CHANGE IN PLANS March 20-30, 2012

Our original plan to stay on the east coast for the next year took a detour in early March when my Mom passed away on March 14th in Green Valley, Arizona. I was so happy that I'd seen her only weeks before on our visit to Arizona. Always her sweet smile and happy greeting when we arrived.

                 Such a pretty woman at 90 years old!

                                                     Harry and I with Mom,  Feb 1, 2013

As happens when life changes, our plans also changed. Mom's services were planned for April 9th. We needed to turn west for that as well as other events in the upcoming months...Peggy's wedding at the Grand Canyon late May, spend time with my brother, Harry, in Green Valley and make it to my annual girlfriend getaway in Santa Ynez late June. So, we decided we would postpone our trip to eastern Canada for a year and return to Florida before driving west. We had already made another big decision on something we've talked about for quite a while, to buy a 2nd motorhome and leave one on the east coast and drive one to the west coast. We love the idea of being able to fly back and forth between coasts and always have a home there for us to continue our travels.

So, with a few days before needing to drive west, Paul started to work on our new RV.

Here's how we looked on Wednesday, March 20th. Both motorhomes in one site at Cooksey's RV Park just north of St. Augustine, FL.

Paul started a renovation to the one on the left. Just as he did before he tore it apart from floor to ceiling and started to modernize it all.

The oak walls and blue carpet are gone. Cabinets were painted white, wood flooring installed and he began painting the walls. We chose a rusty red for the living room.

He was working so hard trying to get it ready for us to take west and... Thursday was our 43rd wedding anniversary.  I really thought with so much going on we'd just go out for a simple dinner that night but my sister, Emily, had other ideas.  I woke up Thursday morning to find an email from her telling us we were going to have a wonderful anniversary dinner at Rhett's Piano Bar in St. Augustine that evening, with a gift certificate already waiting for us there. 

As Emily knows we have always made our anniversary a real celebration for all these years, but somehow with all that was going on in our lives this year, I had let that slip to the back burner. I'm so glad she didn't! We had a delicious dinner, with piano music playing and a very private 2nd story corner window table.  Yes, getting Paul to break away from working was hard and his hands were totally covered in white paint but that didn't stop us from dressing up and enjoying a wonderful evening. Thank you, Emily!  It was perfect!

Emily drove up that next weekend so she and I played and did some sights of St. Augustine while Paul kept on working. By Saturday a huge thunderstorm blew in and settled over us for most of the day.  

Paul had already put much of the house together...here's our new bedroom

The living room got a new sofa, dark wood blinds, new carpet and a large mirror to update it all.

Now all that's needed is the pub table for the empty space. Oh, there's still tons of work left to do on it, but what a great start he's made. Though we wanted to bring the new one west, after talking it over we changed the plan.  A little too risky to drive so many miles in an RV we hadn't really tested fully.

Sunday morning we were up early, Em left at 6AM, and we put the RV back into storage, locked it up and headed for the west coast by 10:00. It will be a new experience to see what happens to the RV as it sits through a Florida summer.

We drove I-10 West and had our first stop at Falling Waters State Park in northern FL. A small lake creates Florida's tallest waterfall, at 73' falling  into a sink hole. Neat to walk all around this area.  Paul was exhausted and we were able to get a 2nd night at the park though we had to change sites, it was worth it.

From Florida we drove on through Alabama and into Louisiana for a 2 night stay at Fontainebleau State Park. The park was once a sugar plantation with some of the ruins still standing. Absolutely gorgeous!

Quite the entry! One thing we love about state parks on the east coast is the expanse of lands for the park.  We often drive 2-3 miles into the park before coming to the campground area, making it quiet and so removed from the nearby towns and noise.

The nearby town of Mandeville is home to a fun restaurant, Louie and the Red Head Lady. Since it had been featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives we stopped for lunch.  Make mine fried green tomatoes with shrimp, yum!

We also spent another afternoon along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain with New Orleans straight across the 25 mile causeway south. After driving along the lake front we stopped for a local beer at the Oats and Barley Draught House.  It was a warm afternoon, perfect for sitting outside on the upper balcony.

After such a nice 2 days we were back on the road to the opposite side of Louisiana at Sam Houston Jones State Park.  We were camped right across from this swampy marsh. Beautiful! 

On our way to that park we took a little detour to see the Longfellow-Evangeline Historic State Park. I had always remembered my Mom reciting pieces of the poem, Evangeline, and I had read it and loved it several years ago, so this was a great find for me. This area was originally settled by Creole and French Acadians in the 18th century and the park has several historic houses. 

The 19th century home of Charles DuClozel Olivier

An Acadian Farm with out buildings

The guide showing us the house pointed out this "roller pin headboard". Since mattresses at that time were made of feathers which would get lumpy a rolling pin was used to smooth out the feathers when the bed was made in the morning.

We drove south just a bit in the town of St Martin for lunch at St. John's.  In the nearby church yard was this statue of Evangeline.

Since it was the beginning of Easter weekend, we could only get one night at the Sam Houston Jones Park, but had enough time in the evening for a beautiful bike ride all around it.  The next morning we were up early again and on our way to Texas. 859 miles down, and a few left to go!