Mileage: 62,811 Jeff Busby Campground Natchez Trace Ackerman, Mississippi

We began our day at the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace. We traveled the northern portion of this road on our way back from Alaska.

This route began as a Native American trail and as the west was settled, it became a postal route. Our first stop this morning was at the Old Trace.

We stopped at the Emerald Mound. This is a sacred Indian site. This mound began as a natural hill and was reshaped 800 years ago by the native people. This was and is an important site for social, cultural, and spiritual rituals. The mound was formed using primitive tools. People carried baskets of dirt to create the shape of the mound. It took approximately 300 years to complete.

I drove for 80 miles or so. This really is a gentle, soothing, lovely ride. The woods are lush and green. The weather was perfect with a soft breeze and warm sunshine. There was Spanish moss hanging from some of the trees. We saw woodpeckers and hawks and turtles. We passed farm fields and hay fields and meadows and cypress swamps. The road was flanked by tall pines and other mature hardwood trees. In some places the branches stretched across the road to form a canopy. We stopped for lunch at the reservoir overlook at the Pearl River.

We are camping in the National Park. It is very quiet and peaceful here. Tonight is the last night of this grand adventure.

In the past several months, we have lived in cities and towns, in the mountains, by the sea, on a river, in a bayou, in the desert, in national parks and state parks, in a wildlife refuge, in the woods, at Walmart, at the beach, and even at a racetrack.

This life enriches us. We encourage you to get outside and explore. Find beauty wherever you are. Find joy. Find peace.

We have reshaped our definition of home. Home is where we find ourselves alone together. Home is also in Reisterstown with our family and friends. And, home is in Atlanta with David and Dre and our 2 precious grandsons. Home is where we park it!

For the next several weeks, we will be in Atlanta visiting. Then, we will head back to Reisterstown for a month or two. We want to thank everyone who has followed us. It means a lot to us when we know our friends and family are reading. You can be sure that we are already planning our next adventure. In August we plan to head back to Atlanta and then out to Colorado. We will restart the blog at approximately the end of August.

Mileage: 62,602

We got back onto 10E through the rest of Texas and into Louisiana. We wanted to stop at the Louisiana Welcome Center but though it looked brand new…it was not open. We ended up having our breakfast in the parking lot of a bingo hall.

We took 165N after Lake Charles. We were headed for Natchez, Mississippi.

We passed lots of rice fields, lots of nurseries, and lots of lumber trucks. Water is plentiful here. Actually, water is too plentiful here. The river and its tributaries are flooded. Trees are submerged up to their branches. The area is very swampy. We called the River View RV Park to get a site for tonight. The woman who answered the phone explained that the Mississippi River had flooded. As a result, the restroom, showers, laundry and septic system were all not working. They were all shut down by the county. She suggested that we try back another time!

Crossing the Mississippi River from Louisiana into Mississippi.

We found a free campsite in the parking lot of the Natchez Visitor Reception Center. The people here were very friendly. The woman in the gift shop asked where we were from. She is from Westminster, Maryland! She and her husband moved to Mississippi 14 years ago when they retired. They have only seen 2 inches of snow in all those years!

We took our bikes to the Vidalia Riverfront Park. We rode along the river and then along the top of the levee.

This construction yard is flooded. The water was up another 3 feet at the worst point.

We rode until we had to turn around. As we were riding, Tim got a flat tire.

We put the bikes back on the car and took a walk. These sandbags form a temporary levee. They are placed across the boat ramp.

The handicapped parking area at the ramp/submerged pier are under a lot of water as well.

This is a portion of the campground where we originally planned to stay.

It looks like it will be a long time before all this water recedes! We returned to the visitor center and grilled some bison burgers for our dinner. Tomorrow we plan to start at the southern end of the Natchez Trace.

MIleage: 62, 356 Winnie-Stowell County Park Winnie, Texas

It is hard to leave this beautiful place. I know that we will come back to Padre Island! We slept so well here, windows open with a nice breeze and the sound of ocean waves, our lullaby! We avoided the main highway today and elected to take 35N or The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. The route followed the coastal bend. We passed through lots of little towns along the water and the road was quite good.

As we passed through Corpus Christie and we passed over the Intracoastal Waterway.

We passed this aircraft carrier.

We drove past lots of oil refineries and other oil industry related businesses.

Industry interspersed with farmland. This corn was about 6-8 inches high.

As it got close to lunchtime, Tim suggested that we look for a BBQ place. We stopped at Smokin’ R BBQ in West Columbia. This was the highlight of the day! The BBQ was delicious!!

We had to drive north to get onto 10E . The traffic and rough road conditions around Houston were fairly intense. Thankfully it was not yet rush hour. We chose a small county park in Winnie to spend the night. Winnie is the home of the Texas Rice Festival. I was meant to be taking pictures of our camping spot, but I got a phone call from David and completely forgot! Tim took the Jeep to the car-wash to get rid of the seawater, sand, and salt! I went to the small grocery store and collected supplies for the next couple of days. It was a quiet little place to spend the night.

Day 5 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We took our time getting up and ready this morning. After breakfast, we packed our picnic and went back to the beach. Everything was a lot less crowded today.

We made a bunch of observations as we traveled south. I was driving today.

• So many people
• It will thin out
• Ooooh soft sand…
• 5 mile marker
• Lots of pelicans today
• Couple of coconuts
• It must be gull mating season
• Put it in 4 wheel drive
• Turtle patrol…do they have eggs???
• No eggs…any day now
• 2 dead juvenile sea turtles
• Only 1 in 1,000 survive
• It takes 15-20 years for them to mature
• 13.5 miles
• The wind is coming from the east
• Small shells
• Not many fishermen today
• That’s a big piece of rope
• Want to drag it back?
• I’m not sure we can lift it!
• Sand moguls…like a roller-coaster!
• Splash!!!
• OOPS!!!
• You might want to stay away from the edge of the water
• 30 miles
• The tide is still going out
• That breeze is pretty stiff!!!
• Let’s pull over here
• Not too many people out this far!
• Never did see dolphins!
• I could watch pelicans all day
• I believe that you did!!!

We didn’t take many pictures. We set up a tarp so that we could stay out of the wind and the sun. We had our lunch and picked up trash. We got 13 bags altogether this week. That’s a lot of beach detritus!!!

This is a Portuguese-man-of-war. It is an organism made up of 4 different kinds of polys that all live and work together in a colony. One type is the balloon or the float, another captures food, another eats the food and the last type reproduces. They are usually blue or violet. The tentacles can sting even after it is dead.

A perfect beach day!

On our way back this pair of pelicans followed us in the Jeep for miles! We were traveling about 25 miles an hour and they kept right up!

Someday we hope to be able to bring Oliver and Austin to the beach!! I cannot wait for them to see the waves and the sand. PopPop will show them all the cool stuff…pelicans and shells and stuff!!!

Day 4 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

I woke up and the sun was just starting to rise over the horizon.

I noticed these tiny little footprints all around our tent. There were definitely crabs and maybe a ground squirrel or a mouse nosing about last night while we were sleeping!

We drove the 25 miles back to the campground after having our morning coffee. We unpacked the Jeep, put things away, took showers, and spent most of the day doing not very much! At around 4:00 Tim suggested we take a ride to Port Aransas.

The beaches we passed were VERY crowded!

We had a nice meal at Virginia’s on the Bay.

Pretty boats!

Back to the visitor center this evening to post the blog for the last two days. Gorgeous sunset tonight!

Day 3 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We spent the early morning posting the blog at the visitor center.

Our plan for this evening was to camp out on the beach. We packed the tent and all our bedding. We packed lunch and dinner and coffee for tomorrow morning and we drove down South Beach. We found an access road to the mudflats.

We stopped for lunch and then sat on the beach reading and relaxing. The pelicans and gulls were great entertainment.

At around 5:00 we found our camping spot. We set up our camp and had some cheese and crackers. We had chef salads and sourdough bread for dinner. We watched the shadows lengthen.

Sunset.

We saw the moon rise…a full pink moon. The Native Americans called it the pink moon because the pink flowers bloom at this time of year

We enjoyed a fire with some hot chocolate and amaretto.

We stayed up until almost 10:00 and then we slept!

Reading through this, it doesn’t sound too magical. We ate, we slept…all the ordinary things. The magical part is that we were in this incredibly beautiful setting. There was no one else within a half mile. We were all alone on this remote beach…that’s the magic!

Day 2 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

We had a wicked thunderstorm last night.  The wind was howling and very strong.  There was thunder and lightening and lots of rain.  It lasted for a long time.  It was probably the worst storm we have ever had camping in the RV.  There were lots of tent campers across the road from us.  We both worried about them during the night.  This morning they were hanging all of their things, trying to dry everything out.  Tim took them coffee.

We packed the car and drove out onto the beach. Tim had taken the doors off so the sun was streaming in and we had a great view of the ocean waves.  The south beach access is 60 miles long.  We went about halfway.

There are lots of people in ATV’s doing Turtle Patrol.  The Kemp’s Ridley turtle is endangered.  This park with its biologists and volunteers has seriously worked to increase the turtle population.  Because driving is allowed on the beach, the patrols are an important part of saving the turtles.  From April to September, the beaches are patrolled.  If a nesting turtle is spotted, the nest is protected until rangers can come and harvest the eggs.  The eggs are then taken to a hatching facility.  Once the baby turtles hatch, they are released from Padre Island.  Turtles that are released from here will imprint and return here to nest.  This is an important nesting site.  60% of the turtle nests are here.  A yellow flag is flown on days when a nesting turtle is found.  There was a flag yesterday.  The turtles most commonly nest from May – July.

This is a squadron of pelicans in a feeding frenzy.  They must have been following a school of fish.

This flock of egrets flew along with us as we drove down the beach.

We picked up 4 bags of trash.  We also had a toilet seat, a drawer pull, a big yellow jug, and 2 long lengths of marine rope.  We probably only cleaned up 200 feet of beach…it would be easy to get discouraged.  It didn’t take long and it wasn’t hard to do. 

This reminded me of the starfish story.

We sat on the beach for a while, our toes in the water, mesmerized by the waves lapping at the shore.  When the waves got a little bigger and wet us, we headed back.  At high tide there is only room for one vehicle to pass.

We had some afternoon quiet time and then got showered and ready to go out to dinner.  We drove to town to The Angry Marlin where we enjoyed some coconut shrimp.

After dinner, we went out on the patio and listened to live music.

We left the restaurant just as the sky was turning dark.  We took the North Beach access back to the campground.  We saw deer in the dunes.  The moon was nearly full and it was lovely!

Mileage:  62,045 Malaquite Campground Padre Island National Seashore Corpus Christi, Texas

It was foggy and really cloudy this morning.  The humidity was 98% and we are unaccustomed to it!

We had a short drive this morning from Alice to Padre Island.  We were at the park and set up by 10:30. 

After breakfast, we packed our cooler and headed out.  We took the Jeep to drive on South Beach. 

I love the ocean.  When we were kids, our family went to the beach every summer.  I love walking in the sand.  I love being in the water.  I love listening to the waves crashing.  I am in my happy place!  The clouds stayed around all day but it was balmy and pleasant even so.

There is a lot of trash and debris on Padre Island.  This is due to the way the currents converge across the Gulf of Mexico.  From as far as the Amazon and Central America, the junk comes.  The rangers and volunteers spend an inordinate number of hours cleaning up the beach.  We only had a small trash bag, but we filled it.  My friend Lois had posted something earlier this year.  Won’t you consider leaving the beach a little cleaner than you found it next time you go?

The pelicans and pipers and curlews and gulls and plovers sat on the beach facing into the wind.  As we passed, they took flight.

We took our dinner to the Laguna Madre or the bayside.  We watched the windsurfers and the pelicans diving for their supper.

A turtle along the road.  Did you know that if you see a turtle crossing the road, you should stop and either watch it cross or carry it to the other side in the direction it was going? 

We drove on the North Beach section of the island and that lead us to a beach park that took us back toward Corpus Christi.  We took the Jeep to refuel for tomorrow’s beach drive.

We got back to the RV and our neighbors came and knocked on the door.  Larry and his friends, Wink, Kevin, and Mitch had caught a lot of fish.  They were having a fish fry and wanted us to join them.  Sheila and Sylvia were warm and welcoming.  It was fun to talk with them and visit.  We stayed up too late and had too much wine!

Mileage:  61,973 Paisano RV Park Alice, Texas

I got up as the sun was rising.  The light was soft and the air was cool and clean.   I had my coffee and watched deer grazing in the campground.  The birds were twittering in the trees.  This was a nice way to start my day.

We dropped down from the center of Texas on 83S.  We had enough of driving on interstate 10 yesterday.  I took a turn driving again today.  Tim has been very patient with me.  We both know that I just have to put in more hours to get more comfortable.  That being said, I felt like I was able to look around a bit more today.  I had been so totally focused on the road directly in front of me…now I can see the bigger picture a bit better!

We drove through Texas Hill Country.  It seems odd to us that everything is so green.  Suddenly there are trees and hills.  We can’t see the whole sky.  The mountains are gone.  There are cheerful wildflowers in rainbow colors lining the roadside.

Last evening in Junction, I saw a sign advertising big game hunting.  Today I saw a sign for Trophy Exotic Hunting and Texas Exotic Hunts.  I googled this.  For a fee of about $250.00, you can enter the ranch and hunt for exotic game.  One ranch that I saw offers a choice of 60 different species of game.  Turkey, whitetail deer, and much more.  What is the much more???  Gazelles, hogs, sheep, impala, sika, antelope, goats, emu; animals from all over the world. We saw lots of ranches that raise exotic animals and I started to think about the zebras I saw the other evening.  Yes, you can even hunt for zebras and kangaroos.  They are all grazing animals; no predators were listed.  At one particular place, there are luxury accommodations, including an air-conditioned bird blind with a bar, and direct TV.  I am not sure I consider shooting exotic wildlife in an enclosure a sport…

We passed lots of ranches.  Some with simple entrances and others more elaborate.  This was a more moderate entrance.

This species of prickly pear blooms with yellow flowers, we saw it everywhere.

We arrived in Alice, Texas around 4 pm. We got propane and set up at the campground.  We started the laundry and went to get supplies.  The clothes are in the dryer and it is almost dark.  Today was a very long day, but tomorrow we are going to the beach, so it is completely worth it!!! For the next several days we will be in Padre Island, Texas. We have heard that we will have no internet or cell service…so no worries if you don’t see a post for a week or so!

Mileage:  61,670 Pecan Valley RV Resort Junction, Texas

Today was about getting across Texas.  We spent all day, almost 400 miles, on 10E.  We took turns driving.  The scenery is green and pretty with wildflowers blooming.  We are in Texas hill country. 

The town of Fort Stockton has this sculpture along 10.

We passed lots of oil rigs.

We passed windmills.

I used my AllStays App to look for camping.  I found the Pecan Valley RV Resort.  There is a pecan grove.

The campground sits on the North Llano River.

The trees are gorgeous and provide nice shade.  This is good because it is 80 degrees outside and 89 degrees in the RV! 

We ventured into the town of Junction for dinner.  This town is nicknamed the “land of living waters.”  This area has more flowing water than any other county in Texas.  It’s a quaint all-American kind of town.  We drove to Schreiner Park and walked along the Llano River.

We stopped and watched little boys playing baseball.

We ate BBQ at Lums and it was delicious.

Not quite sure what “Outdoor Women Gone Wild” refers to, but we can’t stay to find out!

As we drove back to the campground, we saw lots of deer.  As I sit writing the blog, I can hear wild turkeys gobbling!