Brian – Page 5 – B & B Travel Blog

May 24, 2025May 25, 2025

2025 Road Trip – Pelham Park – Bowie, TX – 5/24

We departed from Poverty Point Reservoir State Park at 8:30AM CDT. We headed West on I-20 towards Dallas and stopped for fuel and propane at the Love’s Travel Stop in Monroe, LA. It seemed like it took forever to get someone to come out and fill our propane tank. That will likely be the frustration of having a propane generator. From there we continued on along I-20 to the TA Travel Center in Terrell, TX for more fuel. Someone decided to pile their pickup into the safety fence along the center median several hundred yards prior to our the exit and we lost all the time I had gained back from our wait for propane at the previous stop. By the time we got to the exit and purchased our fuel there was another wreck East of our exit. The traffic around Dallas has increased dramatically since my last business trip there. No matter where Google Maps sent us to avoid wrecks, we still hit gridlock. We will be avoiding Dallas in the future (it joins the list with Atlanta and Chicago).

We pulled into Pelham Park RV Park in Bowie, TX at 5:30PM CDT (419 miles). We pulled into the first site and hooked up our Energy Management System (EMS)/Surge Protector and saw no errors, so we leveled and put the slide out. Then I went into the camper and saw that we had no shore power according to our command center. I went back out and read the EMS and we had new errors (open ground). So we packed back up and moved to the next site. No issues there (other than getting grouchy in the Texas heat).

This is a nice little town park campground with water and electric for $15/night. It also has the world’s largest Bowie Knife (zoom in on the right side of our site photo, the knife is at a 45° angle between our camper and the soccer net).

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	87	18
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	587	32
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	No Channels
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

May 22, 2025May 22, 2025

2025 Road Trip – Poverty Point SP – 5/22-5/23

We departed from Fort Pickens Campground at 9:00AM CDT. On the way through Gulf Breeze, FL we stopped at a Publix grocery store to stock up on supplies. We stopped for fuel at a Love’s Travel Stop in Hattiesburg, MS ($2.73/gal). We got stuck in terrible construction traffic on I-20 East of Vicksburg which cost us 30 to 45 minutes. I-20 was shutdown to one lane in both directions.

We pulled into Poverty Point Reservoir State Park in Delhi, LA at 4:30PM CDT (347 miles). Beth decided that the I-20 traffic East of the Mississippi River was quiet enough to take her first drive. She drove the last hour of the trip. This is a very nice State Park campground with full hookups and very large sites.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	0.39	1.97
Starlink	112	15
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	841 (not a typo)	42
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	Weak – 4 Channels (FOX Affiliate)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

May 21, 2025

2025 Road Trip – Fort Pickens Campground – 5/21

We departed from A Stone’s Throw RV Park at 10:15AM EDT. We stopped for fuel at a TA Travel Center in Marianna, FL. We had tried to use our discount diesel card yesterday (which we hadn’t used since 2021) and the pump said our card was inactive. Beth worked with the provider via E-Mail this morning and got our card reactivated. We purchased $3.75 diesel fuel for $3.12/gallon (Yay!!!).

We pulled into Fort Pickens Campground within Gulf Islands National Seashore (West of Pensacola Beach, FL) at 2:30PM EDT (232 miles). Beth’s brother Dick had stopped here on one of his trips West and highly recommended it, so we thought we ought to check it out. I’d pay the entry fee just for the drive out to the campground. The best part is that now that I’m 62 years old, I was able to purchase the National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass. I’m set for life (at least 40 years).

Before setting up at the campground, we drove out to the Visitor Center and toured one of the batteries the Visitor Center is located in. We had a nice conversation with one of the volunteer guides who provided a lot of interesting information about the fort. Afterwards we went into the store and purchased a couple of trinkets (T-Shirt and Coaster).

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	394	5
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	7	3.5
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	Good – 49 Channels
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

May 20, 2025May 20, 2025

2025 Road Trip – A Stone’s Throw RV Park – 5/20

We started heading West today from Jetty Park in Cape Canaveral. We got started at 10:00AM EDT and stopped for fuel at a WaWa in Alachua, FL.

We pulled into A Stone’s Throw RV Park (just East of Tallahassee) at 3:30PM EDT (285 miles). This is a convenient place to stop along I-10 (where US-19 intersects I-10). We’ve stopped here on two other occasions (2020 and 2021).

The entire front of the RV was covered in love bugs upon arrival so as soon as we got the RV setup we broke out our cordless pressure washer and some car washing soap and removed them all in the 95 degree heat. Hopefully we are done with them. We gathered most between Cocoa Beach and Gainesville.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	394	17
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	21	0.5
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	Good – 25 Channels
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

May 15, 2025May 19, 2025

2025 Road Trip – Thunder on Cocoa Beach – 5/15/2025 – 5/20/2025

Today we made our first big drive in our new RV. We left our house at 10:45AM EDT and arrived at Jetty Park Campground in Cape Canaveral, FL at 2:00PM EDT. We stopped for lunch at the Rest Area on I-4 and ate the remaining halves of our PJ’s Subs (an annual summer trip start tradition). On the way into Port Canaveral we stopped to pickup some steaks at Canaveral Meats and Deli. We will be hanging out at our friends, Todd & Melissa’s place, on Cocoa Beach for the annual Boat Races and plan to have steaks for one of our meals.

This is the second time we’ve stayed at this campground. The previous visit was in December of 2021. When we arrived they told us they had just lost power and that we could run our generator until power is restored (thank goodness because it was pretty warm).

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a – Power Outage	n/a – Power Outage
Starlink	215	12
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (AT&T)	53	3
US Mobile – Beth (AT&T)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	Good – 27 Channels
Campground Cable	n/a – Did Not Try
DISH Satellite	n/a

April 7, 2025April 11, 2025

2025 Ft Desoto – 4/7/2025 – 4/10/2025

Today we checked into Fort Desoto County Park Campground in Pinellas County for three nights. We are in Site #174 which is the first site time we’ve stayed in the “No Pets” portion of the campground (Phoebe the cat is not a pet, she is family). The site is on one of the inner campground boat channels, so we are technically on the water. It’s very warm for April today, but there is a front passing through this evening which should give us very nice temperatures and low humidity for the remainder of our stay. We will be watching Florida vs Houston in the final game of March Madness this evening.

On Tuesday we tried out Red, White and Booze in St Pete Beach (Passe a Grille) for lunch. It replaced the old Sea Critters next to The Wharf restaurant. The food was a little pricey, but very good. I had one of the best Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches ever. Beth’s Cuban was also very good with very good Cuban bread from Ybor City, but the meat was a bit smokier than she likes. We both loved the incredible fries which were shaped like onion peels. Overall, it was a great experience.

Red, White & Booze – Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

On Wednesday, Mom & Dad joined us for lunch at Billy’s Stone Crab. We all ordered grouper nuggets and were not disappointed. Afterwards, we sat outside the camper and watched some dolphins hunt for fish in the bay behind our campsite.

Device	Download Mbps	Upload Mbps
Campground Wi-Fi	n/a	n/a
Starlink	315	26
AT&T Hotspot	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Brian (Verizon)	n/a	n/a
US Mobile – Beth (Verizon)	n/a	n/a

TV	Quality
Antenna	Decent – No NBC (CH8)
Campground Cable	n/a
DISH Satellite	n/a

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025

2025 Alafia River State Park – 3/13/2025 – 3/24/2025

We checked in for our first camping trip in the new motorhome at Alafia River State Park on Thursday 3/13/2025.

March 10, 2025April 7, 2025

The Beginning of Another New Era

In the Fall of 2021 we sold our Motorhome and bought a new Travel Trailer. To us, the Travel Trailer life was just fine, but a bit of a hassle on long trips. Basically, we missed the Motorhome lifestyle. Late last year Grand Design came out with their first Motorhome. A Class C on a Sprinter 4500 Chassis. They had just started the assembly line while we were in Indiana last year so we took the factory tour. We liked what we saw and placed an order for one just before Christmas.

All of Grand Design’s Motorhomes are in the Lineage Series, so Beth has named the new Motorhome Lucy (Lucy the Lineage). It arrived at General RV in Dover, FL on Wednesday (3/5/2025) and we picked it up on Saturday (3/8/2025). We only found a couple of issues during our inspection (which they quickly addressed), but fortunately for us one of their technicians noticed an issue with the slide topper and they ended up replacing it with a different model.

We had it home less for than 24 hours, but so far we are very pleased.

September 1, 2024September 1, 2024

2024 Road Trip – White Springs RV Park – 9/1/2024 – 9/2/2024

Today we left Camp David RV Resort in Columbus, GA precisely at 9:30AM EDT. We stopped at Piggly Wiggly on the way out of town to pickup some more bottled water (our cats drink only the best). We took US-280 to GA-520 all the way to US-82 and followed US-82 to I-75 in Tifton, GA. All excellent divided highways (sometimes limited access).

We arrived at White Springs RV Park in White Springs, FL (5 miles North of I-10) just before 2PM EDT. This a very small campground with seven full hookup sites just about one mile East of I-75. The owner, Deb, gives you a huge smile when you hand her cash for your payment. The sites are very shady and it’s unlikely that we could access the Dish satellites unless we placed our antenna as far back in our site as possible. Fortunately, the campground has good WiFi that appears to be throttled right around 4 or 5 Mbps per connection. That was enough to allow us to stream the Rays game using the Bally app on our Roku. We are also picking up one station on our over-the-air antenna and fortunately it’s ABC which will allow us to watch tonight’s college football game (LSU @ USC). Each site has it’s own lined trash can and she provides a nice tray to run your sewer hose on down to the sewer connection. We will be thoroughly flushing our black tank in the morning and then heading home.

This just in, apparently we wasted our time stopping for water at Piggly Wiggly. One of our neighbors has Kroger delivering to their site.

August 30, 2024August 30, 2024

2024 Road Trip – Camp David RV Resort – 8/30/2024 – 9/1/2024

Today we left Camper’s RV Park in Columbia, TN at 9:15AM EDT and continued South on I-65. We picked up US-280 in Birmingham, AL and followed it Southeast for the rest of the day. We stopped for fuel at a RaceTrac gas station in Chelsea, AL. A Publix grocery store was located in the same parking lot, so we celebrated by pre-ordering two “Pub Subs” that Beth picked up when we were finished fueling. We both ate half a sub in the parking lot.

We arrived at Camp David RV Resort in Columbus, GA just after 3:30PM EDT. This campground is just outside the North end of Fort Benning. This is a nice quiet campground a couple of miles South of US-280. All sites have full hookups with 50Amp electrical connections. We are in one of the many long and very level pull through sites that don’t require disconnecting the tow vehicle from the camper. There is no shade in these sites so we’re glad our two air conditioners can handle the 95 degree heat. The campground WiFi signal was strong, but once connected we couldn’t get any access to the internet. Our AT&T hotspot is achieving 6/18 Mbps download/upload speeds. There is a clear view of the southern sky right out our door allowing our Dish satellite antenna to pickup all three satellites (61.5, 110, and 119) from our picnic table. We were also able to pickup 49 channels with our over the air antenna.