Motz

Once we left Louisiana, we headed straight to Texas, anxious to be on the road and back to Arizona is good time. We had visited Texas before, so felt there wasn't much need to be tourists again. But the weather started to change, with snow in the forecast (OMG!), so we stopped in Austin for a day. We visited the Capitol Building - another amazing piece of architecture, made out of local red granite. A beautiful building. Spent the next night in a rest area, waiting out the snow. Fort Stockton had about 6 inches (gee, that happened last time we were here), but the sun was shining the next morning, so put on 550 miles in one day! Now we are only one day away from Surprise, Arizona - our winter home! And we ended ... read more

We had a one day stop at Theodore, Alabama, and went over to Dauphin Island. Dauphin Island is attached to the mainland by a 5 km bridge, and although seems quite far from restuarants and shopping, was quite heavily populated. Most houses are built on pilons to protect from hurricanes. And what Atlantic Island would be complete without a fort? Fort Gaine was still in respectable condition, and even had an on-site blacksmith to demonstrate his trade. More beautiful shoreline and beaches - the Gulf definitely is a perfect distination if you enjoy laying on the beach, soaking up the sun.... read more

We finally reached our most South East destination - Key West, Florida - our trip only goes West from here! Overseas Highway, the 125 mile long road connecting numerous small gems of islands that are like a broken necklace, ending in the very quaint, historic town of Key West. But most surprising of all, was how busy and chick it was, entertaining all age groups, with stores, pubs, restaurants, bed & breakfasts, historic houses, and best of all - a busy marina, which had 2 cruise ships in the day we were there. Needless to say, the streets were teaming with people until late at night, when most pubs provided live entertainment, all competing as to who could play the loudest music. Reminded us very much of Mexico. We found a wonderful Bed & Breakfast (Old ... read more

Titusville is about an hour east of Orlando, and is the best location to view the shuttle lauches at the Kennedy Space Center, which is just across the bay. Our campground was located right on the water, which was great. Unfortunately, we just missed launch last Saturday, but maybe best that we missed the crowds, especially since was the Thanksgiving weekend here as well. We toured Kennedy Space Center one day, and Astronaut Hall of Fame another. Both were great – absolutely incredible how huge the space shuttle, rockets, launch stations are. I also didn’t realize how many space launches there have been – 17 Apollo missions alone, over a period of 9 years. They were both very entertaining, from meeting an astronaut, 2 IMAX theatres, a simulated space shuttle ride, and of course viewing the ... read more

Savannah was very similar to Charleston, with lots of charm and history. We did our own walking tour throughout the downtown. Savannah is set up in a series of "squares" - 24 in total, each with a beautiful park, surrounded by a few houses and commercial buildings and usually a church. Many of the oak trees are hundreds of years old; some can even live up to 1000 years! One of these squares was where Forest Gump sat on his famous bench. Unfortunately, the bench is now in a museum, so I was not able to get a good pose :(. Doing your own walking tour sometimes takes you off the beaten path. One interesting store we found was an old key cutting store built in the late 1800’s and still run by the grandson.... read more