Texas, MS, AL, and FL

10/3/2008 TX, MS, AL, FL
After leaving the "picnic" area east of Houston, TX we are fairly close the Gulf of Mexico, We have passed a couple of refineries, but in Beaumont, TX there are several. You would think the gas would be cheaper around here, not so much.
Again, we are going through construction, adding more lanes or fixing the ones damaged from the hurricanes, not sure which. We pass about 10 miles of road work where the lanes are very narrow. On the shoulder, oh wait, there is no shoulder it is a cement wall. Since the motor home is taking up almost the entire lane, Carmen is a nervous since the only thing she can see of the road is the cement barrier. So I'm driving in the left lane as much as possible.

By 10:30am we are in LA. We cross the Mississippi river and almost miss it. There were no signs or we missed it, but it is a rather quick crossing. I think we were to busy looking at the big river boat gambling boats. Either way, we didn't even know we crossed the Mississippi river until afterwards.

The area along I-10 in Louisiana has a number of sugar cane crops, each many acres in size. Reminds me of the corn and soy crops we have seen along our journey. It is interesting, that where oil is drilled for fuel, sugar cane is also used for the same thing.

All through LA you can plainly see evidence of the hurricanes that have hit the area recently. Around Baton Rouge a number of tree crews are trimming and cutting the trees along I-10 that have been broken or downed. And while traveling through Baton Rouge, we see many blue tarps on roof tops. In Baton Rouge we take I-12, choosing not to stay on I-10 and go through New Orleans. But we still skirt Lake Pontchartrain and we see a number of dikes and dams all of which look okay. Shortly afterwards, we are again back on I-10.

After crossing into Mississippi and east of Biloxi, we come to two 10+ mile sections of I-10 that is over water, bayou and swamp containing cypress trees and oak trees covered with spanish moss. It is neat to see the road sitting 20 feet above the water and looking out into the bayou and small rivers. Carmen tried taking several pictures into the bayou, but trees kept jumping in front of her, besides it is hard to get a good picture through the trees while driving 60 mph.

While we were driving hrough Mississippi or Alabama, not sure which, Carmen took a picture of a flat delta area and in the background is an oil rig for the water that is being built. You can see the scaffolding around the super structure. Anyway I thought it was neat.

We cross into Alabama, passing through Mobile. In the port is the battleship Alabama. They have a museum at the site which also contains several aircraft and a submarine, completely out of the water. We definitely have to go back there. The ride through Alabama quickly.

We cross into Florida about an hour or so after entering AL. In Florida around Pensacola we pull into an RV camp ground for a good shower and good night sleep.