Alabama :: Along the Way with J & J

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Sept. 13 – Orange Beach & Biloxi

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Monday, September 14th, 2015

We reluctantly bid farewell to Pensacola Beach this morning and headed for the Gulf Islands National Seashore Visitor’s Center. There are a few different visitor’s centers in the area and we stopped at the Naval Live Oaks in Gulf Breeze first. We got our passports canceled and then checked out the live oaks and Opal Beach, which is just behind the building. Next, we drove to the Fort Pickens Visitor’s Center but decided to skip it because we didn’t want to pay the $15-day use fee for the short time we would be there.

It was a short drive to Orange Beach, Alabama and we took our time, taking in the sights of Perdido Key in Florida along the way. We had a delicious lunch at a Mexican restaurant named Mexico Lindo and then drove around until we found a place to park. It was now late afternoon but the beach was still very active.

After a short walk, we stopped at a few souvenir shops and then pointed Lady T toward Biloxi, Mississippi. We weren’t really sure where we wanted to spend the night so I did a quick search online and the first thing that popped were several casinos. We have always enjoyed the exciting atmosphere inside casinos so we set the GPS for Harrah’s Gulf Coast in Biloxi. We visited several last year in Lady T and most of them allowed overnight parking for RV’s.

When we entered the city, we didn’t see anything but highway and wondered if we had entered the correct address. A few minutes later, the first twinkle of Beach Boulevard appeared in the distance. We reached Harrah’s around 9 PM but we didn’t immediately see any place to park so we kept driving.

Across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe & Casino, we found a lot where several buses and motor homes were parked. We quickly pulled in there and an older gentleman in a golf cart directed us to a spot that was OK for overnight parking. The lot was very rough and uneven so we leveled out Lady T and then walked across the street to check out the Hard Rock and another casino called Beau Rivage. Both casinos were busy for a Sunday night but if you’ve ever been to any casino, you know that they exist on their own time.

Tomorrow, we will probably hit the casinos we passed on the way in and then we are off to the Big Easy. Stay tuned for some Cajun fun on the Bayou!

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Categories : #RoadTrip2015

Tags : Alabama, Mississippi, National Park, Road Trip

Sept. 11 – Horsehoe Bend & Tuskegee

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Saturday, September 12th, 2015

This morning, we found out what happens when a dump station is almost full with black water and you try to empty your tanks! It wasn’t the most disgusting thing either of us has ever seen but we’ll be very happy if we never have to deal with such a crappy situation again 😉

We spent a half hour bleaching everything, then drove farther up the mountain to one of the Cheaha State Park landmarks, Bald Rock. There was a nice boardwalk built into the woods that brought us out to the rock and a sweeping view of the surrounding area.

After descending the mountain from the opposite side, we drove to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site, both in Alabama, The Battle of Horseshoe Bend was fought during the War of 1812 and the Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American aviators in the United States Armed Forces. Both sites were fascinating and we were happy to add them to our national parks passports.

After 9 days on the road, we finally found a Flying J rest area to spend the night! We just ran out of clean laundry and were able to do it at the Flying J while we munched on fries from Denny’s and watched the end of Back to the Future in the truckers lounge.

Tomorrow, we are headed to Pensacola, where we plan on visiting the Gulf Islands National Seashore and camping at Fort Pickens Campground. Y’all come back now, ya hear?

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Categories : #RoadTrip2015

Tags : Alabama, National Park, Road Trip

Sept 10 – Kennesaw Mountain & Cheaha State Park

By jayjazz · Comments (0)

Friday, September 11th, 2015

Since bringing Lady T home two years ago, we have been daydreaming about taking an extended cross country trip to visit the big national parks. We didn’t really have a plan for our current trip but after picking up our national parks passports in North Carolina, we’ve decided to visit as many national parks and monuments as possible.

Today, we added another cancellation to our collection when we visited Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Marietta, Georgia. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was part of the Atlanta Campaign in the Civil War and roughly 4000 Americans lost their lives. We watched a short movie about the history of the mountain at the visitors center and then hiked a mile or so to the top.

During lunch, I searched online for a scenic area to camp and found Cheaha State Park in Delta, AL. I probably should have paid more attention to the location because Cheaha is situated on the highest point in Alabama, at 2,407 feet! Rolling up and down the steep inclines reminded us of trying to make it through the Sierra Nevada last year at 25 miles an hour. And Wyoming. And Colorado. Oh, and Kansas.

Anyway, Lady T is in the best shape ever and she made it up to the top with no problems! After checking in, we actually had to drive a few miles back down to the lower campground. The camping area wasn’t very accommodating and we decided to move to another spot because Lady T wasn’t going to fit in the site that was assigned to us. There was no one else around except the camp host and since there was no internet signal, we spent a quiet evening relaxing.

Tomorrow, we’re going to attempt to bring Lady T to the top Cheaha Mountain…stay tuned!