Day 3: Florida to Alabama to Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana

Day 3, Tuesday: Fort Walton Beach, FL to New Orleans, LA

KM start: 157122 Km

Trip Meter: 665 km

Time Driven: 11amam - 8:30pm (Only 5.5 of actual driving hours though)

This day of travels may very well be one of our favorites. From the beauty of the Gulf Coast – Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to the ferry, swimming and fishing beach adventures in Alabama it was beautiful from start to finish – complete with a sunset that made us ecstatic. 

We slept in until about 9, got up for breakfast – and let me reiterate that the breakfast at Fort Walton Beach Best Western was wonderful (considering it was free and continental) – then loaded up the car to head West. 

Our fully loaded hotel kart.

With food and games on top of clothing we don't travel light.

We got on the road at about 11. We decided to take the scenic route, though it added an hour and a half to our day. We drove along the Gulf Coast – through Florida and into Alabama. Often there was water on both sides of us, and the views were lovely. As we crossed into Alabama we were on the Alabama Coast Scenic Route which was great to follow. 

We drove along beaches until we reached a point surrounded by water – Fort Morgan, AB. We arrived early for the ferry and had half an hour to spare so we drove a few minutes away to rest at the beach – reading and swimming for me, fishing for Paul.

We had about 15 minutes in the water, where we raced back to our car and to the ferry to catch the next boat. We got there at 10 minutes to the ferry time and were able to join the 6 car line and get on that sailing. $20.50 later and we were on route to Dauphin Island, AB. It was a half hour ride and it was glorious – we were wet from swimming, the heat on the water was glorious and we reveled in our pleasure as we ate cherries and felt the sun beat down on us.

We arrived on Dauphin Island, AB and headed to a small town food stop for ice cream and directions to the beach. We spent an hour and a half lounging at the beach – again with Paul fishing and me reading, though this time it involved me sitting in a chair in the water happily resting. Paul caught 3 fish. He was ecstatic.

Sufficiently sunned and roasting we headed off of the Island towards Mainland Alabama by way of a very long bridge. From there we continued on the coastal route into Mississippi and were astounded at how beautiful the route was. From there we rode past signs for the Nasa station and Hattiesburg (yay Candace) into Louisiana. As the sun set and we contined to listen to our John Grisham novel on cassette (Runaway Jury – about Biloxi, which we passed) we kept wanting to pinch ourselves at the beauty of it all.

Starting to leave Dauphin Island

The bridge off the Island

And on it goes

A small shot of the beauty of the drive

The beautiful sunset

We made it to our cute hotel in New Orleans by 8:30pm and collapsed excitedly into the small pool, pretty ready to be showered and in bed. Water and sun make us very tired!