Louisiana - Mississippi - Alabama - Florida

The southern states are all nestled together on the Gulf Coast, so we visited four states in a few hours on Thursday. We drove from Holden, LA to Southport, FL, where we spent the night before making our way to the Tampa Bay Area on Friday.

Ponchatoula, Louisiana, aka Berryland. They were just starting to set up for the weekend's strawberry festival, but we got some berries out of the stop!

We stopped by the Abita Mystery House in Abita Springs, LA. But despite the sign, it was closed. We were disappointed. 

There was a lot of water in Louisiana and Mississippi! There always is, but with the previous night's storms, there was flooding and bodies of water up to their brinks.

It was a windy drive! There had been tornado watches throughout the South the night before, as well as flood watches. The storm that we were following really packed a wallop. 

This tunnel was welcome! It took us out of the goddam wind.

We stopped at Shrimp Basket in Gulf Port, Mississippi for sweet tea and a meal of blackened redfish. Sooo yummy! And of course key lime pie!

We passed through the blink-and-you-miss it southern leg of Mississippi, and within the few miles of Alabama, we were lucky to find another Buc-ees! We had stopped briefly at one in Texas, thinking we'd have plenty of opportunities. But this was our next and last chance to visit the famous beaver.

Snacks acquired, we headed on to our next spot for the night. This night, we visited Southern Grace Lavender Farm in Southport, Florida. They had just harvested their lavender, but we got to walk the garden and peruse their gift shop full of luscious handcrafted lavender products.

The hens gifted us some eggs.

It was especially cold! I couldn't believe we were in Florida!

The next morning, we tackled our last leg before a bit of a rest. It was an all-day affair. 

Trish found a giant rattlesnake for us to visit in Tallahassee.

Also in Tallahassee, this sculpture memorializes a live oak that once stood on this ground at the public library.

The drive from Tallahassee to Dunedin was yucky, especially the last 100 miles. So many lights and stop-and-go. I was exhausted when we finally reached Trish's place. 

But we did enjoy another stop or two....

Find this guy in Crystal River, Florida

We finally arrived in Dunedin in the evening, and after literally throwing out our stuff to be laundered and refrigerated, we retrieved Punk and parked Poppy at friends' house. 

The numbers so far:

• 3,566 miles
• ~ 74 hours of driving
• 15.7 miles per gallon (according to Poppy)

We have a few down days here in the Tampa Bay Area, and then we'll head north.