| Not being a fan of the east or deep south, after 30 years we gave it shot. After heading down to Florida and spending a week around Pensacola, swimming and watching the scenery, we moved along the coast, through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. From there we followed the border up to Del Rio then headed into New Mexico: first Carlsbad then Alamagordo. From there we went North to Red River and finally, unfortunately, home. Lots of ground was covered and we took lots of photos but did very little wheeling so don't get your hopes up for any gnarly photos here. | ||
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Pensacola wasn't that bad. We camped near the beach and did a lot of
swimming. The water was a clear as a bell and while wading we could
see mantas swimming around us.
From Pensacola we drove along the coast, spent sometime in the bayous of Louisiana and then headed to Galveston. The whole area is really industrialized so we did little sight seeing, although we did stop at Houston Space Center and pay 20 bucks for a tour! (I guess they have to finance the space program somehow.) |
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| From Galveston we headed to South Padre Island. On the way we got to wheel a little on the beach and ride some horses on North Padre. | ||
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| After Padre Island we drove up long the Mexican border. Boy was that depressing! We headed up to Alpine, through Carlsbad and over to one of our favorite spots, Cloudcroft and Alamagordo, NM. It was in this area, 25 years ago, we pulled our 18', full size camping trailer, down a long trail. It was a little tight here and there. When we got to the bottom, we saw a sign, pointing to the way we just came, that said " 4 wheel drive only vehicles " - and here we come pulling a full size camping trailer. That got a lot of looks! |
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A hell of a storm passed overhead in Cloudcroft. We got an inch of hail and it put out our campfire -damn! But the show afterwards was worth it. | |
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| White Sands is always a treat. Some day I also want to tour the Trinity Site, but it's only open once or twice a year. |
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The last place on the trip, where we did the most wheeling, was Red River. We were here 15 years ago and I was appalled at the number of trails they have closed since then. We got here a few days before the Jamboree and in two days went on all the trails the Jamboree uses. While the scenery was really great, I sure wouldn't have been pleased to pay $500 to do the same thing we did for $20 worth of gas. | |
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So around Christmas we wanted to get away and thought we'd head down to the Keys. The trip down was uneventful except for setting the bottom of the motorhome on fire after driving over and dragging a box on the Interstate in South Carolina. But we got the fire out and went on our way. |
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| We had some spectacular camp sites on the Keys and spent a couple days in Key West. The first few days were great, even swam a little then the weather turned to shit and they had a very severe cold snap that lasted the rest of the two weeks - just our luck! |
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The Keys are definitely an alternate universe (I like it!) For example, to rid the Keys of the mosquitos, in the early 1900s they built bat houses and imported bats. The first night the bats all flew off and never returned! | |
| Key West was a kick. Got to the " southernmost Christmas Tree " just as a big wave came up and almost washed it away! |
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Bar hopping was fun and so were the evening antics at Mallory Square. | |
| We tried to wheel in Big Cypress but frickin' government took care of that by shutting down all the National Parks that year. Under the threat of confiscation of the YJ if we went in, we did anyhow and had some fun - but I don't like mud! Even the Everglades was closed. Spent Christmas Eve in a highly overpriced and crappy campground (Red Coconut, Ft. Myers Beach) and decided, after that, that I didn't like Florida or many of the people! |
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To recover a little of the trip, we stopped at Universal Studios on a lark and that turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip - had a great time there. Then on the road and finally back home to -2 degree weather. Maybe one more trip down there someday, but still like the west a lot more! | |
