A few months in Orlando…

The first 2 months in Orlando passed quickly and I was enjoying the wonderful sunny and mild weather. And the Seahawks were heading for the Superbowl. I entertained myself by watching previous games of the season, and last years Superbowl over and over. I also attempted to find a Sports bar…no luck nearby. I did finally find one that would be a 20 minute drive that looked like it would be lots of fun to watch the SB at but could not find a ride. Lost Lake is so far out in the boondocks that it takes 15 minutes to get practically anywhere. So a taxi ride was way too expensive. The town of Apopka, which I’m only 4 miles from, has a population of 45,000 so it’s weird that there’s no taxi there. Every taxi I called, even Uber, would tell me it was too expensive for them to leave Orlando and come clear out to Apopka. Orlando was where the money was for taxi drivers.

I asked around the RV park and people did have plans for the SB, but none were heading to a sports bar. And buses out here took so long to get anywhere, and nowhere near where I wanted to go so they were out of the question. Sure, I could drive my RV, I’ve done that before when I wanted to see a game, but eventually I said screw it, I’ll just stay home and watch by myself. So I had my own little SB party. The RV park was like a ghost town, so many people were gone somewhere else for SB parties.

And I also tried to find a reason to go to Epcot center. You guys know that a day ticket is $108??!! Wow. The last time I went to a Disney style park like that it was only $50 odd bucks. That’s how long it’s been. Food would be hugely expensive there. Also parking would cost me $50 because of the size of my rig…I checked. So we’re talking about a $150 to $200 day. A bus from nearby goes right there, but takes 8 hours of travel time. One way. Yikes. But I really, really considered going. Also, I planned a visit to Key West. But each time I got it arranged, something came up, one time it even got all cold, windy, and wet there on the week I planned a visit. Damnit! So basically, I didn’t go anywhere in Orlando, or Florida expect this one RV park. Hurump.

And soon it was February, and the Superbowl, featuring the Seahawks. My team!! And they really looked like they had it in the bag, didn’t they? WTF??!! Passing on the goal line with plenty of time and 3 huge running backs on the roster?? What the hell where you thinking!? Damn. OK, done with football until next August.

Before I knew it, it was March. I’m sitting at my picnic table after taking some pictures of my windows I’d just worked on, and this wasp lands next to my left elbow. It’s carrying a green worm it’s size…that’s still wiggling. I’m watching it while it just sits there…resting I think. After about a minute, it flies over to my right side and plugs the worm into this hole. Then it acts like it’s stinging the worm…and depositing an egg. Damn. Then I realize this whole time, I’ve been sitting there like a dummy watching this drama unfold with my camera in my hands! Got this one shot.

Still had pretty good weather. But I was still here after almost 5 months because the poor bastards up north had one of the severest winters on record. It was the topic on the nightly news for months. I wanted to visit the gulf states for sure, but not when the roads were all icy, and it snowed 2-3 times a week up there. The rest of the time, it’s sleet, or heavy rain. But always cold.   

Eventually, all the nasty weather in the eastern and southern US started to ease up. So, since my paid for month was almost up, I made plans to head on over to New Orleans. First though, I’d gotten a pretty solid recommendation of a RV shop where I thought I’d be lucky enough to get my parking brake fixed. And they did get it fixed within 45 minutes. And only charged me for 30 minutes so I got out of there for under $100. Nice. And my brake now worked. Seems as though the cable had just slipped out of it’s clamping assembly and holder. No repair parts needed, he just reset the cable and clamped it in place.

So now I’m all ready to travel again, and on that fool’s day, April 1st, I head North following my GPS. Which I misread almost immediately and end up going the wrong way by missing the correct freeway on ramp. Hah! See there, I’ve April Fooled myself somehow. The freeway entrance I took was onto a toll road. Had to pay, drove a while and noticed my GPS was telling me ‘wrong way dummy, wrong way’ but I had to go maybe 10 miles before there was an exit and entrance to get going the right way again. Had to pay another toll. But now I was headed the right direction, and a few hours later, I’m at Eagle’s Landing RV Park, Holt, Florida. Still in the panhandle but just barely. I had hoped I’d be able to take the ferry across from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola but no such luck. They weren’t running the big ferry this time of year so my RV wouldn’t fit. But look at how nice the site is. Crushed white rock. Flat site, good water, power was good, good TV signal. Acceptable but very slow WiFi too.

Next morning at 8AM and the fog is just lifting. Back on the road by 9AM. Today’s jaunt is pretty short. I’ll get to New Orleans around 3 PM. And now I’m in Alabama. Huh. More water. Whoa, what seemed like minutes later, and I zip through Mississippi. Swampy.

Later that day, and I’m at Pontchartrain Landing RV Park right near New Orleans. What a nice RV park. Well, sort of. It is nice, I suppose, because of all the amenities of the park rather than beauty of the surroundings or site sizes or that sort of thing. Certainly not because of the WiFi…that sucked. But there was a bar and restaurant, a pool, store, rental boats, they take Passport America club card, and my favorite thing, a shuttle into New Orleans! Dropped me right off in the French Quarter. Yeah! Six dollars round trip. Saved a lot of aggravation if I’d been trying to drive downtown or had to find public transport.

Stayed 5 days. Enjoyed the hell out of my visit to New Orleans. Think I’ll stay there again and visit even more places and take more tours again someday. One problem while I was there was the dicey weather. Mostly sunny I guess they’d call it. But we did have fairly steady wind, and had a gusty wind storm with sheets of rain one day. Stayed home that day.

Gravel roads and sites, but didn’t see much dust kicked up by the winds. That building peeking over the trees on the left is the office, store, restrooms, boat rentals, etc. Then upstairs on the 2nd floor is the bar and restaurant. The pool was up on that level on top a mound of dirt. Had dinner here at the RV park the first evening while I got situated and read all the brochures and tour offers. Pulled pork that the waitress assured me was light on sweetness and she was correct, mild and spicy, but not sweet. Added a drop or two of hot sauce. Pretty good. Just a regular bar, until you turn around and check out the space…

And there is that nice pool just outside those doors too. Then there is another big dining room for parties and the like. With it’s own private bar area. Also had a veranda with seating overlooking the slips and boats with a view of the lake. Across the street from this building is a row of rental apartments if you don’t have an RV but want to take advantage of staying here. If you want to visit New Orleans, this place is a bargain compared to apartments and hotels in New Orleans. Especially compared to French Quarter prices. Then they have the 3 times daily shuttle, and a $20 from downtown to here trip price agreement with a taxi company. Nice. So if you are partying too hard, you don’t have to worry about missing the late shuttle. It’ll cost you $17 more then the shuttle, but what’s your fun worth?

Anyway, I was liking the whole setup here and next day, took the early shuttle at 10AM to the French Quarter (FQ). Here’s the shuttle letting us off at 10:15 AM. Photo is looking north.

The street he let us off on is Toulouse St. That octagonal building is the ticket office where you buy your tickets for several different tours (see the tour buses?) and the paddle wheel trip, etc. Notice the line of people? That seemed to be a common sight the few days I visited here. I’d suggest pre buying tickets online or coming late after the paddle wheel has stopped for the night to buy tours and boat tickets. And there’s the trolley just heading out.  A close up of the Natchez paddle wheel boat. Pretty cool. There’s another paddle wheel setup over there somewhere. I’m going to go look. This one is too crowded right now. Looking back at the Natchez. There’s a steam calliope on board the Natchez playing most of the time I was wandering around. The park on the right was setting up for some shindig of some kind. Music. And after wandering around, I find Jackson Square. It’s a very nice park right in downtown New Orleans right in the FQ.  Did some wandering and found lots of French influenced architecture.

Streets get taken over by pedestrians a lot. One of those places where gurls get thrown beads during Mardi Gras I bet.

And it was getting late and about time for the shuttle to show up, so just before that, made time for a Pina Colada. Not the world’s greatest, but it cost a lot. Next time, I take a bus tour to an old plantation. Sugar cane plantation. See you then!