On the Road
Again!
Our first RV
trip of this year, we are revisiting the Florida Keys! Why?
Well, when we were last there 3 years ago, we never got to see Dry
Tortugas National Park, due to confusion on our part. We thought we could get tickets for the ferry
over to it by walking up to the ticket counter a few days before we wanted to
go – NOT! At least, not during Spring Break month! But, we’re smarter this time around and
already have tickets!! But, before we
can do that tour, we need to get there……
We left home
and the weather was pretty good. To be
safe, we decided to just head south and then make our way east. So, off we were to Las Cruces, we
thought! But, due to a reenactment of a
historic march (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March ) where over 1,000 New Mexican guardsmen died, every campground
in Las Cruces (near the march site) were full.
So, we detoured to Deming, NM, and enjoyed a wine tasting at the largest
winery in New Mexico, that also happens to have wine we enjoy! Great Plan B!
The
following day, we took off for Fort Stockton, TX. However, our luck with good weather ran out – we took off with snow
and icy sleet accompanying us – ugh! However, the silver
lining to that cloud (no pun intended) was the great cloudscape created by the
clouds swirling around the Organ Mountains!
That is a National Monument (see https://www.organmountains.org/ ) that we checked out a few years ago. I’m happy to say the weather transitioned to
just rain and finally to sun, so things worked out after all! Whew!!
On the third
day, we had a much better day traveling, and enjoyed the various rest areas
along the way. One stop had a lovely
little path with some local flowers just starting to bloom! There was also a bird calling very
loudly. I think it was a female cardinal
(mostly brown, but some very vibrant red), but she was illusive and didn’t let
me get a photo of her. At another stop,
we had a very nice quiet lunch – a nice respite from the drive.
We ended up in San Antonio, where spring has definitely sprung!!
One of the
things I have always loved to do is to daydream about the frontage roads that run
alongside the highways. When I was a
kid, I’d start to make up stories about the people that drove those roads on a
daily basis – where they were heading or coming home from, their jobs, their
dreams, if they wanted to leave, etc.
When I see one now, as we are prone to do on this trip, my mind wanders
back to those imaginings and in a way, I’m a kid again!
One of my
favorite parts of this drive is the I-10 route through Louisiana. The road is very close to what would be the
ground, if it wasn’t on swamp land. It
always feels very odd to be on solid ground, but then look off the shoulder of
the road and see nothing but swamp!!
We had a
nice 2-night break in our travels when we got to the Gulf Shores, AL,
area. Granted, this was another man-made
lake, but we both welcomed the getting warmer weather and sunny skies! So peaceful – let us recharge our
batteries a bit!
As we were
driving thru the panhandle of Florida, I commented to Jeff that we were seeing
a lot of damage that looked to me to be either tornado or hurricane
damage. When we thought about it for a
minute, we realized that this was still the visible damage from Hurricane
Michael, which hit the panhandle on October 10, 2018 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Michael
).
There have been 27 hurricanes that hit the panhandle since the late
1800s. The last hurricane to make
landfall close to the panhandle was Hurricane Ivan in 2004 (it make landfall in
Gulf Shores, AL) and the last direct hit to the panhandle before Michael was
Hurricane Opal in 1995 (it made landfall in Pensacola, FL). These photos were
taken roughly 5 ½ months after the hurricane hit and the clean-up is still
underway. The photo on the bottom is
what the land area looks like after it’s been cleaned up. It really hit home to see this devastation so
long after the hurricane was gone.
The last
stop in our travels down the road to mid-Florida, where our fun really got
started, was in Tampa. We had lunch with
some friends – a guy I used to work with and his wife. They took us to a Cuban restaurant for a
great dinner, and then we got to see the sunset from the balcony of their condo!
Enjoy!!
