The last leg of our journey started out with a stop to see
New Orleans. We stayed at Bayou
Segnette State Park in Westwego on the southwest side of New Orleans. It had been closed due to historical flooding
and just reopened for camping the day that we got there. Instead of driving into downtown New
Orleans, we took the ferry across the Mississippi River into the city and took
a hop-on-hop-off bus tour for the day.
We especially enjoyed the walking tour of the French Quarters. We stopped and ate a delicious Muffuletta sandwich
for lunch while listening to a great Dixie Land Band that was reminiscent of hearing
Louie Armstrong himself and we ate beignets at Cafe’ du Monde as well. It was really interesting to hear the stories
about the houses and the history of this place.
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| on the ferry to New Orleans |
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| one of the many old cemetaries |
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| this house in the French Quarters is on the market for $2.5 million.... anyone interested??? |
As we were getting ready to leave New Orleans and make our
way to Florida, Hurricane Matthew was
also making its way to Florida. We
thought that it would be fine to keep on schedule and head to the Florida
Panhandle because the hurricane was heading up the east coast and we would be
safe on the west coast. What we hadn’t
figured on was that all of the people living and camping on the east coast of
Florida would be evacuating to the exact same area that we were heading
for. Once we got into the panhandle we
couldn’t find a campground with available campsites anywhere! After 4 1/2 hours of driving around and calling campgrounds to no avail, in desperation, Jean asked one of the campground owners if she knew of ANY
possible place that we could try rather than resorting to finding a Walmart
parking lot to stay in. Luckily, she
told us that we might possibly find a site at Vortex Springs campground because
it is relatively unknown except to divers and tent campers. It turned out to be a nice place and even in
October people diving there.
By nightfall, this campground too was filling up with hurricane evacuees.
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| Vortex Springs |
We stayed there for 3 nights, until Hurricane Matthew had
headed up the eastern coastline, and then we were lucky to get a beautiful
place for 3 nights at St. Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach. We thoroughly enjoyed this place with its
palms, palmettos, deer with their fawns, and snow-white sand beach stretching
for miles along the crystal clear teal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Ahhhhhh,
Florida!!!
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| our campsite at St.Andrews State Park |
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| Jerome birdwatching on our hike |
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| sugar-white sandy beach and crystal clear blue water |
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| beautiful Gulfcoast! |
From the beach we traveled a bit inland to Newport, just 20
minutes south of Tallahassee. We stayed
in the Newport County Park which is just across the road from the entrance to
St. Mark’s Wildlife Refuge. (Thanks
Gaila and Dick for letting us know about this place.) It’s a nice park along the St. Mark’s River.
It was a real treat to see the monarch
butterflies that were just getting to the refuge to start their migration
across the Gulf of Mexico. We got boiled peanuts, Tupelo honey, spent the day enjoying the wildlife refuge,
and walked across the bridge next to the campground to have a seafood dinner at
Outz’s Oyster Bar…. fun, fun!
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| Newport County Park campground |
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| one of the Pileated woodpeckers "working" on the tree next to our camper |
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| just one of the many gorgeous Monarch butterflies at St.Mark's Wildlife Refuge |
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| Bald eagles and their nest at the refuge |
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| as I said before...... ahhhhh Florida! (in the refuge) |
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| the lighthouse in St.Mark's Wildlife Refuge |
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| Jerome had to do some hiking in the swamps to get this reflection picture but it was worth it! |
Our very last stop was for 4 nights at Manatee Springs State
Park near Chiefland. This was another
beautiful place but oh so different from the beachy St. Andrew campground. This campground rivaled Palmetto Island State
Park in Louisiana. It was woodsy with
large oak trees, hanging Spanish moss, and deer and armadillo that walked
through our campsite each day. We went
kayaking in the beautiful Manatee Springs out into the Suwannee River, both
edged by swamps and banks lined with cypress knees and trees. It was a perfect place to end our camping
journey. Until then our return home was
thought to be bittersweet, but by the last night there we were relaxed and
rejuvenated and ready to be home…. to our “Venice” home!
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| armadillos everywhere |
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| Jerome - kyaking in Manatee Springs |
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| ....and out into the Suwannee River |
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| a view of 1/2 in and 1/2 out with our water camera in the springs |
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| Cypress trees and knees along the springs edge |
Jean was only home for a few days before she headed up to
Atlanta for a family medical emergency.
Jerome and Carly “held down the fort” for the next week. All is well now and it is really great to be
home in Venice again, all three of us!
Carly has adjusted beautifully to this “bigger house” and has turned it
into one big playroom, Jerome is
already making changes to our HiLo and planning our next trip, and Jean has
been working in the yard to make up for the 5 months of “neglect” and
overgrowth and just “letting down” a bit.
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| Home Sweet Home! |
We traveled a little over 12,000 miles, through 23
incredible states, and camped in 48 places.
We were able to visit with so many dear friends and family and we have met so
many wonderful people along the way.
The places we have seen will stay embedded in our memories forever. We feel so very blessed to have been able to
make this wonderful journey and to return home safely. Thank you so much to each and every one of
you who have followed along with us and especially thank you to those of you
who made comments and gave us suggestions on our blog along the way.
'Until next time,
Jerome and Jean
