February 3 – Tuesday
We head back south to hopefully warmer temperatures. The RV stayed toasty inside and held up despite night time temperatures below freezing. We stop for the night in South Georgia at Reed Bingham State Park . Bill stayed there once before when traveling alone with all the kids (brave man!). They have pull through sites so we don’t have to unhitch the car. The night gets chilly but we still cook on the campfire and make s’mores.

February 4 – Wednesday
We decide to spend a couple days at Three Rivers State Park . It is a pleasant park on a lake with 3 campground hosts (and only 5 other campers). It has the cheapest firewood on our trip so far. Bill jokes that he didn’t factor firewood and ice cream stops into the budget!  We tried and failed to make a wi-fi connection work at Flying J (the truckers and RVs favorite fueling station) on the way. Staying connected online has been the only annoyance of the trip so far.

February 5 - Thursday
Three Rivers is a good base to go explore Florida Caverns and Falling Waters State Parks before going down to St. George’s Island State Park . The caverns are great – they were originally developed to help make a tourist attraction ala Luray Caverns and were one of the CCC camps created during the great depression  (We can usually spot them based on the stone work). We have a private tour of the caverns (they occur every hour and we’re the only ones at that time). The ranger makes sure we don’t bump our heads or step in any big puddles and shows us many wonderful features including some eastern pipistrelle bats. We take lots of pictures!!! We then drive over to Falling Waters, home of Florida ’s largest waterfall. It goes into a deep sinkhole – how else could we get a decent sized waterfall in this pancake terrain of a state!  We end the evening with a stop at a library in Marianna.

February 6 – Friday
Bill manages to get a connection at our campground using a phone line at the ranger station. We get a later start for the road but we’re only going a couple hours. We pull into St. George’s Island State Park . The drive across the bridge to the island was rather tight in our big rig but it handles well so we manage without a problem. It’s a windy, occasionally rainy day but warm. A cold front is moving in (who keeps turning down the thermostat on the east coast?). The park is large – it’s 4 miles from the entrance to the campground and it covers the tip of the island bordering Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. We are fortunate to get a spot as they’ve been full most nights and it’s the weekend. We plan to spend two nights here before continuing on the coast and making our way to Alabama . It’s very gray and rainy but we get a walk on the beach. We later take a drive into Apalachicola (known for it’s oysters) and buy some fresh seafood to cook for dinner. We also pass the Dr. John Gorrie museum. He’s the dude that invented the ice machine! He did it to help relieve the suffering of his malaria patients and we all benefit from his discovery.

February 7 – Saturday
Brrr! In the high 40s but the girls and Sandra still go to the beach for the morning ranger talk about beachcombing. St. George’s is supposed to be good for shelling and with the stormy weather, full moon creating a higher than normal tide and approaching low tide we should get some decent finds. Becca finds a starfish, cockle shell and clam shells while Sandra finds a large Lighting Welk and some Olives. The day is very relaxing with several walks inland to an eagle’s nest and again on the beach. 

February 8 – Sunday
Bill and Becca make it to church (Bill loses his bet that most services start at 11 and one little sleeping head can’t get ready in time.) We move further west along the coast to Grayton Beach and drive along the “Redneck Riviera ” in Panama City –and it’s a well deserved name. Pretty dead during the winter but the number of Daquiri stands gives a glimpse of how it must get during spring break.

February 9 - Monday
It's a cool, gray day. We spend much of the day doing homeschool and errands like laundry. The girls are enjoying cooking items from their “A to Z Cookbook”. Becca made Quick Cheeseburger Pie” last night and Laura made “Pizza Pockets” today. We take a nice walk on Grayton Beach (Rated America’s Best Beach by “Dr. Beach” in 1994.). The sand is as soft and fine as confectionary sugar. In the early evening we take a spin through the nearby towns including Seaside (featured in the film "The Truman Show") which has funky yet attractive architecture and even has cool street lights.

February 10 - Tuesday
We pull into Gulf Shores State Park in Alabama where, although we knew it would be long shot based on calling ahead, we’re hoping we might get lucky and get a site for the night. But for the first time, we don’t get our first choice of parks. We spend the night in a private RV Park , Island Retreat, which the girls liked because it had cable and we like because of the full hook ups and pull through.  For dinner we drive to Mobile and hit the Brick Pit, the first place of the trip that has been recommended in the book, “Road Food.”  We also drive by other recommended locations, the Dew Drop Inn (which allegedly inspired Mobile native and now Palm Beach resident Jimmy Buffet to write Cheeseburger in Paradise ) and Wintzell’s Oyster House, Mobile ’s oldest restaurant.

February 11 – Wednesday
Number 3 on the waitlist turns out to be our lucky number and we get a lakefront site a Gulf Shores State Park . We do  bit of the usual stuff – home school work, internet access, restocking the pantry before changing locations. Later that afternoon we drive down to Ft. Morgan , one of the two forts built to protect the entrance to Mobile Bay . Despite the cool, rainy weather, the girls have a blast. They like the relatively unfettered access to all sorts of areas in the fort. We buy them a very informative coloring book about Historic North American Forts in the Museum Gift shop. The girls also add to their civil war knowledge as this fort was involved in the Battle of Mobile Bay. This battle was the origin of the phrase “Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!” uttered by Admiral Farragut to encourage his ships to ignore the mines (called torpedoes back then) lining Mobile Bay after one sunk the USS Temcumsa.

February 12 – Thursday
More rain…a front is stalled overhead. Late morning finds us headed to Pensacola to visit the Naval Aviation Museum . We plan to go to Hopkins Boarding House for lunch and the girls are looking forward to their famous fried chicken but we get skunked. The restaurant is closed for renovation! While we’re in the parking lot, at least three other cars pull in and are disappointed too. We head back to a restaurant we pass – Chet’s – that seemed to have the hallmarks of a typically road food find –an unassuming exterior mobbed with cars and people waiting outside to get in. We go and enjoy the hostess who seems to greet practically everyone by name and immediately brings crackers to the table for the kids after seating us. (The fact that Alex was staring through the doors for the most of the time we were waiting must have clued her in that this kid wanted to eat!).  The oysters were very tasty and the prices low. We make a quick stop at Joe Patti’s seafood and buy some fresh scallops before heading over to the museum.  Since it is on the Navy grounds, security is heightened and we have to detour from one entrance to another and answer ‘no’ to questions like “Do you have an weapons, explosives, or knives on you?” and show a driver’s license. Bill asks if unruly kids count, but that’s not on the banned list.

The museum covers all facets of naval aviation and the girls enjoy the displays. They can climb into the cockpits of some the planes and learn about different styles of aircraft, air craft carriers, and wars – though mostly World War II. Admission is free and the displays are beautifully done. We also watch the IMAX film, the Mystery of Flight, and they have more information to add to their timeline as well as an interest to see the Blue Angles live at an air show. We get home for an early evening.

February 13 – Freaky Friday
What a jam packed day! It doesn’t start out too well – no mail as hoped for at the post office and we miss the ferry we wanted to take across Mobile Bay by minutes (along with about 4 other cars!). So we decide to salvage our trip into to Mobile by hitting some "RV Trips for Dummies" (by some Frommer's contributors) market highlights. Our first stop is the “Sweet Home Farm” where the proprietor has been making natural cheeses (no preservatives or coloring) for 20 years. He lets us sample some delicious cheeses and we buy some Elberta (the house cheese named after the farm's location), Bleu, and Bama Jack. Yummy! We then cruise over to the Burris Farm Market in Loxely where we dig into huge portions of Strawberry Shortcake and Laura gets a fresh apple dumpling. We finally head out for Mobile by interstate and the science museum. Bill drops the family off and then heads out to Bunkley's, a huge RV parts store, to find some replacement parts for the RV. With three kids, usage, and  rumbling down roads, things will break with relative frequency and the right match isn’t always easy to get.

Upon entering the museum, the fire alarm went off so the kids and Sandra wind up on the street. Not having their coats (those are in the car with Bill), they head out to find a warm spot until they can go back in and they come across Bienville Book Store. This turns out to be a fortunate episode because Sandra finds information about Mobile ’s Mardi Gras parades. (These alegedly precede New Orleans ' parades, probably from when Mobile was the capital of the French territories). They head back to the museum and the kids have a blast with all the hands on exhibits Alex in particular delights in the water area. Becca likes building circuits.  Laura works with a boy she met to create their own computer fish and ocean environment.  Other areas the girls really enjoy include a lab for chemistry experiments and a place to build and ride your own virtual roller coaster (like at Disney Quest).  

After the museum, we dine at Wintzell’s Oyster House for an early dinner where the girls like reading all the funny sayings by the late owner that are tacked up all over the walls. Examples include “A theory is a hunch with a college education.” We then head down to the parade route and easily find front row positions. All the kids love the Mardi Gras Parade put on by the Order of the Incas. The floats are done in a Friday the 13^th horror film motif - the theme is a Nightmare to Remember - and the riders toss beads, moon pies, and even stuffed animals! Alex tells Bill “Daddy, I got a toy and I got a necklace!”  Becca and Laura have heaps of beads and the kids have two stuffed animals each.  On the way home, we stumble across yet another Mardi Gras parade in the town of Fairhope . We quickly pop into a parking spot and easily get right up front. It’s a much smaller parade hosted by Apollo's Mystic Ladies and it has less of the traditional brass bands (more local rock bands towed on trailers) but it’s still fun and the kids get even more beads and moon pies. Alex earns yet another new nickname, "Moon Pie Man," since he likes to gobble up moon pies and seems to enjoy the banana even more than the chocolate. The two youngest children fell asleep during the remaining drive back to the RV.  

February 14 – Saturday, Valentines Day
Bill treats Sandra to breakfast in bed. J It’s still gray outside. We knew we’d get poor weather at times but for residents of the Sunshine state, we’re hoping for some sun soon! We debate if we’d prefer cold and clear to warmer and gray since those seem to be the only choices. Most of the morning is spent with errands, picking up the mail, groceries, and laundry, and the girls enjoy reading books – Becca reads the story of Helen Keller and Laura reads a fictional New England Girls Journal of 1830-1831.
In the afternoon we go over to the small nature center at the park. It turns out to be a gem. There are tanks full of native live species of turtles, snakes, baby gators, a possum, and a skink. After the girls are there a bit (Alex is napping), the ranger takes the possum, Marlu, that they raise from a baby out and lets them pet her. Becca is fascinated by how the tail can hold her finger. She then lets them feed the turtles.  She also takes a large Black Pine snake, Houdini, out of her cage. Finally, the ranger hands us some fun papers on animal tracks and sea turtle activity sheet.
Bill struggles to get on line at the campground but there appears to be a problem with the phone lines. We are finally successful at the resort hotel also run by the state park.

February 15 – Sunday
This time the whole family makes it to a contemporary service at Gulf Shores Methodist church. We then return to pack up the RV and head to New Orleans but we encounter a problem. The front jacks which help keep the RV stable when we camp, will not retract. Since these large metal posts touch the ground, it is impossible to leave the site to work on the problem and let an incoming camper in. Bill does a wonderful job of troubleshooting the problem and creatively moves a switch from the functioning rear jacks to the stubborn front ones. Voila! Success and we are off without hours of hassle or the expense of an onsite RV mechanic! We drive to our new location at Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana . It is across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans . We set up camp and then go to Middendorf’s, a renown catfish restaurant, for dinner.

February 16 – Monday (President’s Day)
Bill’s uncle and his family live in Carriere , MS , only 30 minutes from the state park. We call Uncle David to arrange a time to meet and learn that Aunt Wilma has the day off from work for President’s Day.  The girls mutiny about doing any more schoolwork today since it is not a “school day”. We drive over to visit Uncle David and Aunt Wilma and have a lunch worthy of an entry in the Roadfood book at Dockside Seafood. After lunch, Bill’s cousin Kathy and her family came over to visit.  Much to the joy of the girls, Kathy’s two daughters are 14 and 12 years old – just the ages the girls adore. We spend most of the day there before returning to our RV. Wilma sent us off with a bag of delicious homemade praline’s using pecans from her parent’s home. Alex missed his nap and is so worn out that he falls asleep on the ride home and doesn’t wake up until the next morning.

February 17 – Tuesday
We do some home schooling as well as take a bike ride around the park. Shortly before noon , we head into the Big Easy, the Crescent City , Nor’leans. Our route from the campground takes us over the world’s longest bridge over water – 26 miles. Sandra gets reoriented to a city she hasn’t seen in almost 25 years when she took a trip there with her dad and best friend, Cathy. We drive past the superdome and down Canal street then cruise onto Decatur into the French Quarter. After a quick buzz through, we go to the Bon Ton Café for lunch. We’re a tad underdressed but enjoy our meal and the kids display top notch behavior. After we head back to the French Quarter to look at the architecture and mardi gras decorations. We park right across from the Café Du Monde and enjoy some of their famous beignets. These ‘French donuts” are like mini fried dough you get at a fair but the dough is slightly heavier and they come covered with a pile of powdered sugar. We stroll around Jackson Square , looking at the art for sale and listening to street musicians. Afterward, we enjoy watching a street performance by very funny and athletic troupe from NYC.  We decide not to stay for any parades and head back to across the lake. We stop at Krummel’s Bakery in Mandeville and purchase a “king cake”. This Mardi Gras sweet tastes similar to a coffee cake or breakfast Danish and originally was plain with a dusting of sugar. Today they are typically frosted and come with a variety of fillings.  

February 18 – Wednesday
We spend more time on school work and then decide to head back to New Orleans . The girls want to go to the Aquarium and we want to find the National Park we passed yesterday in the French Quarter that may give some history of the pirate, Jean Lafite. We drive all over the French Quarter but somehow can’t locate it again. Even a stop at the tourism center doesn’t help! All is not in vain because we at least get some muffelatta sandwiches from the Central Grocery before going to the aquarium. We enjoy looking at their exhibits which include penguins, river otters, frogs, and natives from the bayous of Louisiana . After another round of beignets (Alex slept through it yesterday), we decided to attend a ‘real’ New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. We stayed along Canal Street . Although we heard horror stories of rowdy behavior and problems with crime, we scoped out the situation and feel that we should be OK. One of the reasons for our trip is to experience events like this and although we didn’t plan to be here around Mardi Gras our motto is “carpe diem!” There is a substantial police presence, the crowd around us seems pleasant, and we are not near the more popular and rowdy parts (aka St. Charles St) of the route. The only problem is, no one can tell us which side of the street the parade will go down! There are two parades tonight and they take slightly different routes down Canal to boot. We wind up with a much longer wait than we expected and move three times (as the barricades shift) until we get a spot for the first parade by the Saturn krewe. A real nice lady hands each girl a necklace while we wait for the parade and we talk to the fellow tourists around us. We enjoy the floats and the girls get more beads, some doubloons and toys. Part way though, Alex fell asleep and was so tired that he snoozed through the marching bands. We don’t have to wait too long before the next parade but do manage to get on the same side of our street that the car is located on. The second parade by the Muses is even nicer and includes the Shriners, one of whom stops his motorcycle and hands Laura two roses. We mention how we love the Shriners and how Laura is a patient at the Tampa Shriners Hospital to a fellow by-stander who turns out to be a Shriner too! Many of the people standing next to us give extra beads to the girls. Mom catches a soft soccer and football for Alex – happy boy! The parades finally end and we have no problems with traffic heading home. All the children fall asleep on the way. The history around Mardi Gras and the krewes are interesting and we’ll try to locate a good website to include (recommendations welcome!).

February 19 – Thursday
We leave Fontainebleu and head up to Natchez , MS . We make a stop at Port Hudson – the last Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi . Bill’s Uncle David had mentioned the research that Bill’s mom had done showed how some ancestors of Bill’s had come here with their regiment from Connecticut to fight against the Confederates entrenched there. On the way there, we had accidentally turned into the Port Hudson National Cemetery and we wind up having to take the car off in order to back up and turn around.  This cost us some time and we didn’t reach the state park in Natchez before 5 p.m. so we ended up in a private campground in Natchez for the night. We take a drive into historic Natchez to look at the antebellum homes and get take out food including “fried pickles” before turning in for the night.

February 20 – Friday
It takes most of the day to drive from Natchez , MS to Murfreesboro , AR since we have to take a combination of highways and two lane roads to get from one point to another. We do enjoy a brief ride up part of the historic Natchez Trace Parkway . Along the way we stop in Monroe , LA in our quest to find a dealer to replace our front tires. One is wearing badly and we need to have an alignment. However, Freightliner dealers who do the alignments don’t sell tires and most Michelin tire dealers don’t carry the special heavy duty RV tire that we need. After some phone calls, we find both in Little Rock and plan to go there Monday.

February 21 - Saturday
We are camped at Crater of Diamonds State Park. Laura, usually the last one up, is awake early and ready to spend the day looking for diamonds. We searched among 38 acres of plowed area, walking up and down the rows in search of a metallic glint the size of a match head. The odds are very low that we will actually find any. Later that morning we  attend a talk by the park ranger about the other types of interesting stones we might find and watch the moving about the park’s history and three main ways to locate diamonds - looking at the surface, dry screening some dirt, or rinsing the gravely dirt.  After lunch we decide to rent the screen, bucket, and shovel so the kids can get even muddier than they already are. No diamonds but the weather is lovely and we have a good time. We get a great winter rate on the site and the firewood is the best bargain yet - $2 for a large bundle. We enjoy a large campfire that night. (Yes, including the obligatory s’mores once the coals are just right!)

February 22 – Sunday
We spend another day of schlepping through the diamond field and enjoying beautiful weather. Some guys that Sandra talked to a little bit yesterday who had been coming here for years were the only ones who had found a diamond that day – an 11 point one(about 1/10^th carat). The three of them had worked very hard all day going through many 5 gallon buckets of dirt. They didn’t have any luck today but bring some of the gravel home to go through more carefully. The girls do better getting ‘finds’ at the gift shop!

February 23 – Monday
We make the short trip over to Degray State Park . We planned to use that location as a base to go to Little Rock and deal with the tires. But when Sandra called to confirm that Looney’s Tires still have the tires in stock, she discovered that they had been sold on Saturday. Another lesson learned of life on the road – see if you can pay for it over the phone when something is that hard to find! Degray turns out to be a beautiful park. The park has a lodge resort which has been renovated in the last couple of years and the campground is nearly empty. Our lakefront site is one of the most beautiful we’ve had yet.  We take a drive into Hot Springs to do some banking and see if we can spot a Volvo dealer because now a warning light is flashing on the dash of the car. We suspected that Alex may have pushed a button when he was climbing around in the front. It turns out that the only Volvo dealer in Arkansas is in Little Rock but the light goes off after Bill fills the car with gas. It wasn’t looking very pretty to have both of our transportation methods needing work at the same time.

February 24 – Fat Tuesday
The home school time gets occasionally interrupted by bird sightings. There are lots of blue jays, cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, tufted titmouse birds, and a beautiful blue bird (we think may have been an indigo bunting) flitting around the camp ground area. Most of our neighbors already left earlier that morning (except the guy in the tent next to us with the massively bright lights he has set up and leaves on all night – thank goodness our night shades do a decent job keeping out the light). Late that afternoon we go to Hot Springs to visit the National Park. We tour the Fordyce Bathhouse which was built in the 1920s. It offers an interesting look into the whole spa culture which lasted from the mid 1800’s until shortly after WWII. The girls and Sandra then decide to go to the Hot Springs Spa to ‘take the waters’. Bill graciously takes care of Alex who, being less than 3 and not fully potty trained, can’t go. The girls really enjoy the warm waters in the large bathing pool and also have a good time exploring the various hot tubs and saunas. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at Mickey’s BBQ in Hot Springs (sadly the namesake died last year but his family still runs it).   The Roadfood book scores with this one! Another wildlife highlight for the day is spotting a skunk crossing the road as we drive toward our campsite.

February 25 – Wednesday
The day is cold and rainy which makes a perfect day to focus more on school work and errands. Bill, Alex, and Becca all go to get haircuts. Becca goes first, no problem. Bill goes next, no problem. Alex, who is woken up from a nap, goes last, big problem. He gets so upset by being held on mommy’s lap for the ‘tickle bug’ (electric hair trimmer), that we have to stop the proceedings and try to get him to settle down. He finally does settle down enough to have a half way decent hair cut. Fortunately he calms down before another little boy came in also needing a haircut…the stylist, who was very patient, and tried very hard to work with Alex shoulders’ did visibly slump when faced with another potential tantrum situation! Bill pays one of the largest haircut tips of his life and Sandra is grateful that she actually did pack the “Wahl home haircutting kit and video!” Since the haircuts took longer than expected, we go to McClard’s BBQ for dinner. This spicy BBQ was often served when President Bill Clinton was in office. Lots of letters and pictures from him and the likes of the airforce one crew on the wall. Menus include the story behind the sauce.

February 26 – Thursday
Naturally, since we’re pulling out of this lake front site, today dawned bright and blue! Sandra has come down with a cold so Bill does most of the driving. We head down to our planned stop which is about a third of the way between Texarkana and Houston . We are driving down 59 and think that should be the theme route number of our trip…In Alabama, we took 59 to go from Gulf   Shores to Mobile . In Louisiana we used 59 off 12 to get to Fountainbleu and we also used 59 in Mississippi to go from 10 to Bill’s uncle’s house. We seem to keep taking 59 in every state we go!
Texas has one of the better state visitor guides and the entry for the town of Jefferson intrigued us enough for a stop. We went to the historic Carnegie library first. The librarian was very friendly and has done some extensive RV travels also. Laura read a book about the history of Texas while Becca enjoyed some Texas ghost stories. We also toured the local historical society museum which is housed in the former post office/court house. We went into an old fashioned styled general store and then bought some slices of pie, including buttermilk, at the restaurant next door and then headed out again. We planned to stop at Martin Creek State campground but when we went on the road that should have lead to it, the sign to the campground must have been missing. Rather than turn around, we decided to continue. We didn’t see any commercial campgrounds that appealed to us so we kept going until we reached Lake Livingston State Campground and stopped for the night.

February 27 – Friday
Since the remainder of our drive is short today, we take our time breaking camp and Bill does laundry. It takes about 2 hours to reach the McKethen’s home. We receive an amazing welcome. (How many people would tear down their car port so that you can get into their driveway!!!)  
The kids are so excited to have other kids to play with again!  

February 28 – Saturday
Yeehaw! The Houston rodeo is here! Everyone heads over to downtown Houston to watch the rodeo parade. It is the most horses we’ve ever seen in one place. It’s fun to watch the different groups, riders, costumes, and wagons. Some of the riders have their horses do fancy steps for the crowd (one rider even gets down and does a few of it’s own). The street sweepers come through periodically to clean up after the horses – particularly before the marching bands come through! It is one of the longest parades we’ve been to and we enjoy it very much.

February 29 – Sunday (Leap Day)
We went to church with the McKethen family. Active Alex paid a visit to the nursery for much of the service. Much of the rest of the day was spent having a lovely  time of general rest and relaxation.