Travel from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama

We drove our coach 184 miles, about three hours of driving, from Lena, Mississippi to Red Bay, Alabama.

Here’s a map showing our route (kinda), heading north:

Route map

That wasn’t actually our route, as we decided to take the Natchez Trace Parkway, which the RV routing didn’t like, but I examined closely and determined it’d be fine for us. Here’s an interactive map of the actual route:

A branch and lots of leaves by our truck:

Branch by our truck

A narrow road from the campground:

Narrow road from campground

A sharp turn from the park road; not too hard for our coach:

Sharp turn

Another Allegro Bus passing us:

Another Allegro Bus

A drizzly drive:

Rainy

Entering Natchez Trace Parkway:

Entering Natchez Trace Parkway

Natchez Trace Parkway

Lunch stop at the Jeff Busby area:

Lunch stop at Jeff Busby area

Loose dogs roaming around:

Loose dogs roaming around

Natchez Trace Parkway

Leaving Natchez Trace Parkway for I-22 East:

Entering I-22 East

I-22 East

MS-25:

MS-25

Turned into MS-76 (a newer and much nicer highway):

MS-76

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama:

Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama

Arriving at our destination, Red Bay Acres:

Arriving at Red Bay Acres

Mostly empty RV park:

Mostly empty RV park

Oooh, a Zephyr (top of the line Tiffin motorhome):

Mostly empty RV park

Our site:

Our site

Travel from Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi

We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Springfield, Louisiana to Lena, Mississippi.

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

Route map

An interactive map:

Convertible Beetle:

Convertible Beetle

Flooded road in front of our first site:

Flooded road

Our first site was a little damp:

Our first site

An interesting sign near the entrance of the park:

Sign near the entrance of the park

A closer look:

Sign near the entrance of the park

Narrow road from the park:

Narrow road from the park

Petro fuel stop:

Petro fuel stop

We had lunch while driving, with me feeding crackers with salami and cheese to Jenn:

Lunch

Welcome to Mississippi:

Welcome to Mississippi

A sign for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument… so of course we had to play Free Bird and songs seeded from that:

Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument

Roadworks on I-55 North:

Roadworks on I-55 North

Watching a Sinclair Trails timelapse travel video while traveling is always a little disconcerting:

Watching Sinclair Trails travel video while traveling

Paladin asleep, touching my foot:

Paladin asleep, touching my foot

Rest area:

Rest area

Exit from I-55 to route 25:

Exit from I-55 to route 25

Paladin asleep:

Paladin asleep

Late foliage:

Late foliage

A narrow road to our destination:

Narrow road to park

Leake County Water Park:

Leake County Water Park

Our site:

Our site

River Bottomland Hardwood Trail hike

We went for a nice stroll along the boardwalks of the River Bottomland Hardwood Trail in Tickfaw State Park in Louisiana.

Sign

Pavilion:

Pavilion

Boardwalk:

Boardwalk

Bayou:

Bayou

Tickfaw River and bridge:

Tickfaw River and bridge

Tickfaw River

Tickfaw River and bridge

Closed area:

Closed area

Bridge:

Bridge

End of the boardwalk:

Closed area

Bridge

Boardwalk

Tree

Bayou

Travel from Galveston, Texas to Springfield, Louisiana

We drove our coach 346 miles, about six hours of driving, from Galveston, Texas to Springfield, Louisiana.

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

Route map

An interactive map:

Following our coach to the dump station, where we toaded up:

Following coach

Galveston Island coast:

Galveston Island coast

Galveston Island sign:

Galveston Island sign

Super scenic refinery:

Refinery

Fred Hartman Bridge by Galveston Bay:

Fred Hartman Bridge by Galvaston Bay

Entering I-10 East:

Entering I-10 East

Rest area:

Rest area

Back to I-10, with Paladin on the dash:

Back to I-10, with Paladin on the dash

Paladin on the dash

Entering Louisiana:

Entering Louisiana

Another rest area:

Rest area

Paladin in his tower box laying on the bed:

Paladin in his tower box

Food trucks:

Food trucks

Overturned big rig, probably going too fast in the rain:

Overturned big rig

Paladin asleep:

Paladin asleep

Rain:

Rain

Yet another rest area:

Rest area

Bridge over the Mississippi River; it always feels like a momentous milestone to cross this river, the divider between the more spacious west side of the country, and the crowded east side:

Bridge over Mississippi River

Mississippi River

A truck with a blown tire:

Truck with blown tire

Large crest on the road in the turn towards the park:

Large crest on the road in the turn towards the park

Narrow road to the park:

Narrow road to the park

Free-range chickens and ducks:

Freerange chickens and ducks

Arriving at Tickfaw State Park:

Arriving at Tickfaw State Park

Arriving at our site:

Arriving at our site

2025 travel plans

I hope you enjoyed the posts reviewing 2024. So what are our plans for 2025? Read on!

Like the previous year, we spent the holidays in the panhandle of Florida, in Carrabelle, then headed south in Florida. This time, though, we’ll be spending six weeks in Orlando, including a week in the Disney World bubble. (Unusual for us; we typically don’t stay in one place for more than two weeks, very rarely three weeks.) We won’t be going as far south as the Keys this year; instead we’ll head north, revisiting Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Maryland, reaching the first new state of the year, New Jersey.

We’ll then head northwest via Pennsylvania to new states Ohio and Michigan for a graduation and time with friends, before heading east again, adding upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, then back west to add Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and continuing back to Ohio. That loop through the northeast states is a bit confusing; see an animated GIF below that hopefully clarifies that part. We would normally try to avoid backtracking, but the timing of the graduation dictated the route. We spread out the route to see different areas going there and back, so it’s all good.

After that, we head north to another part of Michigan, then back west via our favorite Black Hills area and Yellowstone National Park, reaching our home base in Washington state for the usual adulting and family time.

Finally, we’ll be heading south next winter, as usual for us snowbirds. But a little different this time: we’ll leave our coach at NIRVC in Phoenix while we travel to New Zealand for three weeks (probably), then finish the year in Arizona and California.

A lot of this is still tentative; we’ve currently booked up to the beginning of September. And we will try to change some of the stops to free alternatives (using our Thousand Trails membership) when they’re available to book.

All up, we should visit 10 new states in the northeast, so by the end of the year (actually by the middle of the year) we will have visited all 48 contiguous states, with just Alaska and Hawaii remaining. We’ll visit those two in a subsequent year (to be determined).

This route should be a little shorter than last year, at around 10,800 miles, give or take.

Here’s a map that shows the state outlines, colored time zones, our travel route, and pins for stops. Our route begins in the panhandle of Florida, and goes generally anti-clockwise, with a loop in the northeast:

Timezones 2025 map

Another variation of the map, that shows a little more detail, but the states are less visible:

Route map 2025

That northeast corner looks a bit messy, doesn’t it? Here’s an animated GIF that shows the route:

Route map 2025

Another interesting animated GIF, showing the elevations along our route; see the elevations and road gradients at the bottom, and a moving dot along the map route showing where those elevations occur (this route has a couple of minor differences from the above maps, but I didn’t want to bother redoing the GIF):

Map with elevations

Super flat until we reach the Bighorn mountains and Yellowstone in Wyoming.

Here’s a Google Maps list that shows the places we’ll stay, as of now; it will be updated as campgrounds are booked.

It’s going to be another busy year. I hope you’ll follow along via this blog and the YouTube channel.

2024 selfies

I thought it’d be fun to create an animated GIF of selfies and other pictures of Jenn and me from 2024. We’ve been to some interesting places!

Selfies

2024 travel route

Let’s look back at our coach travel in 2024. You may also want to check out the 2023 travel summary, the 2022 travel summary, and the 2021 travel summary.

We bought our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP diesel pusher motorhome on September 2, 2021, and other than a few times when we’ve been out of it during servicing appointments or flying vacations, we’ve lived in it full-time since then.

When we bought the coach, it only had 5,161 miles on the odometer. In 2021 we drove it about 2,300 miles. In 2022 we drove another 8,772 miles. In 2023 we added 9,945 miles. In 2024 we added 12,248, so have driven it 33,265 miles on our adventures so far, for a grand total of 38,426 on the odometer. (The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901 miles, so we’ve effectively driven it 1.3 times around the world!)

One of our goals is to visit every state in the US. In 2024 we stayed in 15 new states: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. These join North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida in 2023, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas in 2022, and Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, California, and Arizona in 2021, for a total of 38. Just 12 left! (We only count states visited since purchasing our coach.)

We also revisited several states last year, as we headed back to our Pacific Northwest domicile. So all the states we visited in 2024 — in order — were Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi; a total of 29 in the year.

Here’s a map of our coach travels and stays in 2024, via the excellent RV Life Trip Wizard website, using a variation of their maps that more clearly shows the state borders and color-coded time zones. We started the year in the panhandle of Florida, then the route headed south to the Florida Keys, then north and west to Paris, Texas for the total solar eclipse, then to the east coast and up to Delaware, then all the way across to the west coast, south, then back east, ending the year exactly where we started, in the panhandle of Florida:

Timezones 2024 map

Another variation of the map, with more detail:

Route map 2024

Here’s the route map with the travel in 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 also displayed in different colors; our 2024 travel in orange, our 2023 travel in purple, our 2022 travel in blue, our 2021 coach travel in green, and our 2021 Yellowstone rental trailer trip in brown:

Route map 2021 to 2024

The same map as an animated GIF, adding each year:

2021 to 2024 maps

Here’s a fun variation, showing the 2024 route without the background map; you can clearly see the shape of the country (other than the northeast, that we didn’t get to):

Route map without background

We actually revised our route a few times from what we planned for 2024; here’s an animated GIF that compares what we had originally planned (as shown in last year’s 2024 travel plans post), and what we ended up doing (as above):

2024 maps

Another interesting animated GIF, showing the elevations along our route; see the elevation and gradient at the bottom, and a moving dot along the map route showing where those elevations occurred. You can really see where the mountain ranges are:

Map with elevations

Fascinating!

Big Bend National Park

We visited Big Bend National Park, again — we first visited it in 2022. That first time, we explored the western part of the park; this time, we explored the eastern side.

Here’s an interactive map of our route:

Entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Mountains and cacti:

Mountains and cacti

We had a picnic lunch and short stroll at Dugout Wells, a little oasis where some homesteads once stood, and now just a windmill remains, as far as we could see:

We had a picnic lunch and short stroll at Dugout Wells

Windmill

View

Tunnel:

Tunnel

The Rio Grande Village Visitor Center, the one visitor center we didn’t make it to last time:

Rio Grande Village Visitor Center

Big Rivers, Big Changes:

Big Rivers, Big Changes

There’s even a full-hookup campground in the village, though it’s basically a parking lot:

Full-hookup campground

A roadrunner on the road:

Roadrunner on the road

There’s also a no-hookup campground, which is nicer, despite the lack of utilities. It even has some sites big enough for us, like this pull-through site:

Pull-through site

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Lots of Mexican trinkets for sale; this area is on the border with Mexico:

Mexican trinkets for sale

We did the Boquillas Canyon Trail along the Rio Grande river:

Boquillas Canyon Trail

Steps:

Steps

The Rio Grande river; the other side of the river is Mexico:

Rio Grande River

Shady tunnel of trees, welcome on a warm day (about 82°F):

Shady tunnel of trees

Rio Grande River

Interesting rocks

More Mexican trinkets for sale; Jenn bought the cloth in the front and a bead roadrunner:

Mexican trinkets for sale

The canyon closing in on the river:

Canyon

Youngsters on the Mexican side of the river:

Youngsters on the Mexican side of the river

Canoes on the river; we spoke with a couple of the people, and they said they were camping down river:

Canoes on the river

Interesting rocks

Canyon

Canyon selfie

A nice hike; a little too warm for us with little shade, but we survived.

Marathon Motel & RV Park

We stayed at Marathon Motel & RV Park in Marathon, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Dates:

Check in: 2024-11-17
Check out: 2024-11-30
13 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps 61-80°F, lows 32-46°F
Some wind, gusts to 23 MPH

Noise:

Little road noise
Loud train horn noise right out front of the campground, about once an hour, generally between 10:00 and 22:00, though occasionally one or two overnight
Significant neighbor noise for a few days (big family on driver side), otherwise not much

Site:

#4, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
Mostly level site; a little high in front; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 80 feet long by 18 feet wide
10 feet to neighbors on both sides
Separation between sites: just grass
Picnic table
A couple of tall trees
Mostly clean site
Elevation 4,060 feet

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
60 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, a little inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 130-180 Mbps down, 30-40 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
AT&T: 53-70 Mbps down, 12 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Star parties
Package delivery to office
Chickens!

Our review on Campground Reviews:

High desert delight

This was our second time staying here, and we enjoyed it just as much as our first trip. The only downside is the freight train that runs through town with its horn blaring because of the uncontrolled crossings. Luckily, it didn’t tend to go through after 11pm or too early in the morning. Otherwise, this is a peaceful corner of West Texas, and Marathon remains a cute little town. The campground is delightful, with a cactus garden and a chicken run to enjoy. The sites in the 50A section are conveniently situated east/west to mitigate the worst effects of the famous wind. We camped at Marathon Motel and RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

A resident cat sitting on one of our chairs:

Cat

Another resident cat:

Cat

A short-term neighbor brought their outdoor cat, which got into fights with the resident cats, and hid in our engine bay:

Cat

GIF of wild javelinas (aka peccaries) walking through our site:

GIF of javelinas

Aerial views of our site and the RV park:

Aerial view

This park is in a dark skies area, so there were lots of stars visible (I’ll have another post later with more aerial photos and star pics):

Stars

A tiny home and covered RV across the road from the campground; if we ever buy land again, we might do something like this:

Tiny home and covered RV across the road

Other sites:

Other sites

Laundromat:

Laundromat

Outdoor showers and kitchen:

Outdoor showers and kitchen

Restroom:

Restroom

Bathrooms and motel room:

Bathrooms and motel room

More motel rooms:

Motel rooms

Historic signs:

Historic sign

Entrance and sign

The train track is across the road from the RV park, with an uncontrolled crossing right there, so the trains honk their horns several times:

Train

A nice courtyard:

Courtyard

Rita’s Cantina, which was closed last time and is still closed; they just can’t get the staff to open it:

Rita's Cantina

An RV park resident hosts star parties a few times each week:

Sky party area

Sky party

A desert garden area:

Garden

I enjoyed hanging out with the resident chickens:

Chicken coop

Despite the train noise, we still enjoy this RV park and town, and no doubt will be back again in the future.

Baseball: San Diego Padres vs Los Angeles Dodgers NLDS game 5

We happened to be in Los Angeles during the baseball postseason, and managed to snag some nosebleed seats for game 5 of the National League Division Series. It was between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, playing at the Dodger’s ballpark, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. Bonus baseball park for 2024!

NLDS Game 5—Dodgers won and advanced to the NLCS against the Mets. We sat in the top row of the top deck along the first base side. Parking was a nightmare, and finding the car afterward was even worse. Kiké Hernandez hit a homer in the 2nd, and Teoscar Hernandez hit a homer in the 7th—that was enough. The Padres’ bats were quiet, unlike the fans. Fierce rivalry and lots of booing for the visitors. Beautiful view of the Hollywood hills—the sign and Griffith Observatory. The mid-century architecture and artwork are a lot of fun.

Dodger Stadium