Our first night we boondocked between Cracker Barrel and Wal*Mart in Kimball, Tennessee and spent money in both places. At noon the next day we stopped at a K-Mart in Marietta, Georgia and fulltiming friends Rich and Diane Emond (website Roaming America) met us and took us to lunch. That night we boondocked at Flying J in Jackson, Georgia. The next day we drove to Thomasville, Georgia where we stayed a week in a Passport America Park (City of Roses RV Park) for $84.

Fulltiming friends Dave and Sharyl Tholen (website Autogypsies) joined us for the week and we enjoyed seeing them again. While Dave and I washed our motorhomes and cars Linda and Sharyl collected pine needles and made pine needle baskets. Thomasville is an interesting city with many old houses and we took a 4.3 mile tour of the houses - driving part of the way and walking several blocks.

The most interesting house is the Lapham-Patterson House built in 1884-1885 as a winter cottage for Charles W. Lapham. We toured the house and learned the history of not only the house, but also about the man who built it. Mr. Lapham, a prosperous shoe merchant, survived the Great Chicago Fire and he feared being in another fire. The house was well equipped with its own gas lighting system, hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing and modern closets. The strange cottage was designed to make it as healthy and safe as possible for the Lapham family. There are no right angles in the cottage and nothing is centered or symmetrical. Mr. Lapham thought the design would provide better and healthier air flow. The 19 rooms have 45 doors and 53 windows with most windows opening to porches. In case of fire any room could be vacated to the outside in seconds. As we toured the house we started playing games in each room by trying to find the peculiarities such as the windows were different heights, doors were different sizes and off centered, patterns in the wood floors did not match, ceilings slanted slightly, etc. We recommend a tour of the Lapham-Patterson house.

We love to tour state capitols and the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee was a short drive south. It is one of the few capital cities not located in the central part of the state. In the early days only the north part of the state was well populated and the first two sessions of the territorial legislation was held in St. Augustine and Pensacola. With the hazards of traveling 400 miles between the cities it was decided in 1824 to locate the capital between the cities in Tallahassee. The old Capitol has been restored to its 1902 appearance and the new Capitol hugs the old building in the rear. I can honestly say the new Capitol is the ugliest capitol building we have found in the USA. It looks like a high rise office building that was constructed by the lowest bidder. We self toured both buildings and walked around the small grounds.

Sharyl recommended a downtown restaurant within walking distance, Carlo's Cuban Cafe, so we walked there for lunch. The food was authentic Cuban and excellent. We dined on Yuca fries, marinated pork chunks, deep fried and drenched in mojo, Masitos de Puerco, Jamon Croquettas (minced ham and onion), roasted pork with black beans and rice, Yuca con mojo and maduros, and the best Columbian coffee we have ever tasted. Excellent restaurant.

After a week together we bid the Tholens goodbye and we went to a Corp of Engineers campground on Lake Seminole near Chattahoochee, Florida. The campground was located in Georgia in the Central Time Zone and the town was in the Eastern Time Zone so every time we drove to town our cell phone reset to a different time. We paid $16 a night for five nights and wished one of us had been 62 years old because it would have been $8 a night. We had a beautiful campsite right on the lake and witnessed several beautiful sunsets.

Our next stop was a week in DeFuniak Springs, Florida at a Coast to Coast Park that cost $8 a day for full hookups including cable and a concrete patio. We did pay an additional $10 for a week of WiFi. DeFuniak Springs has a perfectly round lake that the city claims is one of only two natural round lakes in the world. Beautiful old houses surround the lake and we took a 1.5 mile walk around the lake studying each of the houses. This month's travels could be called "Old Houses of the South" as we always find old houses to be interesting.

We arrived at Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, Alabama just before Thanksgiving and were greeted by friends Doug and Ann Craw and Bob and Nancy Colbert. We parked on the lot of friends Tom and Tinka Dooley and before we leave next month we'll pay them whatever they request - usually cheap rent. Thanksgiving is always nice at the Plantation and this year 141 friendly people attended the dinner and ate too much. Each person donated $2 for turkeys and women in the campground cooked thirteen turkeys and made gravy. Each table of 10-14 people had a host who planned the meal for that table and Ann Craw was our host. She asked us to bring pumpkin and pecan pies and our table was full of delicious food. The day after Thanksgiving everyone threw in their left-overs for a pot-luck and there still was food left.

We'll stay at the Plantation most of December and drive the Honda CR-V to Kentucky for Christmas with family. Then Rich and Diane Emond will join us and we'll head west together for the rest of the winter.