We left Woodland Trails on 9/28, heading for the Florida panhandle and our first actual camp host positions at Old Salt RV park in Port St. Joe. Our route took us through some familiar territory, back to Summit, South Dakota, then on to Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, and ultimately Florida. We had no problem finding RV parks along the way, though we have heard a lot of stories about full campgrounds due to a lot of new RVers trying to escape COVID.
We were able to visit state capitols in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Little Rock, Arkansas, but had to pass on a couple others due to a couple storms named Delta ant Eta. For awhile each of them threatened our projected winter home, however they stayed pretty far west of PSJ. The storms did have a projected track right across where we were going to travel, so we changed our route and schedule enough to get to Old Salt ahead of most of the rain and wind.
I think our favorite stop was along the river in Little Rock, where we were adjacent to the huge walking bridge across the Arkansas River, which leads directly to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library and the well-done walking trails to downtown and the capitol. We had visited the library a couple years ago so we focused on the capitol, which was quite beautiful. It never fails to amaze us at the care and pride each state exhibits with their state capitols. Very few are plain, but each one emphasizes their states history and we have been warmly greeted by guides and some state officials at every stop.
We arrived at Old Salt on October 8th with no problems with the new-to-us truck. In fact it rides so well that Mary drove about half the time. We found the truck in Detroit Lakes before we left Minnesota since the old truck was getting to be too much trouble.
The sites and grounds at Old Salt are some of the best we have seen in 5 years on the road. They are all gravel, wider and deeper than most. The park is quiet but less than a 5 minute walk to the white-sand gulf beaches. Andrea, the park owner, is super nice and we feel very much at home here. A fun fact: the highway the park is located on, is the dividing line between Mexico Beach and Port St. Joe; is the county line between Gulf and Bay counties; and is the dividing line between the Eastern and Central time zones. Right across the street, it’s an hour earlier than here. We are constantly having to do time conversions when we go to Mexico Beach or Panama City!