Today, was a 26 hour day (of sorts).  First we had Daylight Savings hour gain and then we moved from Eastern to Central Time zone to gain the second hour.  That was a good thing, because it got us into the Big Easy before the New Orleans Saints won their home game against Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who thoroughly thrashed them last time). We passed through Alabama (where we saw a re-emergence of fall foliage color) and Mississippi (which had the most lovely and friendly Tourist Welcome Center EVER – all decorated like a mansion, free coffee, Elvis and movies to watch. It made me feel bad that we were only passing through).

In New Orleans, we didn’t see too much destruction left, but there was evidence of re-building remnants and conspicuous signs indicating that the refurbishing was paid for by state dollars with 0 dollars from the Feds (meant to be a slap in the face, I am sure). We will see what downtown area looks like tonight and will likely not get to see the 9th Ward, which got the worst of it and the least support to date because it generally is not the wealthy or touristy location.

I was deterimined to visit Cafe Du Monde for their beignets and cafe au lait.  To my delight, they have franchised, so we found one on the way to our campground and I had my indulgence fulfilled ahead of schedule.  I know it was a naughty lunch, but they are SO good.

We hear that tonight will be a wild one in the French Quarter because they won.  We came all this way, so we decided to walk a little on the wild side so we are taking a shuttle to the Natchez Riverboat Jazz cruise and then go to the French Quarter to follow.  We likely will stay on Bourbon Street, as advised – the darker the street gets the seedier and more dangerous the neighborhood becomes.  We thought the bayou was scarey – but that doesn’t compare to the FQ at night.  Even the walking tours are cancelled due to the congestion – but I guess this is the closest we will get to the Mardi Gras feel (unless we go to the Rio). I will post more photos and “The Rest of the Story” tomorrow after our night on the town.

Our Night on the Town:

We enjoyed the River-Boat cruise music and the scenery – the food, not so much, your typical “buffet”.  But we had quite a good time cruising the Mississippi in the paddle-boat, hearing the history, seeing the engine room, feeling the night breeze and watching the big ships and the lights on New Orleans at night.

We were told to stick to Bourbon Street as the safest option.  Not sure that was the best advice because it wasn’t our scene.  Raunchy only goes so far if you are not a participant and only a spectator.   We did find a few nicer Jazz joints and Music Preservation Park – but there were no seats and the loud music from the bars and strip joints drowned out the real musicians. However, we did enjoy what little we did get to see and got some inspiration for the day from a Louie Armstrong standard “It’s a Wonderful World”.

 I did see more drunk and provocative situations than we see in Vegas – likely because the area is more compressed and the sexual overtones are more overt and mixed in with the regular venues.  To top off our night, we got a cab driver who got lost and did the same circuit twice (about 20 miles each time) before he would listen to our directions.  I know that you are thinking that he was trying to rip us off, but we actually had a flat rate agreement with our campground and there was no meter running, so it actually was costing him money…what is it about men stopping to ask directions??  Turns out his dispatcher knew exactly where to send him, if he had just asked.  Oh well, I guess you could say that we got an extra tour for free and saw the Mercedez-Benz Dome (aka the SuperDome) all repaired and illuminated with changing lights – it was pretty. Tomorrow, we head for Texas – Yee Haw!

When the sun rose this morning, we could finally see Lake Walenda, which we missed last night because we arrived in the dark. A mist was just rising off the water as the sun rose and gave a pink hue to the clouds.  I walked out on their dock and saw lily-pads and water grasses that hid small fish that wriggled just below the surface. After awhile, I saw objects moving in the water in the distance and was not sure if it was a water snake, alligator or schools of fish. Larger fish opened their mouths just at the water’s surface to gulp down unsuspecting bugs and then submerged, sending concentric circles of ripples radiating out across the water.  Brown squirrels chased each other up tree trunks and over adjacent limbs while chattering and dropping pine-cones and acorns to the ground.  I heard two birds calling from opposite sides of the lake – an unusual gawking, not particularly melodious – but I could not find them visually. It was a peaceful time since hardly anyone was out yet and I enjoyed the solitude and nature.

Since we had pie last night, we decided to have grapefruit this morning – hoping in some way that the calories would balance to the negative…Then we pulled up stakes and started toward I-10. Northern Florida had its fair share of farmland and pastures.  We passed an Inmate Work Farm (reminded me of Cool Hand Luke) and stopped at a Citrus Center to buy more fruit and “stuff” and to see their 30-FT ALLIGATOR!  They forgot to mention on the billboard (replica)…but we enjoyed the stop anyhow.  Shortly after that we left I-75 and crossed to the 10 West – our official turn towards home.  We still have about 2500 miles to go (so don’t stop reading now) and many more stories to tell.  But, we are already looking forward to seeing those we left behind and getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Tonight we are in Chattahoochee, Florida (don’t you just love that name?) and having steak, mushrooms, sliced tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob and baked potatoes for dinner – maybe we won’t have to eat grapefruit tomorrow – but we have some in stock if we decide to eat dessert!

We also would like to introduce you to Midnight – we are not sure that is her name – but for tonight, that’s it.  She has adopted us and is quite affectionate – a little slice of home for her and for us (miss you Lotus).  I think she makes the campground rounds – but has found us the best of the lot (and we haven’t even fed or coaxed her).  Like all of us – she just likes a good rub-down and a friendly smile – WOTD.

We left the comforts of home back in North Port and restarted our trek.  A short distance away was the Ringling Museum and Residence, so we decided to pay it a visit.  We are SO glad that we did.  The lawns and gardens were immaculate and lush.  The physical accomodations and the staff were helpful and friendly.  The displays were awesome and the home oppulent, decadent and ostentatious.

Most enjoyable was the minature reproduction of the circus in its heyday which was done over the course of 50 years by Howard Tibbals.  He provides our quote of the day: “The tedious goes with the easy – just like all of life”.  The attraction spans a huge expanse of display and not only shows the big top and its wonders, but also gives equal attention to the background of the set-up, animal care, commisary, dressing rooms, side shows and living accomodations of the performers and crew.  It re-enacts the flurry of activity that would accompany the arrival of the circus to a town, the set up, the actual one-day performance and the tear-down and move to the next town.  The attention to detail, the colors and spectacle and the sheer amount of individual pieces that come together to create this wonder are awe-inspiring.  If you are ever in Sarasota, Fl – we would highly recommend that you stop.

In addition to the model, there are real circus memorbilia, props, photos and footage of performers.  Many of the iconic performers are profiled and there are many elaborate costumes and wagons and calliopes and train cars and instruments to see.  As you can imagine, clowns are were a focus and many of the classic characters and their props were featured.  Much attention was also given to the daredevils, acrobats, wire walkers, jugglers, trapeze artists, animal trainers and even the ringmasters.  You take photos all day in this place (and I did my fair share!) the colors are vibrant and the unusual and rare artifacts give you a chance to re-live a time when many of us were not even alive.  We looked at a timeline and saw that the pinnacle of the circus as a spectacle peaked even before Dad was born (1936) and had just about completely died out (as this great moveable city with all its pomp and community excitement and its great tents) by the time I was born. Although we have circus today, its renaisance period has long passed and it is a mere shadow of its former self. This museum brings it all back to life again.

Well, after seeing all those clowns get pies in the face, we decided to get some pie IN our face. We traveled to Yoder’s Amish restaurant with its 15 kinds of crust baked pies and and equal number of cream pies!  Decisions, decisions….Dad asked for mincemeat but they didn’t have that, so he got pumpkin which was a creamy custard about 3 inches tall with a flaky crust.  I looked at them all and pondered between rhubarb and strawberry – rhubarb won out (as I knew it would) and I had it warmed, but left out the ice cream.  It, too, had a flaky crust and lots of filling which was just tart enough, just sweet enough.  I am so glad this place is NOT in Vegas!  We did not throw our pie at each other – can’t let good pie go to waste – we shared and ate every crumb.  On the way out, it was so tempting to buy more pie to go – but we resisted and got some citrus variety (it IS Florida, after all) and some other fresh fruits and veggies.

The trip to Silver Springs on I-75 was frustrating because of two traffic jams(reason unknown) that delayed our arrival by over 2 hours.  So, we had to hook up in the dark.  But, we are settled in now and Dad is reading and I am blogging – all is back to normal.  I told you that I had a TON of circus picks – if you want to see them (and other pics of the day), please click on this link and see the file on Snapfish (it is free and you can choose to view it as a slideshow: http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4738029028/a=1074716028_1074716028/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Spent the better part of today trying to get the photos uploaded to the blog.  Had to figure out an alternate pathway – finally got them all up to date and feel a great relief and sense of accomplishment – reconnected to the cyber-world again (for now).

Dad had some downtime, so he got out his tool set and reconnected the curtain in the RV that had been disconnected since Day 1 of our trip.  That had been bothering him and now it is fixed.

Had a visit from my cousin and we had more time today to reconnect today and shared some memories like Santa coming to our house on Christmas Eve and sledding down the 4th street hill.

I got to reconnect with a friend and past co-worker who I hadn’t seen in quite awhile.  She picked me up in her convertible sports car and we drove to the coast just before sunset to share drinks and dinner and catch up on events in each other’s lives. Thoroughly enjoyed seeing her again and appreciated her taking the time to drive down here for the visit.  Hope it won’t be so long until we talk again. Maria – this qupote of the day is for you: One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach; one can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few.

All in all, it was an accomplished and satisfying day.