And then there were three . . .

We are still at Crystal River at Rockcrusher RV.  We got up early, 6:00 (which cracks me up cuz I woke up at 5 when I was working), had our coffee and slogged off to Riverventures to see the manatees.  BUT, before we left I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought, "Great now I'm seeing things!"  But fortunately, I saw it again.  It was Ralph, the mouse, peeking out under our bathroom door.  Great, I will never be able to "take care of business" with a stinking mouse in the restroom.  We jammed a towel under the door and MDH found an old mousetrap, but it didn't work.  After the manatee adventure, we went to the local hardware store and bought a real mousetrap.  Sorry my gentle friends, but I am a farmgirl and the mouse must go!
The manatee adventure was awesome.  When we rounded the pier where the manatee was sleeping, I just about lost it.  That thing is HUGE!  It was sleeping and yes, I did listen to the captain who said they are herbivores and they won't hurt you, but really?!  My heart finally quit pounding and I finally got up the courage to get closer and take a look.  Wow.  So now I have a sweatshirt and a couple of stuffed toys for my niece, Chloe, and little man Lockwood.
We are having fun and moving west to Mobile tomorrow.  Sorry no pics of the manatee, but we have one of Ralph.  Thank you Beverly Cleary.
Oh yeah, MDH went golfing while we were in Charleston, SC and thought the alligators on the course were planted statues, guess what, they weren't.  He just realized he needed to be careful stepping out of the cart.  Again, no pictures.  I guess we need to work on that.

Up way too early now that we are retired, but the manatee await.

Grampa bought something for Littleman Lockwood.

Our Lemonade flavored vodka is now gone.  Soo sad.

Ralph the mouse is gone too, not so sad.

Eventually you have to leave . . .

We had a great time visiting with Jill.  We went to a four performer theater group and saw a great little production with 60's music. We went to an oysterfest with Jeremy and prior to that we went to a vodka distillery.  Yeah!  But alas we had to start going home.  Stella girl and her new sister Kona Lou are getting to know each other.  Kona wants to be her bestie, Stella is slowly warming to the idea. We stayed at O'Leno State Park in Florida and are in Rock Crusher RV park now.  Funny name, don't know where it came from.  We know that we are really campers, not RVers, but this is the only place available and we were really lucky to get a spot. 360 spots here and they are all filled with over 55 snowbirds.

The food truck at the distillery served up fried shrimp, crab cakes, oysters and okra.

Jilly Bean and her daddy.

Only the coolest places have a Lockwood Dr.

Bushed after a full day of sightseeing and maybe a little vodka drinking.

The oysterfest, $5 a bucket. 

One of the dog parks we went to,  This one is The Barrell.  It has a band, beer and a food truck.  

The foodtruck served up South American food.

This is the stage for 34 West Theater.  Great show. Just tables scattered around the room. 

Kona Lou and Stella Girl

We had a great time!

Charleston, SC

The menu at Hometeam on Sullivan's Island where Jill works.

Our server for the morning, Jilly Bean

Happy campers

Jay flying a jet on the Yorktown

We toured the Yorktown, a battleship and a submarine that are permanently docked near Charleston.

The sub.  It was crazy cramped in it and it held 75 crew members.  They had to rotate shifts so everyone could share beds.

A view of the Ravenall Bridge from the Yorktown.

We went to Pearlz so Jay could have his very own platter of oysters.

This is our campsite at James Island County Park.  It's really nice and has a dog park, splash town, trails that go around it.  We've been to the dogpark a lot.  LOL

Jill and I got manicures while Jay went golfing.  He said there were alligators just  chillin' on the course.  He thought they were statues until he was told they were live. 

Jill and I had lunch at this cute place that was an old autoshop turned hipster place to eat, Leon's oyster and something.

Couldn't resist.  Love the sink.

Here it is Leon's poultry and oyster shop.

Stella is slowly learning dog park manners.  It kinda freaks her out when dogs say hello by sniffing her behind.

They sail remote controlled sailboats in the the lake at the campsite.

The day after . . .

Jay felt better Wednesday morning and we decided to take off.  His stomach was still a little queasy, but not too bad.  Houston has a lot of toll roads, they are nice, but we didn't have an EZ pass for the one we were on.  Thank goodness my niece put us on hers courtesy of the internet and I don't think we will find any surprises in the mail from the great state of Texas when we get home.  

 We stopped for lunch at Lake Charles, Louisiana and in the parking lot were some of the trailers from the parade the night before.  Mardi Gras (I hope I am spelling this close to correctly) is a big deal here in the south.  Today is Ash Wednesday, so all partying stops until Easter.

Lake Charles is a huge lake on the northern side of New Orleans.  There is a bridge that goes 26 miles (I think) across the lake to New Orleans.

This is an old sugar mill from the 1800s.  At least what is left of it.

There is a really nice pier out onto the lake and this is the walkway to it.

 We spent the night in a campground called Fontain Bleu on the north side of Lake Charles.  It is a gorgeous place.  I want to stop on the way back and spend more time here.  We met a couple from Ohio that were traveling the Gulf Coast looking for a boat.  They want to spend a few years traveling the islands now that they are retired. They are looking at a boat in Gautier, Mississippi.  That's where my mom lived.  At the moment they were heading to Galveston, Texas to see what it had to offer.

This is a sign in the dog park. The dogs didn't care, they were running in and out of the water all over the place.

Stella meets a golden-doodle at the park.  I was more nervous than she was.  ;)

 We made it to Charleston on Friday night and are staying at James Island County Park.  Luckily, I called Thursday to get reservations for the week.  The fellow I talked to said he didn't think there was anything available for the weekend, but he would check.  There were three sites available, phew!  This place is huge.  It has a dog park, climbing wall, a splash park during the summer and a huge lake in the middle of it all.  There is so much water around!  We must be desert rats for getting so excited about it.   LOL

Jill and Jeremy.  Jill ran in a fund raiser for children with brain tumors. It was cold outside and the race was to be run in your undies!

I was supposed to get down to 23 degrees last night so we put all of our insulation up in the windows and filled the propane tanks up.  We are nice and toasty in the trailer this morning.  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tuesday . . . Someday we will get back on the road

Jay and Glenn went and picked up the 5th wheel yesterday.  They fixed (hopefully) the landing gear, repacked the wheel bearings and the hot water heater.  At this rate we will have a new 5th wheel by the time we get home!  We were planning on leaving today, but Jay got food poisoning yesterday and doesn't feel too perky today, so hopefully tomorrow.  I'm full of hope.  ;)

We did a little exploring in Tomball yesterday.  A cute little town with antique stores. There was one with all kinds of goodies from old estate sales.  It was great.  We stopped by the hospital to visit with Martha, Glenn's wife.  Her mom is still there.  They had to do surgery on her arm because it wasn't healing properly.  I'm sure everyone there wants to come home.

At least the weather here has been nice and Glenn has a really nice open field to run the dog in a couple of times a day. We didn't intend to impose so much, but they are great hosts.

On the road again tomorrow, hopefully.

The field behind their house.  I love the tagging. I <3 you.

Saturday, in Houston still . . .

Called the RV place and they said they broke something in the landing gear and had to go out and get a  part.  In the meantime, they wanted to know if we wanted our wheel bearing repacked.  We had them greased, but never repacked and told them to go ahead and do it.  With promises of having it done Friday, we started gathering our stuff for departure on Monday.  Never heard from them on Friday, so Jay called them up on Saturday morning and we were told that they would have everything done by 1:00 Monday and get us on the road. We will see.

We went to HEB, the Texas super store.  They give you samples of all kinds of food and wine.  I had a great time and we bought a King's cake.  It's a Mardi Gras tradition.  Fat Tuesday is next week.

In the meantime, today we went to a local craft distillery that makes gin, moonshine, whiskey and vodka.  I'm personally a vodka person, but tried it all.  The gin wasn't too bad along with the peach whiskey.  The vodka was delish, bought a bottle.

After that, we went to the Blue Water Seafood and had crawfish and oysters.  Everything was really good and the decor was right up our alley. Wood and paper towels.  Superbowl is tomorrow and we  are staying with Broncos fans, so Go Broncos!

King Cake, the filling has cream cheese, not fattening at all.

Whitmeyer distillery, one of the few legal distilleries in Texas.

Bourbon and blended whiskey aging in white oak barrels.

The distillers are heated by hot water heaters from Lowes!

Glenn and I shared a dozen oysters.  Jay had his own. He doesn't share well with others.

Fried shrimp, shrimp gumbo, crawfish, oysters; yummy!

Houston

We've settled rather nicely into my brother's house, not sure if we will leave.  Just kidding Glenn.  Yesterday we went to the zoo and had a nice tour of downtown Houston where he used to work and where my niece works.  The freeways are all up in the air, flyovers they are called and all over the place.  I'm sure they make sense to the locals and on a map you can see the logic in them, but wow!  After the zoo, we went and had sushi, visited Martha's mom and came home and relaxed.  We are waiting to hear from the RV repair shop.  I bought a groupon coupon to visit a local distillery.  You have to make a reservation.  When I called they weren't in, so I'm waiting to hear from them too.  Hurry up and wait.  The weather is cool and very pleasant.  It was really hot when we were in San Antonio, I like the coolness.

They stamp their eggs here.  I guess so you know where they came from.

Trust me, it was good.

This little guy is from New Guinea, I think.

He's from Africa, not Texas, but has some pretty impressive horns.

The gas prices are unreal!

Martha got a margarita machine for Christmas and we had to try it out.