Day 1, March 3, 2023, Friday. Chipley, FL (346 miles)

We are finally back on the road! We did not travel in 2022 except for a 10 day trip in September with Aaron to Miami and Key West for which I did blog but did not send out notice of such. It was my first time back in Miami, the city of my birth and upbringing, since 1996. And my first time ever visiting Everglades National Park. It may be more appropriately named Mosquito National Park! If you ever want to visit there, make sure it is in the winter months if such ever really exists there anymore.  Today was our planned departure date for several months.  It was such a relief hitting the road after two stressful weeks. I always get the coach serviced before our big trips which usually takes 3-4 days. This time it took 2 weeks! And to top it off the day I was to bring the coach in for service our entry lock failed. I climbed through the window to get in and to take it to the service shop. This was compounded by not be able to order the lock part until I had the coach back to disassemble the lock to get the part number. I finally got the new lock Wednesday at 6:02 pm and installed it myself in the dark. We arrived at the Walmart in Chipley, FL, around 4:00 central time driving through a wind advisory almost the whole way. Not the most fun drive as I fought to keep the coach from blowing off the road. We also incurred several dust storms reducing visibility significantly. We detached the car and visited the Falling Waters State Park just 8 minutes away. The park is the home of Florida’s tallest waterfall, a whopping 73 feet.  Come to think of it, I don’t recall any other waterfalls in Florida.  The reason there is this waterfall is it pours into a sinkhole where the water disappears. There were some nice trails among rolling hills  so we got some hiking in and had an enjoyable couple hours.  

 

 

Day 2, March 4, 2023, Saturday. Holden, LA (340 miles)

After a rather quiet night at the Walmart, it was an easy drive to John Schneider’s Studio, a Harvest Host with full hookups. John Schneider is an actor/director best known as one of the main characters in Dukes of Hazard.  We did see him and waved as he was driving the campground road. The place is kind of out in nowhere land but was close to the route we are taking on the way to Dallas.  Yes, that’s me standing next to one of the cars featured in the Dukes show. It has seen better days!

Day 3, March 5, 2023, Sunday.  Frierson, LA (267 miles)

A quiet night except for the 4:30 am train horn. The train engineer must have been on a dare to see how many people he could wake up since the horn repeatedly blew for what seemed like an eternity. Rosemary slept through it, a very unusual happening.  About an hour away, we visited the Rosedown Plantation, a National Historic Landmark.  The mansion built in 1835 was a cotton plantation which was served by 250 enslaved people.  90% of the mansion contents are original. We had a guided tour of the mansion.  One item which I had never seen before was in the dining room, a large fan attached to the ceiling over the table called a punkah which was “powered” by a enslaved child.  We walked the gardens in which the azaleas were in full bloom.  An enjoyable visit.  We then drove to ODK Farm, a Harvest Hosts host.  ODK breeds white tail deer which, unbeknownst to us prior to our arrival, it sells to sports entities for clients to hunt.  Our most congenial hosts, Oscar and Deborah, welcomed us to dinner of fried crappie, fish tacos, potato tacos and lemon bars.  Oscar had caught the crappies nearby.  My first experience eating crappie and it was good.  After dinner, pleasant conversation around an outdoor fire with our hosts and a couple other RVers.

Day 4, March 6, 2023, Monday. Dallas, TX (218 miles)

A leisurely travel day to Dallas. We arrived about 4:00 and checked into the Sandy Lake RV Park which has very tight spaces (FHU). After driving around Dallas I should never complain about Tampa traffic again. It was horrible and construction everywhere.  Campground is only 6 minutes from Kroger so we did a grocery stop and picked up sushi for dinner among other things.

Day 5, March 7, 2023, Tuesday, Dallas, TX

Our first non-driving day and we packed a lot in. First stop was to the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. We picked the right time of year to visit as the flowers were blooming and beautiful. We also had a private tour of the DeGolyer House. Built 1938-1940 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style it was absolutely fantastic and included a large library with small hidden rooms behind the bookcases. Next we visited the Dallas Museum of Art downtown.  Many different areas and eras. There were works by many famous artists including Rosemary’s favorite Claude Monet. Next, after a drive by the grassy knoll (the Sixth Floor Museum is closed Tuesdays unfortunately), we visited the Dallas Cattle Drive Sculptures by Robert Summers which to our amazement had a small free parking lot with one hour limit. Just enough time to walk around the sculpture. Traffic was heavy but mostly moving and we made it back to the coach in “only” 45 minutes.  Another fun day and we had no problem getting our 10,000 steps in.