Day 44: Diamond Lake OR to Portland OR

Saturday, May 30
Diamond Lake OR to Portland OR
Odometer Begin: 114,
Miles traveled: 200 ish
Time spent traveling: 5 hours
Other:
Wx: sunny low 80s F.
States traveled: OR

Up to Portland we went. Along the way we got the oil changed in Subie and also discovered that you cannot pump your own gas in Oregon, although they have pay-at-the-pump, which is kind of weird. Our friend Scott hooked us up for 2 nights in Portland with a really nice hotel. Thanks Scott! Portland is in the midst of the month long Rose Festival, Saturday’s night activity was the Starlight Parade. The parade can attract 500,000 people. We caught some of the parade, ate dinner and then saw some more. The floats and people are lit up!

Day 43: Crescent City CA to Diamond Lake OR

Friday, May 29
Crescent City CA to Diamond Lake OR
Odometer Begin: 113, 086
Miles traveled: 235
Time spent traveling: 7 hours
Other: Depth of Crater Lake which is the deepest lake in the US; just under 2,000 feet.
Wx: sunny low 80s F.
States traveled: CA, OR

We said goodbye to Christy, Stephen, Ian and Miles (their dog) and started out on Highway 199 which winds along the Smith River. It is a very beautiful ride. We then followed the Rogue River up to Crater Lake National Park. Much of the park is still closed due to snow, but we could get in the west entrance and drive up to the lake. About a mile was cleared on the rim road so we did get some great views. Crater Lake was formed about 7,700 years ago when a volcano erupted and then collapsed. The lake is thought to be the cleanest in the world because it is fed by rain and snow only. Nothing runs into or out of the lake. It’s clarity gives the water a brilliant blue color.
After our visit we headed north and found a Forest Service campground on Diamond Lake in the Umpqua National Forest. This campground is massive and even still it was tough finding a site on the water, but we did find one that a RV wouldn’t be able to pull into…yea tents!

Crater Lake

Day 41: REDWOODS!

Thursday, May 28
Crescent City CA
Odometer Begin: 113, 059
Miles traveled: 27
Time spent traveling: 1 hours
Other: Camp songs that Christy and I could remember; uncountable!
Wx: sunny high 70s F. (Which we have been told is rare up here)
States traveled: CA

A day with the giants today!

Redwoods

We drove out along a dirt road in the Redwoods National and State park into the Stout Grove and hiked the Boy Scout Tree trail. We were continuously blown away by the sheer mass of these trees. After the hike we stopped for a picnic lunch and swim along the Smith River. This river too was awe inspiring because of it’s clarity and deep aqua color. It was also very refreshing (read cold) and had offered good cliff jumping. We then went back to Christy and Stephens where we had dinner followed by a little fire and s’mores and time in the hot tub. All in all a great day!

Day 41: St. Helena CA to Crescent City CA

Wednesday, May 27
St. Helena CA to Crescent City CA
Odometer Begin: 113,
Miles traveled:
Time spent traveling: 6 hours
Other: Cost of driving through a Redwood; $5 (we didn’t do this tourist trap though)
Wx: sunny high 80s then 70s F.
States traveled: CA

We bid farewell to Napa today and headed up to Crescent City; to see some Redwoods and visit my friend (from back in the camp days!) Christy, her husband Stephen and their son Ian. The drive took us up Routes 1 and 101, it was gorgeous! Past vineyards, along the ocean and then through Redwood groves, it is a pretty good drive.
After a yummy dinner of lasagna, we went for a walk along the ocean, where we could hear the sea lions but they were too far away to see.

Day 40: Napa Valley CA

Tuesday, May 26
Napa Valley
Odometer Begin: 113, 659
Miles traveled: 55
Time spent traveling: 6 hours
Other: Year of the Paris wine tasting that marked California as a serious wine creator: 1976 (also the year Amy was born…good year)
Wx: sunny high 90s F.
States traveled: CA
We slept in today! It was sooooooo nice, no barking dogs and even the birds seemed to sleep in! Today we started out at Artesa, we had more than one friend recommend them to us’ so we had to go. We have never seen their wines before but they had a very nice Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and a blend they call Element which I really liked. One of wine tasting peeps behind the bar, there is probably some fancy French name for what they are, lets just say bartender (oh sacre bleu!), recommended a newer winery called Miner Family Vinyards and gave us VIP cards for a free tasting (free…that’s good). It also is on the Silverado Trail which is less developed than the main Napa strip. We met some lovely people from outside of LA there who gave us their card for recommendations on places to visit in southern Cal., which was very nice! Today was the day for nice people the folks a few campsites down from us are from British Columbia and have offered to give us tips on where we should visit while there. Our last winery was Chateau Montelena. This winery starred in the movie Bottle Shock with Alan Rickman. The movie is a more fictional retelling of how California was first recognized as a serious contender in the wine world. The Chateau Montelena won the Chardonnay division in that 1976 tasting. We had some today and it is wonderful. Here are wine country photos.

cali wine country

Day 39: Alameda to San Francisco to St Helena CA

Monday, May 25
Alameda CA to San Francisco CA to St. Helena CA
Odometer Begin: 113, 512
Miles traveled: We’ve been tasting wine; who cares?
Time spent traveling: 3 hours
Other: Price of decent wine at Trader Joe’s; $3.99 (Purple Moon)
Wx: foggy and cool then sunny high 80s F.
States traveled: CA

Another great day. We set out in the morning for San Francisco, after hitting up the local Trader Joe‘s, we love this place!. The city was fogged in and cold this morning. We tooled around Golden Gate Park, (Wow! The Eucalyptus trees!) stuck our hands in the Pacific, saw Haight/Ashbury and of course drove over the Golden Gate bridge (north bound traffic, no toll…nice). It was so foggy that while on the bridge you could barely see the top. We also had a few glimpses of Alcatraz.
We went back into wine country stopping at a few places we commonly buy in New Hampshire. Ravenswood in Sonoma; their Zinfandel is one of my favorites. Their vineyards are gorgeous and we drove out among them for a while in the non-pretentious landscape. It was then back to the Napa Valley to visit Folie a Deux, the makers of Menage a Trois, (red, another favorite). They are now owned by the Trinchero family who also own Sutter Home, Napa Cellars and quite a few others. They also have a comparatively inexpensive wine tasting at $5 and very laid back atmosphere.
We are spending the next two nights at Bothe- Napa Valley State Park which has some beautiful trails to run. Tomorrow it is off to Cakebread Cellars and Artesa.

Day 38: Sacramento to Napa to Alameda CA

Sunday, May 24
Sacramento CA to Napa CA to Alameda CA
Odometer Begin: 113, 374
Miles traveled: 139
Time spent traveling: 3 hours
Other: The last time I saw my friend Matt; 1995
Wx: sunny high 80s F.
States traveled: CA

We headed to Napa Valley today for some winery action and luck would have it my high school friend Matt Morgan was going to be in Napa too. We met up with Matt, his wife Sam and their two kids, as well as their friends Mike and Kerry and their two kids for an afternoon of wine tasting. We met up at Peju,who has a blend called Provence, it is served cold and is 3 reds and 2 whites’ then visited Franciscan and then finished at St. Supery which has a red called Elu that was a favorite as well as a super yummy Mascato. We spent the evening at Matt and Sam’s where we had a great dinner and Matt and I retold our memories of high school. It was great to catch up and see how we had changed and how we were still the same. 2 old friends in 2 days, California

Day 37: Groveland CA to Sacramento CA

Friday, May 22
Groveland, CA to Sacramento, CA
Odometer Begin: 113,240
Miles traveled: 134
Time spent traveling: 3 hours
Other: Number of days since we have done laundry: 11
Wx: sunny high 80s F.
States traveled: CA

We had a good breakfast at PJ‘s Café this morning. It was actually our first breakfast out since we have been on this trip. We then set out for Sacramento and to visit Brian’s high school friend Sam and his wife Leslie and daughter Julia. We had a lovely visit with the Bradshaws; took a walk around Old Sacramento and checked out a little of the Jazz Jubilee.

Day 36: Death Valley CA to Groveland CA

Friday, May 22
Death Valley, CA to Groveland , CA
Odometer Begin: 112,880
Miles traveled: 360
Time spent traveling: 9 hours
Other: Elevation gain today : 10,227 feet
Wx: sunny high 90s to 100s F.
States traveled: CA

So today was one of those days! We have been traveling for 35 days it was bound to happen… We had a good start in Death Valley, took in a hike through Mosaic Canyon

Mosiac Canyon

in very warm weather and then drove up into winter! We climbed up to Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park at 9,945 feet. There was still 4 feet of snow in places.

Yosemite

For the most part, we have been camping for free in National Forest or BLM land on this trip. It has worked really well so far; choose a place on the map, do some quick googleing and viola! Another free evening! Today that system failed. There were several factors against us, it is Memorial Day Weekend, it is Yosemite and The Strawberry Festival. We knew it would be tough and we weren’t planning on finding a campsite in the park. The majority of the parks’ campgrounds are still closed right now as well. So, we planned on finding something in Stanislaus National Forest. I even called the Ranger Station in the district we were going to be in to see if they could make some suggestions. That was no help, just “It‘s your forest you can camp where you want“…, although she was very nice and returned my phone call; their Gail is no Chris B! (our friend who is the Visitor Information Specialist for the Whites) I already knew that. We drove down various Forest Service roads the pay campsites were full and other locations we found were high on the sketch factor. Right next to where someone was target shooting, under high tension wires, straight out of Deliverance, down a dirt road only a tank could travel or apparently where the local teenage rager was to be. It was getting later and later and the closer and closer to sunset. Brian finally called a local motel, (thanks to Garmina’s help) and told them we were looking for cheap accommodations since we had a tent and having no luck with campgrounds. They said we could put up the tent on their lawn for $25. Uh, we’ll take it! They actually have tents that it not too many people were using so they had a wash house. It was basically like an expensive campground right in town. There were 2 bikers that did the same thing. We bought some California wine and Milano cookies for salve for our wounds, cookies always make me feel better.

Day 35: Las Vegas NV to Death Valley CA

Thursday, May 21
Las Vegas, NV to Death Valley, CA
Odometer Begin: 112,624
Miles traveled: 156
Time spent traveling: 2 hours
Other: Feet below sea level today; 282
Wx: sunny high 90s to 111 F.
States traveled: NV, CA

Early wake up again. 6 am after going to bed at 12:30 am! We left Las Vegas and made our way to Death Valley National Park. To say it was a hot day is an understatement! The Badwater salt flats is 282 feet below sea level and usually is the hottest place on earth. It did not disappoint at a whopping 111 degrees! Our plan was to do a little hiking, not much, 4 miles but it was too hot so we drove around and looked at the colors and then drove to the other side of the valley to go up in elevation and down in temperature to Thorndike Campground. It is a free campground at about 7900 feet above sea level. It was much cooler and even chilly at night. Amazing place.

Death Valley

Day 34: North Rim AZ to Las Vegas NV

Wednesday, May 20
North Rim, AZ to Las Vegas, NV
Odometer Begin: 112,352
Miles traveled: 272
Time spent traveling: 7 hours
Other: This post will be in two parts because they are so different from each other.
Wx: partly sunny high 90s F.
States traveled: AZ, UT, NV
Up with the sun at 5:30, still awake 11:30, I am tired.

Part 1: Zion National Park
We drove through the park but did not hike, which is unfortunate but a casualty of such lofty ambitions for this trip. We still got great photos and we definitely want to go back and do some hiking.

Zion

Part 2: Las Vegas Baby! A night on the strip and showers…a good combination. We stayed at the Golden Nugget, which is downtown and one of the older hotels in Vegas. It has been modernized and was a very nice experience. It is on Fremont Street which has the Fremont Street Experience, which is the covered pedestrian street that has the LED light show.

Las Vegas

Day 33: Sedona AZ to North Rim AZ

Sunday, May 19
Sedona, AZ to North Rim, AZ
Odometer Begin: 112,094
Miles traveled: 257
Time spent traveling: 4 hours
Other: Cost of a killer campsite: $0.
Wx: partly sunny low 80s F
States traveled: AZ
We were up before 6 am this morning! But we did go to bed at 8 pm too. Because Arizona does not celebrate day-light-savings the sun sets here at 7:30. We went to Sedona in search of a café with internet access. It took more effort than we expected but we found one and I was able to download Verizon’s Access manager so now I can use Brian’s blackberry as a modem, like he does on his computer. So we are fully teched up now.
We reached the Grand Canyon’s North Rim today at 12:30. The road only opened 4 days ago and they are in full swing! The campground is full and the lodge seemed to be pretty hopping as well. Upon walking to the visitor center, we saw a Condor sitting in a tree preening itself. It was number A7. You can see the numbers they were given as part of their reintroduction program. Because of the mass of people, we just hiked along the rim for a while and then drove out FS 611. It is a Forest Service road on the Kaibab National Forest. We found out about it at Frommer’s .com. It leads out to the east side of the rim and has free dispersed camping. We found a great site!

Grand Canyon

Day 32: Sedona AZ - Sterling Pass to Vultee Arch

Monday, May 18
Sedona, AZ
Miles traveled: on foot; 8.4
Time spent traveling: 5 hours
Other: The time it took us and two other couples to find the trail head for Sterling Pass, 30 minutes. And that was after talking with the visitor information people!
Wx: partly sunny high 90s F
States traveled: AZ

After a breakfast of eggs and pseudo-pancakes we headed down to the Oak Creek Canyon visitor center to find out about hikes. They suggested Sterling Pass to Vultee Arch seeing how it was right across from our campground. It is also in the Red Rock/ Secret Mountain Wilderness. While we were in there another couple was getting the same recommendation. We never caught their names but they were from Kansas City. We went back to the campground to park the car at our site, donned on the packs with a gallon of water each and crossed the street…no trailhead. We walked up the road a ways, …no trailhead. We went back to the campground because we saw Kansas City. They were having just as much trouble as we were. There was no campground host on duty to ask. Another camper was trying to help by using his laptop and Magellan. Still no luck. I decided to walk down the road a ways because that is how the trail head looks on the map. Finally Brian’s blackberry picked up a signal and his google search gave us the facts that it was north (up) from the campground and had an obscure trail head. So the four of us set out up the hill. …still no trail head. We followed a few non trails around the hillside and then Brian saw a van with another couple and asked them. They were from Washington and planning on the same hike. They had found the trail head after driving up and down the road for a while and were able to get us going in the right direction! The hike was beautiful and the two canyons we hiked in had Ponderosas and a ton of wildflowers (I got good photos Amy!), so it was cooler than if we were out in the direct sun, but it was about all the heat I could bear.

Upon our return to the campsite, we went for another swim in the creek. Here are our photos:

Sedona

Day 31: Gila Hot Springs NM to Sedona AZ

Sunday, May 17
Gila Hot Springs, NM to Sedona, AZ
Odometer Begin: 111,558
Miles traveled: 502
Time spent traveling: 11 hours
Other: Temperature on sign while driving through Pheonix: 107 F!!…but it is a dry heat…sweet Jesus!
Wx: partly sunny low 100s F
States traveled: NM , AZ

A Note: We have gotten so many good suggestions for the southwest from you all, but we unfortunately are limited on time so we will just have to come back and see all the places suggested!

Again with the early start…I would love to not see 6 am tomorrow (although we are in Pacific time since Arizona does not do Day Light Savings). Our plans for the morning are to “sleep in’ and have pumpkin pancakes and eggs with salsa instead of granola or oatmeal! We are in Sedona and it is absolutely gorgeous! The drive, though tortuous was well worth it. We left Gila Hot Springs, at 7:45 even after being woken up last night at 12:30 am by someone BLASTING Wooly Bully (or whatever the name is)…seriously. Then they went on to play some other music but courteously turned it down so we could only hear their sub woofers.
Our first stop today was at Saguaro National Park. We planned on hiking but seeing as it was damn hot, we opted for short walks among the cacti. Survey says: Saguaros are cool. We also saw a few Gila Woodpeckers which are also really cool, but not as cool a Pileated in my humble opinion.
We then had a quick lunch of left over mac and cheese with tuna and salsa, (it just keeps getting better doesn’t it? ) in a parking space and headed out of the park toward Sedona. Like I mentioned before it was hot and with no A/C and the west in a record breaking heat wave, the drive was rough, but we made it and once we got here it all evaporated…like any sweat in this arid land. We found a campsite at Manzanita Campground on the Coconino National Forest. According to the Coconino website, to get a campsite here you have to be early and lucky so I guess the camping gods were smiling down on us today. The campground is small, maybe 20 sites, tents only, so we kind of felt we had a good chance. It is located in Oak Creek Canyon right on Oak Creek so we set up the tent and then went straight to the creek. It was cold and refreshing and WONDERFUL! We decided to stay for 2 nights so we set up the large tent for more room and had a leisurely evening. We have currently Dave Matthews on the iPod and I am typing this at our little folding table and chair. The tent is so big that it takes us ten minutes to set it up but like I already told our friend Ryan when he gave us crap for it’s size; being able to stand up to put our pants on is a blessed thing.

Day 30: Cloudcroft NM to Gila Hot Springs NM

Saturday, May 16
Cloudcroft, NM to Gila Hot Springs, NM
Odometer Begin: 111, 276
Miles traveled: 282
Time spent traveling: 7 hours
Other: Most twisting, turning and winding road we have been on yet, NM Hwy 15.
Wx: partly sunny low 90s F
States traveled: NM
Another early start today got us to White Sands National Monument a little after 8. The drive was about an hour from Cloudcroft. Cloudcroft is a sleepy little town that looks like it may have a decent winter business with Ski Cloudcroft the local hill. During the night smoke from the fires to the north drifted over and laid down around the tops of the Sacremento Moutains as we drove down toward Alamagordo, we came out of the smoke and could see the dramatic views of the west side of the range. After spending about an hour walking the dunes of White Sands, we drove northwest to the Gila National Forest to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument.

gila

The road to get out there is quite a road, with steep grades and turn after turn after turn for over 25 miles. We found a quiet campsite on the National Forest in the “town” (about 3 houses and a general store) of Gila Hot Springs. There are hot springs just a little way from the campsite but they are on private land and the owners charge admission, so we passed and opted for a dip in the river instead.

Day 29: White's City NM to Cloudcroft NM

Friday, May 15
White’s City NM to Cloudcroft, NM
Odometer Begin: 111, 017
Miles traveled: 259
Time spent traveling: 4 hours
Other: Fee to get in to sorriest museum I have ever seen: $5 but somehow worth it.
Wx: partly sunny low 90s F
States traveled: NM
We arose early at 6:45, (although that is 8:45 at home). It was a grand morning with birds singing and combines running! We breakfasted as they say in Appalachia and then made our way to Carlsbad Caverns. We chose the “natural entrance” as opposed to the elevator entrance. We had a very silent first half of the hike until we met up with the jokers that come in on the elevator. The Caverns are amazing! The photos don’t nearly do them justice but we took some anyway.

Carlsbad

If you are ever in Southern NM don’t pass this up! We then headed up to Roswell, in search of UFO fanatics but only found the “International UFO Museum and Research Library”.

Roswell

The museum had the feel of a high school science fair. We are afraid the photos do it too much justice but that almost makes the $5 per person entrance fee worth it! After that we drove over to Cloudcroft and Lincoln National Forest in search of a non fee campsite. We found one at James Canyon quickly inside the forest borders and set up camp for the night. Dinner was another concoction of chick peas and spinach with a side of raman, but it still tastes just as good to us! Turns out our neighbors are both Bates College grads…small world.

Day 28: San Antonio TX to White's City NM

Thursday, May 14
San Antonio, TX to White’s City NM
Odometer Begin: 110,528
Miles traveled: 489
Time spent traveling: 7.5 hours
Other: The speed limit on the interstate in western Texas: 80 MPH!
Wx: partly sunny low 90s F, HUMID then dryer
States traveled: TX, NM

We hurtled across western Texas at 80 miles per hour on most road or 70 if in a town! There is not much in western Texas just miles and miles of land. At a rest area we saw Scissortiail Flycatchers, which are apparently the state bird of Oklahoma. And we saw green energy mixed with archaic fossil fuels. Wind farm after wind farm and then oil drills. We arrived in White’s City (the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns) 15 minutes too late to get a backcountry pass so we ended up spending our first night on BLM land. Before we set up camp though we made the short hike to the entrance of Slaughter Canyon to see the bat flight. Bat flights are up to the perogitive of the bats so we only saw three. We figured it probably has to be warmer and buggier for the bats to come out en masse. The BLM for those that do not know is the Bureau of Land Management. They pretty much got all the land the Park Service and Forest Service didn’t want. Most of it is used for grazing, and mining and there isn’t any BLM land east of the Mississippi. HOWEVER, you can camp on any BLM land unless otherwise noted. So, you can just turn down a BLM dirt road and camp on the side of the road AND the BLM owns the most public lands out of any government agency, they are all over the west. Pretty much the entire state of Nevada is BLM!

Day 27: Coldspring TX to San Antonio TX

Wednesday, May 13
Coldspring, TX to San Antonio, TX
Odometer Begin: 110, 277
Miles traveled: 251
Time spent traveling: 5.25
Other: How long one can drive with the gas port door open and the gas cap off? Um, yeah, that would be one hour 30 minutes.
Wx: partly sunny high 80s F, HUMID
States traveled: TX

The stars at night are big and bright…! We are deep in the heart of Texas! Our drive this morning took us through splendid (I am trying to use different superlatives besides beautiful and gorgeous) ranches and meadows. It was like what Brian called “Vermont on steroids”.
We filled up with the most expensive gas so far: $2.29. Wha! Don’t they pipeline the gas in right from the refineries here? We landed in San Antonio and decided to spend the night here. Spending most of our time on the Riverwalk, a unique below street walkway on both sides of the river, lined with trees, restaurants, shops and pubs. Of course, we remembered the Alamo.
Our photos are here…

San Antonio

Day 26: New Orleans LA to Coldspring TX

Tuesday, May 12
New Orleans, LA to Coldspring, TX
Odometer Begin: 109,879
Miles traveled: 398
Time spent traveling: 9 hours
Other: Number of times an armadillo will keep trying to dig up a fire ant hill after getting stung: about 3...they must taste really good!
Wx: partly sunny high 80s F, HUMID
States traveled: LA & TX

The day dawned hot and humid! St. Bernard State Park, marooned between the Mississippi and several interstates may not be the most tranquil experience you’ll ever have. Mother Nature had to compete with the noise giving us, barred owls, coyotes, domestic dogs, cicadas, and other strange bayou sounds through the night. Not to mention all the rabbits and armadillos running around!…sleep wasn’t the best ever.
We started out on Highway 18, also known as River Road. It runs along the meandering twists of the “great muddy river” and takes you through fields of sugar cane and old plantations as well as scary, alien looking refineries. The plantations we stopped at were Laura, Jefferson and Oak Alley. We didn’t go on any tours but we looked around at what we could without paying admission. Today was hot and uncomfortable in the car with a busted A/C, so we stopped a few times just to walk through a store for it’s air conditioning.
We decided to head north of Houston to Sam Houston National Forest(a gorgeous national forest) in the search of cooler weather. We arrived at Double Lake Recreation Area at 6:30 and made a bee-line for the lake. We found our campsite for the night (many to choose from seeing as how the place was nearly empty except for us, a cyclist and the campground host). A pleasant surprise was to find cold showers in the bathrooms! After a dinner of black bean burritos and ramen (I know, that’s weird), we hit the sack at 9 pm. This time we only had the cicadas competing with the bullfrogs and fell asleep quite easily.

eastern texas

Day 25: Alpharetta GA to New Orleans LA

Monday, May 11
Alpharetta, GA to New Orleans, LA
Odometer Begin: 109,336
Miles traveled: 513
Time spent traveling: 10 hours
Other: Price for 3 beignets at Café Du Monde: $2
Wx: partly sunny high 80s F, humid, T-storms
States traveled: GA, AL, MS, LA

After sleeping in this morning and running a few errands, (such as swinging by a UPS store so I could mail home a box of clothes) we started out late to avoid the ATL traffic. Our drive took us predominantly on I-85 & I-10 through the cities, like Montgomery, Mobile and Biloxi, hitting the occasional thunderstorm along the way. We arrived at St. Bernard State Park around 7:00pm, set up the tent, took showers and then went to check out the Crescent City. Being in St. Bernard Parish, our drive in took us right through the Ninth Ward, which was the section of New Orleans that was hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Even now almost 4 years later, there are houses that have been repaired or rebuilt next to ones that are still being fixed up or apparently abandoned. The neighborhood that we drove through was Bywater, which is supposedly recovered better than others. The style of homes, I thought, was really charming and had a distinct style; front porches, tall narrow windows and doors, many with wrought iron embellishments and shutters. One source I found called the style “Shotgun”; usually single story with no windows on the sides and all room connected with out hallways. This was so you could open the front and back of the house and a breeze would blow through. But the neighborhood in general was run down, it was hard to tell if it was hurricane damage or if just from it being a typical old neighborhood on the outskirts of a city, where the working class neighborhoods are.
We spent time walking around the French Quarter, which has really cool French Creole architecture but since it was at night, I didn’t get good photos. We parked on Decatur St., stopped at Café Du Monde for beignets, (think fried dough but more like a donut) and then went to check out Bourbon St. It was Monday night so, we may not have gotten the truest impression but I felt it was a little over rated. It was like Hampton Beach board walk plus, Larry Flint and Jazz. New Orleans will definitely be a place we will have to visit again. But for now we just want to get into the arid southwest and do some hiking!

Louisiana

Here are our photos from Louisiana.

Day 24: Athens GA to Alpharetta GA

Sunday, May 10
Athens, GA to Alpharetta, GA
Odometer Begin: 109,270 (back with Subie)
Miles traveled: 68
Time spent traveling: 1.50 hours
Other: Odds that the AC would work, now that we need it; 100 to 1... against.
Wx: partly sunny low 80s F:
States traveled through: GA

We did laundry last night and gave Subie a bath inside and out. Because we had been away from the car for a while we had to reload everything. We also discovered that the AC lost it’s charge while the car was sitting in John’s garage. We have a leak in the line somewhere. Today on my run, I ran a dirt county route right near John’s house. It was the quintessential Georgia red dirt road. I can’t say it was the best cardiovascular run ever because I kept stopping to check out the flowers. I even went back to take photos, so here they are.

GA flowers

Our original plan was to head west today but we skipped over to Alpharetta for the evening to spend time with Pat, Melissa, Quinn and Murphy, whom we hadn't seen yet.

Day 22: Marco Island to Athens, GA

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Saturday, May 9
Marco Island, FL to Athens, GA
Odometer Begin: 146,490
Miles traveled: 651
Time spent traveling: 12.25 hours
Other: Number of times we ate at a Zaxby's today: 2
If we don't see another Zaxby's for a while, I think we'll both be quite alright with it.
Wx: sunny high 80s to low 90s F:
States traveled through: FL, GA

We got a decent start this morning, leaving Marco Island at 8:15 am. We stopped to take a few photos on the way out, one of the painted dolphins around town, and one of a panther crossing sign, (we never did see any panthers though). We dropped Jen and Corey off in Fort Myers where they were staying one more night and flying out tomorrow. Then got on Interstate 75 for over 500 miles! This drive was somehow easier on us all than the long push we made from Savannah to Key West.

Day 21: Everglade City, FL

Friday, May 8
Everglade City , FL
Time spent traveling: 1 hour airboat tour in Everglades
Other: Color of dog biscuit raccoon prefers; red.
Wx: sunny high 80s F:
States traveled through: FL

Hello Kuzmerlain followers! The posting has recommenced. If you think that we have been spending the past post free days, drinking frappuccinos, soaking up rays on white beaches along turquoise oceans and starting cocktail hour at 4:00; your assumptions would be correct! But today is our last full day on Marco Island and we hit the road north tomorrow.

Jen joined us yesterday so now there is five in our party and Amy is not the only girl! We drove down into the Everglades back along the west side of Alligator Alley (which has been closed at times this week due to wildland fires) this morning and took an Airboat tour. It was a very touristy thing to do but it was great! Even though there are things about airboat tours that feel inherently wrong; loud fan engines that create a gale behind them, food trained wildlife...it was cool! On the website we found $10 off per couple or free alligator heads coupons. Although, becoming the owner of an genuine gator head was tempting, we used them for the $10 off.
We went out on a 6 person airboat with captain Javier, in my head I kept calling him a pilot because it felt more like flying than boating. A huge fan on the back of the boat propels the flat bottomed boat forward and also creates this wave of water that the boat is practically skidding on. At the start of our tour we had a brown pelican land right at my feet. Now, I am not going to lie to you, pelicans kind of freak me out. They are not the most attractive birds and they have bulging eyes that look human! Our friend, the brown pelican joined us for about 5 minutes waiting, quite expectantly, to get fed. And he did, by Captain Javier. When the boat reached a certain point just before we sped up, he took off. I think they may have done this before.
Our tour took us through a maze of Red Mangrove corridors and into little ponds where we saw (and Capt. Javier fed) cute little raccoons (they are smaller down here) and HUGE catfish. One raccoon in particular was partial to the red color dog biscuits as opposed to yellow or green, which he/she would drop out of the tree after greedily taking it. We also saw some small wrecked boats that the good Captain said was brought in by previous hurricanes.

Everglades

The Everglades are in the dry season so the brackish water is more salt than fresh. The alligators don't really like salt and we didn't see any while on the tour but Capt. Javier told us where we could see some. We drove out to the spot and there they were!

Tonight is our last night in Marco Island and I am ready to hit the road. The others are at the beach but I don’t think I could handle another afternoon of radiation, so I am in the condo posting this, but because it is now after 4, it’s time for a cocktail!

Day 18: Marco Island, FL

Tuesday, May 5
Marco Island, FL

Little on the posting front this week. We are just spending time at the beach and enjoying the sun and weather. We are planning to go into Everglades National Park on Friday and we will start heading west on Monday. I am itching to get out of the southeast and on the road again!

Photos of the week so far...

Marco Island

Day 16: Marco Island, FL

Beach time baby! I am trying to make it sound really cool but... Well we spent two hours and it was windy. So windy in fact that sand found it's way everywhere!! If there is one thing that will send me over the edge, it is the wind! Now just add sand to that and it is extremely irritating! But Marco Island Beach is gorgeous!

Day 15: Key Largo, FL to Marco Island, FL

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Saturday, May 2
Key Largo, FL to Marco Island, FL
Odometer Begin: forgot to write it down
Miles traveled: 137
Time spent traveling: 2.5 hours
Other: Evening temps so far: 70s F
Wx: sunny high 80s F:
States traveled through: FL

This morning I hit the Fitness Center for the treadmill and Brian and John hit the pool for some more sun. We then packed up the truck and headed to Marco Island. Our route took us along Alligator Alley, between the Big Cypress Preserve and Everglades National Park. It is not just a clever name but a very deserved name. We saw a gazillion alligators. But unfortunately, have no photos to prove it at the moment. We are planning a trip into the Everglades this week so we should have good pics then. We checked into our home for the week at Olde Marco Inn and Suites and then headed to Southwest International Airport in Ft. Myers to pick up my brother-in-law Corey. Dinner was at CJ’s on the Bay, which I would highly recommend. I just am ready for some home cooked meals! Tomorrow AM we are going grocery shopping and then hitting the beach.

Day 14: Key West, Fl to Key Largo, FL

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Friday, May 1
Key West, FL to Key Largo, FL
Odometer Begin: 145,824
Miles traveled: 100
Time spent traveling: 2 hours
Other: SPF of sunblock: 30
Wx: sunny low 80s F:
States traveled through: FL

Another gorgeous day! Today we head just a couple hours Northeast to Key Largo, FL. We arrived a little after 2, checked in and headed to the beach. This spot has a better beach than Key West, so we actually had chairs on the sand this time and not by the pool. We headed over to The Fish House for dinner, which is an appropriately named restaurant for seafood and Key Lime Pie for the boys.

More photos here.

Key Largo