News in Naples

We arrived in Naples, Florida on Sunday. Since it is the rainy season, and this state is aptly named “The Sunshine State”, the mixture makes it into one huge open air sauna!

We avoided the heat that day, determined to do some sightseeing the next day, while we were still “fresh”. Here, after 15 minutes outside, you are no longer “fresh” and most likely need another shower.

Monday morning: We fortified ourselves with a healthy breakfast. Cooking outdoors, senior style, means that we don't cook over a campfire, but have a toaster, electric skillet and electric griddle at work in our site. We are way past the stage of trying to work with charcoal and a fire!

Well, the day started off good….cool breeze and lots of sunshine. Can you see how happy we are?! All of us wanted to go to a beach and put our tootsies into the Gulf of Mexico. Yep, that was another one of the things on our bucket list. We headed to Marc0 Island and within 10 minutes ran into such hard rain that we pulled off the highway for a short time. It continued to rain/drizzle/pouring cats & dogs, repeating the cycle numerous times the whole afternoon. We gave up and went back to the RV park. Finally, after supper, Don & I ventured out during a lull and found a public beach by downtown Naples. He put the only quarter he had into the meter for 10 minutes of time and I rushed to take some pictures before it started to drizzle again.

Don called the other 4 and told them to hurry over to the beach. We could still cross one more thing off our to-do list! As you can see below, Sandy is giving her "V" for victory sign! No bathing suits you say? So what? We can still claim that we have been in the Gulf of Mexico waters.

Here is another view of the waders. I took these pictures with an umbrella in one hand and the camera in the other. What can I say? It worked!

Here we are, one bunch of goofy old grannies, having a great time! What’s next on our bucket list? Stay tuned to find out.

Fort Foster Historic Site

The historic Fort Foster is right across the road from Hillsborough River State Park. Time for us to get a history lesson! The Seminole Indians called this part of Florida home long before Gen. Andrew Jackson led his troops into Florida. This fort was established in 1836, and some of the original timbers remain. We started out with a short walk before getting to the fort area.

We arrived at the stockade minutes later.........
and we were "greeted" by a Seminole Indian looking right at us with his rifle in hand!
The clouds provided brief respites from the hot Florida sun. With the high walls surrounding us, there was no breeze to cool us off.
Sherry, Gary and Jerry wander around, making sure they aren't ambushed by the lone Seminole Indian. At least if there is an uprising, I'll be there to document it.
The tour was led by two state park employees, and one volunteer who posed as a Seminole Indian, so we got both sides of the story. Once a year they have a re-enactment with people performing functions at the fort as they would have almost 200 years ago.

No Hills in Hillsborough River State Park

No hills, but lots of huge trees dripping with Spanish moss! This state park near Tampa is top notch in our books. Sites don't come with a cement patio, but where else can we park in a jungle like atmosphere? Hillsborough River St. Park has over 3000 acres, a river that runs through it, lots of trails, a cafe, and even bikes to rent.

Below is the bridge that crosses over the Hillsborough River within the park boundaries. The park itself was built in 1938 by the CCC.
The swimming pool here covers half an acre! It's huge, and our camping fees of $26 a day include passes to the pool.
Gary was checking out the cute little armadillo that was meandering around. It paid no attention to him at all!
Check out the toenails on this creature!
Jerry, Sandy and Don took time to pose for me on the suspension bridge. Later on that morning, Jerry and I hiked the Baynard Trail, starting out at this bridge and winding up at the other bridge farther down the river. It wasn't hot when we walked, but it was very, very humid. We couldn't take time to stop and read the information signs because the mosquitoes would have circled around and made a meal of us!
Yep, that's me looking down over the railing. Jerry, Sandy and Don insisted that I be in one of the pictures. It seems I'm always behind the lens taking pics of others. I like it that way!

Florida-Falling Waters State Park

We headed to Florida on Wednesday, driving through 4 states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and finally Florida. What do we encounter along the way? More bridges! Just what Sandy was looking forward to. Yeah, right. We have kept track of the incoming hurricanes, ready head inland if one starts to head our way.

Our destination was Falling Waters State Park in Chipley, which boasts to be the spot of Florida's tallest waterfall. When we get there, we find out it only runs in the spring time. : ( The park is situated in a pine forest, only 324 feet above sea level.
Here we are, trying to figure out who goes first when trying to back into our sites. Maybe "rock, paper, scissors" would work.
This park had a lot of nice trails. Sandy and I decided to try walking on the Terrace Trail seen below until she saw a snake! Even though it was small, it was still a S-N-A-K-E! The sign by the bathrooms warned us of all the poisonous snakes that live Florida. We were out of there! Snake sightings trump everything: a desire to get exercise, see new sights, enjoy the pine forest, etc.
After supper, Jerry and I did go and check out the boardwalk that took us past various sinkholes. In pioneer days, the waterfall powered a grist mill and there was a nearby whiskey distillery. In 1919, one of the first oil wells in Florida was drilled here, but after drilling to a final depth of 4912 feet, no oil of commercial quantity was ever found. Development of the park was started in 1963.
We went down the wooden stairway to see the mouth of a sinkhole 100 feet deep and 20 feet wide that disappears into a sloping cave at the bottom. I got a bit of vertigo just walking down the steps and peering into the black, seemingly bottomless pit.

New Orleans, Day 3

As I work on this update, I'm watching Harry Smith from the Early Show do a special about New Orleans and Katrina. It has been 5 years ago this week that Katrina hit. We saw a CNN bus and professional photographers as we sauntered through the streets.

Okay, I better get back to my task: update for N'awlins. If you are a native here, it becomes one word and you don't pronounce the "r's". Tuesday was the last day we could go into the French Quarter. We all drove our vehicles to the Algiers Ferry Terminal that day. Jerry and Sandy had forgotten their camera, so they almost didn't make the 9 AM ferry. They had to run from the parking lot and the gate closed about 15 seconds later! The 4 of us cheered them on as they came through the terminal.

Look closely at this building....it has plants growing out of the brickwork. In Arizona, even we water and fertilize our plants, they sometimes don't survive. Somehow, that doesn't seem fair.
It's "hat" time for the guys of our group. The donations went to help Katrina victims.
We headed for Cafe du Monde, a place suggested by our daughter Lisa. She and Ken had been to this cafe pre-Katrina and had enjoyed the beignets there. This was on my bucket list of things to do while we were here.
Cafe au Lait and beignets! Wonderful. Lisa had advised us to wear white blouses because the white powdered sugar gets on everything. She was right! I wish N'awlins was closer to Phoenix so I could partake of these more often.
Jerry enjoyed the chair in front of Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville shop. Get up Jer...there is a lot more walking to do!
The guys got hats, and the gals decided we each needed a New Orleans t-shirt. Sandy is trying to decide on which one she wants.No visit to New Orleans would be complete without visiting the beautiful St. Louis Cathedral. The first Bishop here served from 1793 to 1801. Pope John Paul II worshipped here in September, 1987 on his second visit to the U.S. The paintings on the ceiling were absolutely amazing.
Right in front of the St. Louis Cathedral is Jackson Square, complete with a statue of Major General Andrew Jackson. It's a beautiful place shaded by huge trees. Harry Smith is on the TV right now in Jackson Square, talking with a local chef and tasting some Cajun cuisine.
What are Don and Gary so happy about??? At our age, we're all thankful we can travel and have fun doing things together.
Yep, that's us alright, standing by one of the gates at Jackson Square.
This was our last tourist stop for today. It's time to head back to our RV's and relax. After 4 hours of walking, our feet are tired and it is getting hot.

New Orleans, Day 2

Our first full day here, and the excessive heat warnings were still following us! Since we're all from Arizona, we are used to hot temperatures. It is the humidity that has sapped our energy levels. Anyway, we got up early, and drove over to the Algiers Ferry Terminal.

Here comes our ferry, chugging across the good "ole Mississip". It dropped us off near the end of Canal Street.
Sandy and Sherry enjoyed the nice breeze as we crossed over this morning.
Gary, Don, Sherry and Sandy enjoyed the Riverwalk. At least, at 10 AM, the heat of the day hadn't set in yet. Since the weatherman had predicted temps in the low 100's, with a heat index of 115-120 degrees, we all opted to take the easy way out: a tour of the city on an air conditioned bus. The tour was almost 3 hours long, taking us to through the French Quarter and also out into the areas hard hit by Katrina 5 years ago.
This is one of the houses we saw on the tour. Don't you love the colors and the cross on the door?
Here is Fats Domino's house. It's very obvious that he lives here! If I remember correctly, he didn't evacuate when Katrina hit in 2005.
Our tour also took us to one of the many beautiful cemeteries in New Orleans. Some of these ornate tombs hold whole families! What stories they could tell!

New Orleans, Day 1

To get to the Bayou Segnette State Park, located south of New Orleans, we had to drive across lots of water and some huge bridges. My sweet sister-in-law, Sandy, had a phobia about crossing bridges. Notice the last statement is in past tense. I think she has become conditioned after being forced to cross them with and without their 5th wheel in tow. If I had looked closer, she might have been lying down in the back seat while Jerry drove across the Luling Bridge seen in the picture below.

Below is the Huey Long Bridge that we were advised NOT to take the 5th wheel on! It is very narrow, so narrow that when one truck passed us on the left, our truck tires scraped against the side wall! You do NOT want to take a motor home or pull a trailer on this bridge unless you take up both lanes! We had a freight train coming towards us on this old bridge as we crossed over into the French Quarter.
We arrived at the State Park in the early afternoon, which didn't give us much time to explore our surroundings. However, we did manage to drive over to New Orleans and around the quaint streets in the French Quarter. I loved the beautiful architecture of some of the old buildings.
Today was our 46th wedding anniversary. Sandy, Jerry, Gary and Sherry joined us for dinner at Boudreaux's restaurant, where we enjoyed the local fare. It was wonderful to share this day with good friends and family.
This was part of the interior decorating. Where else would you see an alligator being used to hold up a valance over a window?!

Vicksburg Views

Vicksburg, Mississippi: all I can say at this time of the year is “It is NOT a dry heat”. There was so much dew this morning that it looked like it had rained during the night(at least it did to us Arizonans). We decided to head out early to see the Vicksburg National Military Park and the USS Cairo. The battlefield has 1330 monuments that are spread over the 16 mile drive in the park.

In my humble opinion, the Illinois monument in the picture below is the best one in the park. It's very impressive in size and the gold eagle is a stark contrast to the white marble of the building.

Inside, Jerry, Sandy and Sherry check out the ceiling and walls. Even if we talked softly in here, our voices kept echoing.

The tunnel below marks Thayer’s approach, and was started on around May 30, 1863. During the siege of Vicksburg it was just a 6 foot deep trench covered with bundles of cane. It has since been bricked in to preserve the tunnel.

Gary, Sherry, Don and Gary take time to pose for pictures. Gary is goofing off, but I took the picture anyway.

This is what happens when Gary gets behind the camera! Everything gets a bit goofy and off kilter. And no, we have not had anything to drink! It is just a bunch of silly old seniors having a good time together. Maybe the heat and humidity have finally gotten to us.

Below is the USS Cairo, the ironclad ship that hit a mine in the river and sunk in 12 minutes. It was left in the Mississippi silt for over 100 years, until recovered in 1964. She was restored, and her final resting place is in the National Military Park here.