Day 4,5: Alabippi and Texiana

3/5/22- Today was nearly a 400 mile day, so we got going before 9:00. We’ve learned that camping people don’t break camp at the crack of dawn like boaters do, so we don’t want to disturb the peace too early. Besides, if we get to our destination too early, our spot might not be open, so we are slowly learning this land way of life. We did have to pull out of our spot and completely block the road to get Kawi loaded. Wouldn’t you know it, a truck came into the campground and had to wait for us. I think it was probably somebody from the campground like me yesterday, who just bopped over to the visitor’s center to get cave tour tickets. Anyway, we quickly loaded Kawi up and only put on the back tie-down straps and closed the back door to get out of the way. Then we pulled around to a wide spot in the road, opened the trailer back up again and finished strapping him in. We use two straps in back, two in front, plus over-tire straps on the front tires. Kenny likes the tire straps to take the most load so that Kawi’s suspension isn’t smashed flat all the time. It’s probably overkill, but at least we know he isn’t jumping around and having a dance party back there while we drive down the highway. And it’s good that we have some kinda procedure and can do things sorta quick in a pinch if we have to. So out of Florida, and we were into Alabama by 11:00.

This was most of our trip today, with some very enjoyable miles driving NOT on the Interstate, cruising the state highways. We really prefer the highways – there is more to see and less traffic. So, this map says “Saturday Morning Voyage”. Yep – it’s a voyage. Well what happened is that our kids were missing NEBO and being able to track us like they do when we’re in the boat. So, I created…

… a “boat” in NEBO called Limbo🛺, which is the name of our trailer. I just have to remember to turn it on when we start our ‘voyage’. 😏. It does look kinda funny to see a boat mobbin’ down the freeway at 65mph on the map. But hey – now they can keep track of us, and I’m glad they care. 👍

After cruising across the bottom of Alabama and going through Mobile, we took a northwesterly turn and spent lots of time on Mississippi state highways on the diagonal trip to Jackson.

See what I mean? Divided highway, with no traffic. Low stress driving!!

We arrived at our destination, which was Lefleur’s Bluff Campground, just north of I-20, so real easy access. That was really all I was looking for, was a place to park that wasn’t far from the I-20 freeway, since we’d be taking it west tomorrow. This is a huge state park, but we didn’t see anything but our camping spot on the lake.

It was really a nice setting, and we had a concrete pad to park on, so easy schmeazy and level. Notice that it is definitely still winter in Jackson Mississippi. The trees aren’t even thinking about growing leaves yet.

There were a lot of rigs in the campground – maybe only one or two empty spots. There was a huge day-use area across the lake from us, and there were lots of happy children voices playing.

And there we are!

This kind of shows our location, and how close we are to I-20 for tomorrow’s blast-off.

*****

3//6/22 Sunday – we weren’t in a giant rush to get going, but we had over 300 miles to conquer today, so we were up and outta there by 9:00. Today was all I-20 driving. 🙁 At least away from cities, it wasn’t bad traffic. Maybe because it was Sunday. Along the way, these Dr. Seuss trees made me giggle. What is with the balls of leaves? I thought it was funny how they grow in blobs instead of evenly all around the tree. We saw a lot of them, so this wasn’t a fluke.

And occasionally we’d get a glimpse of spring with a little splash of color.

By 10:00 we were crossing the Mighty Mississippi, and WOW was it ever running high and fast!

By crossing the river, we left Bama behind and found ourselves in Loozianna.

It took us three hours to cross through Loozianna, and then we were welcomed into Texas, y’all.

Ah yes! Remember what I said about a boat mobbin down the freeway? Here is a screen shot just after we crossed into Texas. We were headed to Tyler State Park, just north of Tyler and I-20. It was another HUGE state park, and we only saw a glimpse of it as we found our way to our campsite. And then I didn’t even take any pictures of it! We dropped the trailer, got Kawi out and put his leash on so that he wouldn’t run away. We got everything set up, then we went to town. I had my eyes on three things: a taproom, dinner, and groceries.

Our first stop was Rose City Draft House, which has 57 beers on tap, plus another couple dozen in bottles and cans. Their dark beer draft selection was awesome, with at least six to choose from. I ordered a flight of four and Kenny had two that I didn’t try.

Look at that list!!! All of them that we tried were pretty decent, and primarily from Texas craft brewers. My favorite was a Creme Brulee Imperial Double Milk Stout. 😋

After our beer break, we headed to Texas Roadhouse for a steak dinner. I mean, we’re in Texas…. so why not?? It was delicious! Then off to to grocery store to stock up on some things, since we’ll be dry camping in the desert for a week or so starting on Tuesday. We got a bunch of things including an electric bug zapper racquet, then headed back to camp in the dark. And that is why I didn’t get a picture of our spot. Oh well.🤷‍♀️. And then we didn’t have enough cell service for me to work on telling you this whole story, so that’s why it is late getting into the blog. I’m finding that cell service in camping spots is harder to get than in marinas.