The
drive across the piney woods of East Texas on Monday was interesting in that
there was a distinct change in color amongst the various deciduous trees. Efforts to capture images through the motor
home windows proved fruitless and there were no convenient stopping places that
afforded a decent view. Hence, you will
have to take our word for it.
After
an uneventful night in Shreveport, we took I49 south to I-10. This route passes through only a couple of
towns and leaves the traveler feeling as though he/she has spent the entire day
in the central Louisiana boonies.
Traffic was not bad until we hit I-10 and then it got fairly
thick…particularly as we passed through Red Stick (Baton Rouge). The highway through LA’s capitol has been
under perpetual construction/repair for at least 10 years that we have
firsthand knowledge about and, perhaps, since early settlement days. The sad part is that it is apparently a
futile effort as the highway remains choked with traffic all the time.
Between
Lafayette and Baton Rouge lies a fascinating stretch of geography. The Atchafalaya Basin is an enduring
drainage system that dates back more than 10,000 years. Covering almost a million acres, it stretches
about 100 miles from north to south.
Although we just drove through it this time (yes, there is a bridge some
20 miles long that passes through it), we have taken small-boat tours through
the swamp on previous visits here and have been amazed by it.
Just
East of Baton Rouge, Livingston is a pretty good place to spend the night if,
as we have, one decides to break the travel day into 250 miles or so
increments. Since we are on a bit of a
time crunch (brought on by ourselves), we have had to travel on interstate
highways, those vast ribbons of concrete crisscrossing the country east and
west, north and south. They are a boon
to those who need to make good time from one point to another, but as we have
observed elsewhere, the trip is the same no matter where you go. The gas stations are the same, the fast food
joints and the same, and all of the stores—big and little box—that line the
interstates are all the same. To find
any flavor other that plain vanilla, one must abandon the interstate highways
and find small roads that pass through the heart of small towns.
An
interesting observation (well, it’s interesting to me) is that the major truck
stops such as Pilot, Flying J, Love’s, TA, and one or two that I can’t think of
are running a rip-off. The cost of fuel
is always many cents higher at these truck stops than is true off the beaten
path. They also price fuel differently
for cash or credit…always more for credit, of course. Even their cash prices are higher than at other
stations just a few blocks off the interstates who apparently can’t afford to
differentiate because they lack the volume of the big stores. It is kind of the reverse of Wal-Mart and
other big box retail stores' tactics who price little folk out of the market by
having lower prices that the mom and pop shops can afford to offer.
Back
on the road: The Wednesday before
Thanksgiving is among the busiest travel days of the year and our experience on
I-10 from Livingston through Mobile, AL, where we left it to head south,
reflected those statistics. While
traffic never came to a halt, it did run heavily for the entire time. Some folks were crazy, and some were not, but
we all managed to get somewhere safely.
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| Lake Osprey RV Country Club |
We
have fond memories of meeting Brad and Nancy Robb nine years ago in San Diego,
and we have been friends ever since.
Brad and I have birthdays two days apart (he’s the old one). That first year we had a satisfactorily good
Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant at a marina in Chula Vista. That meal pretty well sealed the deal for the
four of us. We’ve been running into one another all over the country as well
as keeping in touch via email.
You
never know what you are going to find when you get off the beaten path. Just south of our RV Resort, a fellow has
built a new marina and along with places to park the boats, he has added a
marble fountain and a number of prehistoric sculptures. It sounded odd to us, but when we explored
it, we found it was indeed true.
Sixty-nine
is a milestone for many people and I’m no exception. To celebrate the occasion we ventured out to
one of our favorite haunts in Gulf Shores, Lulu’s. The restaurant is owned and operated by Lucy
Buffett, the “crazy sista” of Jimmy Buffett of Margarita fame. Our previous experiences there have been fun,
but on Saturday Alabama and Auburn were playing for football bragging rights in
Alabama. True to their Southern roots,
they had the sound up excruciatingly loud on the many, many large-screen TVs
located throughout the store. Needless
to say, those of us with background noise discrimination issues found it more
than annoying. The food was good,
however, and in spite of the racket we had a good time. We’ll just avoid the place on football game
day in the future.
We had
two more days to Sarasota, our first week-long stop. We took a back roads round-about way from
Lake Osprey to I-10 through the red-dirted Alabama countryside to avoid going
through Pensacola. The stretch across
the Panhandle was uneventful, though traffic was very heavy. About 10 miles outside of Lake City, our
intended overnight stop, we decided we were making outstanding progress and
would, therefore, go 60 miles further down the road Sunday afternoon. Subsequently, we changed reservations and
then about five miles further traffic came to a full stop. This was 4-5 miles west of the intersection
of I-10 & I-75. We eventually got to
I-75 and turned south to find the three lanes of traffic almost completely
stopped. It chugged along for the next 2
½ hours until we got to our over-night stop some 60 miles down the road. What a nightmare! We traveled on the same days last year in
Arizona and had no experiences like this.
Apparently, everyone in south Florida who knew anyone north of Lake City
went there for Thanksgiving and were consequently trying to get home on Sunday.
The next day we had an easy drive into Sarasota without incident and almost no traffic. There will be a short family reunion of the Henderson siblings (the first in 10 years) and we will report on that if it proves appropriate to do so.
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| Siesta Key, Sarasota |
