2013-10-28 King Ranch, Kingsville, TX

Monday morning we left Gateway and headed south the Kingsville to tour the King Ranch –larger than the state of Rhode Island and one of the largest privately owned ranches in the world. The bus trip around the ranch was a fascinating historical tour and the movies in the King Ranch museum in Kingsville filled in any details that our tour guide missed. Tourists only get to view the King family residence from the tour bus but the movie shows the lovely furnishing in this 32 room home.




We learned that the King Ranch Corporation not only raises beef cattle and quarter horses in Texas but is the largest producer of orange juice in Florida. They also raise cotton and other crops, are involved with publishing, own a John Deere dealership and have a large wildlife management and hunting operation on their lands south of Kingsville stretching almost to the RGV.


                   

Of course the day wouldn’t be complete without lunch in Kingsville – we stopped at the Cherry Tree Tea Room. The main street in Kingsville reminded us of a typical western town like many we have seen on our trips through Texas.

       

We then headed south arriving at Fun N Sun around 5:30 pm. We were able to get the Titanium set up on our site before dark and then join Dave & Myrna for dinner. Our 2 and a ½ weeks of traveling was done and we are parked for the winter.

Bay St. Louis, MS

We left the Atlanta area on October 24 and headed to the Gulf of Mexico area of Mississippi staying at the Hollywood Casino Bay St. Louis RV park for 3 nights. It is a nice quiet campground with a decent casino and buffet. We also visited the Silver Slipper Casino for their all-you-can eat crab buffet and to check out their campground. It is right on the sand overlooking the Gulf - a possibility for another trip.

   

While in the area, Jane couldn’t resist the call of the Gulfport Premium outlets on the pretext of starting her Christmas shopping. On Saturday, we drove to Biloxi for lunch at the Margaritaville Casino. We then went to the Hard Rock Casino to pick up free t-shirts. Paul also received a coupon for a free buffet since his birthday is in October – too bad we had just eaten lunch.




Our next stop was the Bay St. Louis Bay Bridge Festival – an outdoor music festival right on the water sponsored by local businesses. We enjoyed listening to the music and admiring the old houses in the area. We headed back to the RV park early to prepare the rig for an early departure on Sunday morning – going through Houston on a Sunday is a great idea!

     

Sunday night we stayed at the Gateway to the Gulf RV park – a very convenient and friendly park right off the highway.

2013-10-23 Stone Mountain & Atlanta Aquarium

Once the Good Sam Rally ended on October 21, we headed to Stone Mountain Park and Campground, east of Atlanta. We enjoyed the lovely lake-side campground despite our site – 293 - being extremely bumpy required lots of boards to get the Titanium leveled.

   

Stone Mountain is a massive bowl-shaped dome of granite that rises 825 feet above the plateau – one of the largest hunks of freestanding granite in the world. The mountain contains the Confederate Memorial Carving – the world’s largest relief sculpture. It is a carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson all riding their horses.
We were sorry to have to miss the Laser light show and the other attractions in the park but they are open only on weekends in October.


     

We used the campground as a base to explore Atlanta a bit more. We went Houston’s Steak house on Monday night for Paul’s birthday dinner.

On Tuesday the 22nd, we spent the afternoon at the Georgia aquarium – the world’s largest aquarium which was built with money from Bernard Marcus of Home Depot. It is a beautiful facility with fascinating exhibits – well worth the visit.


                   

We then walked through the Centennial Olympic Park on our way to Pittypat’s Porch restaurant – one of the oldest southern restaurants in downtown Atlanta. The restaurant was named after Scarlett O’Hara’s aunt in the movie Gone with the Wind. We thought that the southern cuisine was delicious – despite some of the negative online reviews which we read.

         

On our way back to Stone Mountain, we drove through the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic site. We will have to go back to Atlanta to explore the site more fully. Jane is already planning another trip so that she can visit the Gone with the Wind sites.

2013-10-20 Atlanta Good Sam Rally Final Day

On Sunday October 20, we did some last minute shopping at the Camping World store and at a vendor who sold microwave cooking supplies. We even took the opportunity to look at some of 5th wheels again but left the Rally without buying a replacement for the Titanium.

       

We couldn’t resist taking pictures of the trams and converted school buses that transported us back and forth to our rigs. Unfortunately they did not have sufficient transportation for peak times but that was really our only complaint about the Rally itself.

     

The early evening entertainment was by the Vogues – a group we had seen at the Syracuse rally in June. Once again, the crowd sang along and had a great time.

       

We are anxious to see where the 2014 rally / rallies will take place but doubt that we make the trip – unless the timing works well with our trip to Texas.



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