Having arrived at the carpark late the previous evening, we had no idea what was in the area. As we left and continued our drive up the coast, the beaches were stunning white sand. And at 10am, nobody was about. Had we known It was so beautiful we would have left earlier and had breakfast at the beach instead of a crappy carpark.

If we took the interstates (motorways) to Texas, we could be there in 8 hours. Mike prefers to drive off the motorways so our travel time Is just over 10 hours, but in places it’s way more picturesque.

We were cruising along nicely, when we saw a road closed sign ahead. Mike wanted to ignore it, god knows why, but I made him turn around. Next thing we know, we’re Google is navigating us to a Space station. We drove up to the barriers and the guard carrying a gun told us we couldn’t go that way. I worried he might pull his gun and tell us we had five seconds to get outta town.

But he didn’t. We told him we were lost and he was very helpful. He explained there was no way we could avoid the interstate for this section. So for the first time on this trip, we drove on the interstate.

Things move much faster on the interstate, lots of trucks, people tailgating each other. We much prefer the slower pace. So we drove on it for about 30 minutes, then exited onto the minor roads again.

We basically drove all day. There would have been plenty to see, but we bypassed New Orleans and all the tourist places. It’s stinking hot here and humid as hell, and there are just so many people out and about for the long weekend. So we’re sticking to our plan to fast-track it, but on the slow roads, to Texas.

We stopped at about 4.30pm at an RV park resort. Sounds flash, but it’s just a bunch of RV’s parked and there is a pool and a casino. But we have water, electricity and sewer right at our camp, so we’re all hooked up.

We fired our rear airconditioner up, and after about 30 mins the van had cooled down nicely and I had an afternoon nap. Then we had corn chips and home made guacamole, followed by a salad wrap for dinner.