Long Time No Post
Well we’ve left New Orleans and have been driving the last couple of days. Once we were back on the road we drove east (as we have been since we landed in California) and drove for about 300 miles and once we got to where we would be staying the night (a truck/RV stop in Gulfport) we then drove around to see what there was to do and have some lunch. It wasn’t long before we found a movie theater and bought tickets to see The Last Song with Miley Cyrus. It’s quite a good movie and although I haven’t read the book it’s based on by Nicholas Sparkes, I’m sure it does a good job transitioning from the book to the movie screen.
After that we drove to a Walmart and picked up a few items that we needed to stock up on. Walmart is very big and just going up and down the isles to see if anything jumped out at us that we might have needed or wanted takes a few hours. Once we had finished our shopping it was time to park and spend the night at the truck and RV stop (we’re not sure on the rules of this so we usually get there around 9pm).
Gulfport is a really nice town and we decided to hang around and see what we could find to do in Gulfport, and then spend another night at the truck/RV stop.
We headed on out following the directions of the GPS to another mall which had cinemas in it as well. Once we got there though the GPS told us that we had arrived at our destination, but Kate and I could not find the movie theater at all. We parked the RV in the car park of the mall and then decided to hunt around on foot thinking that it might be inside the mall itself. But it was about 9am and the mall didn’t open until 10am but luck was on our side, just around the corner was a store called Books a Million and its like a Borders store in Australia and it was open and so Kate and I got some drinks and read for awhile. After we had finished we decided to check out the rest of the bookstore as we only got a quick look while we were waiting for our drinks. It was really big and almost has an isle per topic, it was very interesting and Kate and I “accidentally” spent the next four hours there.
After we tore ourselves away from the bookshop and looked around the rest of the mall, we were ready to find another movie theater and the guy at the bookshop told us that if we went down the road a bit following the beach and following it around to the right and then take a left we would get there. The way he was talking it sounded like the movie theater wasn’t that far away, so we followed his directions but didn’t see any movie theater so we gave up and just waited to see where the road would take us. Low and behold about 20 minutes down the road was the exact movie theater the book shop guy had told us about, we gave up because we thought it wasn’t that far away. We pulled into the car park and set ourselves up for the afternoon with two movies, How to Train a Dragon and Bounty Hunter, both of which are really funny and kept us laughing throughout the movies. Once the movies were over we headed back to the truck/RV stop to stop for the night, but once we got there the RV section was full (one park being taken up by a car even though there were heaps of spare spaces in the car park), so we decided to take a drive and come back in a half hour or so and see if any spaces had become available, after that we came back and saw some guys outside their pickup truck and I got out and asked them if they were sleeping here the night, and they said that they were but saw we were in a RV and said that they would see if they could fit their pickup over in the car park. The two gentlemen were from Georgia and were very nice (but had VERY strong accents) and also found a park for their truck and let us take the RV spot.
We awoke the next day and hit the road and did a fair bit of driving first up, taking more highways than interstates, as they seem to be more interesting for things to see. We saw an outlet mall a decided to take a break and walk around and stretch our legs and kill some time so we didn’t arrive at our next truck/RV stop during daylight still (it just seems a little odd pulling in before the sun goes down). Once we gotten a few items and looked at all the other shops Kate and I made our way back onto the road and drove to our truck stop. After being in New Orleans we had heard of a dish called gumbo which Kate and I had wanted to try but didn’t get around to it. So when we went grocery shopping we saw a packet mix gumbo thing and you just have to add the meat and a few other fresh ingredients and hey presto, gumbo, ready to go, so we cooked that up and it was really good, kind of a rice soup type dish and its really tasty.
We spent the night there and headed on out the next morning, on our way in the night before we saw a sign on the highway advertising a car museum so we decided to check that out on our way to Manatee Springs National Park. We arrived and paid at the counter and then went looking at the car collection ranging from the first production model T Fords and vintage cars to all sorts of classics and old school cars. They even had the original bat mobile from the TV series as well as a Delorean although not fit for time travel. This car museum also had other collectible items such as piano’s, vampire killing kits, model trains, star wars and star trek stuff, knives, guns, dolls, figurines, telephones, cash registers and sports memorabilia. After we finished there we got back on the road and headed to our destination of Manatee Springs National Park.
We got there and checked in and once we were backed in and Kate and I were hooking up the electricity a deer just strolled on by in the woods right next to our RV. Once we were all set up Kate and I took a stroll to check out what we had around us, we walked up the path and went along the river and saw numerous squirrels, turtles and turkey vultures and the water was so clear we could see the mullet swimming in the river, and we might have even seen a snake or it might have been a water worm if you ask Kate that is. On our walk back to the RV, we heard a rustling in the scrub and as we looked over there was a big armadillo foraging for food, but a young boy scared it off because he thought it would be good to chase it….
We had some dinner after that and went to bed nice and early, as we had had a big couple of days driving. We got up the next day and had breakfast outside at our picnic table and this time two deer came to visit us near our campsite. We took another stroll, as the National Park was having something they called the 18th Annual River party which they had a country band singing and free hot dogs and lemonade. We watch the band for a while and then walked along the boardwalk again and looked at all the turtles and fish and all the other wildlife that is around the area. We had some dinner and then went for a night time stroll to see what sort of animal life came out at that time, we saw the armadillo again (and got some photos) and squirrels and the deer once again and we think we did see a few fireflies. We went back to the RV after that and got it ready for shipping out the next morning (even though checkout was at 1pm).
We got up the next morning and went for another walk along the river boardwalk (it is a really beautiful area and well worth walking and seeing all the flora and fauna). And the band was playing again as well, so we sat and enjoyed their music for a while before checking out of the National Park.
Our next destination was an RV park called Turtle Creek that we would stay at for one night because it was really close to where we needed to be to swim with the manatees. On the way there we stopped at McDonald's and got two sweet teas for $2 (which is a dollar a drink and its about a liter per drink). Kate has developed a taste for sweet tea which is in abundance here in America and is really cheap. Once Kate had her fix we found our RV park and backed in and set up and then went about preparing ourselves for our swimming with the manatees as well as for the next two weeks we would be spending in Walt Disney World. We didn’t want anything outstanding with the RV so we did the few dishes that were there as well as our second laundry run so that we didn’t have to worry about doing that whilst being at Walt Disney World. Since we had to be up early the next morning for our swimming excursion we showered and went to bed.
We got up early the next morning and unhooked the RV and got on the road and followed the GPS to a boat ramp where we would be getting on a boat to go swimming with the manatees. Now manatees are the American equivalent of the Australian dugong, both are basically the same except they have different tails. Kate and I were already cold as it was quite a chilly morning and then being near the Crystal River didn’t help the situation. Add to that putting on a damp wetsuit and then heading out on a boat down the river at a reasonable speed, Kate and I were very cold and weren’t looking forward to hopping in the water to swim with the manatees. On our way out we say an American eagle flying around and apparently according to our tour guide he hasn’t seen one of those for a few years at least, so we took that to be a good omen for out trip. After that we came upon a little bay like area where two other boats were anchored and manatees were in the water.
I told Kate to go first as she is the stronger swimmer of us both as she got used to snorkeling again I slowly got in the water and tried for the first time ever to snorkel. Kate did well and got used to if straight away, while I wasn’t all that comfortable at first but once I got a pool noodle to keep me afloat I got used to the new experience. After about 5 of 10 minutes of seeing the manatees surfacing and spraying water which is better explained as they surface for air and breath out and the water that is near the nose openings get sprayed out as they expel the bad air and inhale for more, but we’ll refer to it here as surfacing and spraying water.
So like I was saying it was about 5 or 10 minutes before we got to touch our first manatee, and for my experience (Kade) I was swimming to where I had seen one surface and as I was paddling over and as I was looking down in the water and the manatee rose up so we were basically face to face and it was amazing, once the manatee (not sure if it was male or female hence me referring to them as just manatees) had surfaced I reached out and touched it and then rubbed its belly and it just rolled over like a dog and just loved having its belly rubbed. After that it was basically the same procedure of watch for where a manatee surfaced and follow it there and then view and touch them if possible. Kate’s experience was somewhat similar except the manatee decided to surface with Kate right above it and knocked her to the side and as she wasn’t expecting it, it caught her off guard and she swallowed some water. Another experience Kate had was she saw one surface and followed it to where she thought it was and as she was looking in the water it decided to surface right in front of her, according to Kate it came up face to face with her, looked her in the eye and then breath out as it surface and sprayed her in the face with all the water from its nostrils. Needless to say it was quite funny, but Kate didn’t think so; well at least at the time. Another experience was I (Kade) saw Kate searching around looking for a manatee and as I was looking at her a manatee surfaced right behind her about an inch away from her feet and it was like it knew it was behind a human and was having a laugh that it didn’t know it was there. All in all we were in the water for about two hours and it was time for us to get out and head back to shore. On our way back to the boat ramp Kate and I saw a turtle on the shore and it had some how flipped itself over onto its back, we pointed it out to our tour guide and he stopped the boat so I could go over to shore and flip him the right side up. I waded out and carefully flipped him back over the right way and he went on his merry way and I got back on the boat and we went back to the boat ramp. We thanked our tour guide and got back into our RV and next stop, Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World for two weeks. So basically swim with the manatees in the morning and Walt Disney World in the afternoon, who could ask a better day. We made our way to Walt Disney World with a stop at Taco Bell for lunch on the way. It was nice and easy to find and we got in with no worries what so ever, we got our map of the RV Park and made our way to our campsite and set up.
There is more to come but since we haven’t had Internet for a while and we don’t have it here, we have to walk to the store and pay for the Internet we’ll do it in a few posts. But after we set up we went to downtown Disney, the next day we went to Epcot, and then the next day we went to Animal Kingdom so stay tuned we’ll get up to date as soon as we can.
After that we drove to a Walmart and picked up a few items that we needed to stock up on. Walmart is very big and just going up and down the isles to see if anything jumped out at us that we might have needed or wanted takes a few hours. Once we had finished our shopping it was time to park and spend the night at the truck and RV stop (we’re not sure on the rules of this so we usually get there around 9pm).
Gulfport is a really nice town and we decided to hang around and see what we could find to do in Gulfport, and then spend another night at the truck/RV stop.
We headed on out following the directions of the GPS to another mall which had cinemas in it as well. Once we got there though the GPS told us that we had arrived at our destination, but Kate and I could not find the movie theater at all. We parked the RV in the car park of the mall and then decided to hunt around on foot thinking that it might be inside the mall itself. But it was about 9am and the mall didn’t open until 10am but luck was on our side, just around the corner was a store called Books a Million and its like a Borders store in Australia and it was open and so Kate and I got some drinks and read for awhile. After we had finished we decided to check out the rest of the bookstore as we only got a quick look while we were waiting for our drinks. It was really big and almost has an isle per topic, it was very interesting and Kate and I “accidentally” spent the next four hours there.
After we tore ourselves away from the bookshop and looked around the rest of the mall, we were ready to find another movie theater and the guy at the bookshop told us that if we went down the road a bit following the beach and following it around to the right and then take a left we would get there. The way he was talking it sounded like the movie theater wasn’t that far away, so we followed his directions but didn’t see any movie theater so we gave up and just waited to see where the road would take us. Low and behold about 20 minutes down the road was the exact movie theater the book shop guy had told us about, we gave up because we thought it wasn’t that far away. We pulled into the car park and set ourselves up for the afternoon with two movies, How to Train a Dragon and Bounty Hunter, both of which are really funny and kept us laughing throughout the movies. Once the movies were over we headed back to the truck/RV stop to stop for the night, but once we got there the RV section was full (one park being taken up by a car even though there were heaps of spare spaces in the car park), so we decided to take a drive and come back in a half hour or so and see if any spaces had become available, after that we came back and saw some guys outside their pickup truck and I got out and asked them if they were sleeping here the night, and they said that they were but saw we were in a RV and said that they would see if they could fit their pickup over in the car park. The two gentlemen were from Georgia and were very nice (but had VERY strong accents) and also found a park for their truck and let us take the RV spot.
We awoke the next day and hit the road and did a fair bit of driving first up, taking more highways than interstates, as they seem to be more interesting for things to see. We saw an outlet mall a decided to take a break and walk around and stretch our legs and kill some time so we didn’t arrive at our next truck/RV stop during daylight still (it just seems a little odd pulling in before the sun goes down). Once we gotten a few items and looked at all the other shops Kate and I made our way back onto the road and drove to our truck stop. After being in New Orleans we had heard of a dish called gumbo which Kate and I had wanted to try but didn’t get around to it. So when we went grocery shopping we saw a packet mix gumbo thing and you just have to add the meat and a few other fresh ingredients and hey presto, gumbo, ready to go, so we cooked that up and it was really good, kind of a rice soup type dish and its really tasty.
We spent the night there and headed on out the next morning, on our way in the night before we saw a sign on the highway advertising a car museum so we decided to check that out on our way to Manatee Springs National Park. We arrived and paid at the counter and then went looking at the car collection ranging from the first production model T Fords and vintage cars to all sorts of classics and old school cars. They even had the original bat mobile from the TV series as well as a Delorean although not fit for time travel. This car museum also had other collectible items such as piano’s, vampire killing kits, model trains, star wars and star trek stuff, knives, guns, dolls, figurines, telephones, cash registers and sports memorabilia. After we finished there we got back on the road and headed to our destination of Manatee Springs National Park.
We got there and checked in and once we were backed in and Kate and I were hooking up the electricity a deer just strolled on by in the woods right next to our RV. Once we were all set up Kate and I took a stroll to check out what we had around us, we walked up the path and went along the river and saw numerous squirrels, turtles and turkey vultures and the water was so clear we could see the mullet swimming in the river, and we might have even seen a snake or it might have been a water worm if you ask Kate that is. On our walk back to the RV, we heard a rustling in the scrub and as we looked over there was a big armadillo foraging for food, but a young boy scared it off because he thought it would be good to chase it….
We had some dinner after that and went to bed nice and early, as we had had a big couple of days driving. We got up the next day and had breakfast outside at our picnic table and this time two deer came to visit us near our campsite. We took another stroll, as the National Park was having something they called the 18th Annual River party which they had a country band singing and free hot dogs and lemonade. We watch the band for a while and then walked along the boardwalk again and looked at all the turtles and fish and all the other wildlife that is around the area. We had some dinner and then went for a night time stroll to see what sort of animal life came out at that time, we saw the armadillo again (and got some photos) and squirrels and the deer once again and we think we did see a few fireflies. We went back to the RV after that and got it ready for shipping out the next morning (even though checkout was at 1pm).
We got up the next morning and went for another walk along the river boardwalk (it is a really beautiful area and well worth walking and seeing all the flora and fauna). And the band was playing again as well, so we sat and enjoyed their music for a while before checking out of the National Park.
Our next destination was an RV park called Turtle Creek that we would stay at for one night because it was really close to where we needed to be to swim with the manatees. On the way there we stopped at McDonald's and got two sweet teas for $2 (which is a dollar a drink and its about a liter per drink). Kate has developed a taste for sweet tea which is in abundance here in America and is really cheap. Once Kate had her fix we found our RV park and backed in and set up and then went about preparing ourselves for our swimming with the manatees as well as for the next two weeks we would be spending in Walt Disney World. We didn’t want anything outstanding with the RV so we did the few dishes that were there as well as our second laundry run so that we didn’t have to worry about doing that whilst being at Walt Disney World. Since we had to be up early the next morning for our swimming excursion we showered and went to bed.
We got up early the next morning and unhooked the RV and got on the road and followed the GPS to a boat ramp where we would be getting on a boat to go swimming with the manatees. Now manatees are the American equivalent of the Australian dugong, both are basically the same except they have different tails. Kate and I were already cold as it was quite a chilly morning and then being near the Crystal River didn’t help the situation. Add to that putting on a damp wetsuit and then heading out on a boat down the river at a reasonable speed, Kate and I were very cold and weren’t looking forward to hopping in the water to swim with the manatees. On our way out we say an American eagle flying around and apparently according to our tour guide he hasn’t seen one of those for a few years at least, so we took that to be a good omen for out trip. After that we came upon a little bay like area where two other boats were anchored and manatees were in the water.
I told Kate to go first as she is the stronger swimmer of us both as she got used to snorkeling again I slowly got in the water and tried for the first time ever to snorkel. Kate did well and got used to if straight away, while I wasn’t all that comfortable at first but once I got a pool noodle to keep me afloat I got used to the new experience. After about 5 of 10 minutes of seeing the manatees surfacing and spraying water which is better explained as they surface for air and breath out and the water that is near the nose openings get sprayed out as they expel the bad air and inhale for more, but we’ll refer to it here as surfacing and spraying water.
So like I was saying it was about 5 or 10 minutes before we got to touch our first manatee, and for my experience (Kade) I was swimming to where I had seen one surface and as I was paddling over and as I was looking down in the water and the manatee rose up so we were basically face to face and it was amazing, once the manatee (not sure if it was male or female hence me referring to them as just manatees) had surfaced I reached out and touched it and then rubbed its belly and it just rolled over like a dog and just loved having its belly rubbed. After that it was basically the same procedure of watch for where a manatee surfaced and follow it there and then view and touch them if possible. Kate’s experience was somewhat similar except the manatee decided to surface with Kate right above it and knocked her to the side and as she wasn’t expecting it, it caught her off guard and she swallowed some water. Another experience Kate had was she saw one surface and followed it to where she thought it was and as she was looking in the water it decided to surface right in front of her, according to Kate it came up face to face with her, looked her in the eye and then breath out as it surface and sprayed her in the face with all the water from its nostrils. Needless to say it was quite funny, but Kate didn’t think so; well at least at the time. Another experience was I (Kade) saw Kate searching around looking for a manatee and as I was looking at her a manatee surfaced right behind her about an inch away from her feet and it was like it knew it was behind a human and was having a laugh that it didn’t know it was there. All in all we were in the water for about two hours and it was time for us to get out and head back to shore. On our way back to the boat ramp Kate and I saw a turtle on the shore and it had some how flipped itself over onto its back, we pointed it out to our tour guide and he stopped the boat so I could go over to shore and flip him the right side up. I waded out and carefully flipped him back over the right way and he went on his merry way and I got back on the boat and we went back to the boat ramp. We thanked our tour guide and got back into our RV and next stop, Fort Wilderness at Walt Disney World for two weeks. So basically swim with the manatees in the morning and Walt Disney World in the afternoon, who could ask a better day. We made our way to Walt Disney World with a stop at Taco Bell for lunch on the way. It was nice and easy to find and we got in with no worries what so ever, we got our map of the RV Park and made our way to our campsite and set up.
There is more to come but since we haven’t had Internet for a while and we don’t have it here, we have to walk to the store and pay for the Internet we’ll do it in a few posts. But after we set up we went to downtown Disney, the next day we went to Epcot, and then the next day we went to Animal Kingdom so stay tuned we’ll get up to date as soon as we can.
It was good to hear from you last week. Sounds as though you are both having a great time. Spend these two weeks doing everything disney, hidden mickeys, tree of life figure searching,all the usual. You seem to enjoy going to the movies. Eagerly waiting your next blog update...lola mum
That's so cute about turning the turtle back around. You're a good citizen!
Btw, I am incredibly jealous that you saw a Delorean up close. I trust you took a photo from every possible angle and will post them soon. :D