April 1-15,2025 Florida, Mexico, Mississippi and Texas

We arrived to the Tampa Port with no issues thanks to Ron, Greg’s Dad, who was kind enough to drive us there. We went to the room and threw our bags into the closet as our room was not ready yet and off we went to the lunch buffet. It was packed out as every body had the same idea as us. We had some lunch and then went exploring the ship. This is our third time on the Celebrity Constellation so we pretty much know where everything is. It was very easy to get reacquainted with it.

That night after dinner, we watched the show and then went to the silent disco. They give you these headphones and you can switch between the three channels, red, green and blue. You then find other people with the same glowing color and dance with them. From the outside looking in, it’s pretty funny cause people are all singing and dancing to the music that you can’t hear. They do this event in the martini bar area so it’s kind of a tight spot and not a lot of room to switch channels and go to new groups. But I’m glad we did it. I was always wondering what all the hoopla was about with these silent discos. 

Next day was a sea day so I decided to participate in the water coloring class which wasn’t really a class at all. They just had supplies that you could use and you were on your own. Thankfully there was an art teacher nearby who kind of showed us all how to use the watercolors. They weren’t like those little cake colors that you wet. These watercolor paints were in liquid form already. They also had a few samples of water coloring photos that you could sort of copy so that’s what I did. 

We had a beautiful sunset that night and went to another show. It was a magician. I don’t want to be overly negative but this guy was very basic and did a bunch of tricks that were so obvious to how they were done. 

Next day we arrived in Key West. Funny that it took two days to go from Tampa to Key West. Slow moving ship. Makes no difference to me as long as there’s food and lounge chairs, then I’m fine.

We walked around Key West for a bit. Found this fun Key Lime Bakery with a really fun server. We decided on their Coconut Custard Pie instead of the Key Lime Pie because we knew that the ships buffet would be having key lime pie as often as we wanted. The coconut custard pie was amazing!!

The Roosters are definitely multiplying on the Key West Island and so are the cannibis shops. Every where you walk smells like weed. I think we got stoned just walking around. 

Headed back to the Ship just in time for the lunch buffet.

Next day I did another morning painting class and again it wasn’t a class at all. This one was called “Dot Painting.” On the table was the paint, small cardboard circles and glass tubes. You basically dabbed the paint on the glass tube and made a pattern on the black cardboard. It was very relaxing. I liked this much more than the water color. 

Same ole same ole for us again as it was another sea day. Next day was Cozumel which is a cute island. A lot of hawking which I’m not fond of. No Thank you- No Thank you- No Thank you- over and over and over again. 

The weather has been perfect, for me. It’s a little hot for Greg but I can sit around the pool all day and be so happy. Greg got pretty burnt the first and second day. He sometimes forgets that’s he’s not Italian and lays next to me without putting sunscreen on. We all know how that turns out. Today is day 5 and his red stomach is finally starting to turn brown. Poor Greg.

Day 6 arrived and we were supposed to be docked in Costa Maya at 7 am but when I woke up at 7:30, it definitely was not docked. I did a little side step on the way to the bathroom. When I got into the elevator to go get my coffee up top, it became clear that the ship was in rough waters and not in port. They made an announcement soon after that they were unable to dock because of the high winds and the rough seas. We were turned away as well as the Margaritaville Ship. So we have two sea days in a row before we get back to Tampa. They added some activities to the days planner. The pools are overflowing from the ships movement. Greg and I are sitting on the 4th floor by the Grand Foyer. It’s a little less crazy down here compared to the 10th floor. 

So two sea days and then arrived in Tampa. They want you out of the rooms at 7:30 am so we headed up to the buffet and just hung around for a bit. We walked off the ship around 9 and then walked to the Hampton Inn to get away from all the chaos. Greg’s Dad picked us up from there. 

Next day we headed out and stopped in Gainesville. It is the home of the Florida Gaitors and the night of the NCAA March Madness Basketball Finals. The entire town and every restaurant was filled with fans. People wearing blue and orange and representing their team. Next day we put in a long day of driving because we want to get to Pensacola for the Blue Angels Air Show. So we drove two and a half hours and then stopped for lunch at a nice park in Tallahassee. Did a two mile walk around a beautiful lake and then hit the road for another two and a half hours stopping at a rest stop for the night. 

We got to the air show at 9:45 am but waited in traffic to get in the gate till about 10:15. Made it in just in time for the first blue angel. The show was so amazing!!

It was better than any other air show I’ve ever seen. From there we drove about two hours to our favorite casino in Gulfport, Mississippi. They gave us another free room for the night plus a free buffet plus sevety five dollars each to bet with. I lost that 75 plus a hundred of my own. But that’s gambling. Ya win some, ya lose some.

We left there and headed further north and west. Found a nice rest stop and stopped for some lunch then continued on. 

We got to the Mississippi River which borders Louisiana and decided to stay the night on the Mississippi side of the river at the Riverwalk Casino. We first stopped at the Ameristar Casino for some dinner at the Red Lotus.  That was quite an experience. They have this little robot that brings your food over. The whole place was a little off. Hard to explain but just weird. From there we headed to Ballys. These casinos are all in a town called Vicksburg, pretty close to one another so walking from the Riverwalk to Ballys was a short walk. I played this fun Monopoly slot machine and walked away with 350 and then played the Jeannie game that Greg loves and walked away with another hundred.  So needless to say, it was a lucky night compared to the Island View. Took a nice walk in the morning alongside the Mississippi River. I can’t believe how many gigantic trees and logs float down that river.

We headed out toward Shreveport, Louisiana to our next destination, Margaritaville. It was located in the same parking lot as a bass pro shop so staying overnight was not a problem. Dragos, the seafood place was located here also and that place is so good. On top of that they had all you can eat Crab Legs!!!  

We had a nice night of sleep. The weather has been perfect for the last couple of nights. High 70’s in the daytime and high 40’s at night. Perfect van weather.

Continued on and made a stop in Fort Worth Texas. Went to Mass at this Monster Church. I’ve never seen a church so big except in Italy of course. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel which was right across the street from. But-ees and the Outlets. Spent an uneventful night there. Did a little shopping and headed out in the morning. 

Headed out and stopped at Bowie to check out the Worlds largest Bowie Knife.

Then headed further on to Wichita Falls. They have a county park here that charges 17 dollars a night campsite with electric and water but the temperature was really starting to heat up more than we expected. It was already 95 when we arrived so we parked and did the hike to the water fall which was totally dry and not running at all. We had to hike across this huge suspension bridge that bounced with every step we took. It was a little frightening.

We hiked back to the van and decided to drive on. The temperature was 100° so we may as well enjoy the air conditioning in the van as we drive and keep the van cool for tonight’s sleep. We found another county park about 2 hours further in a town called Childress. This one charged 15 and each site had electric and water. There were 6 sites and they super close together. But these county parks are only supposed to be for travelers passing through not for people who stay here on vacation. 

It was beyond hot even for me and I love the sun. We had both fans blasting at night and kept both doors and all the windows open. 

The next day we drove to Caprock State Park. The temperatures cooled off dramatically into the 60’s with lots of wind. We tried to get a camping spot at Caprock but they were booked. It’s Spring Break so all the schools are on vacation. I’ve tried 5 or 6 campgrounds and they are all booked. We went to the park anyway because we wanted to see the Bison.

This State Park has a free roaming bison  herd of about 300..these are the bison that were saved from extinction and used to help the bison herd in Yellowstone when there were only 23 left. I don’t know what year it was but a long time ago, a Ranchers Wife heard the baby bisons crying because of the massacre of all the herds. The Ranchers wife insisted that her husband go out and gather up all those baby bison and bring them to the ranch. She saved them and they multiplied. I guess they later donated their ranch to the state of Texas and today it’s a State Park.

It was a great park to visit. And the Prairie Dog fields made it even more worthwhile to check out. We both highly recommend Caprock State Park. From there we drove another 90 minutes to where we were able to reserve a campsite for 1 night to a park called Palo Duro Canyon. This place can be a National Park. It’s spectacular. I would have loved to stay here a few days but the place is fully booked for Easter Break. We drove through the park all the way into the bottom of the canyon to the Mesquite Campground. The drive was beautiful surrounded by red canyons and hoodoo formations.   Our site, #78 was fantastic. The only thing negative about here is that the showers are out of order so we will have to bike to the next campground about a mile away to take showers. 

It’s so beautiful here surrounded by the red rock formations. This is my favorite type of scenery. We are heading out today but will do a couple of hikes before we leave. Check out is at 12 noon but you can stay in the park till 10 pm if you wanted to. After our hikes we are heading to Meredith Lake which has free camping. Will probably stay there for three nights or until we run out of food and water. We don’t want to go into Colorado too soon. We’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather and the temps are dropping into the 20’s this weekend in Colorado so we will steer clear of there until Monday or Tuesday when it warms up a little. The concert is Tuesday at 7pm. We will have to dress warm. 

Will fill you in on our hikes in the next blog. I have no signal here in the park so have to drive into town to send the blog out before we head to the next spot. Hope everyone has a nice Easter and is enjoying the beginnings of Spring.