Roosevelt State Park, Mississippi

     January 21 I had scheduled us to drive through Louisiana and half of Mississippi, only about 4 hours. We stayed at another state park, also older and not built for big rigs. There was hills, curves, and many trees. I had reserved the only pull-through site so set-up was a breeze and we were shocked to realize we had full hook-ups! It made the pain of paying $24 a night a little less.

     This park has a huge water slide as well as disk golf and many other things that made us wish it was warmer. But it wasn't, so we put on our jackets and went hiking. We couldn't find the trail we wanted so we ended up wandering through the woods for an hour or so then went home. The children wanted to rollerblade and scooter again since we had hills so I stayed home and cleaned the house. Eldon went on a small walk alone and saw 5! beavers and several deer. 

Lovely lake!

     We'd give this campground at least 7 stars and would certainly come back!

On the 22 we crossed the Mississippi River.

     Once we were East of the Mississippi, things slowed down a little. We had planned to drop South just before Montgomery (you know, avoid the big city!) but at a bathroom stop, Eldon noticed one of our springs was broken. I had no idea what this meant, but apparently it's pretty important since it holds the axle in place. So we detoured into Montgomery and pulled into a Airport Trailers. They proceeded to drop everything and work only on our rig. We ran to another store to pick up springs, then returned them because they didn't fit. It was a bit of a fiasco but in the end, we pulled out at closing time all ready to roll and only $360 out. We were very thankful for the timing of everything!

Most things RV are a certain size and he didn't have our size in stock but they found a set that works!

     Since we had sat there for several hours, we were all in favor of adding an hour to our plan and just pulling into a Wal-mart for the night. Eldon was able to unhook and go fuel up and he treated us all to wings from Zaxby's since the children were absolute champs through it all.

Taking pictures on my phone is one way to pass time :).

     We had 8 hours left to Florida and had planned to stop one more night but the next morning once we hit the road, everyone wanted to just keep going. So go we did! We were ever so happy to arrive at the Travaglino's shortly after dark. I was thrilled that Chris was here to help Eldon back into our spot since it was quite tight and Kimberly had pizza ready for us. And, it was warm and there was Palm Trees. What a welcome!

Alabama!

     We are just cruising along these southern states and missing so much but we're thankful for each experience we do get! I'd found reviews online stating that the Camping World in Robertsdale, AL allowed overnight parking AND had free hookups for Good Sam Members. We headed there but tried not to get to optimistic. We were pleasantly surprised to find them very welcoming and yes, with a free water and electric site for us! 

They have at least 6 sites!

We parked the site closest to the dump station and the hose reached so essentially we had full hookups! We did laundry, showers, and cleaned 😍.

     And then, we need to do something to experience Alabama, so we headed to Alligator Alley! It was pricey but in the end we decided it was worth it.

They had a few pigs too!

The babies!

This place was very clean with fun signs everywhere.

More small ones.

Swimming closer so we could feed them.

Names of all the ones in that pen.

It was astounding how many there was!

And we all got to hold a 3 year old!

It was pretty cool!

Out in the swamp is where they keep the nuisance alligators" that they pick up when people complain about one in their yard. We were able to walk through on a boardwalk and see hundreds of them!

You just never knew when one would pop up!

During mating season they have fights and some die from it every year. We were wishing we could see a fight :). 

These huge Cypress trees were a site to behold.

It took Emily the whole way through the swamp to work up her courage to hold one but she did it!

     Visiting a gator ranch was Eldon's idea and we all had a blast!