Friday, January 31st

Today the kids and I spent the day with our friends, Bryan, Deb and Boston.  We even played a little tennis.  It was really fun.  This morning, Jeff went to see a schoolmate that lives in Houston.  Tonight we adults went out to dinner and the kids stayed at their house.  It was a great evening!  

The RV Park we are staying at is really nice, probably one of the top 2 I'd say.  They escorted us to our site, and then sanitized the water hydrant, the electric pedestal, and the picnic table.  Crazy we thought!  Guess we better improve our services when we get back home to our RV Park!  NOT!!!  :)

Thursday, January 30th

Finally able to leave Mississippi today.  A few roads in area still closed but luckily not our route.  So big travel day!  And I mean BIG!  We are in TEXAS where everything is BIG!  I've had a few inquiries about the state sign pictures.......usually we are able to just pull the big rig over on the side of the road to get the picture.  If the sign is on a bridge then we have to figure out another way, like Indiana!  This one happened to be right at a rest area, so we were actually parked for today's photo opp.

We are visiting friends in north Houston for couple days.  Friends that summer in Grand Lake, Colorado.  Now that we're in Texas, we feel so much closer to home, even though it's still many miles away. ......... "Don't mess with Texas!"

            **Sara

Wednesday, January, 29th

We woke up not knowing what to do. It was 29 degrees in MISSISSIPPI!!!! All the roads were closed because they were too icy. We had to move to a different site because we had full tanks with no dump in our site.  We opted for a site by the water originally thinking that would be nice....WRONG!  Stupid weather!  While dumping we found out our tanks were froze and our water pump was froze?  We went to the post office to mail some stuff and found out postage went up. Overall not a very fun day being stuck here.   Mom says I have to put some pictures on from the last couple days.  Activity from inside the camper mostly!  The beach ones (a little different than our previous beach pictures) were a little weird. Ice on top of the sand. That just shouldn't be!  The close-up one of Audree and me, you can see the camper in the background if you look close.  And the frozen seaweed looks like the seaweed salad Dad bought awhile ago and made us eat.  Yuck!

                                                                                      -Garrett%

Tuesday, January 28th

Waiting out the storm is all we're doing.  Still in Waveland, MS.  Rain, sleet, ice, and cold!  So the day consisted of Cookin' in the camper.  Biscuits and gravy, soup, guacamole, spicy cheese dip and butter cookies!  All today!  Oh, some school too of course!  The kids and I never even got out of the camper. First time on the trip.  We hope to leave tomorrow.  We'll see!  Roads might be closed around here.  

           **Sara

Monday, January 27th

A pretty slow day.  Decided to wait out the storm that is supposed to hit around here.   We are in Waveland, MS, for our 3rd night at Buccaneer State Park.  We were in Walmart tonight and you'd think it was going to snow 10 feet.    There were tons of people stocking up.  It looked like Christmas Eve shopping at the last minute!  So anyway today we rode bikes on a trail along the beach and played at an awesome playground---never too old for a good playground!        **Sara

Sunday, January 26th

Today the blog will be done by all 4 of us, youngest to oldest for each paragraph. 

We went to Louisiana, state #30.

Welcome to New Orleans......actually it's N'awlins.

Walked along the Riverwalk, Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.  

Saw some jazz bands, a mime walking his dog, and a human transformer car.......only in N'awlins.  

We bought some beads to go along with Mardi Gra.

Lunch at the funkiest Lil'cafe in the French Quarter of N'awlins called Jimmy J's was delicious.

Some great Cajun food there.

Got our history lesson today by taking a riverboat on the Mississippi River to a battlefield from the War of 1812.

The boat had a paddle in the back that makes it go.

The boat's name was Creole Queen.

The Battle of New Orleans was a significant win for Andrew Jackson's troops against the British in 1815.  This American win preserved the US claim to the Louisiana Purchase territory.

Upon exiting the boat, the search was on for the French pastries.

We saw some performers on the sidewalk doing flips over 6 people.  They also did comedy.

A French pastry called beignets were the only item at the Cafe De Monde.  They were covered in powdered sugar and WERE amazing.

Audree did some souvenir shopping next.

The easiest big city to drive in.

The End

        Audree<>         -Garrett%             **Sara          ^Jeff

Saturday, January 25th

One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi .... oh you want to know what's happening.....well we are, yep, you guessed it:  in Mississippi!   Today we went to Jefferson Davis's home in Biloxi, MS. He had been very active in Washington DC.  First he was a United States Representative in 1845, then a United States Senator in 1847, then he became Secretary of War in 1853.  When Mississippi seceded from the Union in January 1861, he resigned and returned to support his home state.  A month later he was appointed to be the  President of the Confederate States of America due to all his political experience.   Reluctantly, he accepted the position.  He was their president until the Civil War ended and their government was dissolved in 1865.  Beauvoir was the name of his home.  It means beautiful view.  It sits right on the Gulf of Mexico.  There were 38 colors of paint on the wall designs in the foyer.  They had an adult dining room and a kid dining room.  The interior doors were 10 feet tall!  To get to some of the bedrooms and the dining rooms, you had to walk onto the porch on the backside of the house.  A little strange!  Super nice home!!  There was a Confederate Cemetary in the back of the property.  Another good educational day.

We started off this morning by walking in the beach at Gulf Shores in Alabama.  They have beautiful aqua blue waters and nice white sand!  Again, too bad it was 36 degrees!!  So onward we went......

         **Sara      and     Audree <>             

Friday, January 24th

We drove the truck on water today, well sort of. We went to two forts today. The first was on an island, Dauphin Island, so we had to take a ferry. We were going to go on foot, but they didn't have an enclosed area for pedestrians. On a normal January 24th in Alabama we would be fine without shelter, but it is not so normal, it was only 36° Fahrenheit not Celsius. The first fort was called Fort Gaines mainly used in the Civil War. The fort was a Pentagon. You may know the saying "Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead!"  Well that's where it came from. Construction of the fort started in 1819 as part of a comprehensive system of national defense. After the Union seized Fort Gaines the soldiers running the fort were 12 to 16-year-old boys. The main battle near the fort was the Battle for Mobile Bay. The Confederates were outnumbered with only four ships, when the Union had a lot. After a ferry ride back to the mainland we went to the second fort. The fort was Fort Morgan, it was built after the war of 1812. In the middle of the fort there was a wooden structure called a citadel, a 10 sided building. The fort was used during the Civil War and then again used in World War I. During the Civil War the wooden citadel burned to the ground. After a cold day of walking around we finished in Fort Morgan's Museum. We learned about light houses lenses and more about the Civil War.

                                                                                            -Garrett%🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸