One day you’re waking up mere feet from gulf waters on Florida’s Pan Handle, another day you’re waking up in a (nice) rest stop along the I-10. Such is life on the road. After a fairly long haul that saw us touch 4 states in one day (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana), we found ourselves at the Slidell I-10 Rest Area and Visitors Center, which was actually our stretch goal all along.
We were exhausted when we pulled in about 1am, but fortunately the parking lot was fairly empty so there was no issue with us taking up a couple of extra parking spaces while crashing for the night. In the past we’ve stayed at gas stations, but this was our first stop at an interstate rest stop. A couple of nice things about these rest areas (in addition to being no cost) are that they typically have good places to walk dogs, and most offer overnight security, in this case a Sheriff’s deputy. Although being right off the interstate, they are typically very loud, although gas stations can be just as bad in that regard.
After waking up we decided to put in an hour’s worth of driving to a Walmart parking lot, where we could run the generator to power the AC and laptops. After work and school, we’ll head off to nearby Baton Rouge where we’re staying at a HipCamp (first time for that) known as the Cajun Retreat.