More Smoky mountain pictures

We are home now for a rest from our travels.  We had a great time and will be on the road again in the future.  This blog will also take a rest for a while.

                                          Barb took an hour horseback ride

 

                                           This buck was stalking a doe (seen on the Cade's cove loop drive)

                                           typical of Cade's cove loop drive

Cade's cove campground, Smoky Mt. National Park

We are camped at Levy Jackson State Park in Kentucky.   We have been at the Smoky Mt. NP for the last several days.  I am having a lot of trouble getting anything posted because blogger is having problems.  We have a lot of pictures, but I can't get them posted now, maybe later.

Lakepoint resort state park, Eufaula, AL

Wednesday was a bad weather day.  It rained all day and we stayed in the camper and read, surfed internet, and watched TV.  Thursday we left St. Andrews and headed north.   Stayed the night at Lakepoint resort SP.  Today we will continue north at a very slow pace, trying to avoid freeways.  Here is the only picture for today of me setting up the Sat. Dish.   We also have a lakeview site, which we always try to get.

St. Andrews state park, Panama City, FL

Monday we left Henderson Beach SP and drove 32 miles down the road to Grayton Beach state park, where we stayed Monday night.  This place is another beautiful state park,  but not quite as nice as Henderson.  We did manage to get a water front site on one of the parks smaller lakes.  To get to the Gulf we had to ride bikes a half mile.  Left Grayton yesterday morning and wound up another 30 something miles down the road at Panama City where we got a campsite at St. Andrews State Park.  Our site is another beautiful campsite on the Grand Lagoon, which connects with the Gulf.  In the pictures below you will see the wrecked sailboat that just happens to be laying on the beach in front of our campsite.   We spent the afternoon walking the gulf beach and watching kiteboarders.  The weather did turn a little bad with clouds and light showers.  The temp is still in the high 70's.  We have seen no signs of any oil on beaches, but driving thru the beach area at Panama city was real void of any tourists.   It is off season so a lot of business's are closed.

                                          Barb on Grayton beach

                                           View from our campsite at St. Andrews

                                           washed up almost in front of our campsite

                                           The boat name is "Dreamweaver"  from St. Augustine, FL

                                           Me on St Andrews SP beach

                                           Kiteboarder at jetty, St. Andrews

                                           Barb on St. Andrews SP beach

Henderson State Park, Destin, FL

Left Gulf SP and drove to Henderson SP in Destin, FL.   This is another very beautiful campground.  Each campsite is secluded by being surrounded by shrubs and trees.  The air conditioned restrooms are emaculate with artificial flowers on the sinktops.  There is a boardwalk over the dunes to a pristine beach.  Henderson SP  ranks high on list of the country's best campgrounds.   We were awakened by squirrels this morning running around on our roof and looking in the roof vents.  The weather is perfect.   Took a long walk on the beach yesterday taking pictures.

                                           Gulf State Park

                                          Little Lake at Gulf SP

                                           Relaxing on Henderson Beach

                                          Barb on  Henderson Beach

 

Sunset on Henderson Beach

Gulf State Park (still here)

Signed up for more days, so we will be leaving Sunday. Oct 31.  Spent the day riding my bike, visiting the pier, and walking the beach.  Barb was busy catching up on her book reading and playing Solitare on the computer.  The weather has made a big change, from hot and humid to much cooler with low humidity.

                                           Our campsite for 5 nights

                                          End of Pier looking to shore

                                          Gulf State Park Beach with city of Gulf Shores in background

                                           End of Pier looking out in gulf

                                           Spanish Mackerel  (they were catching a lot of them)

                                           Sand Piper

Gulf State Park, Alabama

We are at Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL.  Got here Tues. afternoon.  It has been very hot and humid the last several days.  This morning a storm blew in dumping quite a lot of rain.  Yesterday we spent most of the day at the new swimming pool which just opened labor day.  We also checked out the new pier.  In the afternoon Barb mentioned that the couple camped across from us looked familiar.  About 5:30 the husband came over to invite us to go to eat with them.  It was then that we found out it was the couple that camped beside us at Big Bend.  They are from  Florida.  We all went out for a seafood dinner  and had a good time discussing every place we had been.  It is another coincidence that we run into someone we had seen a thousand miles ago.   Also we didn't see any oil on beach,  but that may change today as we are going to take a long beach walk.

                                           New pier at Gulf SP

                                           Deep cleaning sand.  In middle are seagulls

                                           More deep cleaning with local tv coverage

                                           Barb in fountain

                                           Barb in pool

                                           Me in fountain

Fontainebleau State Park Mandeville, LA

Night before last stayed at Sam Houston Jones State Park in western Louisiana.  At the moment we are staying at the Fontainebleau SP  which is on the northern shore of Lake  Pontchartrain, LA.  It is very hot with a high humidity, and our camper does not have air conditioning.  It is a beautiful campground and we road the bikes all over.  Would like to go swimming but signs say "High Bacteria, swimming not advised". 

                                           Moss on Cypress tree in swamp

                                           Found a sign but no gators

                                           This is not our camper but there is a story here.  Met the owners in Yosemite, and talked for an hour.  They are a nice couple from Maine,  and doing a circle of the country like us. They have a Shadow cruiser camper like us and met us by talking camper talk.   They are in their 70's  and have been traveling for a long time.   We seen them in New Mexico and Galveston Island and then again Monday night they camped near us.   We both have different agenda's,  so thought it a coincidence that we kept seeing each other.

                                           sunset over Lake Pontchartrain

                                           Now where is the switch to turn on the fountain

                                           Me with Lake Pontchartrain

Galveston Island State Park

Leaving Galveston Island SP today.  It is very hot and quite windy.  Had a little rain late last night.  Yesterday we walked about 3 miles up and down the beach, but no pics as there was too much sand and salt air blowing.  Beautiful beach.  The park reopened last year after having been distroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.  There are 2 areas to camp, out by the beach or back by the bay.  We are back by the bay.  When the tide came in it was about 15 feet from our camper.  This morning we have been watching the Pelicans dive for fish and watching other birds.   There is also a lot of kayakers here.

                                            Hurricane Ike damage at State Park

                                           our campsite

                                           view looking out our back door

                                           Pelicans diving

                                           Fisherman seen out back door

Stephen F. Austin State Park, Close to Houston, TX

Last night we ended up at Triple R RV park outside of Crystal City, TX.  We got the last site.  It is a beautiful park, the only problem we were parked under a pecan tree and all night long pecans kept falling off the tree and hitting our roof.  It made for hard sleeping.  Before in the afternoon we hit the Judge Roy Bean museum in Langtry, TX.  Today we made it almost to Houston.   We are at the Stephen F. Austin SP.  Due to the weather (It is extremly hot)  we didn't head for South Texas.  This afternoon  took a bike over the many trails at the park.  Seen 3 armadillo's and many deer, very little, not like Ohio deer.

                                           Real bar Judge Roy Bean Held court

                                           Very bad pecan tree

                                          Armadillo

                                                    Brazos river in background

Big Bend National Park Part 2

Here is more, guess I had too many pics for one post, It would not let me add any more.

                                                     Santa Elena canyon  (Mexico on left US on right)
                                                     Barb walking in Rio Grande

                                           Chisos Mountains (In center of Park)
                                           The high campground that we wanted to stay at was
                                            closed for improvement.

                                           Roadrunner   (in our campground)