Tallahassee, the Big 5-0, and The Rescuers!!

Our last week in Destin included a great ride to Tallahassee, Jim's 50th birthday, packing up and waiting on the arrival of Tara and Brett.

These were taken on Jim's birthday on the Harbour Walk along the Emerald Coast.

A happy birthday from his sweet little princess, Tara !

To the rescue....driving to Florida in Dale's truck...thanks Dale!!!

The view in Virginia while Tara and Brett were driving down.

Our power shop at Silver Sands Premium Outlet Mall.

Then....a fun walk along the beach!

The drive home!!!!! Tara and I following behind Jim and Brett pulling the trailer.

 

 

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Evening at the Beach

Unexpected art!

While the sun was setting...

We went into Pompano Joe's

 

 

 

 

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Back From Texas

Our little road trip to Texas was great!!! On the way back to Destin, we rode past and through some of Louisiana's Bayous and have more of a sense of the way of life in that part of the country. Especially stopping in Baton Rouge for the night and meeting some of the locals. Understanding the Cajun dialect was a struggle at times but we managed. On the road we past such places as Maringouin, and Grosse Tete, which I pronounce in French yet the Cajuns break it down differently. We love the diversity of each area we have visited so far!

On the last leg of the way home to Destin we travelled along Alabama's scenic route #98 which we caught just past Mobile, AL. This was very welcoming and Jim and I enjoyed the stretch of highway along the coast in the sunshine. We could see a huge difference between the poor and wealthy neighbourhoods so close together. Entering Florida again was kind of like coming home in that the surroundings are more familiar and this is where we found a lunch spot called the East River Smokehouse in Navarre, FL. YUMMY brisket, ribs and homemade beans! Our server loved chatting with us and asked about Ontario....her 12 year old daughter loves Justin Bieber.

 

Inside the East River Smokehouse

Enjoying beverages!

 

This is on the deck of the restaurant ....looking over to the other side of East Coast Bay.

 

Quite an eclectic eatery....this Big Bear was in the front entrance...so fun!!!

 

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The Lone Star State

Yesterday on Sunday February 24/13, at 6:00 am we left to make our way to San Antonio, Texas. Why did we choose this day and this time?? To avoid rainy weather on both ends of this little excursion and that we did. We rode along the coast of Florida, through, Mobile, Alabama , Mississippi, Louisiana and stopped for the night in Houston, Texas.

Oh, and today was also a day of funny road litter....someone pulling a ride-on-lawn mower had its hood blow off which skidded across the highway into the ditch. Then in the middle of the highway was a small wooden chair, and just before entering Houston we saw sparks coming from a shovel that was bouncing across the width of the highway. All these things were far enough away from us not to be dangerous, but we both saw each one clearly which added a little entertainment.

Today we arrived in San Antonio at noon...to be continued....

 

Once we unloaded the motorcycles we rode downtown to walk around and stopped in at the Alamo! Just as people say, it's not very big, but very interesting and rich with history. I think we chose the windiest day of the year...40 mile an hour winds were reported!!!

 

 

Hangin' out by the cannon....and the huge cactus

 

Then we walked along the famous River Walk. It was very pretty and we stopped for a bite to eat at the Mad Dog.

 

 

Here we are at the Mad Dog Pub (look close hanging on the branch is the sign). We had so much fun on this journey so far....

 

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Scenic Ride to Seaside

On Thursday February 21/13, we went for a very nice ride along ocean route # 30A that brought us to Seaside, FL. We had lunch here at Bud & Alley's Waterfront Restaurant and Rooftop Bar, and walked around to see all kinds of little artisan style shops before heading off again. This route lead us back to US 98 also known as The Emerald Coast Parkway.

 

 

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Ahh...relaxed !!

It always takes a few days, for us anyways, to find our "relaxed" speed!!! I can say today our speed was relaxed, realizing there is not one single place we NEED to be. We took a short ride in the afternoon and stopped in for a few items for our supper tonight...sitting back with a cold one!

 

 

This is one restaurant we will try out, it's across the road and down the beach from us called Pompano Joe's.

 

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Day 2 (February 17/13) of Our Drive to Florida...A NEAR MISS!

So while we were sleeping at the Best Western in Radford, VA,.... it snowed!!!!

This is the scenery as we left early Sunday morning, and the weather in the Smoky mountains was snowy and -10 C. But we remained hopeful that as we drove further south the thermometer would rise!! And it did but only a wee bit. By the the time we got to Alabama it was hovering around +10 C and sunny. After lunch Jim noticed the hitch was pointing down toward the ground....NOT GOOD! He checked it out and saw the hitch was partially off the frame of the vehicle. Went to Walmart as everything is closed on Sunday, to try and get some kind of repair. They only do oil changes and batteries...trying to come up with a plan, Jim took his motorcycle off the trailer, repositioned my bike so the tongue weight was a lot lighter. Getting back on the road I was driving and Jim was following on his bike. We had at least 6 hours of driving left and the temperature got as low as 4 C by the time we made it to Destin, FLA at 1:00 AM. Jim was freezing and we were pretty tired, but arrived in one piece.

 

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