Author: vermontbuilder

We entered Northern Texas and soon noticed the land drying out, the pine forests disappearing, the rolling hills flattening out. Texas is HUGE, we drove all day and only made it less than halfway across the state. We stopped for the night in Sherman Texas, a midsize town full of strip malls and a few big box stores. What delighted us was the abundance of Mexican restaurants, the town had 16 to choose from. We stayed in a neat little cottage in the back yard of our hosts, a retired couple from Massachusetts. Their house was on a small lot in the center of town on a side street. We departed early the next morning. Avoiding Interstate highways, we traveled across Northern Texas enjoying their nice rest areas and oil rig dotted scenery. We soon we’re in the Southern Great Plains, vast ranches and an increasingly dry climate. The State provides livestock watering areas at the well kept rest areas. Even the men’s room tile work had a Texas motif, nice ! We ended the day in Amarillo Texas having climbed to a 3500 foot elevation as we approached the still invisible Rocky Mountains to the west. Our Airbnb was on a beautiful brick paved street lined with nice older homes, a great place to unwind after a epic drive across this giant state.

We left New Orleans and headed north diagonally across Louisiana , a big state. It took us 2 hours to climb out of the swamps and bayous along the coast. Although still very flat, the land started to show low rolling hills. It reminded us a lot of interior Alabama, cattle farms, sugar cane, pine forests, lots of churches, small neat farm towns, friendly polite people. Our destination was a cottage on a 1000 acre farm close to the Oklahoma border and Texas. Our gracious host provided us with snacks and even invited us to breakfast in her house, Southern hospitality at its best. A new solar system provides power much like ours in Vermont. Her flat fields looked like good hay. Karen made friends with Alma the cat.

We hired a private guide who drove us to a vast 120,000 acre swamp North of New Orleans. We kayaked deep into the swamp spending 4 hours exploring the waterways. The huge old Cypress and Tupelo trees were heavily draped with Spanish Moss giving the swamp a primordial look. The tea colored water was surprisingly clear. A channel meandered amongst the trees with weeds and grasses lining the edges, there was very little dry land. Singing birds filled the trees, numerous owls hunted prey, Bald eagles tended their nests . After a while I learned to spot the numerous alligators sunning themselves on logs or lurking in the weeds with just their eyes and nostrils sticking out of the water, they’re incredibly well camouflaged. The small ones vanished into the water when approached but the fearless big ones held their ground, the guide suggesting I not push my luck approaching them. The guide also recommended that we not paddle under the tree branches as we could accidentally knock off sunning snakes into our kayaks. Most of the snakes are deadly. We took his advice. We loved the chance to see and learn about this ecosystem that covers so

much of the Gulf.

We visited the Evergreen Plantation in Wallace Louisiana about 20 miles north of New Orleans on the Mississippi River. Originally built in 1790, the Plantation is the most intact slave Plantation remaining in the Deep South. Little has changed since over 150 black slaves raised sugar cane on its 2000 acres. Still an active sugar cane farm, the private owners wisely chose to preserve the buildings and surrounding areas used by the slaves. The main house, open to the public on certain dates, remains as it was from slave days. It’s in beautiful condition. The slave quarters are in opposing rows , each “cabin” held two extended families, occupying a single room with a fireplace. There are 20 cabins. The Plantation has a oral history of “benign ” slave holding by the owners, families were never separated nor were whippings and other physical punishment used. The direct descendants of the slaves occupied these cabins till 1950 when the Plantation discontinued the share croppers system.

The outbuildings included an elegant outhouse and a wonderful kitchen building separate from the mansion to keep fire danger and cooking heat away from the Master.

The tour staff was all black, with one older woman having the same name as the original Plantation owners. She is a descendant of some previous Master and proud of it.

This was a special day,

We arrived in New Orleans during spring flood, the mighty Mississippi was getting close to the top of Levies, As we always do in a port city, we wanted to spend some time out on the water to get a feel of the river. We chose a lunch time Jazz cruise on the Riverboat Natchez, a 100 year old steam powered classic. The music was great and the food was surprisingly good. Notice the house rooftops down below the river level, the streets are 15 feet below water level. The river was incredibly busy with ship and barge traffic, grain and coal from America’s heartland brought here on the river to be exported world wide.

Bourbon Street was half empty so the small Jazz clubs had plenty of room. We were amazed at the caliber of musicians playing, true pros and a wonderful experience. We could have spent more time in this beautiful city, we’ll be back.

Our Airbnb is what’s called a Shotgun House, one room wide, three rooms long. Our neighborhood had been completely flooded during Katrina requiring a complete rebuild of our house, it came out really nice. My truck just barely fit in the driveway, I squeezed it in and locked the gate. We felt secure in our inner city location, close to everything. We left our truck and took Uber to the French Quarter.

We departed the Florida panhandle heading west toward New Orleans . A five hour drive along the Gulf brought us back into Alabama . The state is primarily landlocked but has a 50 mile wide stretch that extends to the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Mississippi. Our Airbnb destination was 15 miles North of Mobile, Alabama’s major seaport. Stan , our host, is an Elementary school Principal and provided us with a very nice cottage nestled in the woods on his 4 acre piece of property in an upscale subdivision. His wife Tina brought us her homemade bread with a jar of her pimento cheese spread for breakfast, very kind of her. We wandered around paths thru their woods marveling at the exotic ecology, so different from our Vermont forest. I poked at fire ant nests and enjoyed the Magnolia trees and Loblolly pines with their 16″ pine needles. We stayed in the middle of the paths concerned about Rattle snakes and Water Moccasins hidden in the brush, didn’t see any. The weather is warm and muggy. At their urging, we awoke early to head to the coast where their daughter ( a high school senior) was participating in the annual Azalea festival. The Azaleas are in full blooms and their daughter had been chosen as a Azalea Trail Maiden, a highly coveted position as guide and welcoming host at a beautiful estate in the Bayou on the Gulf. These girls are chosen for academic achievement, community involvement, and high moral principles. The selected few are then coached on poise and etiquette. They must purchase their own dresses which are of considerable cost. The whole thing is right out of Gone With The Wind, but make no mistake, they are deadly serious about it and the parents are extremely proud of their chosen young ladies in their hoop skirts and parasols. We enjoyed chatting with the gals, none had ever seen snow. They were charming and a delight to behold. The estate and grounds were gorgeous and a National Historic Sight. The staff picture was taken during the Depression. The road to the Bayou was straight as an arrow and pancake flat, a very interesting drive.

Note: We stopped at a rest area in Pensacola Florida, near an major Naval airbase, that’s a real jet fighter mounted on a pole hanging over the parking lot.

We’ve traveled extensively in Florida in the past seeing both coasts and much of the Central part of the state. This is our first trip to the Panhandle. Unlike the rest of Florida, only the very coastline itself is built up, you travel 5 miles inland and all you’ll see is endless pine forests. A bit cooler than South Florida, spring and summer come a bit later here. After a long Vermont winter, the 75 degree weather feels great.

We stopped at Ponce de Leon State park for a picnic and to hike around the beautiful “Fountain of Youth” spring gushing out of the ground, the water temperature is 70 year round. Air was too cool for us to swim but what a nice picnic spot. As is true all over this state, we had to be careful of the Alligators.

We spent 5 days at St Andrews State Park, we really enjoyed it. The beaches are the nicest we’ve seen anywhere in Florida, crystal clear waters with almost pure white super fine sand. The campground and facilities were spotless with nice water views from our site. We finally slept in our camper, a nice snug refuge from the Tropical creepy crawlers slithering about. The deer were like pets, obviously well fed by campers. Raccoons and Armadillos appeared at night looking for food to steal, we kept all food in the truck. We set the tent up as a changing room and for storage, worked great. People were here from all over the Midwest and East but we were the only New Englanders. We’ve already driven more than 3000 miles.

After leaving Tennessee, we spent a night in North Western Georgia on a private gated estate. We enjoyed a private 2 bedroom cottage where the gracious and generous host even brought us breakfast. We left early to drive several hours south across rural Alabama taking state roads. This is cattle country, dotted with small family farms.

We had planned to spend 2 nights in Birmingham. We approached the city on back roads and found ourselves lost in the industrial side of town. Our GPS soon guided us into the segregated black side of town. We were hopelessly lost. We were surrounded by MILES of the most severe urban poverty we’ve ever witnessed in a Western country. The shocking condition of the tiny single family houses would be condemned as unsuitable for human occupation in any other American city ( I hope). . The poor inhabitants are living in rotting collapsing shacks where the city’s inspectors obviously look the other way. We were horrified and shaken by the abject poverty surrounding us. We finally found our way out of this vast ghetto, only a short distance from city center where our Airbnb was. We arrived at our pleasant Carriage House but were disturbed and frightened by what we had witnessed. I’m sure Birmingham has much to offer but what we saw made us feel unsafe. This grimy industrial city has some big problems. We are going to do a bit of sightseeing and depart after one night. I couldn’t bring myself to photograph the poverty, it didn’t seem right.

We traveled east across Tennessee to visit our old friends from Vermont. They have settled in Appalachian Mountains in their beautiful new home they’ve built themselves. Their home sits nestled amongst the towering peaks of some of the tallest mountains east of the Rockies. At 3500 foot elevation, their home is dwarfed by the surrounding 6000 foot peaks. At this elevation, the summers are cooler than the sultry heat of the surrounding southern lowlands. This cooler weather has attracted the Coastal Elites from the steaming urban areas in North and South Carolina, Washington DC too. They’ve have created secluded private, gated ( often with guards) communities filled with palatial multi million dollar estates. The Eastern Tennessee Mountains are filled with these over the top McMansions , pumping much needed money into this remote region.

Our friends home sits on a ridge surrounded by locally owned family cattle farms , the friendly locals have welcomed them as regular folks. My friends living room is filled with game trophies ( not his ), note the buffalo head on the wall. The look and feel of this beautiful area reminds us of Vermont. We drove a few miles to dinner in North California .