A Good Journey to Lafayette Louisiana.....

Back on the road and what should be an easy interstate journey to Lafayette
First we must cross The Mighty Mississippi.......

All of today's photos are taken from the cab of the truck by the chief navigator !!
If there is any blurriness blame it on the road surface !

We left Baton Rouge on the I-12 for a few miles before merging back onto the I-10

This is part of the 18 mile long elevated section of the I-10
It passes over the Atchafalaya (pronounced "uh-cha-fuh-lie-uh") Basin
Trucks are restricted to 55 mph so we have us a convoy ! Of course as  with truck drivers all over the world some are a law unto themselves......

The Atchafalaya Basin covers nearly 1 million acres stretching 100 miles North to South and is the largest and last great river-basin swamp in North America

We stopped at the State Welcome Centre which is about 5 miles from the end of the elevated section and watched a really excellent film (it felt like being back at Disney) about the Basin and area. There is an area for free overnight RV parking (with security) and several swamp boat tours go from here.........we pass on that today but maybe if we pass back along this route. We have done a similar tour in Orlando some years ago
So onto our campsite at Scott, probably about the bumpiest ride so far on our travels (we were warned the roads are not good) about 20 miles from Lafayette and conveniently near the I-10 to find out what Boudin and Cracklin are all about.  We guessed cracklin but Boudin seems to be a Louisiana haggis !
I was pleased to discover that my carefully packed cupboards survived the journey, even the wine and whisky were not too shaken.........

Brrrrrr in Baton Rouge LA

Heavy rain since early hours........camping is nowhere near as much fun in the rain !!
We got rather wet hitching up the trailer but it dries up after about half an hour or so on the road. Todays journey is another shortish one, along the I-10  just a couple of hours.....as usual when crossing over into a new State we call into the visitors centre and not just for a comfort break ! As usual the visitors centre staff are excellent and here as at the Mississippi Visitors Centre they have complimentary coffee :)
We had ear-marked a Camping World just off of the I-10 who we hope can help us with our a/c problem. Unfortunately they can't look at it for 3 days and as we want to move on we hope there is a mobile repair guy at our campsite. We did change out our faulty "outside" chair so all was not lost.......
Phew there is a mobile RV repair guy and he is now our new best buddy, seriously he was great, it was as we suspected but wanted to make sure, a leaf caught in the a/c fan. He also gave us advise about other issues......

This and next pic is our first sighting of The Mighty Mississippi
It was really cold overnight (we can feel the sympathy from back home !!) and although blue skies today there is a very chilly wind.....

The Baton Rouge Veterans Memorial

The Old State Capitol Building,

 The fabulous domed ceiling of The Old State Capitol Building
A really interesting building and museum

Ornate second floor

As well as being a museum the building is now used for events and weddings

Magnolia Mound Plantation House
Not one of the most impressive plantation houses of the area but was convenient and we had time to spare.     

A slave hut of the plantation
We had fun talking to the volunteer guide, she has visited England several times as part of a football (English football) tour.....
A good day in Baton Rouge....brrrrrr it's a cold evening.........

Biloxi, Mississippi

Sunday morning and all is quiet in downtown Biloxi
Biloxi City Hall

Howard Street, part of the Historic Area

One of the oldest houses in Biloxi and I think rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina, it is being converted into a museum

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
The casinos have been instrumental in rebuilding Biloxi after Katrina and other hurricanes that have devastated the area 

Biloxi Lighthouse

Another wide beach but not quite as nice as others we have visited on the Gulf.
The 26 miles of white sand beach here at Biloxi was man-made in 1951 to enhance what was already a booming resort area......

The Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino taken from the pier (earlier pic)
Due to old gambling laws the casinos have to be built over the sea

And here's a train !! The railroad runs along the back of the campsite,  I'm happy but Yorkie-Man not so much !!
Just a 2 night stay here,  as mentioned before Bill C said there is not a lot to Biloxi but it was a good stop off point on our route across to Texas and after reading all of the John Grisham books we thought we ought to visit.....
We now have another problem this time with the a/c....strange noises coming from the living area unit !! As this is the 3rd thing to go wrong we are hopeful !!!!  We have booked our next campsite near Baton Rouge, Louisiana and have decided to stick to the plan and sort the a/c problem when we get there.........tomorrow back up to the I-10 and head West......

On The Road to Biloxi Mississippi

Time to leave Destin and move west........
The coast road US98, fascinating landscape the sand dunes look like piled snow ...

After 50 miles on the 98, it was interesting to see the coast road but did get a bit laborious stopping and starting at all of the traffic lights, we turn right and take the quiet toll road up to the I-10

Here in the southern part Alabama is only 64 miles wide, just as well as the road surfaces are  not "quite up to par" !!

We thought we were back home in our Hindhead Tunnel........no it's Mobile Alabama

Sunset over the beach in Biloxi

This is a planned 2 night stop here in Biloxi as Bill C said there's not a whole lot in Biloxi.........

Sunset Over Miramar Beach

Our local beach, again a beautiful wide white sand beach 

We have very much enjoyed our stay here at Miramar Beach, Destin Florida. This has definitely been the best/prettiest campsite that we have stayed in so far on our travels with also the best internet speed/bandwidth !!
We have had the added bonus of meeting up on 3 evenings with the Georgia Boys who happen to be here on a golfing break. Michael was able to play golf with them too while I went shopping :) There's a very convenient large mall within walking distance of our temp home :)
We did have a "spooky moment" while here....we had been talking about the first and second Dr Who and 10 minutes later while listening to Sounds of The Sixties on the BBC i-player  Brian Matthew mentioned them both before playing a 60's Dr Who song.......creepy.......some of you might remember on our 2010 trip we had a similar incident and again it was Brian Matthews and Sounds of The Sixties who was involved......
OK folks tomorrow we move on to Biloxi Mississippi (I still remember how to spell Mississippi from the childhood ditty, so something stuck in my poor old brain) ......we must start moving west to get to Texas ready to fly home.  Hopefully it should be a straightforward 3 hour drive but.......

On The Road to Destin Florida & Camp Harris....

Ummmmmm

US 331,  Road Bridge  over Choctawhatchee Bay to Miramar Beach and our campsite

Camp Harris,  Destin RV Resort.
This is one of the nicest campsites we have stayed at. Gated and all paved sites with landscaped garden areas, pricey in summer but we got a very good winter deal for the week. The only downside was that the sites are back in only but Yorkie Man was up to the challenge  !!
And no we haven't been daft enough to buy a Hummer :0

Nicely settled here, very close to the beach with private access, the sun is shinning and it's warm/hot......

Our very own water-tower !
Cannot be seen directly from our site but I only have to walk just around the corner of the park !
For those of you following the hot water saga we arrived here Saturday with still no running hot water as our trip to the RV repair shop in Chattahoochee sadly did not have the desired result. We arranged for a local repair man here to call on us on Monday morning (no comments from those of you of an age to remember the song "Twas on a Monday Morning" !!)  as after getting our home on wheels backed into this spot it is not moving until we leave here !!! Cutting a long story short on Sunday we discover we once again have running hot water.......upshot is intermittent problems are the worst and our guy says to wait until it goes again before calling him out !
It is now Wednesday and we still have hot water !! The saga will run for a while we think......
This area is very much a holiday/golf destination with a beautiful wide white sand beach........we are taking advantage of this and continuing our R & R

And Another Thing...Life is never dull on the road with YM and Mrs B

Well you will all be pleased to know that the drier is fixed, yippee.......but were just about to de-camp to move up to Chattahoochee when we discovered that we did not have hot water !! Our electrician could not find a fault and there was power going into the sockets....ho hum !! We decided to move on anyway and sort the problem out at the next stop........
We travelled this  road for 80 miles up to Chattahoochee.......we love these ones that are straight and empty apart from the odd logging truck ! The weather is now sunny.....clear blue skies and in the 80's.......
After checking into our campsite, we take off to Camping World, 30 miles down the I-10, to check out what might be the matter with our water heater. Upshot is we need to take the trailer in although the guy did say it could just be a case of wiggling the wires !!!! Hey we did it and it worked hot water......

1st Nov and a visit to Florida Caverns. The caverns are really good, very pretty and although not  huge, just a 45 minute tour compared to when we went to Mammoth Caves, Kentucky, which was a 4 hour tour, they are very pretty and interesting. This photo and the following don't really do it justice.

Ho hum back to campsite and hey no hot water !!!!! We are not complaining as we are very aware of the poor folks in New Jersey and New York.......
Cutting a very long story short.........today we hitched up and took our camper to the local RV repair guy who thought he had fixed it but hey no.........seems we need a new thermostat and now it's Friday so we will move on tomorrow down to Destin on the Gulf Coast and get it sorted next week !!!!
More adventures with Yorkie-Man and Mrs Blogger soon........