Darla is obsessed with alligators! She wanted to go alligator hunting again. So I took her to the Gator Boardwalk in Daphne. Daphne is on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. You drive across the causeway we can see from the park from Daphne into Mobile. The area is known as gator alley. The Boardwalk is in downtown Daphne right next to the Hampton Inn. Darla was kind of upset….. no gators. So across the causeway we went into Mobile. The first place we saw was a conjure parlor. I don’t know what that is — I can only guess — but Darla made a beeline for it. She was…

The USS Alabama is moored in Mobile Bay. It is a museum. The Alabama served in WWII. The keel as laid down on 2/1/1940. We did not know it was her birthday when we went to visit. She was launched 2/12/1942 – 80 years ago almost exactly. She served mostly in the Pacific. Darla and I spent hours there. You can go through every part of the ship. It was really interesting. There was a greeter there. He had been in the Navy. He was aboard a ship that created the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was very interesting to talk to. The Alabama was pretty…

Left the Trailer Park Boys Park back through the tunnel to a small state park just outside Mobile. It was very, very nice. Bonus — other basset hounds were there for a few days. The park was on the water. Had a walkway into alligator territory. Darla was constantly on the lookout — she always says she is alligator 🐊 hunting. She did not find any…. We could see the causeway over Mobile Bay from the park. Really nice sunsets. Every night they were like this. You can see a truck on the causeway beyond the fishing pier. Mobile was 10 minutes away. The park was small about 25 sites.…

Heading for Mobile Alabama. Spent the night in a park in Florida near Tallahasee. It was small but very nice. There was construction next to the park. That is where I realized the diirt is different in Florida. It was orange. Left Florida and arrived in Alabama. We were a day early for our reservation so the navigator found a place . I guess it was cheap 🤷‍♀️ Most people live there permanently. Some of those rv’s haven’t moved in years. Next door was a family with 4 or 5 little kids in a travel trailer. We heard a lot of yelling. Trailer Park Boys could have been filmed there.…

So after more than a month it was time to move on. Florida was interesting. We went to Gainsville a few times. Saw a lot of wildlife. One night Darla heard coyotes and almost jumped out of her skin. 😂 They were speaking to her but she did not like what they were saying. But it was time to leave and head to the RV Supershow. It is just what it sounds like a big rv trade show. We stayed right on the grounds. Not very exciting really. Saw a lot of new rv’s. But when it comes to rv’s new is not necessarily better. Old rv’s have all the…

Darla, ever the history buff, wanted to go back and take a trolley ride and see the fort. St. Augustine was settled in 1565 by the Spanish. They built a fort and it was promptly burnt down with the rest of the city – maybe by pirates. Darla loves pirates. They rebuilt the fort and it was burnt down a few more times by pirates and the English. The fort is called Castillio de San Marco. Finally they got sick of rebuilding it and they used coquina to rebuild it. Coquina is a rock made of seashells bonded together. It does not burn and cannon balls are absorbed by it.…

On Christmas Day we went to the beach! St. Augustine has beautiful beaches. Guy caught a shark on the pier. He let me touch it before he threw it back. Darla was afraid of it. it is a bonnethead shark a subspecies of the hammerhead. We went back to St Augustine to ride the Christmas light trolley. Really pretty. The Christmas Lights in St. Augustine is a big deal there. Every building in the historic district had lights.

At Keystone Heights was a pair of Sand Hill Cranes. They are one of the world’s oldest birds. They have been around for 34 million years and haven’t changed in 10 million years. They make the strangest sound. I can’t figure out how to post videos. But I would love to post a video of the sound they make. I am sure that is what dinosaurs sounded like.

Our driver Mike, found a new park in Keystone Heights. New parks are often cheaper so….. we stayed for awhile. It is north of Gainsville. Nothing really exciting about the location or the park. Many people live there permanently. They have jobs. I guess it is a cheap way to live. Darla heard there was an alligator in one of the ponds. Every so often she would make me go alligator hunting. For weeks and weeks — no alligator. Then one day in January Darla went crazy — there was the alligator 🐊🐊🐊🐊🐊. Rumor has it that is a turtle next to the alligator. After we left the park, the…

I really like the Forgotten Coast. It was really beautiful and not many people. It seems old and forgotten. There is a shipyard in Port St. Joe behind the Piggly Wiggly. We drove over to see the big ships and found the Staten Island Ferry. The shipyard in little Port St. Joe builds the Staten Island Ferry. I think that might be a moon jelly fish Port St. Joe lighthouse