Heading West

We decided to leave Pensacola on Tuesday to give us plenty of time to get to Travelers World Carefree RV Park in San Antonio by Friday, December 12th, the day our reservations started.  We had done just about everything last night (hooked up the car, dumped the tanks, disconnected the water) so we didn't have that much to do before hitting the road Tuesday morning.

Unfortunately, Chuck woke up with a very bad sore throat and was not feeling very well so we weren't sure how far we would make it today.  We said our good-byes to Jerry & Pam and Donald & Anna and left the campground by 7:40 am.

The weather was nice and was only going to get warmer the further west we traveled.  I-10 is the road we will be traveling for most of our trip.  We were leaving Florida and entering Alabama by a little after 8 am.

Within 30 minutes, we were nearing Mobile, Alabama.

We could see the USS Alabama off to the south and Mobile straight in front of us.

As we got to downtown Mobile, we had to go through a tunnel.

By a little after 9 am, we were entering the State of Mississippi.

The closer we got to Louisiana, we crossed more and more bayous.

Those creepy swamps that Louisiana is known for began appearing the closer we got to Louisiana.

After we crossed the Wastehouse Bayou of the Pearl River,

we enter the state of Louisiana around 10:35 am.  I don't know of many places in this country where you can go through at least parts of 4 states in less than 2 hours.

I kept asking Chuck how he was feeling and gave him coffee and hot tea to help soothe his sore throat.  I found a campground near Baton Rouge which would have meant our pulling off the road around 12:30, but my dedicated husband and very good driver kept us going down the road.

We drove through Baton Rouge and crossed the mighty Mississippi River a little before 12:30.

From the top of the bridge, we could see Baton Rouge to the north.

Look at my man!  What a trooper he is!

After crossing the Mississippi River, we started across a bridge that seemed to go on forever.

The Atchafalaya Basin Bridge runs between Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana, and is 18.2 miles long.

By around 2:45, we entered the town of Lake Charles and crossed a very tall bridge...

...over Lake Charles.

After crossing Lake Charles, we noticed a huge refinery at Westlake right next to I-10.

We stopped in Iowa for diesel.  Iowa, Louisiana, that is.  There was a campground at this exit and I asked Chuck if we wanted to stop here or head on further to where I had hoped we could make it to day:  Beaumont, Texas.  We had about another 1 1/2 hours to go and then we would only be about 276 miles from San Antonio.  So we kept driving on and by 3:15, we were entering the great state of Texas.  Notice the BIG star at the welcome center for the BIG state of Texas.  :)

By 3:45, we pulled into the the Gulf Coast RV Resort in Beaumont, Texas, and quickly had the camper all set up so Chuck could go straight to bed and GET WELL!!!!!