A man and his toys!

A neighborly camper has a towing vehicle to impress! He can carry his motorcycle and his smart car on the back of his rig and connect up to his fifth wheel camper! Very impressive!

Spanish missions

Five Spanish missions form a UNESCO World Heritage site on a 10 mile trail running from the Alamo south toward's Mexico. Each mission features a compound, a church, stores, workshop and an attempt to assimilate native Indians into the Spanish state and Catholic church structure which sadly failed over a century because of the native's lack of immunity to European diseases.

San Antonio RiverWalk

Nothing quite like a river running through a city and walkways on either side with restaurants and entertainment! A lot of architectural skill and development initiative has created a mega attraction! We shared our evening out with hordes of computer gaming convention attendees all dressed up in gaming character costumes!!!

The Alamo

At the heart of the Texas emotional psyche, the Alamo defines the sacrifice it took to start a nation. A 189 volunteers defended the fort against a ten fold larger Mexican army under Santa Anna and all were killed or executed after a ten day battle and siege including Davy Crokett and Jim Bowie. A shrine to the spirit of the Texas frontier of 1836....

Mid afternoon treat!

After some 4 miles of walking around New Orleans French Quarter we took an iconic treat and mid-afternoon break at the Cafe du Monde, what else but coffee and beignets. The beignets reminded me of lardy cakes drenched in confectionary sugar and the coffee was awful - back to Nuage Volant for a real espresso!

It's Beignet Time!

Quick whirlwind 8 hours in NOLA with a mid afternoon coffee and beignet at the Cafe du Monde. Lunch at Cochon Butcher, visit to two NPS sites on Decatur and in the Old Mint, tour the Katrina exhibit at the Presbytere, a walk through the Old French Market, finish off with happy hour 50 cent oysters at Superior Seafood!

Sitting out a tornado alert

The vicious front came west and we were heading east and the two collided or at least we chose to hide in a truck stop and sit it out near Tallahassee and catch up on email. The good news is we are crossing the time zone line in a few minutes so we might not have any lost any time at all! I'm beginning to believe that this is leak test for the Airstream!

Sanibel Gulf of Mexico

Leaving the Keys and visiting Naples on Florida's west coast we did a side trip to Sanibel to check 2018 winter camping options! Not much water side choice, very crowded, reservations in short supply nevertheless very beautiful. Walked the beach at Sanibel lighthouse and admired the sunset....

Pieces of eight!

In 1985 Mel Fisher discovered the Nuestra Senora de Atocha Spanish treasure galleon sunk in 1622 in a hurricane off Marquesa Keys near Key West and he raised some $450 million of treasures with some 40 tons of gold, silver and jewels! The ultimate treasure story at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West!

Key West specialty!

Stone crab claws for dinner tonight! Amazing that the stone crabs are caught, their claws removed, and the crab is returned to the waters where in two years new claws will grow back! No crab killed in the process!

1,000,000 views!

I've been patiently contributing location photos (over 3,000) to Google for a few years and was happily informed this week that over a million views had been reached! I'll celebrate! Interesting that the most highly viewed dozen or so locations are all in Bermuda!

Wind pipes

Garden club of Key West has a small park in an ancient Martello tower fort which they have beautifully converted to a free garden full of local flora. These wind pipe tubes stand on the southern edge of the garden and are tuned to different horn frequencies fluctuating as the ocean breeze gusts across the beach. Something to try at home!!!

Louie's Backyard

One of our Key West favorites, get there just after 5pm, drink on the patio ocean side watching the always spectacular sun set, then move to a outside dining table and enjoy Key West's best chef seafood - between us we had grouper, tuna, scallops and shrimp - and other delights! This is an annual tradition this year with Leigh and Debbie, our Tappahannock RVing buddies!

Geiger Key Marina site #14...

Two dozen oysters for lunch!

I wasn't really counting but I did dispatch the whole bag!

Seaplane trip to Dry Tortugas

The way to make this trip special is to catch the 8 am flight by seaplane from Key West airport and be the first on the Dry Tortugas for at least a couple hours before the catamaran ferry appears with the hordes. You get to walk the huge Fort Jefferson around the top of the unprotected parapets and then go back to sea level to walk the bird sanctuary beaches. It's a testament to technology that this fort became obsolete as the civil war armaments industry developed and adopted the rifled barrel guns which could destroy the brick walls of the fort at much greater distances than cannon balls! The fort ended up being a prison for deserters. It's a tad pricier to fly to Dry Tortuga than take the ferry but I think its well worth the extra expense especially if there is a rough sea or big swell out there which makes the long ferry ride very uncomfortable. Flew over the Spanish galleon Atocha wreck made famous by Mel Fisher and the recovery of $450 million in treasure but the water visibility was too cloudy to see much.  

Sitting on the dock of the bay...

It's Key West and its lunchtime! Pulled out a insulating sleeve that had Ben & Bri NOLA wedding date on it! Lovely memories!

The Pleasure of Grilling!

Start with regular charcoal and after 30 minutes introduce a layer of oak, mesquite or hickory and let the flames die down to embers... then drop on steak, lamb, duck, salmon, grouper whatever the plat du jour is today! High intense grilling and a distinctive taste! Love that Yakatori Japanese earthenware portable grill!

Santiago's Bodega

Super dining tapas style restaurant in downtown Key West... between us we had six small plates and shared some and some because they had a Margaret allergic component I had to eat it all! Came away with some great ideas for dishes I will be constructing in the next few days! Visited here a couple of years ago and since then has become one of the top 3 dining destination in town!

Three dog visit!

Leigh and Debbie are also in the Keys at Big Pine Key and dropped in to visit on their way to Key West in company of their three toy poodles. Everyone at the fish camp is dog friendly including accidentally dropping the odd French fries off the table and providing dog water bowls!

Long range boost !

Communications are a pain on the road with low cellular bars in far away camp sites and low wifi signal strength. Help is at hand! Installed a wifi booster antenna and amplifier that finds wifi sources over a quarter mile away and the cell booster improves marginal signals - both are rebroadcast within the Airstream with internal antennas! Stay in touch and grab it out of thin air!

Another check off the bucket list

Stopped to use up a spare half an hour before our dinner res with a drink at Sandy's bar on Duval Street in Key West! At 6:30pm it really had not started even warming up yet! Maybe there was no cruise ship in harbor tonight!

Mandatory sunset picture

Checking out the sunset without green flash from the most southerly point in the continental USA...

One of those things!!

Quick detour on our 15 minute evening walk to the Bliss Restaurant in Key West took us to the most southerly point in the continental USA...

Peace at last!

Ultimate travel comforts using our DirecTV home receiver with a portable dish antenna.... along with Tiki hut, waterfront camping and great weather! A hour of detailed azimuth, elevation and skew alignments based on latitude longitude and bingo - tennis channel in all its glory! Australian open about to start and Roger Federer is playing at Perth Hopman cup, a pre Melbourne tournament....