December 1-15, 2024. Florida, Mississippi and Texas

We had a long 6 hour drive to our next stop. We stopped to pick up some salads and chicken and apples and bananas. Gonna attempt to get rid of the 5 pounds that we put on while on the cruise. Didn’t get to the campground until 5 pm and it was going down to 27° that night. We had a quick dinner and then buttoned down the hatches. We got a new tv this year and were able to pull up 7 local channels on it. Spent the night watching oldies like Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith show. 

Next morning was just as cold as the night before. It was pretty tough getting out of my cozy sleeping bag. Greg turned on the WeBasto Diesel Heater and all was well. The campground had some nice hiking trails which warmed us up. Beautiful Blue Springs.

After our hike we came back, packed up the van and headed to the visitor center. The cave tours were closed for the day but we watched a film in the visitor center all about the cave then took another hike. The hike went through a cave tunnel which was pretty cool.

We left that campground and drove about 40 minutes to the next state park. This one was called Falling Waters and has the largest Waterfall in Florida. We snuggled in at site 14. Gonna be another cold one. 

Next morning we went on the hike to see the waterfall. It was amazing!!

We then headed to the Outlets. Eddie Bauer was having 60% off of their down jackets and we are both in the market for one. We have been wearing the same down jackets since we hit the road in 2020. We both got similar 650 Duck fill jackets and they are cozy and warm and lightweight and with the temperatures in the 40’s, the jacket has been wonderful! The Outlets had a great tree!

We decided to hunker down at the hospital for the night. It’s not worth going to a campground in this cold weather so we watched some Netflix and got a good nights sleep. Woke up once again to temps in the low 40’s. Yikes. Decided to go see Wicked to warm up for a few hours. Not my cup of tea. I know lots of my friends are Wicked Lovers. I just don’t understand the hype. Singing instead of talking just makes no sense to me. It’s a thumbs down over here from both of us. Oh yeah, we also went to Bass Pro Shop to get our photo taken with Santa.

We made a 3 night reservation at Island View Casino in Gulfport. We stopped along the way in Biloxi. We were lucky enough to catch the boat parade which was fantastic.

We stopped at a few of the casino lobby’s over there. They were so beautifully decorated. Next day, headed to Gulfport. This casino just loves giving us free stuff. 3 free nights at the hotel plus free buffet every day and also free gambling money. $80 bucks each which we are still gambling with 3 days later. We have been winning and losing and winning again. So the money is lasting us and that’s the secret to a successful trip to this casino. We woke up this morning to a paper slipped under the door offering another free night. 

We made plans last night to meet up with a friend at the Mississippi Aquarium for some Christmas spectacular thing. It’s been raining since we have been here but they said on their website that the event was rain or shine. We drove over there and it was pretty dark and not a lot of cars. We parked and walked over to the entrance and saw the dreaded “Closed for Weather” sign. What a bummer. So we went out for dinner instead.

So our three free nights at the Island View came to an end. We had one more free buffet and then hit the road. Our drive was pretty uneventful. Stayed at two different Cracker Barrel’s, stopped at a brand new Caesars casino. Greg has a knack at making friends with stray cats everywhere we go. We finally made it to Texas and of course had to stop at a Buc-cees. I picked up some jerky and Beaver Nuggets to send to Kenny for Christmas. 

We are currently in Lockhart, Texas which is about 90 minutes east of San Antonio. We found a nice State Park and are enjoying Site 11 despite the rain. We even went on a Story time Hike along the creek. That’s when each page of a book is displayed along the hike with fun facts about the hike below the book page.

Next day we headed to the Salesian Sisters Provincial House Christmas Boutique. We were invited by Sister Bernadette who was one of the sisters we went on the Pilgrimage to Italy last year. Plus there were theee other Salesian Sisters that stay at that house who were from my childhood summers at Camp Auxilium. I recognized all three of them right away. We spent the day there and helped to pack everything up after the boutique was over. We slept in the van in their gated lot and then went to Mass and breakfast the next day. It was a wonderful visit and reminded me what life is really about. They are really filled with such joy and it’s totally contagious. I left there as happy as could be. 

From there we drove to a National Historical Park which was a bike trail that connected 4 missions. These missions were built in the 1700’s by the Spanish and Indigenous people. It’s amazing how much work went into these missions and how big they were. The National Park service and the Catholic Church teamed up to restore these missions and the churches. They are really beautiful. We had a fun day biking and exploring three of the 4 missions.

I have no idea where we are staying tonight but I do know that it’s the 15th so I gotta get this Blog published and out to you for your reading pleasure. Enjoy. See you again on New Years Eve.