After a restless night although there was some breeze early in the morning, I couldn't sleep any more as I woke up at 7am. I had a quick wash under the tap which helped cooled me down but did not help me feel any cleaner though. I had to make use of the portable toilet for the first time in my life, but it wasn't that bad perhaps because it was hardly utilised, for which I was thankful!!

We arrived at the Mother Neff Park campsite quite late only to discover that the campsite was being reconstructed after being flooded. That means no showers nor toilet and there was a tap for water and 2 portable toilets. As we had diverted quite a distance from the main road we had no choice but to put our USD10 in the envelope and deposited it in the box.

We arrived at the Lockhart State Park just as the Ranger was closing shop. She briefly told us to find a site suitable for us and the cost for camping was USD15. We could settle it in the morning on the way out if we decided not to stay longer. There were only 3 other RVs plus the camp host who had a police car parked in front of her RV. It was hot but there was a strong breeze blowing and I was hoping that it would continue blowing even after the sun had gone down.

As usual Adrian was reluctant to leave afraid that he would be missing the company and the comfort of home. But this time we had slowly broken the news to him that we were leaving but would be coming back next week. Fortunately there was further incentive for him to come as I had promised him the bionical man yesterday and now it was payback time! As a matter of fact none of us was too keen to start moving again but discipline prevailed!

I was first up today and was having my breakfast when Adrian came out of the room. I offered to get breakfast for him but he declined preferring instead to wait for his mother and play with his toys while waiting. That was perfectly fine with me.

After taking photos of Tuah with the hotel courtyard in the background we were ready to leave at 11.15am. Today we decided to drive only a short distance of around 140 miles to Lafayette where Alison had identified a KOA Kamping. We called Adrienne and told her to expect us the next day in the late afternoon. Unfortunately Jack was not going to be home though.

Early this morning as I read my emails the sad news about the demise of a friend and supporter of MIM expedition came across through Ikmal.

True enough I woke up at 12.30am and decided to look at my emails and update the journal. Then I remembered that as today was a Saturday the hotel rates in New Orleans would still be the high weekend rates.

We woke up at a reasonable hour this morning, Adrian kept us busy calling him back to our pitch while he wanted to go and play with the girls in the next pitch. I put our roof tent down while figuring out how to fold the mosquito netting tent for storage. Alison reminded me that it was going to rain and I had better get it folded before then. How on earth was I going to do it, I thought!

My anticipation that it was going to be hot in the morning as there was no shade to block the sun was correct and I bet Alison regretted not wanting to move yesterday evening. Anyway, it was about time we start waking up earlier than we had been doing at Susie's.

This morning Susie made us fried rice the way I had never seen it done before. According to Alison she added some curry powder to make it green, while I thought that with all the vegetables inside it would naturally turn green. Regardless it tasted good and I must say that Susie is a pretty good cook. She made enough for us to tapau for our lunch as well.

It was a lazy morning for us and for brunch Susie cooked oat broth and it was delicious. I am beginning to think that we are being spoilt and tomorrow we definitely have to leave, come rain or shine. Otherwise we get too comfortable and then it would be difficult to move on. The rest of the morning we spent updating the website.

Susie asked us to stay a few days so that we could take a rest today and go to Key West tomorrow. But as we were undecided and the weather was good, we decided to do Key West today and were ready to leave by 11.00am. As I switched on the GPS it indicted an arrival time of 2.30pm. Wow, I thought to myself that's to be a long drive and hoping that I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel.

We were all up very late this morning after having a good meal last night. We felt at home with roti canai and chicken curry for breakfast. Even the coffee was Malaysian kopi “o”. By 12 noon we were ready to leave for the Everglades National Park.

I had the unusual pleasure of having breakfast on my own this morning because Adrian wasn't up and Alison was too tired to get up after spending half the night on the computer. Mind you she is doing a great job updating the photo gallery besides keeping Adrian's journal going. So I let her sleep and brought back a cup of coffee for her.

This morning I woke up to Adrian's winging and being kicked by him at the same time. Alison was on her laptop and telling him to behave himself. I couldn't stand it and decided to get up and go down from the tent and that was what it was all about. Adrian wanted to get down as soon as he woke up after hearing the kids in the tents next to moving about, and Alison wouldn't let him go down.

As there was no free breakfast we took our time in getting ready and had our own cereal in the room. It was 1100am before we left the Motel Budget Inn with the thought that we had been diddled by the Indians (from India that is) claiming that they need to increase the rates due to high demand for the weekend.

I was awake at 7.15am, probably due to Alison drumming it into my head that we had to get up early for breakfast, although I went to sleep quite late at 2.30am. I thought that if I was sleepy I could get Alison to drive part of the journey South today. But then I remembered her typorithis and obviously she could not be depended upon to drive!!

Again we had a late start this morning. I had brown hash with fried eggs and Adrian had two doughnuts for breakfast. That would keep us quiet for some time I think. At 1100am mileage 69611, we took a slow drive around the Park and ended up at the docks where boats are launched. I offered to drive to the pool area but the offer was not taken and I drove out to our next destination, Savannah GA.

At 8am there was a knock on the side of Tuah and there stood the Park Police, asking us the same question as the Ranger asked us last night, what were we doing perched up on the tent area? Alison started to explain and I just told her to apologise profusely for the misunderstanding and that we were moving on in any case.