After a quick walk around Lake Thunderbird campground we drove onto Oklahoma City or OKC.

We spent a terrific weekend in OKC with our friend Sonnya Cudd. We miss her so it was nice to spend time with her and catch up. The weather has been warm(high 70s and low 80s) and dry. We spent time relaxing at her comfortable house plus touring around Mustang(her suburb) and OKC.

Our first stop on our tour of OKC was the memorial for the bombing in 1995 that killed 168 adults and children at the Alfred P Murray Federal Building.

Between May 1995 and April 2000 before the symbolic memorial garden open to the public, tens of thousands came to see for themselves this place of unspeakable loss. Visitors left messages of encouragement and support on the large chain-link fence that was installed to protect the site. Although not part of the original design, the chain-link fence was incorporated into the design. To this day messages and mementos are still left on the chainlink fence.

The parish house and Saint Joseph Old Cathedral were severely damaged in the bomb blast. This statue “And Jesus Wept” John 11 is where the parish house had stood.

Here are some more photos around OKC. There is tremendous pride in the city and well deserved for all the work and dedication that has been done around the city.

In 1889 the unassigned lands were opened through a Land Run and 50,000 Americans vied for 160 acres or a town lot. At noon on April 22, 1889 competitors rushed in on wagons, horses, foot, and trains. This massive statue “The Land Run of 1889” in one of their beautiful parks commemorates that day.

We had a wonderful dinner at Hefner Grill which overlooks a huge lake with lots of small sailboats on a sunny day.

Tomorrow we leave OKC headed eventually to Santa Fe along I 40 and Route 66.

After a hike in the Arkansas forest at Lake Fort Smith, we hit the road. Our goal was to get as close to Oklahoma City as we could. On Saturday we are going to spend the weekend at our friend Sonnya‘s place in Oklahoma City.

Sunset at Lake Thunderbird Campground in Oklahoma where we stayed last night.

Since the Mississippi River State Park campground was so beautiful and it was a great weather day, we lingered at the campsite until about 10.

When we left the campground, we stopped at Jones’ BBQ diner in Mariana that the campground staff had recommended. The owner started working there when he was 14 and 66 years later, he is still selling pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw—the only thing on the menu. We got two sandwiches to go to eat on our journey today.

We traveled west on I 40. Nothing much to report. Typical interstate. We are now at Lake Fort Smith campground for the evening. A big shout out to the Arkansas State Park system. The two campgrounds we have stayed at are beautiful, quiet, have great amenities and bath houses, and Wi-Fi in the campground plus s friendly and helpful staff. This campground was built in 1936, but of course, has been upgraded and remodeled extensively.

We never gave Arkansas much thought, but it is a beautiful state.

Every town, regardless of the size, has at least one church with most towns, having at least a half dozen. They are usually small, modest buildings, but this one was a particularly large ornate one we saw today.

We continued to drive up Highway 61 through Port Andrew, Vicksburg, Rolling Fork and then highway 1 along the Mississippi River , although we couldn’t see it past most of the levees.

We drove through small towns— some very pretty and many downtrodden. We passed fields and fields of harvested cotton and corn. Cotton balls dotted the edge of the highway blown there during harvesting or while being transported.

Look at this beautiful campsite on the lake at Mississippi River State Park Campground near Marianna, Arkansas. In addition to the gorgeous campground, the staff were just delightful.

We camped at Fontainebleau State Park campground— an absolutely beautiful campground across from New Orleans on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Lots of photos from around the park since it was so gorgeous.

We drove north on Highway 61– a beautiful, low traffic highway with few billboards. A comment about billboards. For the last couple of weeks 70% of the billboards we have seen are for personal injury lawyers(they must be making way too much money) and the personal injury lawyers are predominantly Caucasian male.

We arrived in Natchez, Mississippi, the oldest settlement on the Mississippi River and had lunch at Magnolia Grill. Decided to try southern bread pudding with warm bourbon sauce. We are eating way too much(and no pool workouts for Steve or the gym for me) but we want to experience some of the regional foods.

We camped at Natchez State Park campground.

Heading north tomorrow along the Mississippi River .

We spent the day in New Orleans. Instead of buying a tour, we got $3 passes to ride any of the antique trolleys around the city. Having been to New Orleans for business conferences in the past, I dreamed of going to Café Du Mond for beignets and cafe au lait. We took the riverfront trolley to Café Du Mond. The beignets and coffee were as terrific as I had remembered.

After the café, we walked around the French Quarter and ended up at Cornet on Bourbon Street for lunch.

We took the trolley out to the garden district. The garden district is where there are old mansions that are still residences or restaurants and businesses. Really no pictures as my cell phone battery was almost depleted.

We left the city and took the 26 mile bridge across Lake Pontchartrain.

Here is the Gulf Shores beach:

This was another “road less traveled day“. When we left Gulf Shores, we could have taken Highway 98 along the shore or gone to I-10 but we decided to drive to Fort Morgan and take the ferry to Dauphin Island.

We drove around the island and then over the bridge to Mobile, Alabama. Mobile Bay is a huge port. Mobile and its bay were major locations for the Confederate army during the Civil War. Several battles were fought on the bay and around Mobile. Mobile is also where Mardi Gras originated.

We walked around in the historic downtown area of Mobile. We had a terrific lunch at Debris. The food was delicious. Steve had their signature po’boy and I had a fried pistolette roll stuffed with BBQ shrimp. The bartender was both entertaining and a very creative mixologist.

After lunch, we headed to Buccaneer State Park campground in Waveland, Mississippi. It has suddenly gotten cold. The last few days it has been in the mid to high 70s. Tomorrow it will be in the 50s.

Tomorrow we plan to go to New Orleans.

We spent the morning on Grayton Beach listening to and watching the waves. Steve went swimming. The water is so clear and “warm“. Not warm enough for me! After a picnic lunch, we headed west along the Gulf coast.

We have left Florida after almost 2 weeks in the state. We spent time with my family, spent a day at Kennedy Space Center, a couple of days each in the Everglades Natl Park and Key West plus we love the beach so much we took our time in areas with great beaches. The coasts (east and west) total approximately 1,500 miles.

From the Grayton Beach area we took Highway 98 west along the coast through Destin and Pensacola to Gulf State Campground in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The weather is terrific—clear skies, 77 degrees and some humidity. Here are photos from the drive. A good portion of the way are high rise hotels and condominiums plus lots of new construction.

We left Lafayette in September 11. Tomorrow will be 60 days on the road. We, of course, are not back in California yet. When we were planning this adventure we only made estimates of distance and time, we thought it would take 60 days. At this point we do not plan to be back in Lafayette until November 28. We hope you will continue on this journey with us. We still have so much to see.

We have stayed at so many great campgrounds but I could stay at St Joseph Peninsula State campground for a week. I haven’t said that about any other campground. There are good facilities, washer/dryer, perfect temperature, and steps to an incredibly white sand beach. The sand has a texture of powdered sugar, and the water is azure blue. Alas, we will be moving on further west on the Gulf shore.

This morning we went to walk on the beach before breakfast and then did a campground trail that went from the Gulf to the bay and back to the Gulf. 

Definitely had to go to the beach before we left.

We asked one of the park rangers to recommend an eclectic restaurant with good food. She said definitely Hunt’s. What a great recommendation.

We continued west along the shore of the Gulf to Grayton Beach.

Another gorgeous beach. We are camping at Grayton Beach State Campground tonight. We have to give a shout out to the Florida state parks. They are very well-maintained, good facilities, nice staff, and hot showers. They are rated the number one state park system in the United States.

We camped at Manatee Springs State Park and spent the morning hiking around and taking the boardwalk to the Swanee River (it flows 240 miles out to the Gulf). The name of the campground (which was terrific)did not disappoint— we actually saw manatees.

Manatees are called sea cows, chubby mermaids, and river potatoes. We saw five manatees, one of which was a mother nursing her baby. They were below the surface of the water and in the shadows so we didn’t get any great pictures. We also saw otters(no pictures), bald eagles and several other birds.

Manatee Springs and the Swanee River were beautiful. Here are some photos.

After Manatee Springs, we headed west along the Gulf of Mexico shore. The drive was on two lane highways with little or no traffic and lots of water and vegetation.

Tonight we are at St Joseph Peninsula State Park Campground. It is on a slender peninsula off the Florida panhandle shore into the Gulf of Mexico. It is beautiful here. There is a pristine, white sand beach stretching for a couple of miles just mere steps from our campsite.

Here are some photos of the magnificent sunset tonight.