Taylor Swift made us miss New Orleans…

Morning came quickly because we knew this day would be a long drive. We hoped to stay at one of the state parks near New Orleans next but little did we know Taylor Swift was on tour in New Orleans that weekend and all the sites were taken. As a result, by the time I found a place with space available it meant we needed to drive 210 miles. So, we headed out toward New Orleans. The place we were going to is called Cypress Bayou Casino RV Park, just west of New Orleans and Morgan City, Louisiana.

As mentioned we knew it would be a long drive but little did we know how long it was actually going to be. Lucky for us we had very good traffic going through New Orleans despite the Taylor Swift event. However, as we were leaving New Orleans we hit a traffic jam. Apparently, a wreck ahead on a bridge had closed highway 90 down.

No problem! We figured it would take 15 to 30 minutes and we'd be on our way. We sat for 30 minutes and then the police started routing us through a gas station onto another side road. It took 30 minutes to inch onto the side road and then once we were on it, we didn't move for a good hour to an hour and a half. Once we finally got going on to highway 90 it was apparent what the problem was as there was yet another crash where two cars were practically obliterated due to the damage.

Feeling terrible for the occupants we nonetheless continued on. It certainly put into perspective how little we were actually inconvenienced. We arrived at Cypress Bayou Casino RV Park which had quite a few available sites located at the back end of a parking lot. All were level with full hookups, 50-amp power, picnic tables and free cable. Cost per night with tax was a bit under $25.00 per night.

We did try our luck at the casino the first day we were there and although we had a lot of fun, we didn't exactly make any money. They did give us a couple of free drinks but that's all we had to show for our money when we left.

The next day we drove over to Cypremort Point State Park to see a Louisiana beach. This small park on the Louisiana Coast provided another way for us to see the ocean one more time before heading to Texas. It also had a really nice boardwalk trail that we very much enjoyed.

The next day we drove over to Burns Point, not knowing for sure what it was, but figured we'd be able to see the ocean from there too. These little country drives through sugar cane fields have been interesting. They're in the process of harvesting the sugar cane in this area and vast fields of sugar cane were either full grown to 10 ft in height or they were just merely stubble after having been cut and harvested. Lots and lots of trucks and tractors towing sugarcane to the processing centers were on the road this trip

Burns Point was a neat little park and actually has an small RV park at the end of it that we didn't even know existed. There's a small fishing pier in the park as well. Although, the park is tiny it was an enjoyable way to spend the day. We even saw a lady catch a 4-ft shark which was quite entertaining.

But alas, our stay at the casino ended and it's time to head over to Betty's RV Park in Abbeville, Louisiana where life will be a party everyday! Look out

liver..

Gulf Islands National Seashore, Mississippi

After a fairly long drive of 227 miles our next stop was Davis Bayou, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Our senior lifetime pass is accepted here as well, so camping is really cheap. We stayed here before and it's a great location.

One of the reasons we like to stop here is to make sure we get in a visit to Bozos. This Mississippi eating establishment is located in Pascagoula, Mississippi and is home of the "shrimp overload Po'boy." Now that we're back in the deep South, it's time for us to get our fill of Po'boys and we will between here and Louisiana.

One of the nice things about Davis Bayou campground is that you can walk amongst nature. While they were working on the nature trail, there are still plenty of places to walk and enjoy at this location. The marshes of the Gulf Coast surround the campground and provide for some nice birding while simply sitting outside of the RV.

We also made a few day trips to play disc golf at a couple of the disc golf courses around here and enjoyed both of them, one in Biloxi, Mississippi and one in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Our favorite happy hour spot was at the Keg and Barrel which had a nice assortment of draft beers and many of them were local.

But a huge highlight of this area is actually the white sand beaches found in Biloxi and Gulfport, MS. While these aren't the equivalent of beaches in Florida, they are the only beaches we'll probably see this year. So, we did enjoy a day of just hanging out on the beach and enjoying the water and sand.

As our time runs out here in Ocean Springs, Mississippi the state of Louisiana is next up. Now we just have to figure out where to stay!

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Gunter Hill Campground, a COE Park in Alabama

We had fun during our stay in Opelika, Alabama but it was time to move on. About 100 miles later we landed in Montgomery Alabama, or just outside of it, at Gunter Hill campground, a Corps of Engineers Park on the Alabama River.

We have stayed there before and even though we knew there just isn't a lot to do in the area, it's still a good place to stay a few days. The sites at this park are huge, have 50-amp power and are not typical of COE parks in that this one had sewer in many of the concrete padded sites.

We did play a couple of disc golf courses in the greater Montgomery Alabama area. One was at the Lagoon Park where we played alongside a typical Southern swamp and the other was on the campus of University of Auburn-Montgomery. It was a longer course with 23 total pins. Both were fun to play and challenging enough to enjoy them.

We took a day trip one day to Prattville Alabama where we stumbled upon the Parade of Pumpkins Festival. Man, this town goes all out for Halloween with pumpkins all over the town. Prattville is a neat little town about 20 minutes away from our park.

Another cool little find was the Wlderness Park/ Bamboo Forest in Prattville. There's only a half mile trail, but it's quite interesting in that the person who originally owned the land planted bamboo of all kinds on the property. As a result, there are many species of bamboo upwards to 40 ft. tall creating an eerie and mysterious forest. It was quite a unique find we really enjoyed.

Lastly, I'd be remiss to not mention one of the places we found for a happy hour called Leroy's. It's a bit of a speakeasy/dive bar but had quite a variety of craft beers and a pretty reasonable happy hour. If in the area, check it out...

Opelika, Alabama and a haunted house

The next morning, we got up and packed up to leave. The hurricane had passed through Florida and it looks like a few of the tenters were starting to break camp as well and head back to Florida. We look to see if we could stay a little long at Lake Tobesofkee but there wasn't anything available.

So, we hit the road around noon and set off for Spring Villa Campground in Opelika, Alabama about 106 miles away. It is just a few miles outside of Auburn, Alabama. This County Park had really nice sites with full hookups for a reasonable price. A little bit out of the way in the country but well worth it once you got there. Also across the street from the park were two disc golf courses, a perfect place to stay for us!

We did take a day trip into Opelika one day to just a walk around and check out the town. We came across a historic plaque with a photo that depicted what the town looked like many years ago. Interesting in that there was a church that was still standing today depicted in the photo.

Speaking of his history, our RV park has a really old home built in the 1850s out front that was purported to be haunted. As we learn more about the story It became apparent as to why it was thought to be haunted.

The house was originally used my William Penn and Mary Young built and built by a freed part African/part Indian slave named Horace King who also amazingly had built the Alabama state capital in 1850. William was a wealthy man who spent a lot of his money on lavish entertainment and had died in 1879. It is said that he was not the nicest person and he died when a servant hid in a cubby hole on the staircase and stabbed him to death on the 13th step of his home and then he beheaded him.

It is said that the 13th step rotted away until the stairway was repaired in 1957. A dark red stain, said to be the man's blood, was found on the steps. Even today, visitors are told to carefully avoid stepping on this haunted spot. The house does look a bit spooky but it is an impressive structure nonetheless.

You never know what you'll see on the road of retirement....

Sesquicentennial State Park, SC

Leaving Charlotte meant we were leaving the state of North Carolina and moving on to South Carolina. Our next stop was 103 miles away at Sesquicentennial State Park near Columbia. It was a fairly easy drive to the state park until we actually arrived. The final stretch in the park was on a short dirt road which was rutted and wound tightly through the wooded campground. Many of the sites are unlevel but fortunately for us ours was not one of them.

Once we set up, we realized that we were actually in a scenic site for the next few days. The campground was a short walkable distance to a nearby lake. While here we did take the opportunity to hike around the lake which was about 2.5 miles of rolling hills. The weather was perfect and walking the trail through the heavily wooded terrain was a nice respite.

Upon leaving Columbia, South Carolina we knew we would eventually have to travel through the area hurricane Helene had just passed through. Therfore, we were careful by making reservations and double checking our route. On October 9th we left Columbia South Carolina and drove a long way to Lake Tobesofkee's Arrowhead Campground. The total drive was 219 miles. Why did we end up having to drive so far?

Well, as it turned out we had reservations at Diamond Lakes Regional Park near Macon, Georgia only a 100 miles away. As we were driving through Macon, we noticed it had been hit hard by hurricane Helene. There were lots of trees down all along our route. Once we arrived at Diamond Lakes Regional Park, we were a bit worried because there were trees down all along the roadsides. As we entered the park and found our site, it was quite obvious we were not going to be able to stay there as our site (26) had several trees which had fallen across the back of our site making the it unusable.

We called the park to see if anything else was available and of course nothing was open so we had to move on. Since this three day stay wouldn't happen we just continued to our next stop because a quick look at the campground online showed plenty of sites available.

We continued driving toward Lake Tobesofkee's Arrowhead Park in Lizella, Georgia. More damage was evident along the route there as well. Once we pulled up to the entry gate we asked about availability for the night and we were told that there were none because of the Florida refugees from hurricane Helene we're using the park as shelter. After begging for a site, we were lucky to be assigned one since it was late in the day. As we pulled into the campground it was indeed filled with tents from people who had run away from hurricane Helene. After being grudgingly allowed to stay one night, we were sure grateful for that.

It was a really interesting day on the Road of Retirement and now we are curious to see what our next day brings.

Charlotte, North Carolina

Sadly, we left Katie and her family in Raleigh, North Carolina and started our westerly track toward our wintering grounds in Mesa Arizona. Our first stop on his trek would be Charlotte, North Carolina. We stayed at the Camping World Resort in Concord North Carolina just outside of Charlotte. We were only here a few days but enjoyed our stay. We have always enjoyed Charlotte and this was no different.

One thing I haven't mentioned is that after we had our new leveling system installed in Michigan, while we were in Raleigh, we heard a loud noise and it turned out that one of the foot pads on our brand new leveling system had broken off. The bolt that held the footpad on had sheared off. Fortunately I was able to retrieve the footpad but we were not very happy!

I did contact EQ systems in Michigan and they immediately sent a whole new leg in the mail and when we received it we were told to take it to the nearest repair facility. EQ agreed to pay for the labor to have it installed. While we weren't happy it broke off, we were very happy with this level of customer service. We just hope it doesn't happen again.

So while in Charlotte we located a repair facility who would install the leg. TJ's RV repair shop in Concord North Carolina did a great job doing the repair and they were very friendly folks. If you ever need some RV work while in the Charlotte North Carolina area, I'd recommend TJs RV repair service.

In the meantime, we continued to play as much disc golf as we can while we're out east. Once we make it to the west there are very few decent disc golf courses. North Carolina truly has the best disc golf courses we've played on in all the states we have been to.

Of course, we enjoyed several happy hours while in the area and we're still taking advantage of the Beer Dens at Lowe's Foods to try the local beers. We are sure going to miss the Beer Dens when we leave the states with Lowes Foods.

Family time in North Carolina

Our stay in Raleigh NC was busy so it passed very quickly leaving little or no time to update the blog! When we first arrived we stayed at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds near downtown Raleigh NC. There is a 14 day limit to stay there but we were unable to book sites as easily as in the past because of their new reservation system. This meant we had to move a couple times during our stay since the weekends filled the park with football fans. It is by far Sharon's favorite location as it is close to downtown and NC State University!

Once we could stay no longer, we moved over to the Popular Point Campground a state park near Jordan Lake. Once again, we had to move a few times because of reservations until we discovered that there was one whole loop available on a first come first serve basis. This made our life easier once we discovered this and we picked a site with the ability to stay longer without having to move!

We also got to enjoy many different North Carolina craft beers while visiting. Our two favorites to try out North Carolina beers are the Flying Saucer in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, and any of the Lowes Food stores scattered throughout the Raleigh-Durham area. The Flying Saucer on Mondays has every beer on sale for $5 per pint. The Lowe's food stores have an area inside the store called the Beer Den where they have up to 10 beers on tap, mostly from the state of North Carolina. Even better on Thursdays their tap beers are half priced and on Saturday days they have have priced growler fills. Fridays is they have half priced flights day which means we can try many to beers at the same time.

Adding to the fun, Wednesday is half price wine pours where we could also try different wines at a fraction of the cost. Two of the Lowes Beer Dens attract a large group of regulars who live in the area near the Lowes store. We visited often enough to become friends with several of the regulars at the High Point Lowe's food store and at the Apex Lowe's food store. What fun!

However our main purpose for staying in the Raleigh North Carolina area was to have fun with our grandkids, Allie and Emmy. Allie is three and Emmy is a one year old. They are both full of personality and energy. It has been a blast watching them develop during our stay. Those of you with grandchildren know that this time is precious. They're only young so long!

Our daughter Katie, took a week off of work so we stayed nine days at her house where her husband Brooks smoked some ribs and a brisket! Fabulous! Katie joined us everyday to play disc golf which was really great! The Raleigh area has lots of really well laid out courses. Our favorites were Rock Ridge in Pittsboro as well as Kentwood and Apex Nature Park in Raleigh! Brooks was also able to join us on one outing!

The only downside was we both caught colds while visiting as it seems we always catch something from the grands! They bounce right back whereas ours seem to linger. The price of getting old, I guess. It's always hard to say goodbye but alas, our stay came to a conclusion for another year. We did bank a lot of great memories and look forward to making many more.

But alas, our stay comes to a conclusion for another year and it is nearly time for us to go.