HOUSTON…HOME BASE FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS

Friday, October 30 – Our destination on Wednesday was Beaumont, Texas. Due to a forecast of rainy days along the Gulf Coast, we had changed our plans of spending time at several of our favorite Gulf beaches and decided instead to make a dash to Houston. We called the Elks Lodge in Houston and discovered all the paved sites were full until Thursday so we decided to stop for a night in Beaumont, Texas. The Elks Lodge there has six sites.

Marsha’s day of nightmares…bridges, bridges, bridges.

By the way, Louisiana did not surprise us by repairing I-10 while we were gone! What a disaster! That road has been a mess ever since we first traveled to Texas back in 2007. We've tried several other routes through Louisiana but haven't found any road in much better condition.

We had another goal and that was to get the 5^th wheel inspected. Texas recently changed the licensing requirements for trailers. If it weighs over 4,000 pounds, it must be inspected before renewing your license plates. We had already renewed our license plates on line. Since our trailer was out of state, the inspection is waved until you return to Texas. Our hope was to get the inspection completed before arriving in Houston and getting all comfy in our site. We sure didn't want to hook-up and pull-out in a couple days only to get inspected.

Searching on the internet we found Trailer Hitch Depot on the feeder road of Interstate 10, the route we would be taking in Beaumont. We called to confirm they could do a 5^th wheel inspection and headed in that direction. It was an easy in and out stop. Although we had to wait around about a half-hour for our turn and to complete the paperwork, the inspection itself only took about two minutes . All the fellow inspecting did was check that all lights worked, and that the vehicle was properly registered to us via the Internet. We paid our $7 to Texas and were on our way.

Unfortunately, upon reaching the Beaumont Elks Lodge, we were disappointed. They only had one site available. It was muddy due to all the rain Texas has been experiencing and was going to be a challenge to get situated into. After discussing it for about one minute, we said the heck with it and chose instead to drive the additional two hours to Houston. We were disappointed with the Beaumont Elks environment and can't recommend it as a nice over-night stop. Maybe it had something to do with all the rain, but they do need to do some house cleaning around their lodge, in our opinion.

We had a little battle with the Houston traffic (It was 3:00 and rush hours begins early in this metropolis.), so we skirted around the city on I-610 to the Houston Elks Lodge, which is actually in Stafford, TX, a suburb located on the south side of the city. Since all the concrete sites were full until Thursday, we pulled into a gravel/grass site to hook-up electric and water for the night. We did move over to Site #7 Thursday morning.

Our favorite site, #1, won’t be empty till the middle of the month.

Looking right.

Looking left.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

FLORIDA TO LOUISIANA

Tuesday, October 27 – We continued our Westward travel this morning and have arrived in Slidell, LA. We traveled off and on in rain all morning.

We were surprised traveling I-10 across the Florida Panhandle of all the hills. We had the misconception that all of Florida was FLAT. Other than the rain it was a good and uneventful trip.

We did see a rainbow in all the rain.

We are at the Slidell Elks Lodge. The Lodge sits way down Elks Lane, a long country road off the highway. It feels like we are in the middle of nowhere. It has a park-like setting.

The sites are gravel right off the Lodge parking lot. We have 50 amp electric and water. They do have a dump station. There is a full-time host on the premises that checked us in and collects the $15 fee. We are the only ones here. We are here for one night.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

PATRICIA RAINS ON OUR PARADE

Sunday, October 25 – It was a cloudy day, but we still wanted to see the beach. The beaches around Destin, Florida, are known for their pure white sand with its powdery consistency. Santa Rosa beach is just a mile down the road from our campground and about five miles east of Destin. It is beautiful and would sure have been nice on a sunny day.

We did have an interesting encounter while walking the boardwalk across the sand dunes to the beach. We noticed a peculiar smell in the air, and noticed we along with the other people walking to the beach began to cough. It was a dry cough much like a smoker may experience. It continued off and on the entire time we visited the beach. Marsha questioned a life guard about the cough and was told it's a bacteria in the water, and it occurs once every few years or so. He said it will go away upon leaving the beach which we found true. Strange.

Very rough waves from Patricia.

We then met up with our friends for a late lunch or early dinner at Goat Feathers, a recommended seafood restaurant. Man was it delicious. The seafood was fresh, tasted scrumptious, and the serving were plentiful. We all ended up carrying leftovers home for lunch tomorrow.

We then took a ride down the coastal highway to Seaside, FL. A small trendy town several miles down the coast. What a nice little “village” type community.

Small quaint shops, a row of food vendors in Air Stream trailers, neat little restaurants, small but expensive cottage style homes, and a beautiful beach

No idea who these three Amigas are.

Jeri asking who wants to go in the water. She had no takers.

The waves were really nasty big.

We strolled all the streets in the downtown area and drove through many of the residential streets. On a nice day this would be a place to spend a few hours.

With rain drops were beginning to fall (remnants of hurricane Patricia), so we decided to call it a day and return to the campground. We've all decided to extend our stays here at Arnett's Gulf Stables & Campground an additional day hoping the rains from Patricia will pass and driving conditions will improve. Jeri/Terry and Jan/Jerry will be heading either east or south. We are on the road west to Houston.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

A WONDERFUL TIME WITH WONDERFUL FRIENDS!

Saturday, October 24 – We had friends to meet today in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. Santa Rosa Beach is about 18 miles east of Destin, FL. We are staying at Arnette's Gulfside Stables and Campground. What a neat campground. The streets and sites are gravel with 50 amp full-hook-ups. There is a horse stable, so rides are available if you want to saddle-up. Thanks Jeri for finding this gem!

Looking right.

Looking left.

We met up with old RVer friends Jeri and Terry and Jan and Jerry. Not to hard to mess up those names :-) We saw Jeri and Terry last year at the Quartzsite gathering but haven't seen Jan and Jerry since 2010 at a previous Q gathering. Everyone looks young, beautiful and skinny! We are on our way West. The other two couples are heading down into the Florida peninsula.

The stables are having a Halloween party for the local kids this weekend. What fun! They have hayrides, pumpkin painting, bouncy areas, and of course lunch. Looks like these young families are having a blast. A beautiful day for the kids to pick out their pumpkin too!

After getting everything set-up, we told our friends we would be back for happy hour and headed to the Destin boardwalk to see the tourist area. It looks like the boardwalk area doesn't really start rockin' until evening. There were some people out strolling the boardwalk but things certainly weren't very busy. The only busy area was an outdoor patio bar. They had a ban and about 250 motorcycle riders enjoying a buffet and a few beers.

This Magnolia tree was part of Destin before Destin existed. Estimated at approximately 170 years old, this once 4-story tree outlived other magnolias by some 90 years.

A local and nationally recognized artist and sculptor, Marlin Miller, and son, Preston, donated their time and talents to memorialize the coastal life of Destin.

The biggest big screen TV we have ever seen. The band is in the front.

Now this ice cream/sorbet sound very interesting.

After a couple hours on the boardwalk, we returned to the campground to enjoy happy hour with our friends and to catch-up on each others lives.

What a happy hour.

Paul, Marsha, Jerry, Jan, Terry, Jeri.

From our last post, a reader named Judy asked...”What app do you use for counting steps/miles walked? iPhone or Android app? I have an Apple 5. thanks.” We are sorry but we don’t have your email address in order to answer your question. But, hope this helps. We have an Apple 6. It is the Health app that comes with that phone. If you go to the App Store and do a search for health apps there are tons of them there.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Friday, October 23 continued - After our Capitol building tours, we drove a few short miles to Florida State University. It is one of the most respected research and learning institution in the country. Oh yeah, and they usually have a pretty good football team too!

A few facts provided by the visitors guide:

Student population of 41,773; 30% minority; 55% female; students from all 50 states and 140 countries; 79% graduation rate. FSU is ranked #43 among top public universities. The total cost for Florida residents is $20,173. Out-of-state students pay $35,339.

Westcott Welcome Center.

We spent several hours walking around the campus. According to our phone app... over 14,000 steps and 7.24 miles. We both agreed that it is a beautiful university. The architecture design is maintained throughout the campus.

Dodd Hall.

There are an abundance of green areas, well designed walkways, and beautiful plantings everywhere. Several students stopped to ask if we need directions to any place in particular and all greeted us with friendly smiles and hellos.

Our first real look at the fall colors.

One of several statues throughout the campus.

The athletic facilities are top notch.

The stadium was closed to visitors – we thought. We accidentally tried to exit the Stadium Visitor's Center by a back stairwell and became locked out of the building. We couldn't re-enter. We banged on every door on every floor…nothing. So we went down to the ground floor and out the door into the locked stadium. Jeesh! Luckily, they are doing some construction work on the one end, so we cut through the construction zone and out to the street. Marsha ran up the ramp and grabbed a few photos of the field.

We walked around the stadium to see the baseball facilities, softball fields, soccer areas, and other athletic areas.

Do you know who wore this jersey?

Jameis Winston

How about this one?

Buster Posey

We did see a unique area – the FSU Circus. Yep, you can take classes in areas associated to the Circus. They are one of only two collegiate circuses in the United States.

After a long day visiting Tallahassee, we returned to the Tallahassee Elks Lodge campground to relax and prepare for tomorrow's travel.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!