13-Day trip to Florida

[monkeyfingers4]

Pictures: http://tinypic.com/1r532ypt

We left Kansas City, Missouri day after Christmas with about 6 inches of snow on the ground and 20-degree temps. Made getting out of the garage in the backyard kind of tough. The roads didn't improve much until after we were south of St. Louis, MO.

We spent the first night in Memphis, Tennessee at T.O. Fuller State Park. What nice facilities that place had! We were impressed. Left the next day for New Orleans and stayed at Fontainebleau State Park on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Dropped the trailer and headed down to New Orleans French Quarter to check things out and have some dinner. It was great.

Then we headed to Grand Isle State Park in Grand Isle, Louisiana. We stayed there for a couple of days. They are still in recovery mode from Hurricane Katrina, but doesn't seem like it slowed down the crabbing and fishing going on. I'm sure that place is one big party in the summer time. Maybe we had better get our reservations now!

The rain was heading our way so we headed to our next stop, Panama City, Florida. The rain was relentless all day but no rain when we pulled into St. Andrews State Park. That was definitely the most tropical looking place we stayed.

Our last stop south was Largo, Florida. Visited with the folks and had a great time with everybody we met. Special kudos to the "Mojo Band" for their hospitality and fun time.

Heading back to Kansas City, we stayed at Red Top Mountain State Park in Georgia. It was a beautiful park with HUGE camping areas. We truly enjoyed our stay there, even though it was 14 degrees for a low that night. We didn't get cold though, snug as a bug in our teardrop.

Next day headed to see our aunt in Carthage, Tennessee. While we were driving and the sun was shining, the road crew comes by and sprays us down with beet juice. I guess that is what they use in that neck of the woods. They don't normally get snow and guess what! They are expecting a monster storm the next morning. We ended up leaving at 3:00 a.m. the next morning to get as close to Kansas City as we could before the snow started. Well, we only made it 75 miles. The rest of the trip was white knuckle all the way. Needless to say, it was a long ride home.

We finally made it to St. Louis and the roads are clear and the sun is shining, but BEWARE BLACK ICE! People were off the road all over the place. We pretty much had to drive in the middle of the highway to avoid it. What made it really scary was when a car or big truck would come up and we would move back into the ice path to let it go around. Scary stuff.

We made it though. KC was in a deep freeze and we had 2-foot drifts of snow in backyard. Fortunately for us, the neighbor had his driveway clear and let us park out camper for a couple of days until we wenched it (literally) through the snow and ice and back into the garage. I think we had to wait about two weeks and do a major snow removal project in the back driveway to get it out to finally wash off the beet juice and whatever else was on there.

We had a great time and looking forward to our next trip. The weather was kind of cool this time, but it is always a gamble when you take a trip like that at this time of the year. We are seasoned campers so wasn't a problem for us. Can hardly wait for our next trip!

[Miriam C.]

Sounds like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing the pictures!

[Dragonryder]

That looks like a great trip. Bet that weather was hard to come home to. Thank you for sharing. It helps a little with the cabin fever I have here in Ohio.