2022 Florida/Gulf Coast Adventure

 Friday, April 8 We had quite the adventure today.  This bus trip is another of Renie's bucket list ventures.  Of course mine to now that I know about it.  We were off at dark thirty to Oak Alley Plantation, located about 90 miles from New Orleans.  It was established/built by a pretty wealthy owner in the 1837. It took 2 years to build, measured over 11000 sq ft.    He had bought into over a 100 slaves, gave them a job to build this house.  He also gave them almost freedom by giving them bank accounts, credit, and bank money. But of course, they were not free.  He built this house on large acreage sugar cane property.  Not sure if it was called a farm or ranch. The house property covered 25 acres.  Full size oak trees numbering 28.   The trees are 200 years old.  Not sure I can fathom how these were transported and planted.  His net worth was about 37 million when he died.  He dies young of gout.  He y...

 Thursday, April 7 Just got back from doing a tourist city bus trip to the French Quarter of New Orleans.  Tons of history of the city, Katrina, streets, eateries, booze.  It took over 4 hours that included many stops, a bakery for Beignets, a rum distillery, etc.  The tasting of of the rum products included coffee which I had.  Renie order the Beignets and I actually ate one.  Good, but like most pastry's, I won't have again.  The guide took us down to the the heavily damaged area of the flood.  It is mostly cleaned up now, but could happen again. I got a look at the original engineering of the wall design and I am surprised it lasted as long as it did.  Basic civil engineering practices were compromised for cost.  Too bad.  They might get it right the second time. To a tune of several billion dollars.   We ate lunch at Napoleon House.  Waited in line for about 30 minutes. Their specialty are sandwiches, signature is...

 Wednesday April 6 Made it to New Orleans.  Staying at New Orleans RV park and marina.  Nice park.  Right on the water.  About 5 miles from down town.  We are taking two tours, one tomorrow and one Friday.  First one will be a tour of the town and surrounding area, Friday will be a plantation tour.   Weather finally straightened up and it is less windy, 80 degrees, but 70% humidity.  Other than stupid drivers that CANNOT figure out to enter on to a freeway, the trip was uneventful.  We decided to stop at the Jefferson Davis Plantation.  Amazing is all I can say.  Learned some history that I did not know, but would have if I had read up on him first.  He was an engineer, politician, president, and finally a pauper.   This is interesting. they did not have crown moldings, so this is all painted to look like it.  The last owner, daughter of Jefferson

 Monday April 4 Writing this on Tuesday AM.  Yesterday showed again just what Mother Nature can thro at us. Heavy cross winds, lots of rain, super high seas.  We are near Mobile, Al at a camp called Shady Acres.  Nice but sparse camp site, but we are only looking for power and water. We found out how to use a gas ap called Mudflap.  It has save us .30 to .60 cents per gallon each time we use it.  Not all stations accept it, so we have to look for it, and Renie has finally figured it out. We had planned to visit the USS Alabama in Mobile but the weather stopped us.  The road leading into it are right next to the ocean of course.  The winds were coming off shore and close to high tide had seas poring over the highway.  Of course, it will be closed on Tuesday as well. But, we did make to a restaurant that we heard about called Felex.  Specialty is oysters.  I am getting them as often as I can while we are here.  Renie had a plate ...

 Saturday and Sunday we spent near the MH doing MH things dinner and watching NASCAR.  Headed out Monday towards the West. Date is April 4.  Staying tonight at a Harvest Host at the car museum in Tallahassee, F.  Nice place, not cost to stay overnight at no cost.  Tomorrow will try to be at the USS Alabama and Thomas Jefferson house.  No idea where we will be spending the night.

 Friday, April Fools Today was a relaxing day.  Our MH generator was acting up with what sounded like it was running out of fuel.  I order a new filter from Amazon and it was delivered yesterday. It quit raining so I lifted the front of the rig and installed the new filter.  That seemed to work.  The generator fired right up and ran for about 20 minutes without dying.  This seems to be a great fix.   In the mean time, Space X launched a rocket.  We were able to witness the launch from our camp.  My very first rocket launch! Outstanding.  Here are some pictures.  Lots of over cast.  And a little devil that is just right outside of our camp.

 Thursday, March 31 Daytona!!!!!, We were on our way from South Florida to Titusville when we saw a sign that indicated Daytona was only 40 miles further up the highway.  So, we passed our off ramp to Titusville and headed to the Big D.  This track is HUGE. The track is the second longest of the NASCAR circuit.  It was built in the 50's, opened up in '58 with the first race and continues to entertain till today. We took a tour on the track. Man, I have been watching NASCAR since I was about 16-p years old.  I knew that track had some steep corners, but 41 degrees is huge.  And the starting line is 18 degrees.  On TV, it looks flat.  We took some pictures, but the track parameters still cannot be appreciated.  The seats are very steep, with the seats next to the track the cheapest at around $100. The seats at the top are over $1000, the suits are over $10000 and up.  I will stick to the TV. An interesting tid bit....NASCAR does not own th...