coach we saw 5 cops and they were working the traffic.

This time when we got back to the camp, we stopped at the guard shack at the entrance to check in.  We didn't stop last night and the guard chased us down on his golf cart and chastised us a bit.  We stopped at the office and visited with the guy in charge.  We had met him the other day, a really nice guy.

Back at the coach we planned to grill something on the grill, but it was now sprinkling pretty good, so we just had sandwiches.  It's now about 8:30, and we have decided not to return to Key West tomorrow, having seen most of Key West, and we decided against going to Havana, anyway.  Our plans for tomorrow are to go back to Kissimmee and go back to Camping World for a little more "look see".

Friday, December 28, 2001

Well, today is time to depart the Keys.  We decided yesterday at Key West we had seen most everything, unless we were going to spend time at the Night Life, which we don't do on the bikes.  We were loaded, un-hooked, and hooked up to the trailer by 8:30.  We stopped at Key Largo for more Key Lime stuff, then hit the turnpike at Florida City.  We had smooth sailing through Miami and the other towns around Miami.

We stopped a couple of times at the Travel Plazas, to get diesel, but it was $1.40, so we waited.  The stop was not useless however, as Donna got a whole package of Cin-A-Bons, and we also had lunch at a Burger King.

We boogied on to Kissimmee to Camping World, getting there about 4:15, but since the close at 5pm we had to hurry.  We left there and headed back to the turnpike on 192, through lots of little towns so it was pretty slow.  We made it to I-10 about 9:30 and stopped at a rest area for the night.

Saturday, December 29, 2001

It's now about 8:45, and we are about to hit the road, with Donna driving,  The temperature this morning is about 51 degrees.  Donna commented that a good future trip would be to Tn, NC, SC. and maybe ride the bikes on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We arrived in Tallahassee, about 190 miles from Pennsacola.  There is a lot of Eastbound motorhomes and travel trailers.  Seems like 1 out of 10 vehicles is an RV of some type.  We spotted a sign for Cracker Barrel, but almost never found it, then we couldn't get in the parking lot or anywhere else, either.  Oh Well, will find something on down the road.  We then found a Flyin J close by, so had breakfast there, and then back on the road about 10:30.

From there to Baton Rouge we took turns driving and napping.  I got at least an hour nap, and Donna got a couple hours maybe.  In Baton Rouge, I woke Donna up to confirm that we were just going to go on to Marksville (Casino).   We weren't sure about the direction to take out of Baton Rouge, so asked for help on the CB.  We took I-110 north to Old US 190, crossing the Mississippi on the "OLD" bridge, and I mean OLD!!  What an experience, and very narrow.

After crossing the bridge, we stopped at a Truck Stop, got fuel, and further directions from the lady in the Truck Stop.  We stayed on US 190 for about 10-12 miles, then took LA-1 north towards Marksville.  For about 20 miles or so we drove along some wide river, but I don't think it was the main river channel, probably just and old Mississippi Rive channel.  It was getting dark and hard to see.

We made a turn to take a short-cut, then back on LA-1.  Parts of the road were real straight, and I got in trouble with Donna when I passed a car, and was a little short on passing room.  Actually scared me a bit also.  The remainder of the trip to the Casino was uneventful, but we weren't sure how to get into the RV Park, missed the turn, and had to turn around and come back.  Their park was really a great park, with wide spaces and concrete pad and concrete patio.  The sites were plenty long too, so we didn't even have to un-hook the trailer.

We got dressed, stepped outside, flipped on a light, and the shuttle was there in a few minutes.  We got to the Casino about 10:30 or so, walked around, scoped things out and decided to play awhile.  I found a 'Let It Ride' table and Donna headed for the Slots.  I did ok at first, but after an hour or so, I had lost about $90, so I quit.  I found Donna at the Roulette table, said she had lost $100 on slots, but she got back about $60 of that at the Roulette.

We decided to go eat a bite, went to the Cajun Room.  The food was poor, not bad, just poor.  No salad available, coffee was only warm, the steak was pretty good, but the beans were only warm, and the baked potato was not fully cooked and was cold.

We went back into the Casino, got our VIP cards, and Donna went to the Roulette table, and I just wandered around.  I think she lost maybe $100.  We decided to head back to the coach about 12:30 and headed for the door.  We then decided to play a few 25 cent Slots for awhile.  I had no luck and did just awful losing about $50, BUT....  Donna Got Hot!  She invested about $20 in a Sizzling 7 Bonus machine and won $675.  She was talking to that sucker and that sucker was listening, I guess.   She collected her money, we wandered around a bit, tried a few more machines, then headed home to the coach.

Sunday, December 30, 2001

I got up about 7:30, after only 6 hours sleep.  Donna finally got up about 9, and fixed a great breakfast of Oatmeal, Sausage, and Toast, plus another Cin-A-Bon for her.  She loves them suckers.  She told she didn't think she wanted to go back to the Casino, afraid she might just give a bunch of her winnings back to them.  I told her that suited me, we could just go home, that I figured she was about ready to see Austin anyway.  She said Yep, she sure was.

We had not even hooked up to power last night, so with the TV, coffee pot, oven going we ran out of battery power, and had to start the Generator for a while.  We left shortly thereafter, and headed home, stopping at Bryce's, the restaurant at Toledo Bend for a late lunch, then headed home. 

Until next time.... Cheers