Our pet cat, Paladin.
We drove our coach 148 miles, about three hours of driving, from Ohio Key, Florida to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading back up the Overseas Highway out of the Keys:
An interactive map:
Leaving the resort:
Heading up the Overseas Highway:
Florida’s Turnpike toll road:
Rainy:
Service plaza lunch stop:
Paladin at the service plaza:
Roadworks:
Hard Rock hotel:
Turnaround:
Our destination:
We drove our coach 122 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida to Sugarloaf Key, Florida.
This was a late change; we had planned to stay a couple of days more, but decided to leave early to avoid some bad weather.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading down the Overseas Highway in the Keys:
An interactive map:
Leaving our site:
We stopped at the dump station, which was rather popular at that time:
A bird in Everglades:
Leaving next to the entrance station:
Road works:
Entering route 1:
Our coach in traffic cams:
Overseas Highway, with an adjacent fishing bridge:
Fuel stop:
Paladin sat on the dash at the fuel stop, but jumped down once underway again:
Turtle hospital:
Passing Encore Sunshine Key, where we stayed a couple of days later:
Our destination:
Guided to our site (even though it was literally right around that corner):
We drove our coach 289 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Thousand Trails Orlando in Clermont, Florida to Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south along Florida’s Turnpike:
An interactive map, showing potential stops:
Leaving TTO:
Toll plaza:
Sinclair Road:
Toll plaza:
Entering the Florida’s Turnpike toll freeway:
Service plaza rest stop:
Our coach in traffic cams:
Service plaza lunch stop:
Earl of Sandwich; it was a very nice sandwich:
We bought and activated a Sun Pass toll transponder for our truck:
Another traffic cam shot:
Florida’s Turnpike:
Fuel stop, alongside another Tiffin Allegro Bus (slightly newer):
Hard Rock guitar building:
End of the turnpike:
Entering Everglades National Park:
The entrance station, with a lot of traffic (other times we went through only had one or two cars):
The ranger in the booth loved seeing Paladin on the dash:
The turn to the Long Pine Key campground:
Campground entrance:
Our site:
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.
We drove our coach 180 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Red Bay, Alabama to Toomsuba, Mississippi.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:
An interactive map:
Leaving the Red Bay Acres RV park:
“Welcome to Mississippi”:
Highway 76:
Exit to I-22:
I-22:
Tombigbee River:
A momentary loss of visibility from farm dust:
The speed limit signs also have a minimum speed, unusually:
Exit to Tupelo:
We stopped for lunch at Tin Lizzie Cafe in West Point, Mississippi:
BLT (without the tomato) and “tater babies” wedges:
The highway had frequent turnaround lanes:
Paladin asleep next to the passenger chair:
Highway 45:
Exit to I-20:
I-20:
TA fuel stop:
The pump price was $371.99 for 107 gallons of diesel (thirsty coach!), though we actually paid less, thanks to our Open Roads discount (see below):
The slowest DEF pump; it took 10 minutes to pump five gallons:
$23.69 for 5.779 gallons of DEF:
The Open Roads statement indicated that we saved $30.65 on the diesel (the DEF isn’t discounted):
A narrow road to our destination:
And a narrower road:
Our destination, a KOA Journey:
Our site:
Unfortunately no travel video today; my dashcam had filled up and failed to record.
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 139 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Moriarty, New Mexico to Tucumcari, New Mexico.
A rare nighttime drive! Our coach was finished being fixed at the end of the day; we could have stayed overnight again, but we were keen to get back on schedule. So we decided to head out, even though we normally avoid driving at night. It helped that we were familiar with the route, having done it (both ways) recently, plus were familiar with the destination RV park, since we stayed there on the way to Albuquerque.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
On the road again, back along I-40:
Not sure what that truck on the left is hauling:
Clines Corners truck stop:
Flying C Ranch billboards:
We stopped at Flying C Ranch again:
Sunset:
Lots of swag:
DQ for dinner:
Back to our coach:
Sunset reflected in our coach, plus a sliver of moon:
Driving in dusk:
The cameras weren’t overly useful when driving in the dark:
Going past the rest area where we were stuck for a couple of days:
Arriving at the KOA:
Paladin on the passenger chair:
In 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:
We drove our coach 163 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Scott City, Kansas to Guymon, Oklahoma.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map:
Our coach by the lake, before hooking up our truck:
Toaded:
We stopped by the dumpsters to take out the trash on the way out:
Departing the park:
Paladin in his safe space next to the passenger chair:
Scott City:
A clever idea to use the water tower as a cell tower:
There were lots of oversize load trucks on this route, including several with really long wind turbine blades:
And other things:
A brief bathroom stop (using the bathroom in our coach, of course):
More wind turbine blades and farm equipment:
Presumably a radar sphere:
Another one:
A lunch stop at a Subway at a gas station:
Another oversize load:
Paladin in his safe spot:
A pedestrian bridge in the ironically named Liberal, Kansas:
Oklahoma state line, and some roadworks:
Oklahoma sign:
This water tower reminded me of the famous Warner Bros one:
Hooker, Oklahoma (the Wikipedia article says the motto is “It’s a location, not a vocation”):
Half the main road through town closed for roadworks:
Our destination:
