10/23 – 10/29/2014 – New Orleans – Arrived early afternoon to Pontchartrain Landing Campground and Marina on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans for a seven day stay.  Took a quick tour of the area after we got set up to get a lay of the land and visited the “Pitbulls and Parolees” warehouse from the TV series, which was a very sad sight to see with so many homeless dogs. 

 

Friday we did a walking tour of the Garden District viewing the beautiful homes and the historic Lafayette Cemetery in the 65 block section of New Orleans. 

Saturday we took the shuttle into the French Quarter and roamed the streets and shops nonstop enjoying crisp beignets for breakfast and shrimp Po-boys for lunch, enjoying the friendly banter of the many Green Bay Packer and New Orleans Saints fans warming up for the Sunday night game at the Superdome.   It seems that the Packers have a very large travel contingent as we see green and yellow everywhere in town as well as the campground.  Bourbon Street was in full mania by 4pm on Saturday with the bars already near capacity and people walking the streets with huge fishbowl cocktails in hand, can’t imagine what it will be like by midnight, but really don’t want to experience it either. 

 

Sunday was a  day of rest, just lounging around the campground and watching football.     

Monday morning was off to Baton Rouge for the day about 85 miles north of New Orleans.  Spent the day visiting the new and old capital buildings, riverboat casinos, walking the downtown area, and the LSU rural life museum which had quite a collection of memorabilia.  Really a beautiful city along the banks of the Mississippi, and what a view from the observation deck at the top of the capital building.  Too bad there were several museums closed on Mondays but there was still plenty to see. 

Old Capital

New Capital

St Joseph Cathedral

Riverboat Casino

Acadian Home

10/20 – 10/22/2014 – Out of Florida – Time to hit the road and leave home base of Bonita Springs.  First stop was Torreya State Park along the Apalachicola River and right on the Eastern/Central Time line.  Picked up an hour of travel time as soon as we left the campground.  Chippy decided not to get out of the RV after the ranger told us to watch out for copperheads and rattlesnakes as we were very deep into the woods.  Crossed the Florida, Alabama and Mississippi borders on the way to Bay St Louis near the Louisiana border were we spent the next two nights at a very nice campground at the Hollywood Casino.  We were amazed at all of the waterfront property along Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St Louis that are still for sale long after Katrina wiped out everything on the coast.  I would imagine that the homes that have been rebuilt, wisely on high pilings, have some hefty homeowner’s insurance premiums but they look like they can afford it.  The white sand beaches along the coast are really nice and have been fully restored to their pre-Katrina beauty. 

Key Largo

10/13 – 10/18/2014 – Key Largo – Camped at John Pennekamp State Park Campground.  Really nice campground with about 40 full hookup sites right on the ocean.  We even have pet Iguana’s at our site, in both green and orange along with hundreds of little lizards, raccoons and birds. We did the glass bottom boat over the reefs and saw the underwater world of coral reefs and load of fish.   Snorkeled on the beach where they have a replica of a ship and cannons submerged and saw a school of tarpon.  Had a  good time kayaking the trails around the state park and saw a lot of water fowl.  Got lots of exercise biking to the grocery store every day and around the island.   The only down side of the week in Key Largo were the two Key Lime pies consumed mostly by Brian. 

Marathon FL

10/8 – 10/13/2014 – Marathon – Stayed at Jolly Roger Campground which was very nice, much cleaner than the last campground and have a nice view of the Gulf of Mexico with a great beachfront, docks and swimming/snorkeling area.  Campground is not very crowded as none really are this early in the season.  They say the Keys don’t really get crowded until December.  As like all the other Keys, the Marina’s are everywhere, never saw so many boats.  Marathon is definitely more populated than Big Pine Key with many more stores, restaurants, an airport, accommodations and attractions including Crane Point,  Dolphin Research Center and Florida Keys Aquarium Encounters.  Unfortunately I still have not found a decent public golf course in the Keys, due to the limited available land mass, boohoo.  Found three ocean beaches in Marathon and there only seems to be one, Sombrero Beach, which can handle any type of crowds.  With nice white sand beaches and a very nice grassy park area including sheltered picnic areas and playground.  Nice relaxing week swimming, kayaking, biking, and eating enjoying the beautiful sunsets.   

 
 
 

     

Key West

10/3 – 10/7/2014 – Key West – Maybe we have been spoiled by visiting so many islands in the Caribbean or we are comparing Key West to the beauty we experienced in Naples over the past two months, but we really don’t see the overt fascination of Key West.  Yes, it is very historic which is very interesting, and yes there are more bars than you could possibly dream for, but we found Key West a bit overrated.  Yes, it is the prettiest island we have seen in the Keys so far, but Duval Street is just one big collection of the same shops selling the same island crap. Yes, the sunrises and sunsets are incredible.  Yes, If you are a sport fisherman, Scuba or Snorkeling aficionado which we are not, Key West is Shangri-La, but for the average tourist we think the hype is much greater than the reward for the long drive.  We had a blast riding all over the island on our bikes which have full rights to the road everywhere on the island.  That is definitely the best way to see everything short of riding the Conch Train or one of the many tour trolleys available; enabling you to stop anywhere you like and park your bike and walk or visit the sights.  The few beaches are very small in the Keys, but the water is crystal clear and there are a plethora of water sports to enjoy if that is your pleasure as well.  All in all we enjoyed our visit to the Southernmost point in the US and were glad we experienced Key West, but were slightly  disappointed and  don’t plan on a return visit anytime soon.  We stayed at Sunshine Key RV Resort, and think the should remove the "Resort" from their name, as the park is in need of major cleanup and upgrade, rated it about a 5 on a scale of 10.   We will be heading a bit further north to Marathon and then on to Key Largo, so stay tuned.  Here is a glimpse of our visit to Key West…Enjoy… 

 

    

    

       

10/2/2014 – Florida Keys – Spent the day at the Bahia Honda SP swimming, snorkeling, hiking and visiting the Nature Center at the park.  Learned all about the railroad built by Henry Flagler that joined Key West to the mainland in 1912 later destroyed by Hurricane in 1935 and replaced by US1 Took some nice underwater shots but will need to get a card reader to load the pics.  One recent revelation about retirement has also been discovered on this trip….lots of time for kanoodleing.  

10/1/2014 – Florida Keys – Departed Naples at 10:00am on 10/1 and arrived at Bahia Honda State Park (Big Pine Key), our home for the first two days in the Keys, at about 3:00pm.  Walked the beach and then decided to take a quick swing to Key West to check it out.  Circumnavigated the island and stopped on Smather’s Beach to take in the scenery.