Today I have to start this blog post with “what’s up with the no toilet seat covers in the bathrooms and the no nozzle holders at the gas pumps in the South??” It’s those little things that are making our gas and bathroom stops take FOREVER!! I think that is why our driving days are taking so long. Either that or it’s the out of order woman’s bathrooms or the no credit cards at the gas pumps because the weather has shut down the systems. Uggg!!! It’s the little inconviences that can just put you over the edge when you are tired of driving!!
Despite those little nagging issues, the drive to Orlando has been great! The alarm went off at 5:30 and we got up promptly at 6:00 (hee hee). But Yay for us . . . we unhooked, packed up, got dressed and left right at 6:35. YAHOO, WE’RE GOIN’ TO DISNEY WORLD!! But first we have to drive 10 hours and 35 minutes to Orlando, with a couple of stops in Mississippi and Alabama.
We made our way back to interstate 10 (getting lost once again on the business district loop of the 10 in Louisiana and having to turn around) which will take us all the way Lake City, Florida, then turning south to Orlando. It’s hard to believe that we will have traveled the interstate 10 from one end of the country to the other end. Getting on the right path we traveled about an hour and a half when we reached the border of Mississippi. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that we couldn’t even see the sign. Next thing we knew we were in Mississippi. The fog all of a sudden cleared and 20 minutes later we took the exit to Biloxi, Mississippi, which is right on the Gulf of Mexico. Before we drove down to the beach area we stopped for gas, and had to check the oil again. This time we knew what we were doing, but a nice Mississippi gentleman noticed that a little bit of radiator fluid was dripping on the ground and he asked, “Is your engine running hot?” I told him no and he went on his way. As Shelley and I went to put oil in the funnel we couldn’t get the cap off, so we asked him if he would mind helping us get it off. He said, “Sure!!!”, showed us how to do it and poured the oil in for us. I thanked him and then asked if he minded helping us check our tire pressure. He said, “Sure!!!” again and proceeded to check all the tires inside and out. Thanks heavens for nice “Southern Gentlemen” because I don’t really want to learn all this stuff about cars!!
We drove about 5 more minutes to get to the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico and the beautiful little coast side town of Biloxi. The sand was incredibly white just like the Bahamas’s. We pulled over to take pictures of the beach and collect sand (which is a tradition in my family) as we watched the people set up the umbrellas and the fitness class exercise. I want to go to an exercise class on a beautiful beach like that! J
We got back on the 10 to drive another hour to the border of Alabama. This time we didn’t miss the sign, and we were able to take a picture of the Mississippi Welcome sign from on the other side of the freeway. Mississippi was still incredibly swampy on the freeways while now Alabama is all green with beautiful trees, naming it “The Beautiful State”.
We drove into the town of Mobile, Alabama just to see what was there, and stopped at a gas station. We saw a poor homeless man sitting out front of the store and I told Brooke, Christian, and Grace to take him some fruit to eat. They were a little scared to hand him the fruit, but as they did they said “God bless you” andthy came running back to the camper all excited about doing that. I went into the store to ask if there was anything special to see and the lady said “Oh, you have to go down to battleship expressway where they have all the battleships. That was very exciting especially for Christian. As we approached the battleship area it said USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park., and it was huge with many Navy jets, Army tanks, guns, a submarine, and the USS Alabama battleship. If we had time we could have bought a ticket and toured the ship, but we still had 6 more hours to drive, so we just explored the various displays around the parking lot, which was quite a display.
We got back into the RV and in about 45 minutes we were at the border of Florida and the little town of Pensacola. The freeways, or what they actually call them here in the south are expressways, are beautiful in Florida. They are extremely wide and green compared to California.
The rest of the drive to Orlando was uneventful except for the lightning again about an hour before we arrived. But now we are used to the lightning, and weathered it well. We arrived at our KOA, hooked up and went to bed, thankful to have arrived and not to have to drive for a few days!!
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