test post

Hello everyone.

This is a test of posting from kindle.

The top photo is the Esperanza shrub as taken on the kindle.
The bottom photo is a fuschia from the last day of the Camino Frances in 2014.

Day 3: Ocala

Hello, everyone.

We left Gulf Shores, after a really enjoyable night and morning stroll, and drove down the road.

We encountered signs saying "Stennis Exclusion Zone" but didn't feel excluded by anything...unless you count the endless green tunnel that is Interstate 10. (They planted it with a wall of pines years ago, which has since grown up a very thick understory. Sometimes there will be a tree or shrub that one recognizes--at 80 MPH--as a Native Magnolia or possibly an invasive Chinese Tallow tree. Mostly there is just the endless wall of green, and no view of the landscape at all beyond it.)

We stopped for a small bathroom break at the Mississippi Welcome Center.

The magnolia trees are blooming!

I saw the spare Lunar Module at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum years ago. It looked like an excessively delicate construction of Saran Wrap, tinfoil, and Tinkertoys. This practice model looks sturdier. 

Explanatory sign.

They had free hot dogs, too! One of the state parks had set up a temporary free food stand so people would take their pamphlets and consider playing in the waterfall there.

We made it to Ocala, which, it turned out, was quite close to other places on our list. But we found a La Quinta and settled in for the night. After going out for dinner and to score a bottle of Spanish wine, if we could find it.

En route to finding dinner, we stopped at the local liquor store in hopes of a nice bottle of Spanish wine: ABC Liquors. The name didn't make us optomistic, but once in side we were pleasantly surprised. They had an excellent wine selection, and there were sales guys around the place, too. The wine guy was very helpful, and he introduced us to a wine called Temperamento Bobal, from the Pyrenees I think. It turned out to be a very dark red with lots of grape skin in it, but good flavor. And flavor is what it's about, IMHO.

We ate at a place called Cody's Roadhouse. This was not a cheap hamburger joint, it was a moderately priced steak joint instead. The waitress was proud to tell us that they make all their sauces in-house. (And the dressing and the cinnamon butter were good.) The tossed salad had a pleasant surprise: briny little green peppers, just a little bit piquant, but not so hot to qualify as "picoso." DH opined that their garlic-mash potato dish was overseasoned. As I don't eat much potato any more, I had chosen the steamed vegetables, and they were really good.

Enjoying our trip, day 2

Hello, everyone.

When we left Beaumont, we drove along the coast, stopping at the Welcome Centers the various states have built at the state lines. We got maps and a collection of brochures at them. (The lady at the Louisiana one was very friendly, informative, and helpful. She found for me a couple of magazines with recipes  printed for various Louisiana foods. Also, the Louisiana welcome center had free coffee.)

The Alabama welcome center is currently not where it is supposed to be. We saw the "remodeling project" from the highway, and it looks like they tore the building down to its concrete foundation pad! The temporary digs are in a town at the outskirts of Mobile. The ladies there are friendly and helpful, too.

We stayed in Gulf Shores that night.

Dawn from the balcony of our suite

As you can see, the sand at Gulf Shores isn't as brown as the sand at South Padre Island, Texas, nor is it as coarse and white as the sand at Destin, Florida.

The hotel we stayed at: Phoenix All Suites Hotel.

Little birdie getting his breakfast at the incoming morning tide.

We tried some Alabama wine--the liquor store only had in-state wine, and we got the driest one we could see on their little shelf unit. It was drinkable, but I can't really say I like it. Most of the offerings were "sweet Muscadine table wine" and I just don't like the sweet wines. YMMV.

We got some really good fried whitefish at the Shrimp Basket (I think that's the name of that chain) and DH had shrimp grits. I thought the shrimp grits were tasty but a bit on the thick side--I really liked my fried fish, however. This chain food place served its wine (an anonymous white Zin) in plastic punch cups, the kind you use for kids' parties. I don't think it hurt the wine any--but it didn't help it either.

The next morning, after taking about a mile walk on the sand in the early light, we stopped for coffee at the local Krispy Kreme and headed out. They make good coffee at Krispy Kreme!

Now I have the pictures...

Hello, everyone.

I promised pictures from Beaumont, Texas a few days back, and I can put them up now. (The first attempt to post pictures disappeared into the void. Thanks, La Quinta computers!)

We got to Beaumont around 3 PM, after a smooth drive that even went through Houston without any real traffic trouble. Before we got together with friends, we drove around looking for a hike-able bit of the Big Thicket. That didn't work out. The parklike reservation is chopped up into a lot of different pieces and many of them are just the streambanks on the local rivers and creeks, with no real access. Guess I had to have had a boat.

We drove over to Tyrell Park and discovered the Botanical Garden instead. (Y'all may have noticed that I'm a bit of a flower nut.) This was peaceful and beautiful and very relaxing.

The sign at the entrance to the greenhouse part. Note the artichoke plants at the base of the tree!

Slipper type orchids in pots in the greenhouse.

Cattleya type orchids in a pot in the greenhouse

They had two ponds of koi in the greenhouse. These are the larger ones.

Outside, they had planted a wooden arbor with pretty, pink climbing roses.

Bromeliad in blossom, in one of the planting beds on the grounds.

On the road again...the stuck post rediscovered!

Hello, everyone. (This is from Sunday, May 3, 2015--and the pictures I tried to upload got stuck in a forever freeze. Soon!)


We're traveling to visit DD1 and en route we visited Beaumont, Texas.


Beaumont is a good-sized city east of Houston and west of Lake Charles, Louisiana. We stayed at the La Quinta there--pleasant place, clean room--and we strolled through the Botanical Gardens there at Tyrell Park.

We stayed at the La Quinta there. Friends in town took us to a lovely restaurant called White Horse, where the food was excellent.

Pictures from the botanical garden in Beaumont are coming soon.

Update!

Hello, everyone!

I am on the road just now, not even in my home state, but I wanted to post this small update.

There will be pictures in a few days, when I get home! (Or sooner if I can figure out how to upload on hotel computers.)

We were blessed to attend the graduation of DD1 and the baptism of GS1, both on the same weekend, in Miami.

And there are some pretty pictures of flowers, too.

Quick rundown: Beaumont, Texas, Miami, Ocala National Forest (where we got very up close and personal with WAY TOO MANY voracious ticks and chiggers!). The Floridians grow their creepy crawlies to be very aggressive. Don't stop to take a picture there. Or at least remember all that paranoid advice about drenching your socks and shoes in bug repellant.

(I'd put up a picture right now, but this is the best internet luck I've had in days and days and so I didn't even bring the camera chip and reader with me to put something up. Soon! I promise.)

Just because

Hello, everyone.

I have some pictures that aren't really topical to anything, well, except flowers in springtime, that I wanted to share.

Dill, saved from where it sprouted in the grass

Buds of the African Iris plant

Blossoms of the African Iris. They are only open for a day or so.

Pecans!

Feijoa. This bush has really appreciated all the rain we've been getting.

A rose for all the moms

It was a late, chilly winter, but without a freeze. Then the spring has been wet and late. All the flowers are loving it! (Mosquitoes too, of course. But DH rebuilt the Purple Martin house and we have three or four pairs that have moved into it. Things are looking up on the bug front.)