We drove our coach 257 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Spanish Fort, Alabama to Carrabelle, Florida. Our last travel day of 2023. (Yes, the blog posts are a bit delayed; we do things faster than I can post about them!)

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

An interactive map, with potential stops marked:

Leaving the state park:

I-10:

Entering Florida:

“No stopping; photo opp in welcome center”:

We did stop at the Welcome Center rest stop for a quick break, though didn’t go into the Welcome Center:

Home of the Blue Angels:

Our coach at the rest stop on a traffic cam:

I had fun spotting our coach via other traffic cams too:

Bridge over Escambia Bay:

More traffic cams:

Another rest area stop, this time for lunch:

Sleepy Paladin enjoying the stacked dining chairs:

 

An interesting feature of the rest areas was a truck windshield washer:

We also appreciated signs that displayed the rest area truck parking availability (which was also available via the traffic website):

Speaking of, a couple more:

Then we exited I-10, for some highway travel:

Starting with a fuel stop:

While Jenn fueled up, I went in and got some Cokes (to help us stay alert) and snacks:

$284.62 for 77.787 gallons of diesel; we saved $22.17 off that with our discount card:

Paladin watching us from the dash:

Cotton field:

Blountstown mural:

The bridge where we entered Eastern Time Zone:

An uncomfortably narrow road:

A portion was also a little under water; not ideal:

Roadworks to alleviate the flooding; a tight squeeze:

Our destination for the end of the year:

A long drive, but then we were stationary for three weeks.

Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts, catching up with travel from October last year. Where we left off, we were in Oklahoma.

We drove our coach 248 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Choctaw, Oklahoma to Russellville, Arkansas.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

An interactive map:

I-40:

“Speed limit 75, no tolerance”:

A stop at a rest area:

Paladin:

Crossing the Arkansas River:

A VW microbus:

“Welcome to Arkansas”:

Another rest area:

Crane:

Fall foliage:

A motorhome and vanlifer:

It’s that VW microbus again!

Fun with zoom:

Causeway:

Lake Dardanelle State Park entrance:

Checking in:

We drove our coach 284 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Amarillo, Texas to Choctaw, Oklahoma.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

An interactive map:

Departing the RV park:

Texas likes to have frontage roads with onramps to freeways, which is actually a good system:

I-40:

Cadillac Ranch:

RV Ranch:

Amarillo overpass, with boots in the name:

The Big Texan Steak Ranch:

VW Slug Bug Ranch:

Big cross:

Leaning water tower of Texas:

Old building:

Wind turbines in a row:

Rest area:

The rest area on the other side of the freeway had an underground shelter:

Cotton field:

Welcome to Oklahoma:

Dinosaur:

Our coach at the rest area:

Elk City:

Fun with zoom:

A stop at Cherokee Trading Post:

Super-relaxed Paladin:

Oklahoma City:

Interesting bridge art:

Interesting building:

Air Force One:

Air Force water towers:

Our destination, the KOA entrance:

Koi pond:

Guided to our site:

We drove our coach 165 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Guymon, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southwest:

An interactive map:

The drive-in screen as we depart the RV park:

Oversize load:

Welcome to Texas:

A very long train:

Big cowboy:

We stopped at a basic rest area for a bathroom break:

Seeing triple; three seemingly identical tractors driving down the road:

Railway crossing:

A mural in Dalhart:

Tatty Texas flag:

Dalhart:

We passed several feed lots; miles of smelly cattle:

I thought this was a clever idea: the start of a passing lane is marked with a dotted line, encouraging people to move right. More places should do this:

More farm equipment:

Long straght road:

Fun with the phone zoom, making it look like we’re about to drive off a cliff:

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area; “watch for rattlesnakes”:

Paladin was enjoying a box:

A rail bridge by the picnic area:

Our coach:

I got out to plug the 360 camera into a battery pack, since it was about to run out of power:

(On the passenger seat in that picture you can see stuff used for hooking up the truck to the coach.)

More fun with zoom:

Entering Mountain time zone:

We were in Mountain time, then had a couple of weeks in Central time, and now back to Mountain for a week, before returning to Central until the end of the year, when we’ll enter Eastern. Such fun.

Welcome to New Mexico, our third state today:

Nara Vista, a rather run-down town:

Bard, ditto:

Paladin asleep in his safe spot:

Lots of long straight roads on this trip:

More fun with zoom:

Canadian River?!

Tucumcari Mountain, the inspiration for Radiator Cap mountain in the Cars movie:

Our destination:

Our site: