Little Sister Adventures

Rest in Dunedin

Ahhhhh! Four whole days not on the highways! It was really great to have some R 'n R at Trish's place in Dunedin.

A walk around the neighborhood:

Really yummy greek food (and sweet tea! We're in the South!)

Snuggling....

Lounging...

Relaxing....

We attended 1959 Pink Thunderbird, a fun duo of one-act plays, a couple connected pieces titled Laundry and Bourbon and Lone Star. The director of Voices of Hope for Aphasia, Trish's aphasia group, had a role. It was a lot of fun.

And bonus! A quick Google search found a swing dance that very night, at St. Peterburg's Coliseum, just a couple miles from the theater venue. The band? It was the U.K's Jive Aces! I was chuffed to find the dance!

I took a walk and bought some postcards. I stopped and rested in this park, wrote the postcards, and mailed them at the post office across the street!

Tuesday was Poppy's bath day, as well as Punk's bath day. After that we took off again in the afternoon! And this time, we have an extra passenger! Get ready for a road trip, Punk!

Louisiana - Mississippi - Alabama - Florida

The southern states are all nestled together on the Gulf Coast, so we visited four states in a few hours on Thursday. We drove from Holden, LA to Southport, FL, where we spent the night before making our way to the Tampa Bay Area on Friday.

Ponchatoula, Louisiana, aka Berryland. They were just starting to set up for the weekend's strawberry festival, but we got some berries out of the stop!

We stopped by the Abita Mystery House in Abita Springs, LA. But despite the sign, it was closed. We were disappointed.

There was a lot of water in Louisiana and Mississippi! There always is, but with the previous night's storms, there was flooding and bodies of water up to their brinks.

It was a windy drive! There had been tornado watches throughout the South the night before, as well as flood watches. The storm that we were following really packed a wallop.

This tunnel was welcome! It took us out of the goddam wind.

We stopped at Shrimp Basket in Gulf Port, Mississippi for sweet tea and a meal of blackened redfish. Sooo yummy! And of course key lime pie!

We passed through the blink-and-you-miss it southern leg of Mississippi, and within the few miles of Alabama, we were lucky to find another Buc-ees! We had stopped briefly at one in Texas, thinking we'd have plenty of opportunities. But this was our next and last chance to visit the famous beaver.

Snacks acquired, we headed on to our next spot for the night. This night, we visited Southern Grace Lavender Farm in Southport, Florida. They had just harvested their lavender, but we got to walk the garden and peruse their gift shop full of luscious handcrafted lavender products.

The hens gifted us some eggs.

It was especially cold! I couldn't believe we were in Florida!

The next morning, we tackled our last leg before a bit of a rest. It was an all-day affair.

Trish found a giant rattlesnake for us to visit in Tallahassee.

Also in Tallahassee, this sculpture memorializes a live oak that once stood on this ground at the public library.

The drive from Tallahassee to Dunedin was yucky, especially the last 100 miles. So many lights and stop-and-go. I was exhausted when we finally reached Trish's place.

But we did enjoy another stop or two....

Find this guy in Crystal River, Florida

We finally arrived in Dunedin in the evening, and after literally throwing out our stuff to be laundered and refrigerated, we retrieved Punk and parked Poppy at friends' house.

The numbers so far:

3,566 miles
~ 74 hours of driving
15.7 miles per gallon (according to Poppy)

We have a few down days here in the Tampa Bay Area, and then we'll head north.

Movin' on Down the Road

Days 16 and 17-ish

In the morning after the eclipse, we woke pretty early and debated our travel timing, given an approaching storm. We decided to go get some breakfast up the road at The Log Cabin and wait out the storm.

Charming place! The waitress opened the door and greeted us when we got there.

Looks like they were giving away firearms - see the flag on the back wall.

As we were readying to leave, a man with a "Vietnam Veteran" hat walked by and asked if we were visiting and if that was our van. He grabbed our ticket and said he was paying for our meal “because you are visiting and because of the van.” So sweet! We had already paid, but it was so nice. That has never happened to me before.

After the storm passed, we followed the clouds out of town and made our way to Waco. One fun thing: we stopped at a nearby Planet Fitness for a shower, and who did we meet but Marilyn, the organizer of the meetup, and her husband in their nifty red Travato.

It was a slow-going trip; one of the country roads had some flooding and we had to backtrack. But we saw the sights that Trish wanted to catch in Waco, albeit we were a little rushed.

We got a pic of a big honkin' toy soldier.

We stopped at the Cottonland Castle. Trish had watched its transformation on a home restoration show. No time for a tour today.

In downtown Waco, we enjoyed a visit to Hotel 1928, a beautiful old hotel. We enjoyed a blue bonnet latte, made from butterfly pea flower tea. Yum!

Even the ladies' room was pretty!

A short walk took us to Magnolia Market, another home-improvement show tie-in. It's a great concept: room for picnics and games, shopping, and restaurants.

Unfortunately we had to rush it a bit, because I did NOT want to try to find the next place in the dark. Previous reviews had warned us specifically not to arrive after dark to this next Harvest Host. Plus, driving Poppy in the dark is not much fun.

 Woooo! It was out in the boonies! We finally found “Painted Landscape Ranch” in Ben Wheeler, Texas, but had difficulty finding the actual driveway. The host was kind enough to jump in her truck and come find us when we got turned around!

Soggy ground meant parking on the pavement

It was a comfortable night, despite another overnight rainstorm with big sky booms. And some insomnia due to anxiety about the next day’s wet and windy weather, heading down to bayou country.

Henny Penny and her friends provided us with some fresh eggs

We were lucky again the next morning. We followed the storm that had pounded us overnight, and it was dry all the way to south Louisiana, and sunny for much of the drive. This, despite flood warnings and tornado warnings the night before.

A day's road travel would not be the same without a giant something! Trish found this giant book shelf in Wascom, Texas at the public library.

Once in Baton Rouge, we had a yummy cajun meal at Cecilia. Trish always had the magic touch finding the best spots. Shrimp n grits for Trish, and crawfish étouffée for me. Double yum!

Skillet cornbread with maple bourbon glaze and cinnamon butter. OH MY!

We made our way down to Holden, Louisiana, where we found The Dukes of Hazzard's John Schnieder's movie studio/campground.

It's a little worn down, and some reviewers on Harvest Host called it "creepy," but it was gated, safe, and quiet. And it was interesting to walk around and see all the stuff, even if in a state of slight disrepair.

Schnieder's wife died last year, which may have something to do with the state of the property. But I didn't feel unsafe at any time.

Anyway, come and take a tour with us.