The Trip Home

Bob and I left Pickensville and headed south about 70 miles to Demopolis, Alabama. We stopped at a Corps of Engineer campground in Forkland just north of Demopolis. Once again we had a great waterfront site! This site is on a creek!
Bob downloaded caches and off we went to explore the town. The first thing we noticed was a statue commemorating confederate soldiers located in the middle of a downtown street.
This fountain was in a park downtown. Yes, there was a cache nearby.

We left the downtown area and found a cache at a nightclub similar to 'The Barn' in Sanford. This riding lawnmower was displayed in front of this barn.
The town of Demopolis has many old houses. We planned to visit a few on our second day, but mother nature had a different idea. It poured rain the entire day and night. That was when the bad weather moved through southern Alabama and west Florida at the end of March.

The third morning was dry (no rain falling, but the ground was soggy) so we packed up and headed south to Claiborne Dam and Lock on the Alabama River near Monroeville, Alabama.

We stopped there for one night before heading to Ft. Walton Beach to visit our friends we met in Idaho last May.

Yes, it was another Corps of Engineer campground with a site right by the river.

We had a great view of the dam from our site. The water was high due to all the rain and the lock didn't look like it had much of a drop because of the high water!
The bad weather was supposed to hang over the area so we only stayed one night before moving on to Ft. Walton Beach.

Our drive to Ft. Walton was a soggy one. Thank heavens it wasn't a long drive. We took the scenic route (as always) through Blackwater River State Forest.

To thank Ira and Mary for their hospitality we took them to Staff's for dinner Friday night. Staff's is one of the oldest seafood restaurants in the Ft. Walton area. We all had a great time--the food was good and the company was even better.

Saturday night we met with the 'Garage People.' This time they were celebrating birthdays. Sidney, Tom and Crystal had birthdays in March. Sidney is Mary and Ira's oldest son, Tom is their son-in-law and Crystal is a good friend.

Sunday morning we left Ft. Walton to head toward home. We stopped in Chiefland for the night at a Passport America park. We drove to Cedar Key to see how it had changed since our last visit (over 5 years). The rv park we stayed in on the island is no longer there. The lot has been cleared and 3 houses are crammed in the northwest corner. The rest of the lot is empty! We knew the Brown Pelican restaurant had closed, but the building still houses a restaurant and we can say that the food is as good as it was when it was the Brown Pelican!

Bob and I arrived home on Monday, March 30. It was good to be home, but we both could have stayed on the road a while longer!