Florida

Downtown Tampa, Florida - there was not a great deal to do at Bowling Green so we decided to have a day out in the Big Smoke.  We have been spoiling ourselves with Imax/3D movies.

Pensacola, Florida has a big military presence - it is often referred to as the "Cradle of Naval Aviation". Home to the Blue Angels - the USA crack aerobatic team. Unfortunately their 2013 programme has been cancelled due to budget cuts.

We crossed many bridges as we traversed the gulf states. After leaving Louisiana, our route to Florida took us through the towns of Gulfport, Biloxi, Mississippi and then Daphne, Alabama  where we did a one night stopover. We had crossed 3 statelines in a day.

One of the many clean and quite prettily laid out Rest Areas in Florida.

Don't know if you can see it - I took a photo of this Woodpecker from our bedroom window at Bowling Green.

What a view - this is a shot taken from our RV shower...only the squirrels get to perve! 

Torrey Oaks RV & Golf Resort is in the middle of Florida at a place called Bowling Green (with no bowling greens that we seen) in rather uninteresting flat countryside however it is home for a week and I look forward to playing golf on their 18 hole golf course.

First view of our neighbours who appear to be well settled in complete with outdoor bar including flat screen TV and all the trimmings

Our home for the week, the little shed you see to the right of our 5th wheel is to accommodate a golf buggy.

One of the local Alligators in a pond off of one of the golf tees on the golf course, this one was about 5' long. I think it had already eaten and was not interested in Betty.

This is Solomon's Castle built by an eccentric artist it is covered in old aluminum printers drums so it really shines in the sun but helps keep the building very cool. 

Betty in front of another of his creations - an ark which is used as an indoor dining room.

Eccentric is probably a mild euphemism for wacky to describe Howard Solomon the sculptor - this train is made up of all sorts of scraps. It even has a vacuum cleaner part in it.

Howard calls this pair of pistols - the Kervokian pistols. You can do yourself in all on your own.

The Boat in the Moat restaurant at Solomon's Castle where lunch is offered.

It was a lovely and cool under the trees and there was live music on the Sunday we were there.

Having moved on from Bowling Green our next stop was a place called Titusville which is on the east coast of Florida near Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. The place we are staying at is called the Great Outdoors RV & Golf Resort and it has won the highest awards for RV camps. No wonder this place is 5 star all the way, it has everything you could ask for 18 hole championship golf course, swimming pools, spa's, saunas, restaurant massage service and on an on. It's normally $45.00 a night at this time of year however by downloading a voucher from their web site we had one free night and thus only paid $45.00 for two nights and we could have stayed a third night for free as well.

This is their welcoming building, the place is very large with about 400 RV bays plus residential homes.

One of the many homes on the estate that have motor home ports/garages for RVs.

There were "homes" where the RV port is fully covered and the owners actually live in the RV and the adjoining building is basically a storage shed.

I saw this golf cart and fell in love with it....isn't it just too cute!!

Our main reason for being in Titusville, the Kennedy Space Center.

Entrance to the Kennedy Space Centre - parking is $10 for the day and a Day Pass is from $55 upwards. We decided to include the simulated shuttle launch, a tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building and launch pads .

They are building this to house the Atlantas Shuttle.

One of the missile launch pads.

NASA VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building)for years the largest building in the world and still the largest single story building in the world. It is used to assemble the rockets and the shuttle when standing vertical which are then transported by a crawler to the launch pad.

This is the interior of the building, unfortunately it is very difficult to convey the actual size of the building.

This is the next generation space capsule that they are working on.

This is Pad 39 where many of the Shuttles have been launched from, I was thrilled to actually be where so much history has taken place.

This is a talking robot that not only talks but moves.

A collection of the rockets that have been used over the years.

The largest rocket ever built the massive Titan 5 which was used to send man to the moon.

The Titan 5 engines.

New Orleans

17/5/13 - New Orleans, Louisiana

One of the levees that was breached during Katrina in 2005. Some 2,000 people were killed - although it was rated a Category 5 hurricane, thankfully (for small mercies) it had lost some of its ferocity and was a Category 3 when it crossed land.

Australia also had a catastrophic Cat. 5 Cyclone on 3 Feb 2011 - Cyclone Yassi packed 180 mph winds when it crossed the northern part of Queensland. NASA CloudSat Satellite captured data of the cyclone revealing its enormous size of 901 miles from end to end.

p.s.  we made the mistake of leaving in the afternoon on a Friday for NO....bad move. Since we had already replaced 1 tyre, we decided to replace the other 2 on the RV (they needed replacing) before we head off. That delayed our drive - we didn't hit the road till 3.00pm. The journey to New Orleans took us through Baton Rouge-we were jostling for position with dozens and dozens of 18 wheelers plus lots of "kamikaze" drivers merging from right lanes onto the highway.  It was slo mo, bumper to bumper traffic most of the way.

New Orleans has some of the most beautiful architecture we've seen.  

The French Quarter, also known as the Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans (La Nouvelle-Orléans in French) was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré ("Old Square" in French) as it was known then. While the area is still referred to as the Vieux Carré by some, it is more commonly known as the French Quarter today, or simply "The Quarter."^[ Although called the "French" Quarter, most of the present day buildings were built under Spanish rule and show Spanish colonial tastes. The district as a whole is a National Historic Landmark, and contains numerous individual historic buildings. It was affected relatively lightly by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as compared to other areas of the city and the greater region.

Love the wrought iron work on the balconies.

No, they are not selling Goldfish bowls...these bowls are filled with alcohol!

Larry Flynn's Hustler joint....interesting photos on the door frames.

Musical Legends Park...a cool place to sit and relax with a drink, or two.

The street signs are in English and French - new architecture co-exists with old in the French Quarter.

What a gorgeous building - check out the palm trees on top of the building and the birds swarming around them.

We took a dinner cruise on the Paddle Steamboat Natchez - live music from the Dukes of Dixieland was a treat. Food wasn't crash hot, service from our female server was abysmal....hate to say it but she definitely had a bad case of PMT!

Nevertheless we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and points of interest on the cruise. The MV Cape Knox and Cape Kennedy, 2 roll on/roll off vessels from the fleet of 27 belonging to the US Military Sea Lift Command are anchored on the Mississippi.

 One of the numerous freighters that ply the river. A bit of info about the mighty Mississippi which incidentally is a fresh water river..

The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for 2,320 miles.

Length: 2,320 miles (3,734 km) Discharge: 593,000 ft³/s (16,790 m³/s) Source: Lake Itasca Mouth: Gulf of Mexico

This empty ship is anchored on the river waiting for a load of cargo. When fully loaded with grain, the orange line on the side of the ship is below the water.

These amazing tugs help manoeuver ships into place.

How would you like to look out of your house and see water spilling over the levee wall?

Offshore view of quarters used by President Andrew Jackson.

Andrew Jackson 7th U.S. President

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States. Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, and the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Wikipedia

Born: March 15, 1767, Waxhaws Died: June 8, 1845, Nashville Presidential term: March 4, 1829 – March 4, 1837 Nicknames: Old Hickory, King Mob, The Hero of New Orleans

Glorious sunset as we head back towards New Orleans.

Night view of New Orleans (Nor Lerns for you Texans)!

Aha!! another "When Harry met Sally" moment - yum, yum...freshly shucked oysters at Harbor Seafood.

I had 1/2 a dozen oysters for $3.00 which was just sufficient as they were huge...oh my, wish I had more but I showed real restrain.

Whilst golfing at Grand Ridge Golf Club we spotted this Snowy Egret in someone's backyard...an escapee from Avery Island perhaps? Cheapest drinks we've had on this trip - $2.75 (+taxes of course) for a shot of Grey Goose/Cranberry Juice cocktail!

Yes Siree, that's a genuine alligator on this golf course. I was just about to tee off when Tom spotted him...great, I think that was part of his strategy to put me off - ha!ha!