2015 - TEXAS TO FLORIDA

TEXAS to FLORIDA'S EAST COAST

Tuesday, December 30, 2014 - Galveston, TX, to Zachary, LA

A somewhat disturbed night due to the stiff breeze blowing over the flat expanse of the airfield adjacent to the parking lot, causing the usual wind noise on the corners of the RV, but also rattling what I thought was the small flap covering the extractor fan outlet, which flutters at times when driving on the highway.

Got up twice to move the RV, changing orientation to the wind - no success...

...because, I discovered in the morning, the rattling was actually coming from a small sign attached to the post with the overhead parking lot lighting under which I had positioned the RV (as I usually do, partly for security but also to maximize visibility to anyone driving around in the dark).

The sign was making an almost identical sound, certainly to my ears at 2:30am, as the extractor fan outlet cover and happened to be right beside the RV at the exact spot of the outlet. A very strange coincidence...

I had decided yesterday evening to make tracks for Florida over the next couple of days, trying to keep a little ahead of the cold and wet weather in the forecast. So up and going with little ceremony this morning, heading for the ferry that connects Galveston to the Bolivar peninsular, essentially as part of Route 87.

On the drive to the ferry I saw a few more areas of Galveston that slightly redeemed the place, which I think I had been expecting to be like Marblehead, MA, though I don't know why. Echoes of the Brighton Pavilion, even...

Driving towards the ferry, there were somewhat hopeful signs of the sun breaking through out on the horizon over the Gulf of Mexico, lighting up the many cargo ships and tankers anchored offshore.

Fairly short and brisk ferry ride, dodging the big ship traffic heading from the Gulf into Galveston Bay.

And the sun did indeed make a brief appearance as I headed along the coast road along the Bolivar Peninsular, driving between the Gulf on my right-hand side and the eastern end of Galveston Bay on my left - maybe the lighthouse situated between them in order to serve both?

Settled in for a long day's driving along very straight roads, the early miles a little scenic with the Gulf shoreline just a few yards away, but after the turn inland the skies became overcast once more.

Light relief for most of the rest of the long day's driving was offered by roadside diversions, such as this corny but certainly memorable car dealership sign...

... or Interstate 10 exit signs to local towns with the same names as states a thousand miles away (Iowa) or twin local towns that sound like girls' names (Iota Estherwood, Eunice Crowley)...

... or the irony of passing a car pulled over at the side of the road, the driver just lifting the hood to release billows of overheated steam, and just a few hundred yards further on a sign for the town of Mowata (more water...).

A marginal detour to the south of Lake Charles (for coffee and fuel) presented me with what looked like a ski-slope of a road - I sure do grip the steering wheel tightly at times like this...

It was a blessing to finally turn off Interstate 10 late in the day, as the roads in Louisiana are by a considerable margin the worst I've experienced on this trip - certainly not to the liking of the stiff suspension of the RV...

...and it was a welcome change to have something other than Interstate and overtaking cars and trucks to look at even if it was only scruffy rural shacks and the paddy fields of rice and crawfish.

I was somewhat surprised to pull up alongside a dead fish at the junction as we turned off to make a detour to St Francisville...

... but I guess if you keep your eyes open and drive enough miles you'll see just about anything.

The modern highway bridge we took over the mighty Mississippi was visually arresting, but rather difficult to photograph through the windshield of a moving vehicle.

Quite a number of photos from the road are missed this way - often seen too late, or needing both hands on the wheel, nowhere convenient to pull over and not worth the hassle of finding somewhere to turn around and go back.

St Francisville lived up to its billing in the guide book with a well-preserved, compact historic area with the main highway now bypassing it and leaving it intact and peaceful. Walking a few of these streets to take some pictures in the rather dull late afternoon light was all the exercise I got all day.

And it was the longest day in the saddle so far on this trip by the time I pulled over in Zachary, parking in a vacant lot adjacent to the Walmart, covering 320 miles in 8 hours of driving.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014 - Zachary, LA, to Robertsdale, LA

So the whole point of having propane heat in the RV is to deal with chilly mornings and evening.

Yesterday evening was very comfortable, with the heater doing its thing. This morning, with a reasonably hard frost on the windshield, and so rather chilly inside (around 40 degrees), the heater just blew cold air for a few minutes and then quit.

Tried a couple more times but no success, so had the most minimal sprinkle possible in the shower with numbingly cold water before shivering over cold breakfast cereal and getting on the road by 7:30am when at least the engine heater - having cleared the frost on the windshield - could warm me up.

Another hard-driving day planned in order to reach Florida by the end of the afternoon, with my leg-stretching early rather than late via a detour from the Interstate to a cluster of small towns on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain.

Although tempted by the sign to the Baptist Pumpkin Center (!), my first stop of the day at Madisonville was a little disappointing, and with the day still very fresh in the northerly breeze, I stopped at Starbucks on the short drive to Covington to warm up and finalize the plan for overnight.

By which time it looked as if my 250-mile drive and arrival at a Florida State Park before they closed for the day might be difficult to achieve so I called ahead to try to get a reservation only to find Choice A was full, Choice B had two spots left (out of 70) but couldn't take reservations over the phone and were sure they would be filled by "walk-ins" within a couple of hours, and Choices C and D had automated answering machines suggesting I call a central reservations service...

By now the sun was shining, the day warming, I hadn't seen Covington yet, and yesterday's 300-mile slog of a drive was still fresh in my mind... at which point, if you didn't actually have a plane to catch, you might well think "F*** it" or "This wasn't meant to be", depending on your mood and character, and head on in to Covington and just see how the day develops.

Which is what I did.

And it was the right decision, Covington turning out to be another town (like St Francisville at the end of the day yesterday) where the main highway now passed it by, along with all the usual out of town developments - convenient but rarely contributing to the mood of a place - leaving the old downtown intact and surprisingly vibrant, in a slightly "preserved" and touristy way.

But definitely the right side of "Disney" and very enjoyable to spend a couple of hours wandering around in the first sun I have seen in days.

Lots of neat buildings, an eclectic "general store" and informal museum displaying local oddities and giving a glimpse into the distant past of life in downtown Covington, and a peaceful park alongside the bayou.

(And in case your curiosity is piqued, the explanation for the statue of Ronald Regan in the middle of the town of Covington can be found here.)

Apparently Covington used to be a major trading port - "An active harbor where schooners and steamers once docked. Established in the early 1800s, providing a vital link to other river cities transporting cotton, lumber, bricks, whisky and mail. Oyster luggers brought fresh oysters regularly through the late 1930s" - although the bayou is now silted up and shallow.

In my continuing relaxed frame of mind, after my stroll around the peaceful town, I decided to stop for a second coffee at a local coffee shop that was pleasantly funky and clearly designed for local patronage rather than tourists.

By which time I was definitely way behind any kind of schedule to make a Florida state park before the end of the day and so decided to just drive, at a non-frenetic pace, and see how things panned out.

And in the end I'm back at the Camping World location on the eastern side of Mobile, AL, where I had stopped on my way west, just a few miles short of the Florida state line.

I'm plugged in, warm and toasty, with quiet neighbors, nice and secure, allowed to be here - so not at risk of being chased away (always at the back of your mind in places like Walmart parking lots) - and with good TV reception so that I can watch enough of the early, tacky, New Year's Eve programming to not want to stay up for the event itself.

But not being a total "party pooper", I decided to celebrate the New Year on UK time (6:00pm local time with me) and exchanged "Happy New Year" texts with close friends and family over there.

Thursday, January 1, 2015 - From Robertsdale, LA, to Navarre, FL

Background noise of New Years fireworks most of the evening yesterday, but not disturbing.

Off for a New Year's run first thing, heading out for 2 miles on a dead straight back road directly east into the breeze, and then 2 miles back "downwind".

Then a little New Year's "spring cleaning" of the inside of the RV while I had plenty of power and heat and no pressure to move. By which time coffee was becoming a priority so headed off south towards the Gulf coast and an interim stop at Starbucks, and a fuel fill for the RV - diesel now at $2.49 a gallon.

Once at the Gulf it was a pleasant drive along the coast road to Pensacola, passing sand dunes, high-rise condos, beach houses and tourist stores. Roads around shopping malls fairly busy with people out looking for sale bargains, but others out for a relaxing holiday bike ride or showing off their Sunday cars.

Something of an event crossing the state line into Florida as I had been aiming to get here for quite some time but I seem to have been pleasantly distracted by other places.

At the end of the afternoon, I parked up in Pensacola for a relaxing stroll around the historic downtown area, which was pretty much deserted as only the odd bar here and there was open, although from the collection of barricades stacked up on the sidewalks there had clearly been a New Years event of some kind.

With the sun getting low in the sky, it was time to drive the 30 miles east to Navarre for the planned overnight stop, back in a Walmart parking lot.

I wasn't given the friendliest of welcomes at the Walmart Customer Service desk as I checked that it was OK to park overnight, and I was very explicitly asked to leave by 7:00am at the latest the next norming, so there's an early start ahead tomorrow.

Friday, January 2, 2015 - From Navarre, FL, to Panama City, FL

Up early to comply with the request to be out of the parking lot by 7:00am, heading to Panama City on a mixture of scenic shore roads and the slightly more direct inland route.

The shoreline typically a mixture of condos, resort hotels, tourist-focused ventures, watersports of all kinds, dolphin tours, souvenirs, t-shirts, arcades, ice-cream parlors, private beach-front homes and stretches of open dunes.

The inland route on the final stretch to Panama City was mostly arrow-straight, cutting through pine forests, with periodic new shopping malls, out-of-town stores and residential developments.

After the bright colors and bling of the shoreline, the outskirts of Panama City were rather depressing and rather slummy, with buildings falling down or being demolished on many lots.

The GPS took us right to the historic downtown area behind the city marina where I had stopped in on my Lagoon powercat trip in January 2004.

But either my memory - or the eleven intervening years - had altered the few historic downtown streets that I had recalled as being slightly more interesting and attractive, and the stores certainly much less dated than those now remaining... Anything calling itself an "Emporium" is just admitting up front that it's a rather vague collection of items no-one really needs.

Brewed coffee in the RV as I couldn't find the little coffee shop my memory told me was lurking around the area, then drove off generally northwards, stopping at a Publix grocery store to top up supplies, Starbucks to borrow the WiFi connection, and then on to the rather more welcoming Walmart store I had stayed in mid-November on my way west towards Texas.

Saturday, January 3, 2015 - From Panama City, FL, to Apalachicola, FL

A little light rain overnight left the morning damp and humid, with temperatures in the low 60s making for a rather sweaty run - in contrast to New Year's Day morning just a couple of days ago when I needed to wear gloves due to the cold.

Made a coffee stop on the way out of Panama City, the suburbs of which seem to go on almost indefinitely before finally giving way to the coast road with the usual assortment of condos, beach houses, gift shops and bars.

Once out of the main coastal developments and heading into the acres of pine forest, road signs once again warned about black bears out for a family stroll on the beach.

Although there had been intermittent brighter spells during the morning, as I drove into this more southerly part of the coast I hit fairly dense fog, with temperatures dropping 5 degrees within just a couple of minutes.

Despite the misty conditions it still felt relatively warm due to high humidity levels as I found a parking spot in Apalachicola for a quick bite of lunch and a stroll around town.

Walking a few blocks further away from downtown than I had when passing through Apalachicola before, I found a couple of areas with attractive houses and strongly Hispanic-style churches.

I also discovered, rather distressingly, that the barber's shop downtown that I had photographed on both previous visits (2004 and November 2014), and that had seemed unchanged over those 11 years and frozen in time had now - in the short few weeks since I was last here - been gutted.

By the time I had finished wandering around, and with an hour "lost" as we had crossed into the Eastern Time Zone on my way to Apalachicola, it was getting late in the afternoon.

So the couple of potential plans I had in mind for overnight stops (both some 60 miles further on) were overtaken by the thought of stopping somewhere in Apalachicola.

A rather scruffy waterfront area beyond the bridge and next to the river seemed like a probable location (with one RV there already, which I was informed had been there for a couple of weeks) but felt a little exposed.

So walking on and pondering this I called in for advice at the small Maritime Museum on the waterfront, which I would otherwise not have entered as it looked to be very small and hokey from the outside.

In the event the museum was actually quite large inside, exhibits well presented and very informative concerning the history of Apalachicola, which had grown up initially on river trade, sponging, and oysters caught in the bay - a continuing, though much diminished, local industry today.

I also learnt that the Apalachicola River, along with the Chattahoochee River, is part of a much longer waterway system that runs from Lake Lanier, north east of Atlanta, GA, some 400 miles north of Apalachicola, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

But to return to the original purpose of my entry to the museum...

While the guy at the museum thought the scruffy waterfront area would be fine for overnight, he also mentioned the public car park at the opposite end of town which he said he knew RVs used.

So that's where we are - and I'll see if I'm left undisturbed overnight.

Sunday, January 4, 2015 - From Apalachicola, FL, to Perry, FL

All very quiet overnight, with a local police car cruising by late evening but not stopping to suggest I couldn't be parked there.

Still foggy and humid this morning but no sign of the forecast rain at this point. In fact, the arrival time of a cold front seems to have pushed back to early afternoon so an early departure is likely to offer a dry run today.

The drive along the coast road would have been glorious in bright sunshine, with the road just yards away from the water's edge much of the time.

But actually even in the prevailing overcast conditions it was still fairly scenic and the fogginess leant an interestingly sinister atmosphere at times.

Not much visibility towards the Gulf, not many towns or points of interest on the route - other than the odd lighthouse or sign explaining the nearby beaches were used as training grounds ahead of the Normandy landings.

So the entertainment was largely down to more road signs for beach-bathing bears, interesting town names (such as "Panacea")...

...and pick-up trucks passing me at 60mph with dogs perched on the rear deck.

Detoured to Econfina River State Park late morning, partly for a break to brew coffee but also to stretch my legs a little.

Coffee was fine, but my stroll along the park trails was swiftly curtailed by a rain shower accompanied by distant thunder, a precursor of the torrential rain and tornado warning of the cold front that came through only 30 minutes later as I arrived in Perry, where I parked outside McDonalds to make lunch and borrow their WiFi for an hour.

Then the final ½ mile to our Walmart parking lot, where I was pleased to find very good TV reception for the Sunday afternoon football games.

Monday, January 5, 2015 - From Perry, FL, to Crystal River, FL

Heading further south today, though not entirely sure how far we'll go before stopping - the main incentive being to keep moving further away from the cold weather approaching mid-week.

Took the more scenic route for the first half of the drive to our potential next stop, running close to the shore but never actually on a beach road, the closest to the water we came being Steinhatchee where the river runs out into Deadman Bay on the Gulf. Clearly a big-time boating town, dominated by marinas with boat racks and houses with docks on the water.

Apparently the old post office, looking both appropriately "period" and maritime, is for sale.

Even the smaller roads here are pretty straight, with fairly unchanging scenery, though entertaining names such as "Smutty But Road" come up on the GPS periodically.

There are no signs on the side roads, however, which are essentially one-lane sand tracks, and some of the names seem somewhat concocted for a totally flat landscape, such as "Sugar Mountain Road" so it's hard to know if they are genuine or just a figment of a cartographer's imagination.

After crossing the historic Suawanee River (last crossed much further upstream last November when heading west) the road ran arrow-straight for 20 miles, with only the slightest of curves as we passed Gulf Hammock, the location only evident from its tiny post office.

These straight roads are very efficient - both in fuel and time - but not very inspiring, though the Romans would no doubt have been impressed with much of the US road network.

The Walmart store in Dunnellon I had chosen for the overnight stop said they couldn't give permission to park overnight due to a change in policy at the beginning of the year, so I moved on 15 miles to Crystal River where my planned cross-country scenic drive starts tomorrow.

I'm camped out in a plaza shopping center where parking appears to be allowed - though I've decided not to confirm this by asking anyone. Makes for a slightly uneasy overnight prospect but I've set up the RV for a prompt departure, should this be necessary due to someone official asking us to move, and another Walmart, 15 miles into my planned route for tomorrow, is lined up in the GPS as a back-up.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015 - From Crystal River, FL, to Sanford, FL

In the event, an undisturbed night.

The plan for the day is to drive across to the east coast of Florida along a scenic route running almost exactly west to east from Crystal River to north of Orlando.

The early part of the drive not entirely scenic, though the road did rise and fall rather more than has been the case recently, and a number of good-sized lakes appeared on both sides of us. In some ways the landscape looks like a greener version of Texas, with quite a number of horse ranches, many of which had classic "ranch" entry gates.

And now we're into citrus country, with roadside stands selling all kinds of varieties of oranges, and orange groves lining the road on both sides.

A quite pleasant drive really, with the day mostly sunny and getting very pleasantly warm - the temperature finally topping out later in the day at 80 degrees.

The roads for the most part fairly quiet and free-flowing, with the usual odd entertainment, such as giant inflatable penguins and a motorcycle sidecar with a dog in it (which I was too slow to capture with the camera).

Stopped for coffee in Leesburg, where I also pulled off the road at a small park overlooking Lake Harris, on which a couple of sailboats were trying to catch a hint of the breeze out on the water.

Back on the road, I made a detour to check out Walmart in Orange City, only to be told no overnight parking due to city regulations, stopped at a Mercedes dealership for a second supply of DEF for the engine - last topped up some 4,000 miles ago in South Carolina in early November - and finally had a thumbs-up to overnight parking in a Walmart in Sanford.

Time will tell if we've made it far enough east and south to avoid the worst of the freezing weather that's forecast to cover most of the US by the early hours of Thursday morning...

Wednesday, January 7, 2015 - From Sanford, FL, to Titusville, FL

Fairly quiet night, other than the sweeper truck in the parking lot at 4:30am.

Miscalculated my running route for the morning so ended up running 5 miles rather than my usual 4 - the only other option being to walk the last mile of my looping route back to the RV, the thought of which seemed a little wimpy...

Not quite as warm a day as yesterday, but still sunny and pleasant, and once out of Sanford and its tidy gated-community suburbs it was a quiet drive to the east coast, passing more orange groves and crossing over several large lakes which, unlike their depictions on the map, seemed to be rather broken up by vegetation into creeks and large ponds and swampy sections.

Although not attracted by the air boating on offer, pulling over down a deserted side road to brew up coffee in the RV provided some welcome silence from the traffic - my own engine noise included.

With a fairly modest drive ahead down to Titusville - barely 40 miles - I decided to stop and get some laundry done. So in a town called Mims I scouted out a convenient laundromat and, while waiting for washing and drying, did a little interior cleaning int he RV.

Having established that I would be able to stay overnight in a Lowes parking lot just outside Titusville (with the added bonus of the usual strong WiFi signal from the store), I took a drive back into town to check out the "historic downtown" I had seen signposted earlier.

In the event, this particular "historic downtown" wasn't really interesting enough to tempt me to park and get out of the RV to walk around, so I just took a couple of pictures while driving through.

Before heading back and getting settled in for the evening, I also checked out a potential viewing location for a Falcon 9 rocket launch scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral at 5:00am Friday morning in case I become sufficiently inspired by my visit to the Kennedy Space Center tomorrow to want to see it - although it wouldn't be a patch on the shuttle launch I was fortunate enough to see from close proximity on a sailboat in May 1999.

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