{"id":5812,"date":"2023-09-10T14:04:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T14:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/?p=5812"},"modified":"2023-09-11T14:50:52","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T14:50:52","slug":"week-42-from-florida-through-alabama-and-mississippi-to-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/2023\/09\/10\/week-42-from-florida-through-alabama-and-mississippi-to-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 42 From Florida through Alabama and Mississippi to Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 10, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things we have enjoyed as much as the adventure of seeing all the wonderful things we have seen was visiting friends and family along the way. Florida was no exception because it allowed me to see my great niece Traci who I haven\u2019t had the opportunity to see in years and to get to know the rest of her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9\/4- Woke up and got going this morning a bit before we got a call from Brian, Traci\u2019s husband. He and their daughter Bri were coming to take us explore with them for the day. They took us down to Navarre Beach which was packed with people due to the Labor Day weekend. Still, we enjoyed strolling down the pier and saw fish, a turtle and a jelly fish in the water. It was a beautiful day and the weather was just right for a stroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then it was time for Bri to go hang out with her friend and Traci (who works as a night nurse) was up and ready to go do some stuff with us too. We stopped by their house and picked her up and then went to lunch at GI Jane\u2019s. After that we drove around the area and saw Crab Island which isn\u2019t really an island but more of just a raised sandbar. It\u2019s where boaters and jet skiers gather to hang out and party and enjoy food and snacks from the floating vendors.  https:\/\/destinflorida.com\/things-to-do\/crab-island<\/a> Then it was time to take Traci back to the house so she could head off to work. Before heading out to dinner with Brian and Bri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We originally were only going to stay two days in the area but we decided to stay a couple days longer since there were so many things we wanted to do. We wanted to camp closer to the beach so we booked the next two nights at Navarre Beach Resort. One of our favorite things about our travels has been being able to extend a stay or go to a place we hadn\u2019t originally had on our plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9\/5- Got up early and moved to our new campsite. It is beautiful and right on the beach. After we got set up we had to walk down to the beach and hang out on the pier and enjoy the view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This afternoon we headed out to see the Indian Mounds in Fort Walton. The mounds were believed to have occupied between 700 and 1500 AD and abandoned sometime in the 1500\u2019s. Today they have a building that represents the temple that would have stood on the mounds during that time period. https:\/\/www.fwb.org\/parksrec\/page\/fort-walton-temple-mound<\/a> We also learned in our touring of the area that Fort Walton, were the mounds stands, was a confederate fort constructed in 1861.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yesterday when we were driving around Traci had pointed out a doughnut place that her daughter Jamie worked at and told me they had gluten free doughnuts. Since we were so close by we stopped in to see if we could some doughnuts for breakfast tomorrow, unfortunately they were out of gluten free doughnuts for the day. But I did get to see my great-great niece Jamie while we were there and was told they would have doughnuts for me in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We headed back to our campsite to rest and watch the sunset from the beach. It was nice to relax and enjoy the ocean breeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9\/6- Today was our last day in Florida and we really packed it full. This morning we headed over to get doughnuts. I got four wonderful gluten free doughnuts with a different glaze on each one. I have not had doughnuts in years and I really enjoyed my treat. Frank got his own doughnuts and they had a wonderful variety of different ones to choose from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then it was off to the Turtle Conservatory https:\/\/navarrebeachseaturtles.org\/<\/a> There we met the turtle Sweetpea who had been rescued and had 15,000 gallon saltwater pool to live in. Sweetpea had many special needs due to injuries she had received. She only able to eat a liquid diet which was prepared for her each day. She was missing one of her front flippers which made it difficult for her to steer where she wanted to swim and her shell had been damaged and was missing part of the back section. She was well cared for and we learned about her and the other sea turtles. We got to visit quite a bit with the workers and one of them invited us to come back tomorrow night to the beach to help inventory baby turtles who had hatched and were going off into the ocean. Unfortunately we are leaving tomorrow morning and will have to miss that opportunity, but we look forward to doing something like that in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then we went to Navarre beach to play in the ocean. The beach was not as crowded today as it was on Monday and we had a great time. We did get caught by a sneaker wave and I got knocked down and soaked. Then we laid on the beach to dry off a bit before heading back to the campground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This evening my Niece Traci was working but we were able to get together with her husband Brian and her girls Bri and Jamie for ice cream. One of my biggest faults is that when I am with family and friends I am enjoying their company so much I never think to take any pictures. But thanks to Bri and Jamie we were able to get pictures of us all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9\/7- Drove through Alabama and Mississippi to Louisiana today. We are staying in Slidell Louisiana which is within a half hour of New Orleans. The information we had on our campground was that it was on Lake Ponchartrain. It may have been on the lake but the lake was hiding behind trees and the only thing we could see was the swamp and warning signs for alligators so we didn\u2019t venture any further to find the lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9\/8- This morning we went into New Orleans to tour Mardi Gras World. I had seen it on the TV show Amazing Race and had wanted to visit it in person ever since. It is where most of the floats are created for the many parades that are held in New Orleans each year. https:\/\/mardigrasworld.com\/about-us\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our tour started off with a brief video on the history of Mardi Gras. The first New Orleans Mardi Gras parade was held in 1857 but float riders didn\u2019t begin throwing things from the floats until the 1870 and that continues today. We also learned about the history of Mardi Gras and all the countries that celebrate it each. Then each tour guest was given a piece of King\u2019s cake before we headed off to visit the warehouse where the decorations for the floats are made and stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We learned that the majority of the decorations on the floats are formed out of styrafoam covered in Paper Mache and painted. Some decorations are also made from fiberglass. We visited the various stations where individuals were working on their creations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We also learned about the actual floats and that each float rider that threw items had to be masked. All float riders are on the floats about 5 hours. During this time they are provided with food and drink and the floats even have a hidden porta-potty for the comfort of the riders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then we were allowed to explore and take pictures of the items in the warehouse. Seeing all the former decorations along with new ones was amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Afterwards we were able to head out the backdoor of the museum to walk along the Mississippi River and see barges and riverboats. We even saw a sign for the cruise ships on the way back to our car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This evening we went out to dinner at Outback. We hadn\u2019t been there in years and I was delighted to find that their Thunder from Down Under dessert was gluten free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9\/9- Off to Lafayette, Louisiana today. It is our last stop before heading back to New Caney, Texas where we will be staying for a while. We are both sad to have our trip winding down but we know we will have more adventures in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After setting up camp we headed off to Avery Island to visit the Tabasco Factory that has been there since it was founded in 1868 by Edmund Mcllhenny. For 150 years Tabasco sauce has been made the same way with three main ingredients: peppers, vinegar and salt. Avery Island actually is a salt mound that provides the salt for the sauce. The ingredients are mixed and then aged in white oak barrels for three years before being bottled and sold throughout the world.   https:\/\/www.tabasco.com\/visit-avery-island\/tabasco-tour\/<\/a> We were able to sample some of the different types of Tabasco sauces and even tried some Raspberry Chipotle Tabasco ice cream which was surprisingly good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After touring the factory we heading off to tour the Jungle Gardens which was built by Edward Mdllhenny in 1895 to help preserve the snowy egret. He planted thousands of varies of plants imported from Japan and France around the island. He was gifted a Buddha in 1936 that had been created in 900 AD and it overlooks a lagoon. The island has a wide variety of animals from white-tailed deer, to alligators. We didn\u2019t see any deer but we did see plenty of alligators. It was a full day of adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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9\/10- Listened to church this morning then headed out to visit Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park. https:\/\/bayouvermiliondistrict.org\/exhibits\/<\/a> The village is meant to represent the different people who have populated the region from Acadians, to Creoles, to Native Americans and African Americans. Houses in the village range from those built in the 1790 to 1880\u2019s. Throughout the village were interpreters dressed in the wardrobe of the time and demonstrating traditional crafts. Other than houses there were building that represented the school, church and even a ferry that traveled across the bayou at one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is sad to have our trip coming to an end but this is not the end of our adventure. We plan to take short trips off and on through the winter months and then hit the road again to complete our loop around the perimeter of the United States in Spring of next year. Since we won\u2019t be travel much I won\u2019t be adding to this blog until next Spring so check back here in late February early March to see where we go next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 10, 2023 One of the things we have enjoyed as much as the adventure of seeing all the wonderful things we have seen was visiting friends and family along the way. Florida was no exception because it allowed me to see my great niece Traci who I haven\u2019t had the opportunity to see in…Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5977,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5812\/revisions\/5977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themuellerfamily.org\/htr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}