April 22-25, 2026
On the 23rd we made our way back to the airport to return the rental car then took an Uber to Maricopa (about 40 miles from the airport) because we had to board the train at 5:50am the next day. We spent the night at a casino since it was the closest hotel to the train station. OK, there was a bit a gambling involved!!!!
We are headed back to New Orleans then Mobile, AL to pick up Kim and Ernie’s car for the road trip of Florida!
I said I wasn’t going to attempt to take pictures durning the trip but there were a lot of interesting things including incredible sunsets so I did. The pictures are not perfect but fun. As we rode across Arizona, New Mexico, a long stretch in TX then Louisiana we saw the vastness of the US and the changing landscape from desert to swamps. Who knew that pecans were grown in Texas and rice in Louisiana??? When we were in El Paso we saw the border wall that is rusting and has gaps that you could drive a truck through. We had a layover of about an hour in Houston so we walk to George Bush park for a view of the city.
We arrived in New Orleans at 9:30 pm and left at 6:00am the next morning for our last train that would take us to Mobile. It was fun going through Biloxi which is where my favorite niece was born.
We arrived in Mobile at noon on Saturday picked up the car and headed to Pensacola. It is a fun beach town and we could not wait to get our toes into the sugar sand! Pensacola has statues of Seagulls. Their water towner is painted like a beach ball. We then headed to Fort Walton beach to spend the night. We walked along the beach getting our feet wet and stopped at a beach front restaurant for dinner. I had shrimp and grits!!!! I had wanted to try this for over 2 years and it was so good. As we had dinner we witnessed a beach wedding.
A walk on the pier and then a walk along the water back to the hotel while watching the sunset was a perfect way to end our first road trip day!!!!
