Craig's blog

[Jessie] This morning I woke up and my parents were already up making French toast at my request. I love French toast! We ate our breakfast then got back on the road. We drove for about an hour and 20 minutes. It would have been a shorter drive but the traffic was terrible. Finally we arrived at St. Andrews State Park (which is also a beach so how was I supposed to know what it was called?) and got out of the motorhome. We went to go explore the beach to see if we should go to a different one or if we should stay here, and the beach looked nice so we stayed. Mom was very concerned [Dad taking over the writing here] about the surf, but after I checked it out we all eventually went in.  It was dark and stormy, but the water was warmer than any ocean water I’ve ever felt (had to be 84 or 85).  There was lots of algae in the water, but it was still very pleasant.  Eventually it started raining and we ate sandwiches under a covered picnic area.  I went for a quick run along the beach in the rain and then we drove to our campsite.  It was on the lagoon side of the peninsula right up against the water.  It rained for a couple of hours, so we took showers and read inside.  After it stopped, Patty and I took a walk for a couple of miles along the water through the campground.

We fixed dinner and ate outside.

After we left Mobile we drove into the Florida panhandle.  We left the interstate near Pensacola to take Hwy 89 along the Gulf coast.  It was a great drive until we reached Fort Walton Beach where we got in some of the heaviest, slowest traffic I’ve ever been on.  It was two lanes each direction, but was completely stopped for about 3 miles.  We got gas and then I used Waze which took us off the main drag and through residential streets for the last mile or so. This probably saved 30 minutes.  Eventually we got out of the town and finished our drive.  We stopped at Henderson Beach State Park which I’d heard was awesome, and while it still didn’t have any campsites, we went down and played in the water for a few minutes.  Then we continued on to our campsite at Topsail Hill State Park.  It was a nice, but very groomed RV park.  Patty said it looked more like a neighborhood than any other park she’d ever seen.  We barbequed some steaks and ate outside after the rain stopped.

Today’s entry is written by Jessie. J

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain. At the beginning of the trip we had some pretty big storms but it had been sunny and hot for the middle part of the trip so this was a little unexpected.  For breakfast we had dry cereal with yogurt (which was plain so we all needed to add a little honey to our bowl except for dad who was saying, “It’s good for you!”) and English muffins that Kelli and Maddie very kindly made for us. There were some big lightning flashes that Katie tried to take pictures of halfway through the storm. No luck with that.  The thunder also made it sound like the world was going to explode any second, but it was still a fun thing to watch. During all that, dad showed me all the buttons by the drivers seat. The windshield wiper controller, the gear shifter, all the cruise control settings, the key that actually turns on the vehicle (I don’t think he should have told me about that one), and the pedals that make the car go and stop! After all these fascinating details, J, we headed out on the road. We didn’t make it very far before dad realized we were going the wrong way. We  only went a couple feet when we had to turn around and go the opposite direction to get going on the right path.

We drove a little while when dad saw a grocery store and we stopped to get some essentials; milk, eggs, toilet paper, and crackers for the hungry girls in the car. It ended up being a lot more than that but we loaded up for a couple days.   

Then we drove for about 2 ½ hours to get to Mobile a city where we had lunch and looked a round a teensy bit.  For lunch we went to Subway. Everyone had sandwiches except for me (Jessie) who had pizza. Dad was not very happy about this arrangement.  After that we went to the visitor center for Mobile which also had a fort that we got to explore. Mostly it just had weapons that people used in war. There was a lookout tower we stood in and looked out to the beautiful parking lot.

The boat we road on was a real paddleboat driven by a steam engine (the same steam engine that drove the calliope Jessie wrote about).  It was very cool.  I went down to the engine room (it was 106 degrees inside) and walked around.  They have signs up describing how it works as you watch the pistons push the paddle wheel.  It was pretty impressive.

The bus tour of New Orleans was impressive.  I had signed us up for the Katrina version, because I wanted to hear more about it.  I couldn’t believe the number of homes that are still destroyed 7 years later.  It’s also amazing so many people continue to choose to live 10’ below sea level, surrounded by water. 

We didn’t get to hear as much music in New Orleans as I hoped (other than the street bands we heard which were fun).  We walked down Bourbon Street as I had done as a kid, but it was pretty risqué and the girls were very uncomfortable, so we just walked right through.

Today’s entry is written by Jessie. J

Today we had eggs for breakfast. We split up into groups to do some tasks to set us up for the day.  Mom and Dad did the breakfast dishes (nobody else wanted that job), Katie and Kelli made the sandwiches for today’s lunch, and Maddie and I took a trip to the park’s store for ice. It is EXTREMELY HOT in New Orleans! When we finished all that is was about 10:00, the time when the shuttle would come to take us to town.

Once we got to town we went to Café du Monde for a little treat but the line was twice as long as the buildings length so we decided to wait. We walked to Jackson Square to look at the pretty sights. It was a nice park with a big church in the middle that you could go into to look around (Mom ended going inside because she was starting to wilt in the heat). We saw a jazz band playing in front of the church and the trombone player offered for me to sit down next to him while they played. Dad took a couple pictures and after the song they started to pack up and we got up to leave for our next activity.  At 11:30 we went to a big dock where our boat was parked. It was very big and you could hear the loud music wherever you went in the dock or boat (Dad told me the musical instrument was a calliope). We boarded the ship and sat for a couple minutes while we waited for everyone else to get on board. Luckily, we got a spot right at the front so the wind was blowing in our faces and it wasn’t to unbearably hot. After we started going, my dad and I went downstairs to the place where they were serving lunch.  You had to buy special tickets to have lunch on the boat so I was a little nervous the police were going to come and kick us out for being in that room. The only reason we were in there was because a live band was playing in there and you could see them play if you were in there. They weren’t the best band ever, but they were still pretty good. When we went back to the deck where the rest of the family was, we got out our PB&J sandwiches and Katie got out her chicken sandwich to start lunch. Just as we were starting, a voice came over the speakers. This person was telling us all about the things we were passing on the sides of the river. Just so you know, we were going on the Mississippi River for about 2 ½ hours. Once we finished lunch, Mom and Dad went to go explore the boat. They also brought back four salted pretzels for us to munch on. Yum! After taking lots of pictures and sitting in the sun for a long time the voice finally announced that we would be going back. Just outside of the dock there was someone on the street with a tip jar. At first I thought he was a statue, but then I realized it was an actual person! He was frozen in a walking position not even moving his face. We went over and watched him for a while, tipped him, and left.

We walked back to Café du Monde and there was no line at all so we sat down and ordered two plates of beignets and my parents got coffee. They were delicious! You can’t go wrong with French donuts drenched in powdered sugar. While we ate, a trumpet player was playing a few songs. He was very good, and when he wasn’t playing trumpet he was singing along to the music! I enjoyed it very much. After his last song, I went over and tipped him (with my Dad’s money, not mine of course) and he gave me a CD of him playing and singing!

Then we were supposed to go to our bus tour, but someone had to go to the bathroom, and we ran out of water. So we went to the bathroom and hurried over to the air conditioned bus and left my Dad to get the water. He couldn’t let his beautiful flowers wilt! On the tour bus it was like an airplane, except on wheels. Kelli wanted to argue that airplanes DID have wheels so my statement was invalid, but I just ignored her. It had lights and vents you could adjust so the air conditioning would blow right on you. We were on the Hurricane Katrina tour so we saw old houses that were still damaged with holes in the roof from the hurricane 7 years ago. Then we stopped by a cemetery were we could get out and walk around. We had 12 minutes to explore then get back to the bus so we all started getting off. Katie didn’t realize we had left because she was asleep the entire time! She woke up when we came back though. Then our tour guide picked back up explaining something but I wasn’t really sure what because I was ZZZZZZZZ JL   I woke up just as we were getting back to the