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!

Mississippi!

     Our drive through Louisiana and Mississippi was highly enjoyable. It was impressive how the road was built up over swamps for miles at a time. We loved driving along the coast for a ways. Traffic was more intense and most drivers certainly don't drive the Texas way 😁.

    Our overnight stop was a the Golden Nugget Casino in Biloxi, MS. The large parking lot in the back easily accommodated our large rig along with 15 or so others. Obviously no hook-ups but it's a safe place to park free. 

     We had decided that we need to experience some real southern food. A Bubba Gump's was inside the casino so we headed in for supper. It's been a while since we've watched Forrest Gump but it was still fun to see quotes from the movie plastered all over.

"Now Mama always said there's only so much fortune a man really needs, and the rest is just for showing off."

"You may be an idiot, but try not to be stupid."

Blue meant we were doing good.

And if we flipped it to red, it signaled the waitress to stop.

Seafood platter. Michael loved the fried shrimp. The catrish, hushpuppies, coleslaw, and fried mac an cheese were good too. Makayla liked the hushpuppies best.

Fish tacos! These were Eldon's favorite. They were good!

And a bucket of french fries because Emily and Ethan aren't fans of new food. YET.

Shrimp Gumbo. It was to spicy for Michael but Makayla, Eldon and I loved it. It was my favorite by far.

Eldon requested that we all enjoy our meal but at the end of night still prefer a burger because $$$ 😂.

After supper we went for a walk.

Another long bridge. Many are either drawbridges or peak in the middle to allow for the passage of barges and ships.

     I love to find free things so Tuesday morning we pulled in the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Refuge. Big rig parking was not in abundance but the place was nearly empty so we made do. The refuge features a lovely exhibit room that contains information about the Mississippi Sandhill Cranes as well as other birds and animals in the area. The children appreciated the description of birds and a button to push and hear their call. They showed us a short video describing the diminishment of the wet pine savanna and how the refuge has restored 3% of it. In the 1970's only 30 MSC's were living in the wild but today there is around 100, all here at the refuge. Eldon and I were able to spot a few with binocular.

Such beautiful birds!

Emily loved this exhibit of the mount of a nest.

Walking the 3/4 mile nature trail.

Spanish Moss is so intriguing.

It was humid and the birds were going crazy. We felt like we were in a rain forest!

Massive pine cones!

And another!

The wet pine savannah. 

Pitcher plants that eat flies and insects were in abundance.

These huge, old trees are gorgeous!