December 28, 2021
Woke up this morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Then we took a half hour stroll around the campground. The Baton Rouge KOA is really nice place to stay.
We worked together to get the RV ready to hit the road and still forgot things. Headed out at about 9:30 am. We got about a mile down the road when we realized we hadn’t locked the bedroom door in place and it was opening and closing around every curve. Pulled over extended the slide a bit and got the doors locked. Another 5 miles down the road Frank remember he forgot to turn the propane off for the water heater. So another short stop to take care of that. We will get this together and things will become more automatic and go smoother as we travel.
We traveled North of Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans so we saw area we haven’t seen before and avoiding the crazy New Orleans traffic. Still faced the cross winds again today so that made the drive more tiring.
The first leg of the trip today was the longest at 3 1/2 hours. We did take a short break at a Flying J gas station to stretch and have a quick snack before getting back on the road. Nearly got clipped by a van who decided he could jump out ahead of us as we were turning but managed to avoid him. I don’t understand other drivers who see an RV and decide they have to cut them off to get ahead.
We finally reached our first stop at about 1 pm. Mobile’s Battleship Memorial Park. From the Battleship USS Alabama to the Submarine USS Drum and multiple air crafts and military transportation you could feel the pride for our serviceman. They had displays from the Civil War (a Confederate Submarine) to Iraqi Freedom.
We went into and through a sub. Talk about tight quarters. I felt claustrophobic and couldn’t imagine how I would feel if I know I was also under the ocean while in the sub.
We also walked the decks of a battleship. I was surprised to find the decks were all made of wood but Frank pointed out they were probably metal shortages during WWII and they probably saved the metal for the important things like guns.
The display that touched me the most was the one honoring Vietnam vets. My brother David fought in that war and I could imagine him seeing the patrol boats. Seeing a display of what a prisoner of war camp looked like made me glad that he never had to experience that.
We spent two hours there. Frank was thrilled when a Huey helicopter flew over while we were on the Alabama. The two of us took lots of pictures so it was hard to narrow down to which ones to post.
After that we had a short hour and a half drive to our campground in Milton, Florida. We drove through three new states today, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida so we got to add those to our map.
Found a Buccee’s in Alabama and stopped there to fill up before heading to our campground. Another driver tried to cut us off at the pumps and we narrowly avoided another accident. We decided we both need to be alert in crowded areas to ensure we see people on every side of the RV.
We got to our campground about 4:30 pm and got set up. We now have our assigned jobs and it goes smoothly. I hook up the electricity while Frank hooks up the water and if needed we dump. With just the two of us we are only dumping ever two or three days. I open the slides and get the air conditioner going.
We have found that while driving we haven’t needed to run the generator and the air conditioner. We just run the vent or a/c in the cab and when we stop to explore we crack open a couple windows and leave the fan vents open and running and the RV had stayed comfortable.
The Milton Florida KOA is nice but right next to I10 so we had lots of freeway noises. We needed to be more aware of where our campground is located before booking.
I baked potatoes for dinner which we enjoyed with butter, sour cream and cheese. Played some Skipbo after that. That was always my mother’s favorite game. We are enjoying having a game night each night. Since we had walked so much at the Battleship Memorial we skipped our nightly walk around the campground. And by 10 pm we were both ready for bed. Tomorrow is our first day without a campground booked ahead. Hopefully we will find one open around Tallahassee Florida or we may be sleeping at a Wal-Mart or Cracker Barrel tomorrow night
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