Turning left for the long haul...

We picked up I-10 just east of Tallahassee, thus starting the approx. 2250 mile journey west. We have one more designated stop, and that is to visit Howard's cousins in Silverhill, AL, an easy drive.  We conveniently stayed at the Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park in nearby Summerdale for a couple of days, and enjoyed a drive to Gulf Shores for a final oyster po-boy fix at Bahama Bob's.

We had not seen the cousins, Jon, Julie, and Georgia for many years, nor met Jon's new wife Wendy, though I felt I knew her from our Facebook connection.  We enjoyed their southern hospitality and meeting all the extended family, and especially some great fried chicken.  Jon is an English sports car enthusiast and proudly showed off his '72 TR6:

Miss Scarlett is her name

Now, back on the interstate cities and sights fly by my window in a blur.  Time zones and temperatures create havoc with our minds and bodies.  The motorhome and jeep are covered in layers of nasty grime and grit, but we are headed west to our beloved families and soon the desert will once again be our home.

Here from the relative comfort of my passenger lounge is a composite of drive-by shootings through Alabama to Texas, and on through New Mexico to Arizona.  We had an overnight at Sam Houston Jones State Park in Lake Charles, LA but I did not even get out of the motorhome to take photos.

The Bayway to Mobile, AL

The bridge through the Atchafalaya Swamp on I-10 LA is the 2nd longest in the US!

The Horace Wilkinson Bridge crossing the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge.

Driving through Houston, above, was a little surreal as there was no traffic.  Howard had just been talking about our last trip to Big Bend NP and the little town of Alpine,TX where we spend the night en route.  Remember that great restaurant, he said, the one that Martha Stewart reviewed, and was so good.  Hmmm, not off hand but let me check online.  Here it is, the Reata Restaurant.  By now we're nearing San Antonio and, just like that, exited the interstate for the more peaceful Highway 90 drive! Noteworthy here is that we spent the night at the Escapees Park in Hondo, TX that night and the temperature was a balmy 75 degrees.

The High Bridge, above, towers over the Pecos River Canyon, near Del Rio, TX.  When we pulled over to take pictures we were nearly blown away from the cold winds.

Once we got to our Alpine destination and The Lost Alaskan RV Park, we felt as though we just might have landed in Alaska.  The temps had dropped over 40 degrees from the previous night, down to low 30s.  We stayed two nights to enjoy a fine dinner at Reata and by the time we left the next morning it was 22!  Our water pipes were frozen and ice caked on the windshield was so thick we needed the hair dryer to assist the defroster as we prepared to leave.

We re-joined I-10 at Van Horn, TX and continued on, through El Paso and Las Cruces, NM, all the way to Deming and the Escapees Dream Catcher RV Park.  Our driving days have actually topped 400 miles, with many in the 380 range.  We're stopping for fuel far too often but at least the prices have been lower, averaging $3.75 for diesel.  And it is freezing everywhere!

El Paso, TX

New Mexico welcomes us

Interstate art!

Crossing the Continental Divide between Deming and Lordsburg, NM was uneventful as the terrain was flat and any elevation gain had been so gradual as not to be noticed.  But we are officially west and the landscape has changed significantly.  We continued on to one of our favorite little southwest desert towns, Ajo, AZ, with another long driving day behind us.  We would normally boondock out of town off Darby Wells Rd., but since this was just for one night and it was very cold, we opted to visit the nice folks at Belly Acres RV Park, and watch us some Sunday night football.

This is getting good!

We briefly considered turning south

At Texas Canyon near Benson, AZ

Just driving into Ajo makes us happy!

Now on I-8

And this brings us to Yuma!

Starting the long drive home, but first Thanksgiving!

We thought we knew what we were doing!  Just drive north until Alligator Alley which would take us west to Naples and points north.  Yes, we have a GPS, two in fact, and yes we saw many signs for the Florida Turnpike which we obviously ignored.  Because we ended up in:

Downtown Miami!

We reminded ourselves how long we're been doing this and then had the fleeting thought that maybe it has been too long!  Nah....  We were soon back on course for our overnight stop at Franklin Lock and Dam campground near Fort Myers, FL.

This has to be one of the most beautiful campgrounds we've been to, and what's even better is the price:  $24 for water and electric, $12 with senior discount as it is a Corps of Engineers park which honors the Golden Age Pass.  All the sites are situated around the Okeechobee Waterway, a protected inland passage between Stuart on Florida's east coast, and Tampa Bay on the west.  There are boat moorings as well as RV sites, and eagles and alligators.  We had stayed here years ago on our last trip in 2004.

Franklin Lock and Dam for transiting boats:

We continued on to the real piece de resistance, friends Judy and George McAnally who live just north of Tampa, and our Thanksgiving reunion.  Their friendship goes way back to the early 1970's in the Half Moon Bay-Coastside area.  Judy was manager of Founders Title Company and I was just beginning a 25 year real estate run.  George sailed with Howard from HMB to Cabo San Lucas and back.  What a friend, as that is a long, hard run, especially the return "uphill"!  I chose to fly down and meet them.

Our memories are unclear but this may have been the last time we saw Judy and George when we chartered a sailboat in Belize and cruised to South Water Caye in 2005!  We also chartered a catamaran together in the British Virgin Islands and they started full-time RVing at about the same time as we did.  Then came our private caravan of 3 rigs to Alaska, often referred to as the trip from hell, which had nothing to do with the road trip.  They've since settled down in a nice golfing community and graciously invited us for Thanksgiving and entertained us in grand style for 3 nights.

Judy, George, and son Mike, down from Atlanta

Now look closely at that beautiful turkey 'cause there is a story attached.  When we arrived Wednesday night Judy said come look at my turkey.  In the refrigerator sat a flat pile of raw skin! George had de-boned the turkey but Judy promised it would be properly inflated with her homemade stuffing.  And it was delicious, in fact the entire dinner was a feast and we did not lift a finger except to hoist a glass!

Mike's yummy Brussels sprouts

Yams, of course

And more!

If we couldn't be home with all the family, then this was by far the next best place to be, with good friends sharing old and new stories and really good food!

MN friends Galyn & Linda joined us

Let's dig in!

The Keys

We have been idly lolling in the lap of luxury, at least for us, for a week of down time.  A real vacation!  Ha...It even sounds funny to hear myself say that as many think we are constantly on vacation.  Not so!  This traveling stuff can be hard work; time changes, traffic, wear and tear on body and mind, not to mention the rig and toad.  Planning, itineraries, sightseeing, even reservations, something we almost never do. 

We decided that if we were going to the Florida Keys we wanted a front row seat and west side for sunsets.  And we might as well stay a week and get a better rate.  Grassy Key RV Resort offered just what we were looking for, and more....A few no-see ums at happy hour were not going to stop us.  We just slathered on more poisonous bug deterrent.

This became our office:

Looking back at our RV site and having fun with Google+ photo editing.....

We had our share of pets...

And friends around the palapa for sundowners!

But mostly we studied....cloud formations:

The Overseas Highway is 106 miles long and is mostly a lot of bridges connecting small islands..

The old railroad trestle is on the left and the Seven Mile Bridge, the right

We did a day trip to Key West, 50 miles south of our location near Marathon at MM 57.  Since we had been before we chose not to fight the traffic for parking at Hemingway's house, nor take the trolley tour...sorry!

 But we did do a little walking...very little:

Until we got here, and decided it was time for a late lunch:

Next we did some drive-by shootings:

Absolutely would not park and stand in line to have our picture taken at the southernmost point in the Continental US, and here's why.  But you can say we were there:

But mostly I contemplated getting a pedicure!