After leaving Sarasota, we went to Bob’s nephew’s home in Lutz, FL (I think! All these city names, I get confused, and of course I didn’t write it down L )  Aaron, Tracy, Logan and Megan Conrad. (Aaron is Bob’s brother, Olen’s son.)

Then we headed to Eric and Michelle Ellis’s home in High Springs, FL. They are in a rural area, with a large home and yard. Beautiful! We got to know Eric through our son Don. When Don moved back to Coeur d’Alene, Eric came with him. Eric, Shawn Ball, and Don were all friends from college. All 3 VERY gifted musically, they were on the Praise Team in church and it was such a pleasure having them ALL. Eric is a sweet heart J  He now has a big bushy beard and looks like a big teddy bear! LOL  After a while (a year maybe), Eric went to California, married his girlfriend, and carried her off to Florida, which is where Eric grew up. Eric’s Dad lives close by. And now they have little Alex, who is not so little any more. We felt like part of the family and fell in love with Michelle too.  Michelle and I have communicated over Facebook for several years now, but had never met. It was so nice to be with her in person. She’s just a nice/smart/talented in person as she was on line J  Love you guys.  We went to church with them on Sunday. Michelle played the piano and also played the special music for that Sunday. AWESOME!!  A classically trained pianist, she is very accomplished. She also plays the French horn, and who knows what else! She and Eric make a great musical pair.

So here are some pix from a walk we took with Michelle and Alex. At least you’ll get to see a little of Michelle and Alex. We went to a park that Michelle frequents. It was a most beautiful place… and I just have to share a few of the many pix I took. (How many times do you suppose I’ve said ‘beautiful’ since we’ve been blogging this trip?  WOW What an awesomely ‘beautiful’ country we live in!)

Next we traveled through the northwest corner of Florida, and on to Alabama. In Alabama we camped in the Conecuh National Forest at the Open Pond Campground. Was very nice, but we still caught some of that cold weather!

Then to Louisiana to visit New Orleans. My overall impression was chaos. Not the people, the buildings. I guess I’m a very visual person, and it’s like every one who built a building of any kind wanted it to look different from the rest. There is still evidence of the refurbishing of structures from Katrina, but not too much. In fact when we took the tour, the guide wouldn’t even talk about Katrina. He said that was 11 (I think) years ago, and 'that's over and behind us. If you want to know about Katrina, we have a very nice museum dedicated to that'. Friendly people. Once again, many, many pictures, and hard to decide what to share. So, here’s an assortment J

And now we’re in Mississippi camping, but that’s another post, along with the Everglades pictures.  Until then… bye.