lovely swamp cabin, need a vacation?

Mr Alligator

into the swamp

Christmas trees for sale!!!

entrance into the French Market

buildings have lots of wrought iron

some New Orleans architecture

another view of the bridge

super long bridge going into New Oleans

Nov 25- Nov 28

Well the thanksgiving dinner  the KOA sent us to was a no go, restaurant was closed,so we went on to the Thanksgiving buffet at the casino, it was good but not what we were looking forward to. Friday we went on the KOA shuttle into New Orleans french quarter, it was so cool down there but cold and so rainy we got soaked. The French market was huge lots of stuff, we got some cool photos, we had a Cajun lunch, spicy spicy. and went to the casino to dry out. Apparently to gamble in Louisiana is illegal they get around it by calling it gaming...or so we were told. No gambling but you wouldn't believe the sex photos up on the windows , apparently that's OK. We were also told that the Mardi Grai parade starts out with family friendly goings on and as it progresses towards the end it gets raunchier and raunchier lots of nudity plus at the end... Saturday we went on a swamp tour, seen a alligator and the kids on the boat got to fed a raccoon, Capt. Coyote had a snapping turtle and a pair of baby alligators, they were so cute. I wasn't feeling so hot heavy chest and sore throat so Sunday no church we just stayed home and I had lots of drugs and lots of sleep, feeling much better now.

Nov 21st and Nov 22nd

Well Tuesday we drove for 8 1/2 hours went from St Petersburg Florida up and over to just outside of Pensacola Florida spent the night and then moved on down to New Orleans. Nothing to interesting but we are on day 90 of our trip and we reached 10,000 miles wow we have really put on the miles and seen so many places, It is very warm and we will stay here for 8 days should get relaxed and see alot of things.. Hoping we can get some Thanksgiving diner tomorrow: ), they are the first KOA we've been to that is not hosting one, figures eh!   but there is a restaurant down the road we may go to  for turkey diner Happy American Thanksgiving

nice night the end of another perfect day

we had a great day on this beautiful

some of the fun things for kids on the beach

Clearwater beach pier

on the rail trail leaving our RV park

tree in the RV park covered with spagnum moss

Nov 21 and Nov 22

Sunday we went into Clearwater to church and we sat with a real nice couple, wouldn't you know it they were winter residents...from Moose Jaw  so funny, come all this way and meet people from Sask..It was a good service very much like ours with the Hymnal and old folks hahah. Walked the rail trail a city bike walking trail not sure how long it is but we walked for an hour from our RV park out over the water and Norm did it again today (Monday) and went into the Walmart shopping centre, the trail keep on going, guess I should try to find out how long it is. Monday we went into Clearwater and sat on the beach for awhile , it is one of the nicest beaches with that sugar soft sand , it was in the mid to high 80s and got very hot under the cabana we rented.Last night here this has been one nice stop and we will add it to our possible future winter  residence places. We did not plan to come down into Florida this trip but we both are glad we did.

our seafood platter,

pretty resort on St Petes beach

we spent time watching the pelicans dive for fish

Indian Head Beach

Nov 20th

This is a real nice park they have monthly and seasonal rentals here and Norm thinks we should consider Florida for our winters, we will have to see what we find in Arizona you never know. It is a lovely area spent the day driving and walking the approx 25 plus miles of beaches soooo   nice had lunch on the beach and watched the para sailing, it was in the low 80s and a wonderful breeze off the water. We had the seafood platter so we could try the crawdads, they were good but an awful lot of work for a tiny bit of food, Norm loved the mussels I must say the almost raw oysters were not my favorite haha.

Nov 18

Another driving day to day we made it into Florida stopped at St Augustine but only for the night we will continue on down to St Petersburg, Clearwater beach area tomorrow. We will stay for four days then head on to New Orleans will stay there for 8 days, it will be good to be settled for a bit, from there we are heading down to St Padre Island Texas for another week then on to Dallas to visit with the Wheelers, looking forward to that.

I got some shells for my collection , but just a photo of this starfish

some of the realy nice beach front homes, very colorful

walking on the beach

there was a huge railroad here for many years, now the station is a tourist centre and museum

one of the old roads in Charleston

makes for a very interesrting nature walk

Nov 16 - Nov 17

Had a quiet day did laundry, cleaning and made a pot of chicken soup, somethings don't take a holiday. This RV park is on a swampy lake in the middle of everglades type area, Norm talked me into a walk down their nature trail... oh my warning signs all over alligators, poisonous snakes and plants, needless to say I walked fast that time. On Wednesday we went into old Charleston and did yet another history tour , had lunch in an old restaurant  in the historic area and then drove over to the Isles of Palms area we spent 2 hours wandering up and down the beach there, so pretty.

now this is a true southern  thing, spagnum moss hanging off the trees

all around Charleston area is swampy waterways, miles of this stuff

Alanta Georgia

driving through Birmingham Alabama

Nov 14 - Nov 15

We left Memphis earl and drove a good 8 1/2 hours through the Ozarks via a smaller hwy long and winding road but very little traffic, got to see lots of the back country. Spent the night just out of Augusta Georgia and then drove for about 4 more hours into Charleston South Carolina. We are now back on the East coast ocean side, very nice and warm again, Norm finally wore some shorts today. We drove down to the beach will go back for lunch and a walk about before we leave here, will stay 3 days just to rest up abit.Happy birthday once again to our girls.

Me and the king of rock nd roll

Elvis' living room

just a few of Elvis' gold/platnium records

welcome to Graceland

Gibson guitar store where many artist still buy the guitars, very expensive one was, $10,200.00

more of Beale street

when you build/ remodel on Beale st. you must keep the exterior as is, heritage sites

where we had lunch Pork with an Attitude, strange name good food, Norm had the fried balogna!

Memphis motel where Martin Luther King Jr was shot, now the Civil rights museum

driving through the Ozarks

our photo at the Dixieland Stampede

Nov 11 to Nov 13

The evening of the 11th we went to the Dixieland Stampede, this is Dolly Partons place we had dinner and a show . Very similar to the Medieval jousting dinner and show in Vegas, we had to eat dinner with our hands and instead of jousting there was competition between the north and south, rodeo style and since now they are into the Christmas show it was north and south pole with Christmas carols, Santa, elves and the true meaning of Christmas all rolled into one evening show. Lots going on! It was good fun. The 12th we headed out again and made our way to Memphis by way of some smaller hwy through the Ozarks, pretty rolling mountain country. To day the 13th we went on yet another city tour and then had lunch down on Beale street, apparently the birth place of the blues and then spent five hours at Graceland, for all you Elvis fans that really was something to wander through "the kings" house unbelievable how many people are employed because of Elvis and his music. There is Elvis related stuff, stores and tours everywhere.

now this was interesting to see as you drove in on the hwy

one of the many fun things to do

full size replica of the Titanic, a museum

these guys sang a variety of music and ended with silent night

Six doing the night before Christmas, note the sugar plum fairies tutu, so funny

the arch as you come into St Louis

Nov 8th - Nov.11th

We left Nashville on the 8th and drove as far as Stanton, just outside of St Louis, all we saw there was the arch from the freeway, we were not having any fun looking for gas station we could pull into and out of easily and turned off twice to RV parks only to find them closed. WOULD BE NICE IF THEY PUT UP CLOSED ON THEIR FREEWAY SIGNS. So we keep on going till we got to Stanton and then decided not to go back into St Louis but to continue on to Branson.Branson is just full of theaters and singing and comedy acts everywhere, there are 100 shows going on in 53 theaters, hard to choose were to go. The staff recommended two shows so we are going with that. Wednesday did some laundry, had some guys wash the car and RV and went to see SIX, this is an a Capella group they were great sounded like they had a band but all was done by their voices so cool. Six brothers sang great and were so funny, well worth going to see. This is Veterans week down here so there are all kinds of tributes and such in every show and even in the restaurants, to day in Denny's we even had two different groups come in and sing abit to promote their shows.Their is so much to see and they all sound so good will just have to come back here some time just for the shows

Country Stars who received their stars on the walk of fame

Montgomery Gentry

Riders in the Sky

Point of Grace