Happily Homeless

Day 18 – Today we drove through Mobile, Al and followed Interstate 10 west through Mississippi to Louisiana. Mississippi was only a drive through state for us at the moment with tons of road signs for Casinos and New Orleans was our destination tonight. We found our way through the garden district of New Orleans to the Prytania Park Hotel (800.862.1984 – www.prytaniaparkhotel.com) that is conveniently right on the trolley train path. It was a wonderful clean hotel with people that were extremely nice and they had wireless internet. The price was very reasonably and it takes my vote to stay in if you visiting. We walked down to the French Quarters to enjoyed an evening of eating, wandering, and people watching. The location we picked to listen to some live music was at the Tricou House, in their small bar next to the restaurant, were the 711 Bourbon St. band played. It was the liveliest most interesting group of people to form a band we’ve seen play. The group was made up of a bunch of random guys that looked like they had just met in a train station. Very diverse, but all very rough looking.

Trolley transportation for New Orleans.

Night scene at bourbon st.

A food investigation. Ever since entered North Carolina (I think it was than) we have seen signs along the roadside for Hot Boiled Peanuts. Depending on the area sometimes they were seasoned – like in Louisiana they had Cajun hot boiled peanuts and somewhere else had garlic hot boiled peanuts. They were also sold once in a while at the gas station. I had never thought of boiling peanuts and it seems like an interesting idea. So, we have to try them out of course before we leave the south. They boil the whole peanut, shell and all, and ours was just handed over to us in a zip lock bag. They are very interesting looking and smelling. I kind of liked them and Jason found them a bit too odd. The texture was similar to firm butter, they softly smushed in your mouth in a pleasant way, but the taste was a bit odd for us. It could have been the seller that we bought from, and so it inspires me to try to make hot boiled peanuts again at home to see if I can make some to my tasting.

This was at the rest-area where we got our boiled peanuts – there was free NASA tours of there rocket testing lab, which we unfortunately didn’t take advantage of.

I assume concrete slabs keep the coffins from floating up when there is flooding….

Day 17 – Heading west and aiming for Alabama, so that we can make to Austin, Tx in the next few days. We went through Panama City and continued along to the coast. While driving along the coastal road, we came across a town that look very familiar. And to my surprise it was Seaside, FL. For all of you architecture buffs, this is the one we read about in school. At first I thought we had entered Disney Land but after getting past the “town square” we realized that it had more to offer than first expected. For those who didn’t study Architecture or Planning, Seaside is a new urbanist community that based its town planning on Mixed-Use buildings (retail shops and offices on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors) and pedestrian streets and neighborhoods. (there are books written on the city, but that is the $.02 explanation). In theory, the city is like a utopia, and in many ways the reality is as well. But for me, the city has been homogenized more then a gallon of milk. Every house look like the one before and the Volvo parked next to the BMW that was next to the Audi and so on, showed the city had very little economic diversity. In fact, most of the homes had signs with the owners names and original location to prove that this community was only a beach resort full of vacation homes for the ultra rich. For me, Seaside was an ideal theory, but put into unrealistic practice. I really did love the streets and the density of the housing, but when you over refine and homogenize the buildings, the landscape and the people you start to get a bit boring… well that is just my opinion. – Jason

Seaside, FL

Grayton Beach white sand dunes

We reach Alabama today and as if someone took a hammer to the landscape there were hills. I knew Florida was flat and had water seeping out of it like a spong, but not until we crossed the Perdido Creek into Alabama did I realize how accustomed I had become to non-changing elevations.

We camped that at the Gulf State Park in Alabama, and I have to say that it was one of the least enjoyable state parks we have been to. The facities were clean and decent, but it felt more like a public campground area than a state park that is trying to preserve and care for the natural surroundings. In the morning they drove around all the campsites with a de-bugging fog machine, which is very unpleasant thing to wake up to especially while your jogging and they drive right by you. My thought is that it’s a state park and bugs are part of the environment and ecosystem we live in, I might not enjoy them all the time but it’s just how it is, so seemed a bit backwards for a state park. They were still rebuilding from the hurricane that hit them last year, so there wasn’t much natural foliage or trees around making the park feel very bare and cleared off. Over all the park seemed not as geared toward the natural surroundings as all the other parks we’ve been to, it was very disappointing.

On the topic of state parks one thing I noticed about the past few days, and I am not sure if it is because of the area’s that we are in or the change in how people camp now, but the last few parks we’ve been to they didn’t have the choice of just plain tent sites. They are all RV sites with water and electricity hook-ups which creates the price of camping go up about $5 a night. It made me sad, and my wallet more empty, to see the RV’s taking over the simple style campsites that are more economical and use no services. I wonder when our lifestyle will become simpler again, and not always have the need to bring our home comforts with us everywhere we go.

Day 16 – On our way towards Tallahassee we made a side trip to Crystal River to see what was going on with the manatees in that area and ended up at a public beach. So, of course, we took our first dip in the Gulf of Mexico. It was not as salty as South Beach in Miami – that was the saltiest beach we’ve been to so far – but it was very pleasant and refreshing. Jason and I were eyeing a big dark cloud system that was off towards the east of us and hoping it was going past around our nice beach area…. though after about ten minutes a 5 second blast from a siren that sounded as if we were going to get bombed answered our question and we all had to get out of the water. The siren sounds to let everyone know that they need to get out of the water due to some type of danger and than you listen to the radio to see what the danger is. The danger for today was a thunderstorm coming our way. So, we decided to try and out run the storm for awhile and keep heading northwest with the black clouds in our rearview mirror

We camped that night at Ochlockonee River State Park which was an average state park, with a nice river running right by the campground and some very playful squirrels running up and down the tree trunks and jumping from tree branch to tree branch.

Day 15 – Today was not very eventful. We took the car to get it oiled and lubed, so it can feel refreshed and keep us going along the blacktop roads. After that we just trucked it up the highways towards Tampa, Fl – staying at Little Manatee State Park, this campground went on our favorites list. It was a very clean park with one of the cleanest restrooms I’ve seen. Everything was well taken care of with lots of thought put into keeping the grounds and facilities up and running. It also had a great community feel and offered canoe rentals and had accommodations and trails for horses.

There was, of course, another thunderstorm that night – I am going to miss the storms when they are gone.

There were signs all over this area saying watch out for golf carts, it was just north of our the campgrounds. It was kind of funny.

Waffle House is a great small semi-fast food place that seems more popular than McDonalds out here.

Okay – so all the pics (I think) are updated —

We are in New Orleans today and it’s dinner, or I mean, supper time.. So, the updated post of the past few days will happen in the morning w/ pics

Take care all – ap & ja

I will post a bunch of images next chance I get, that will go with all the events we’ve written about …. promise! Have a great day!!

Day 14 – Early to rise were we and we drove out of the keys while watching the sunrise off the coast, one of the best mornings we’ve had. We made our way to Everglades National Park, an amazing ecosystem that is made up 1.5 million acres of S. Florida. How the whole water/river flows through the park is impressive and a natural wonder. It is a very interesting place to visit and everyone should experience it. Though summer months are not the best due to misquotes. We took a boat tour out on the Florida Bay and saw a bunch of birds, the fin of a shark, and a school of dolphins. We watched the dolphins off the side of the boat for about 15 minutes or more. They were very graceful and mesmerizing to watch swim. As we left the dolphins, one of them gave us a farewell and breached for us. After that we hiked along one of the many nature trails and boardwalks to view some very big alligators, and a swimming turtle, in the wild surroundings. It was a full and eventful national park day.

the school of dolphins that delighted us with their visit.

Didn’t see any Florida Panthers 🙁 but we saved a small turtle from getting run over — he wanted to try and cross the road, but wasn’t making much progress.

One of the many alligators in the park, resting in the shade under the boardwalk – it was really hot

On the boardwalk at the Everglades Nat. Park

A cricket resting on the boardwalk in the Everglades Nat. Park.

The sunset at the north of the Everglades National Park in the Big Cypress National Perserve

Day 12/13 – After another great night of sleep on my favorite couch, Jason and I headed down to Key West to visit the childhood home of our friend Tess, who sadly could not make it due to two huge exams she has to take for her PHD in a week, everyone wish her the best of luck!! — Tess, we missed you a bunch and wish you were there! As nice as she is, she hooked us up with her parents, Mimi and Simon, who live on Boca Chica Key. They were very gracious and let us stay in their rental vacation/retreat house next door. This was the most beautiful place I can think of when picturing tropical blue waters and peaceful islands. Right out the bedroom and living room windows was the light blue warm Atlantic Ocean. They are placed right on the water facing east, and have great patios to lounge on and kayaks to take out and explore the mangrove forest nearby or the ocean. If you are ever in the area or want a vacation in the Keys give them a call or email, they have great prices, package deals (anything from a trip on their lobster boat w/dinner to massages by the ocean), and retreats or just weekend getaways. Their information is Beach Music Retreats: email: simi01@bellsouth.net phone: 305-923-7800. I highly recommend it.

a cheezey grin and more importantly the view from the living room windows — see the ocean right there!! and the horizon, so beautiful and I already miss it…

Jason kayaking and the duck that joined us

Our first night there we went to downtown Key West to watch the sunset at Mallory Sq. It was fun, with tons of street artists doing some really silly and amazing things, and tourists from all walks of life. We had a relaxing dinner on a roof deck restaurant of Turtle Kraals that looks over the historic harbor and the lightening storm that was in the distance.

sunset festival at Mallory Square…

We stayed an extra day in Key West just to fully relax and enjoy not moving around. We did nothing all day and Jason made a nice meal that we shared in the evening in the wonderful company of Mimi and Simon.

The sunrise as we left Boca Chica Key.. worth the early morning 😉

A few side pictures:

a storm that we drove into going to the Keys

this is how they get their electricity out — I find it a bit counterintuitive – always great to see how creative people solve problems.. I am sure we will see a lot more as we go.

Can’t live without cell towers — Florida is so flat you can spot each one… on the thought of flat Florida, going into Alabama there were some hills – it blew me away at first, I got so use to the flat water land of FL – literally water everywhere you look.

Day 11 – We woke up in the comfy living room of Viviana & Gustavo’s in Kendall, Miami. It was one of the best nights of sleep I have ever had. One, the couch is extremely comfortable and two, I was so tired when we finally went to sleep that I had a solid nights sleep. They were very generous with their time and showed us all around the Miami neighborhoods and took us to South Beach for a dip and some snacks. Saw a lot drunk college students and was glad not to be in there shoes. Lots of art deco hotels and happy to be staying at our friends house. And the temperature was very humid and hot and was happy to use as much air conditioning environments as we could find!

It is strange to have so many beaches accessible and right on the city water front. Beyond that the merge of city and beach life, the beaches were so clean with crazy warm crystal blue water. The downtown area is really building up with the construction of new high-rise buildings, and you can see the future of the city is going to become more of metropolitan in the next year. They also showed us one of our first favorite snacks, a Cuban pastry with cheese, very delicious.

Gustavo also helped us get our website up and working, the website genius he is check him at www.virtualflux.com, so everyone thank him for being able to finally use the website – Thank you Gustavo!

Miami… beaches and city – a great mix

Miami…

Our gracious hosts!

Day 10 – City Visits. Today we went to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. Charleston is very nice historic town with affluent stores and fancy houses, or should I say mansions. Unfortunately, it down poured when we first got there, but the storm let up after about 20 minutes and we went out and ventured around.

Savannah, I enjoyed walking around the city viewing it’s beautiful houses with iron work on all the stairs and balcony railings, very artistic, along with all the nicely manicured squares and parks. I certainly want to go back to Savannah and spend some more time exploring the streets.

When we hit Jacksonville, FL we had a decision to make: either camp out on the coast outside of Jacksonville with the great potential of having some thunderstorms during the night; or drive until midnight and stay at a friends house in Miami. We choose the later of the two.

The bridge into Charleston, Va – a rainey day..

The mansions by the waterfront downtown Charleston

The fountain at Forsyth Park in Savannah, Ga

Really cool mossy trees that are all over Savannah

Oops, I almost didn’t make the timer…