Dried out from the rain and sad our Broncos lost, we had a simple breakfast and packed up the tent. We bid farewell to our RV neighbors and made our way to the panhandle of Florida.
We met one of my mom’s close friends and her husband. We caught up at a great brewery, then proceeded to their beautiful home. The dogs got to know each other and we walked the beach, explored their haunts and had a delicious homemade dinner. I had some of my best sleep of the trip and the remaining days consisted of bike rides, hikes, beach walks, great food, and most importantly fantastic friends with great conversation. I don’t know how many times I can repeat how grateful I am for the amazing people in our life, but I’m certainly not done yet.
After a couple solid nights of sleep and fantastic conversation, we made it to Alabama!
We found a nice campground in Stockton, Alabama called Live Oak Landing on the Tensaw River. We arrived after dark, but thankfully the campground host was waiting with his 10 of his closest friends around the fire. He drove us to our spot and we were the only folks in the primitive campground! I think our standards of what constitutes winter helped to get us quite a bit of privacy in the south. We had some wildlife friends hanging in the bushes as we set up camp, we had a simple dinner (olives, cheese, and salami), and then we fell asleep. We awoke to a HUGE primitive campground, completely empty. Perfect for Bee, she chased sticks and we got her nice and tired for our tour of Mobile, Alabama.
First stop, Cotton State BBQ!
When we first arrived we were one of two folks, but by the time we headed out, this place was packed. Delicious BBQ, but most importantly…the banana pudding. To this day I have become obsessed with banana pudding thanks to the south. If I lived there, I’d easily put on a solid 50 pounds thanks to banana pudding. How many more times can I say banana pudding? Not enough. I still dream of this. Literally.
With full bellies, we decided to check out the USS Alabama (battleship!) and USS Drum (submarine!). These tours were probably some of our favorites. Your heart just has to go out to these naval men who defended our country and as engineers, we were just astounded by the intricacy of these ships.
And so begins an onslaught of photos…
From Mobile we headed to camp in Desoto National Forest in Mississippi.
The Desoto forest contains an old WWII prison camp where they held some captured Nazis that has been turned into a free campground. So of course we decided to stay there! Not much was left except the concrete ammunition bunkers. But you never know whats in the bushes…
We found a cool campsite by the lake that said: “Beware of Alligator”. We assumed that meant there was one lonely alligator in the lake, but made sure to give him or her plenty of buffer. Pretty sure it’s safe to say the sign should have said “Beware of Alligators“. Nonetheless, we didn’t have any sightings. We got to this camp fairly early cause rain was in the forecast. It started to get pretty heavy when we rolled in. We threw our shells on and got to setting up the tent. Thankfully, this has become a choreographed dance, and in no time we were covered, enjoying some wine, and playing games. We went to bed to be woken up by an interloper, a dude in a van that rolled in at about 3 am. He proceeded to toss everything in his van outside and after about an hour of shenanigans was finally quiet. I had a hell of a time getting back to sleep, but Tony was happily snoring next to me. We woke up (one of us perky, one of us pooped) and drove to another food recommendation, Leetha’s BBQ.
At this point, I’m convinced I had put on 20 pounds. We were embracing all that southern, heavy food. We still had another day of heavy rain in the forecast and made our way to Louisiana, putting up camp in
Fontainebleau State Park just on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. We didn’t let the rain hold us back! We even found a wild boar!
Tony wanted to give me a tour of New Orleans. He had worked on a portion of levee after Hurricane Katrina. So we plotted our path to the city. I, of course, insisted on crossing the causeway. This bridge is crazy!
We continued on the engineering tour, Tony’s levee!
Then we were off to lunch for some Po’ Boys at Parkway and migrated through the French Quarter. We found the house Tony had stayed in while we was working on the levee.
Insert argument here. I’m not going to get into the details, but just letting you all know we’re not perfect creatures on this journey. Tony knows what he did. Hahahahahah! No, but really, it takes two to tango, and we got a little feisty. Let’s just say there was mud involved and leave it at that.
Post-fight, we made our way to Oak Alley plantation, and while it was beautiful, it’s marred by its history of enslavement. There was a specific tour of the slave quarters and the guides do a great job of trying to show both sides of the lifestyle at this place.
After the tour, we drove to Palmetto Island State Park and just fell in love with the swamp here! This campground was really fantastic. We even made it into the “Palmetto Pal’s” newsletter! We walked and canoed, caught up on laundry, and generally enjoyed this stunning place.
The canoe trip was full of ridiculous memories. First, when we rented the canoe, got to the canoe, and realized we forgot our paddles. Under normal circumstances, this would not be an issue, but we were walking everywhere, and about 20 minutes away from the office. Tony hitched a ride from some nice folks and ran back to the canoes.
Then, we had to get Bee into the boat. She didn’t really understand the concept of swamp. Most of the water is covered by vegetation, and so when we got her onto a rocky boat, she decided to quickly exit and to her surprise, leaped right into the lake. Shocked, she made her way back to land and was forced back onto the canoe, quite unwillingly. Some folks across the lake from us got to watch the show and were thoroughly amused.
And then we saw the alligator. Tony had been notified by the couple that kindly drove him to the office to get our missing paddles where said alligator was located. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t share this information with me until we were right next to the thing. Okay, maybe 20 feet away, but still. He tried to convince me to paddle closer but I refused. We got the best picture we could. Also, we are not the most adept canoe-ers.
You can barely see him tucked away just at the edge of the trees.
This long-tailed dude was living probably only a mile from us. Oh well, watcha gonna do? When we came back down the river he was still there, and when Tony went for a walk the next day, he was still there. We left wondering if he was dead, but found out later from a friend that he was likely hibernating and that alligators can stay in place for months at a time. Here’s what a quick google search taught me: “Alligator Hibernation. When it gets cold in the winter, alligators slow down. Below 70 degrees F or so they stop feeding, and when it gets much colder, alligators dig out a den in the bank of a pond or river and go dormant until it warms up again. Alligators can even survive freezing conditions. ” Okay, so fine, we could’ve maybe gotten a little closer.
Next up, dolphin sitings (or lack thereof) and Christmas in the Lone Star State!
"Purposefully Unrushed" 
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