TEXAS OR BUST 😊

Our 28th State

DAY ONE
We left early Saturday morning as there was a snow storm looming for northern IL. We knew it would be a long haul, especially since we changed our route from IA to IL We stopped at the rest area north of Madison only to discover our front tires on the pickup were seriously pitted.  Turns out "someone" took the keys out of the ignition that locked up the steering wheel on our tow vehicle.  As the tires needed to be replaced we spent an hour or more driving around Madison on a Saturday trying to locate a garage for tires and installation.We finally found tires at Southside Tire in DeForest.

Despite the two-hour delay in Madison, we missed the snowstorm in northern IL. As the sun was beginning to set our GPS went rogue by taking us down the wrong highway, telling us to make a u-turn with no exit in sight, and giving wrong exits and highways, We were down to a quarter tank of fuel, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere on an unknown road just 30 miles from our campground. We got turned around and listened to GPS directions only to find ourselves on a dark narrow two-lane road instead of a major highway.  It was like a day that would not end.  Thankfully we arrived at Whittington Woods around 6:30 long after dark and having travelled almost 600 miles. It was a day from hell.

DAY TWO
After a restful night's sleep, we were ready for another day of adventure with a GPS that was on the fritz. It was a dreary day and starting to rain with the wind picking up.  After a few hours we pulled off the road in West Memphis into a KOA to hunker down for the night.with the wind blowing and the rain coming down throughout the night. I don't think we realized how exhausted we were from the day before. I pulled an oops when I took doggie out before bed and opened the door to what I thought was our RV.  When I realized it was a Dutch Star parked alongside us, I yelled "sorry" and shut the door.   Well, the Dutch Star was the same color as our RV.😩

DAY THREE
Stopped in Texarkana, AR for a night.  The weather girl kept referring to the ARK-LA-TX (the three states contiguous to one another).  Lots of traffic noise along the highway. I did get the GPS to work again. Seems there was an error with the last map update. We spotted light bars atop two cars at a trailer behind the campground office. Hmmmm. We later heard on the late news that Texarkana, TX (about 10 miles from the campground) is one of the top 10 cities in TX with a high crime rate.

DAY FOUR
The closer we got to Dallas the heavier the traffic got and the faster they went. It was a white knuckle ride on I-35E with lots of road construction and three lanes of mostly semi traffic screaming by at 70 mph. After a harrowing drive in the RV with a tow vehicle, we arrived in Corinth,TX at Destiny RV Campground.  Again right off I-35E. We were assigned a site near the highway but we couldn't maneuver our RV into a site around a tight corner without hitting a car parked on the site at the turn or scratching the paint on our RV.  We requested another site and were directed to a double pull thru behind the office.  Seems to be a much better site. This campground appears to have lots of fifth wheels here, possibly for all the highway construction workers.  Even a school bus goes past our site to the back of the campground.

DAY FIVE
We ventured out to Lowes for a hot water heater element and a windshield wiper.  Stopped at Whataburger for lunch. The manager told us the FM highway designation means "farm to market" to indicate the old routes farmers took to market. He said I-35 has been under construction since he moved here 25 years ago.

Fishing

We overlook a small lake at Bella Terra. This year the fishing is great!

28" Largemouth Bass

Brim

Fairhope Art Show

Outdoor Art Show

300 booths lined the streets of downtown Fairhope the third weekend in March to usher in spring. Last night a major storm with high winds passed through Fairhope after setup for the festival causing damage to about 20 tents.

More than 300k are Expected to Attend

There is no admission. Live entertainment is continuous and unique cuisine is served in the food court. We stopped at Buc's for lunch. The roast beef and gravy that tasted just like Grandma's Italian beef sandwiches.

Always a Shopper

The art festival has changed over the years.  It used to charge artists and crafters a 10% commission on their gross sales.  Now they are charged an entry fee.  Participation is no longer restricted to locals; they now come from across the United States

Interesting !?!

Roar-r-r-r-r!

St Patrick's Day

Today's Green Beer

About 1,000 participants, including four bagpipers from the champion Windsor Canadian Police Pipe Band were on hand to lead the Papa Rocco's perennial St Patty's Day parade and Pub Crawl. 

Bill McGinnes was the Grand Marshall (carrying the stick) for the Gulf Shores walking parade on March 17. He finances the leisurely, song-filled stroll to various downtown watering holes.

The giant green crawl begins around 9:30 a.m. and ends around 2 p.m. The parade route includes stops at Papa Rocco's, The Flying Harping, Mudbugs, The Steamer, DeSoto's, The Hangout, The Pink Pony, Gulf Island Grille, Hooters, Ribs 'N Reds and ends at Mikee's.

Snowbirds have been walking with McGinnes and original bagpiper Jocko McClean since the 1980s.  Spring Breakers are now joining the older crew of Irish.

McGinnes and McClean, like the bagpipers and other regulars wear kilts.

The parade started with 30 people and one bag piper in 1979.

Cute Leprechaun

Grand Marshall Bill McGinnes

The Pipes

Breakfast: Irish Coffee and Beer

Love a Man in a Kilt

The Nina, The Pinta, and Lulu's

We had the opportunity to see historically correct replicas of The Nina and the Pinta. This type of common trading vessels was used by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. The two ships were docked at Lulu's Sunset Grill.

The Pinta

The Nina

Where is the Santa Maria?  It sunk off the coast of the Bahamas during its first voyage.  That's OK though as Christopher Columbus, who sailed on that ship, thought it was a slow and clumsy ship.

There were 24 crewmen on the Nina, the Pinta had 26, and 40 on the Santa Maria. He sailed back to Europe on the Pinta. They could only sail when there was a strong aft wind for the sails along with the keel. The ships are black because they were covered in pine tar to make it water resistant. The decking on the ships was Brazilian ironwood, a very heavy and dense wood.



The first voyage was a little over seven months. The Captain said the ships were like little corks floating in the ocean.  I was surprised how small these ships were.  I don't think I would have survived the trip.

Holding Jacura Brazilian Ironwood

The crew are volunteers from all over the United States and the Caribbean.  The Columbus Foundation is always looking for crew.

What Happens in Alabama, Stays in Alabama
(You Guys!!)

Ballyhoo Festival

We stopped at this little festival after seeing tents below the Intercoastal Waterway Bridge near the Waterway Village restaurants. There were vendors selling art and crafts, live music on an entertainment stage, a cow-train for kids, petting zoo for kids, several food stands by local seafood restaurants, and performances by the Poarch Creek Indian Tribe.




The Poarch Band Indians out of Atmore, AL are descendants of a segment of the original Creek Indian Nation which once covered almost all of Alabama and Georgia. Although they had occupied lands here for hundreds of years, the people of the Creek Nation were driven west by the U.S Army in 1836-1837.

The 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson was imposed on the nation and stripped vast areas of Alabama and Georgia from the Creeks. Other treaties  pressured the Creek people to abandon their Alabama homes ad move to present-day Oklahoma.

U.S. soldiers and state militia troops rounded up thousands of Creek men, women and children, herding them into concentration camps and driving them west on the Trail of Tears. At Fort Gibson, OK, each family was given one blanket and abandoned on lands reserved for them in the West. Most of the survivors were deprived of almost everything they owned.

The wholesale removal of tens of thousands of Creek, Cherokee, Chotaw, Chickasaw and Seminole Indians at the same time is one of the greatest tragedies in American history.

Laughing with a Kookaburra

"Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he. laugh,Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra, Gay your life must be!"

If that was not enough, I got to touch a Bearded Dragoon. The little horns along his side felt like rubber and its skin was rough.

Another Australian Creature

And to add to our nature experience, we saw an Eurasian Eagle Owl. It is one of the largest species of owl and nocturnal.  It feeds on small mammals and birds, reptiles, fish and large insects. It typically breeds on cliff ledges, gullies, among rocks and other concealed locations. Its nest is a scrape which averages two eggs laid at intervals to hatch at different times. Parental care is provided by both adults for five months or so.

It was a fun day.  Do you Ballyhoo?

Sharing the Beach

These signs are new on the Gulf Shore beaches.  Sea turtle populations are in decline around the word and many species are listed as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Increased human use and development add to the natural threats, such as storms and predators


Sea Turtles are threatened and endangered animals that look for a safe place to nest and where their hatchlings can emerge from the sand and then find their way safely into the warm Gulf waters. Thousands of sea turtle hatchlings take their first steps on the popular beaches here from May through October.

Protecting Alabama Sea Turtles May through October

Sea Turtles are threatened and endangered animals that look for a safe place to nest and where their hatchlings can emerge from the sand and then find their way safely into the warm Gulf waters. Thousands of sea turtle hatchlings take their first steps on the popular beaches here from May through October.

Sea Turtle Nest

Female sea turtles lay more than 100 leathery, ping-pong ball-size eggs at a time. Only a few young turtles make it to adulthood. Hatchling sea turtles find their way to the gulf waters partly by sing moonlight or starlight. Sea turtle incubation averages 55 to 60 days for nests in Alabama. Most hatchlings emerge together in an "eruption" from the nest.

Loggerhead Sea Turtles are Common in Alabama

Three species of sea turtles next on Alabama's Gulf Coast: Loggerhead, Kemp's Ridley and Green.
Adult loggerhead sea turtles weigh 175 to 350 pounds. Baby hatchlings weigh less than one ounce.

Seriously?