Leaving Savannah I thought would be hard, but actually, I am finding that come the 4th day in one place my feet are itching to move on, even if we haven’t seen all we would like to. I wonder occasionally if we have done this trip the right way. Perhaps we should have done the traditional holiday and just flown into a few places and stayed a week or so to try to see everything.
But then at the end of a long day, I come home to Ellie-Mae (my own little snail shell) and I am reminded of all the added bonuses of traveling like this. We have certainly found ourselves in places that we would never have imagined. Some great, some good and some not so good. If the weather turns to custard, we can happily just stay at home without worrying about wasting a precious day. We just stay a bit longer and head out when it’s fine.
My health, which is the catalyst for our memory-making adventure, has been on the whole good while we are traveling. But there have been times when I have struggled. I have to admit that I find I get tired a lot and I suppose after 3 full days being a tourist, come the 4th day, I need to rest.
The Whipple attacks have not occurred too often thankfully, but when they have, it is good to be in my own surroundings with my own things (and medication) till they pass. These all remind me how lucky we are that we are able to travel like this and how so many can not afford the time to do what we are doing.
In consideration of all this, after a full on 8 days in Charleston and Savannah, I was ready for some quiet time. We decided to head to New Orleans, but to take a few days to get there as it was too far to drive in one day.
The stop we picked was Tallahassee, Florida which is a 4 and half hour drive from Savannah. Really this is a little far for us in one jump, but with luck the roads in Georgia and Florida are nothing like up north (smooth and hardly any potholes) and straight. Oh so straight.
We did a loop around Jacksonville FL and headed west to Tallahassee. Well actually lake Talquin. A little further out than I thought when I booked it. Yup its way way way out of Tallahassee.
The campground is on the edge of the beautiful Lake Talquin (named because it is half way between Tallahassee and Quincy). A great lake for Bass fishing but not swimming (sad face) as the locals (alligators) were likely to eat you. Not that the alligators or moccasin snakes were the worry for us, more like the Cow Killer Ants. These pretty (not little) ants are named because there bite will take down a cow. Just another thing for me to fret about.
We spent a couple of lazy sunny days here before heading out of Florida and off to Summerdale, Alabama. We only intended to stay at Summerdale for a night to break the trip through to New Orleans. But I think we found our favourite campground. Emmaus RV Park turned out to be a beautiful tree’d quiet campground not far from either Mobile or Pensacola and the famous Orange Beach.
We ended up staying an extra night as we found there was so much to see and do in this area, which we, unfortunately, could only do a very few. We both felt this is one area we need to come back to.
While here, we did get to visit Alligator Alley. What a great place. Not that I am fond of these creatures, but in this park you see them in their natural habitat and walk on boardwalks above them. The place is fascinating and the show was worth getting there in time to see them feed the “wild” alligators. I spent some time talking to Wes (the owner) about the park and the alligators. His enthusiasm for the care of these animals, nearly makes you start to think nice thoughts about them…… I said nearly.
He was telling me he is off to Australia soon to film the salt water crocs. So in the future if you see a programme about salt water crocs and a mad man from Alabama, that is Wes.
As we left Summerdale and traveled on west through Mississippi and then into Louisiana, we noticed numerous ripped out signposts and trees snapped off halfway up the trunks. The storm that had recently passed through here, just makes you so aware of the force of nature. Particularly as we are hearing constant comments that this is hurricane season down here, you tend to think of the devastation this area tolerates on a regular basis. Just amazing.
Or are we just stupid to be visiting here at this time of the year. Nope, any sign of problems heading our way, we will just pack up our snail shell and head out of here.