We drove to an outlet mall west of Houston, following the Farm to Market roads.  Bought Lucchese boots for both of us.  Deb bought clothes at Talbots, Jim a satchel bag at Tumi.  Franky’s hot dogs.  RV stuff at Toppers.  Back to camp.  Sirloin steak, broccoli and potatoes.

Broke camp, filled propane tank, headed west on I-10.  Drove through downtown Houston;  we’ve never seen so many Jersey barriers in our lives!  Along the way we had breakfast bowls at a Waffle House.  The overage (huge bowls of food) will be breakfast tomorrow.  I-10 was crowded even on Sunday.  We can only imagine what it’s like on a workday.  Houston is purely ugly.  We finally got past Houston.  Our fuel gage went to the warning level, but there was at least five gallons left in the tank.  Fuel was cheaper west of Houston.  The Steven F Austin SP is very nice.  Flat pull-through sites on a loop, wooded with shade.

Woke early due to the shift in time zones.  Coffee and a day in place.  Walked over to the Bass Pro Shop and spent an enjoyable 90 minutes shopping.  Looked at a Yeti 24 wine cooler; a Lodge grill to fit on our gas grill; bought Jim sand shoes and a polo shirt; bought Deb tees/ shrug and tackle boxes for embroidery stuff. Back to the KOA for a walk and a pleasant day.

We ate a quick breakfast and were on the road by 0814CT.  We rode I-10 west nearly to Baton Rouge.  We stopped at the Alabama border for a map (shifting to Central time zone), somewhere for diesel and some rest areas for a break.  Got to the Amazon locker at Denham Springs to pick up the windshield external cover.  Shopped at a Rouses supermarket, then drove a few miles farther west to the KOA, which has a very nice layout.  We took a walk, but then rain started so we ran back to the RV.  Steak dinner cooked on the stove.  Chilly temperatures since we’ve passed through a cold front.

We woke to heavy mist and cardinals chirping.  Ochlockonee is really a nice SP.  We headed to Niceville to visit Aunt Sue and Uncle Bruce.  Sopchoppy is known for its Worm Grunting Festival and associated King/ Queen of the festival.  Would you want to be the Worm Grunting Queen?

The GPS kept wanting us to turn onto sand forest roads to cut the corner, but we stayed on the hard top.  We had an easy ride on FL20 through sand hills and pine trees.  We arrived at the home of Sue and Bruce around noon.  Bruce took us to lunch while Sue did an online meeting.  We had fish and shrimp tacos at Wharf 850 on Boggy Bayou.  We listened to jets from Eglin AFB (the sound of freedom).  Back home, we caught up on family news, did some laptop work and went to bed. 

Dropped the rental car in Sanford, and then headed to Sopchoppy/ Ochlockonee SP.  “O clock o knee.”  Driving direction was north on I-4 to westerly roads.  Much kinder than the interstate.  Lots of state forest and a huge section west of Ocala that had huge horse farms.  The SP is on a river in the middle of a managed forest.  We took a walk, seeing white tailed deer, squirrels.  Cooked chicken with satay sauce.  Watched cooking shows on local PBS channel.

2/18: After coffee and breakfast, we completed the SunPass setup and put the rental car on it.  Jim worked on Chatham Cares matters for an hour.  Then drove to the Villages Pharmacy and picked up the Amazon package we had delivered there:  bicycle chain/ lock, tablet case for Deb and a Lodge dutch oven.  Back to the RV.  Drove to Sanford where Jim retrieved his new eyeglasses.  Picked up Elizabeth and Andrew at their home, then found a parking place about 20 blocks away.  Dinner at Hollenbach’s German restaurant:  sausage and pork, plus sauerkraut and Octoberfest beer.  After dinner we walked around the bar and restaurant area and also to the St. John’s River waterfront.  Sanford is a really nifty town, just starting to gentrify.  Andrew’s house is right on the edge of that activity, so will be a good long term investment.  Dropped Biz and Andrew at their home, then back to the RV.

2/19: Jim attended the NCGS Board meeting online from 10am to 2pm.  Mike and Milly drove up from Haines City, arriving about 1330.  after Jim signed off, we chatted a bit, then drove into Eustis for lunch at “The Crazy Gator.”  Pretty good fish sandwiches (striped panguesis was the fish), fried pickles and calamari sticks.  Restaurant was right on Lake Eustis, and there was a set of walkways (lake walk) out away from shore, upon which we trod.  Lilly pads were on the shore and there were birds walking on them to find food.  Birds seen included the common gallinule, one purple gallinule and grackles.  Female grackles are brown and grey, shaped very much like the males.  Binged on HGTV.

2/20: Long walk around the RV park.  Drove to Walmart and Lowe’s Home Improvement for washers (screen door repair) and a battery powered vacuum.  Mt. Dora and Eustis are very crowded, as is everywhere in Florida we’ve seen except the horse and cattle country between towns. 

2/21: Left about 1030 and drove to Clearwater.  Beach was crowded with a lot of blue cabanas and very white sand.  Walked to condo rented by Mike and Jane after paying flat parking fee of $38.  Chatted with Mike and Jane, catching up on news of family and friends.  Drove to Dunedin for dinner.  Dunedin had a nice bar/ restaurant area like Sanford.  Back to our car after a rib dinner, then 2.5 hours drive back to RV.

Drove down a very windy, very rough I-95 thru Georgia (added SC-701 to our list of “roads to avoid”).  Stopped at a Florida Welcome Center for a map and a SunPass toll transponder.  Continued down I-95 to just south of Daytona Beach where we got onto I-4.  Picked up a rental car at Hertz Sanford, then cross-country to Eustis and the Southern Palms RV resort.  There probably are 1000 RV sites in this place.  Ours is on a corner with cable TV and usual services. 

@Ft Stewart.  We drove the coach to Ft Pulaski, a Civil War fort where Union rifled shells heralded the end of masonry forts.  Bombardment was from Tybee Island, well beyond the range of the Confederate smooth bore cannon.  Drove to Tybee Island and ate lunch at grill.  Walked down the beach.  Found our way to the Ft Stewart Xchange, then Walmart, as Deb’s tablet had died.  Bought a new Samsung at Walmart.  Dinner was andouille sausage, onions and tomato.

Heard reveille at 7am, and we slept on!  Rose about 9am.  Coffee and toast.  Made all preps for getting underway.  Drove to Ft Stewart, which is the biggest base we’ve ever been on.  Along the way, Lenscrafters called saying glasses were at Southpoint.  We asked them to ship them to a Lenscrafters at Sanford FL.  The campground is truly in the woods, accessed by driving the dam containing Holbrook Pond.  Cell coverage was poor (turned out to be a massive outage on the east coast) but the Wi-Fi was good enough for Wi-Fi calling.  We rode our bicycles around the campground a bit.  Chatted with a female SK1 (retired).  Butter chicken curry.