BACK EAST TRIP, PART 3 ~~ DAY 5, JUNE 02 & DAY 6, JUNE 03

BACK EAST TRIP, PART 3

DAY 5, JUNE 02

We are getting so close to our destination that we can almost taste it. On Day 5 we travelled from New Braunfels, TX (which is close to San Antonio) to Mobile, AL. We rode over a huge body of water in Louisiana called the Atchafalaya River Basin (click on the name for link). Traffic was stopped on this bridge going over that swampland, so we got some good pictures of it out the window. The bridge went on for what seemed like forever. Later, looking at a map (click here), we could understand why as it covers a wide area. There's lots of water in the South!

Atchafalaya River Basin

Pushing on through the state of Louisiana we eventually came to another huge body of water, the Mississippi River. We crossed over this river near Baton Rouge (click here for map), about halfway through the part of Louisiana that I-10 traverses. Once we left Louisiana, we found ourselves in the state of Mississippi.

Mississippi River Bridge

It didn't take us too long to go through Mississippi and then not too far over the border we entered into Mobile, AL, our stop for the night. The next day, a short day of driving, we would reach our goal!

Mobile, AL

DAY 6, JUNE 03

We departed Mobile the next morning, excited to have our journey almost over. I could not believe I was actually going to see my sister that day, since it had been about 16 years when we last saw each other!

Leaving Mobile, we came upon the ‎⁨USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park⁩ (click on the name for link), which was parked right beside the Interstate. I could not resist taking a picture of this huge battleship.

USS Alabama

Photo opportunities on this day of driving were few and far between. The scenery for the most part consisted of the Interstate highway with tall pine trees on either side. It seemed like no time before we entered into Florida and found ourselves crossing the Escambia Bay Bridge over the Gulf of Mexico (click here for link). More water! We could also see evidence of where Hurricane Michael passed through this area last October. Large areas of trees were down on the ground, completely uprooted, or else snapped off. I can only imagine how scary that must have been for the people living there.

Crossing over into Florida

After stopping for lunch we pressed on towards Jacksonville. After much anticipation, we arrived in Jacksonville mid-afternoon. The most wonderful sight of the entire trip was when I saw my sister coming out of her front door! I couldn't believe we had made it!

Me (left) and my sister (right)

As we were standing around in the driveway talking, I asked, "What is that noise?"

"Cicadas," was the answer. Oh, how I have missed hearing this sound since we moved to Washington State, because there are no cicadas in Yakima. I've often told Linda that I always called it "the sound of summer" due to the fact that they only start up once it gets hot, so you know that summer has arrived for sure. However, I do not remember them being quite this loud! It was almost deafening, making it hard to carry on a conversation. We soon convened to inside the house, where it was cooler and quieter, and Linda and I were introduced to Summer Girl's cousin, Indigo (AKA Indy). Later we were treated to a very welcome Gin & Tonic after all those evenings of having beer. Our driving was done for now and we would get down to the business of having a couple of weeks vacation in Florida.

Indigo

I have had some inquiries as to why Summer Girl is not on the blog for now. I thought it best to leave her out of the trip blog because she was back at home in Yakima, doing her thing with no one there to take pictures of her. Rest assured, she will be back once the Back East Trip blogs are done. She has not been too happy about being left out, but understands the reason why.

I hope you can join us again next week as I try to condense our two-week stay in Jacksonville into one blog. Let's see if I can do it! See you then!