Our last day started pretty chilly, 28 degrees.  It was clear and dry though.  Instead of going straight back to 77 we took the long way and drove a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We've driven this section probably 6 times now, but it's nice to not deal with traffic or have to see any billboards or street signs.  Then we drove and drove.  And drove some more.  Crossed over the river and within a few miles it was sleeting.  Yes, Ohio, we missed you too.  We have had perfectly dry weather for two weeks.  Stopped and got cat (thank you Cheryl!) and home by 4pm.  It started snowing pretty much as soon as we pulled in. Total trip miles was 2731.  406 miles 81.090 spent 46.99 Fuel 14.60 Sbarro (my favorite new york slice!) 19.50 WV tolls (holy crap they know there is no other way to go)

On our way out of the campground, we stopped at an "overlook", which was a surprisingly big ravine.  Too much brush and trees to get a good picture.  Headed towards Jacksonville and then back on the interstate.  Lots of boring driving here.  Van odometer switched to 270k. We could have probably driven a bit further, but decided to stay the night an hour north of Charlotte at Stone Mountain State Park (no, not the one with the people carved into it, this is different and way cooler).  We have stayed here many times before, and our goal was to try to hike to the top and back (probably 2 hours) as soon as we got there.  We got stuck in traffic around Charlotte (no surprise) and by the time we got there it would have been to dark to make it back safely. We drove back into town and had dinner at Skull Camp Brewing.  Their parking lot was a mess, and we parked on a pretty steep hill full of loose and washed out gravel.  "Are we going to get st...

We woke up, sad to know we would have to start heading towards home today and say goodbye to the beach.  Three days ago I booked a campsite just outside of Jacksonville, about 3.5 hours away, so we didn't have to leave right away. We went to a section of the beach we hadn't been to yet, right next to the dog friendly beach.  We were there early and there was barely anyone else out.  And it was low tide.  We walked south for a bit and came to a point on the beach where there was a section of sand that was 20-30 feet out in the water, but wasn't being covered by the waves.  Joe walked out on it and immediately spotted the biggest shark tooth we found the whole trip, just right on top of the sand.  This whole area was a goldmine, and we will forever know it as Shark Tooth Point.  The shallow waters brought in stingrays, but they did their own thing and we did ours for a few hours.  This area was also right under the flight path of more planes heade...

Up and headed to the beach on Thursday morning.  We drove down a narrow winding road, Casey Key, through some very nice areas.  Some of these houses looked like castles.  At the far north end of this section is apartments/motels, one we had stayed at last year.  It had been pretty nice on that trip, staying right on the beach, but way more expensive than the $30/night campground we have this time around.  Went back to Nokomis Beach, parked in a nice shady spot, and ready for shark teeth hunting.  Joe tried out the colander for sifting.  Not a ton of luck.  There was a big group of women there doing hula hoop aerobics on the beach.  Looks like a good workout.  Headed through Venice and had lunch at the Old Salty Dog.  Joe had fish tacos, and I had the Salty Dog, which was a deep fried hot dog on a bun. Not a corn dog.  Good crunchy.  Joe liked the tacos.  We overlooked a marina and watched a guy use a giant forkl...

We knew we had a short day of driving, but one of the very first things we had to do was drive over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to cross the Tampa Bay.  It's a cable-stayed bridge, 4 miles long, and very impressive.  Also very intimidating for Joe, but he white-knuckled his way across like a champ.  We drove south through Sarasota and stopped at a Wednesday morning farmers market.  This place was packed, lots of retired people with time in the middle of the day.  Bought an onion, orange and great looking tomato.  Our campground is just outside Nokomis/Venice, and we drove by the entrance on the way to the public beach in Nokomis.  It was barely 10am, but getting busy already.  We hung out for an hour or so and left for lunch.  Lunch was just down the road at Nokomos, a tiki hut style restaurant, and we got there right at 11:30.  We were the first ones there, but by the time we were done the place was packed and there was a line outs...

Back on eastern time now.  Headed east/south to continue on Hwy 98.  This area (imagine if Florida was an arm, this is the armpit) was a lot of flat and straight roads, mostly surrounded by nature preserves. Not sure exciting.  We hadn't booked a campground for tonight, so I spent some time trying to find a place to stay for the night. We stopped at Homosassa Springs Park before lunch.  We are spoiled in Ohio - state parks are free.  Here, though, it's $5 to get to pretty much anywhere, even if it's just a parking lot of access to the water.  I'm sure there are lots of free places that you would know about if you were local, but we are travelers, so here we are.  This place was $13 each to get in, but totally worth it.  We got there just before the manatee talk.  In the winter (November-March) the manatees come up in the rivers to stay warm.  The Park has 3 that live in captivity - none of them would be able to survive in the wild due ...

Said goodbye to Pensacola and followed Highway 98 east along the panhandle.  Joe has a very strong fondness of Dunkin' Donuts, and since we hadn't come across many on our trip we made a mid-morning stop.  Another quick stop at Bass Pro for some sunglasses for Joe and fuel for the campstove in Destin FL.  We came upon Panama City Beach.  Everyone knows that hurricane Michael hit this area and east of it last fall.  Lots of activity and construction here in the beach-y tourist-y area.  We saw a few signs that had been twisted and turned and knocked down.  Did not really seem like the hurricane did much, until we got to actual Panama City.  We saw thousands of houses that had been damaged, blue tarps galore, and miles and miles of trees snapped 5 feet off the ground near the air force base.  Some trees were even "debarked", which takes some mega winds to do.  The areas we drove through were probably not very wealthy areas to begin with, a...

We are staying in the same campground again tonight, just a different spot.  The best thing about the van (compared to tent camping at least) is that everything is pretty much ready to go.  We just have to unplug the power, make sure nothing is going to fall off the counters, and hit up a place to dump out the bucket under the sink that catches the dishwater.  We usually forget to check the counters, but nothing has broken yet. It was a little chilly this morning, not quite 60 at 8am.  We were just a few miles from a few mile stretch of Gulf Islands National Seashore, so headed there first.  We were all ready to give them our parks pass, but before 9am they don't charge to get in.  Neat drive down through the park, and eventually we pulled off and crossed the dunes to the ocean.  Very secluded place, felt like we had it to ourselves.  We walked the beach for an hour.  I was worried it would rain, but stayed dry, just super humid. Next w...

We left the park and followed highway 90 along the coast. Very scenic ride - beautiful old homes on the left and the ocean on the right.  Had to stop for some allergy meds for Joe.  Bad for him and his sneezing, but I like knowing that plants are alive here.  Since we had never been to the beach in Mississippi, we did.  White sand, cold water. Our first real stop for the day was a casino in Biloxi.  We spent $44 to use their bathrooms and have a bloody mary.  I had heard that they allowed overnight parking, and we both agreed we would have preferred staying there for "free", but would have likely lost more gambling than we would have on the campsite. Drove through Mobile and had lunch on the causeway east of town.  So many seafood restaurants to choose from.  We had lunch at Felix's Fish Camp.  I ordered a po boy because my friend Paul always talks about how good they are.  I don't get it, its just a messy sandwich.  We had a ...

Friday morning, woke up at the park less than an hour from New Orleans, our destination for the day.  First thing we had to do was cross the Mississippi for the last time, this time from north to south.  Found a place to park (only $5 for 10 hours, could have paid $50 and slept there overnight).  Crossed the street and we were right in the middle of the French Quarter.  Not sure what either one of us were expecting, but this is a beautiful area that I think we could have walked for days.  We rambled around for a bit and then stopped for coffee and beignets (aka square elephant ears).  Joe tried to use the bathroom, but there was someone in one of the stalls for the past hour, and he gave up waiting once the cops showed up.  We walked northeast to the French Market and found a public bathroom.  Everyone there (except Joe) was clearly using it as a place to do whatever drugs they had. From here we walked up and down many many streets.  We wer...