Mandeville and Fontainebleau State Park, LA

Drove out of Fort Pickens early in the morning, went to Panera Bread in Gulf Breeze for breakfast and Internet access, then headed out to the next campsite, about 3 hours away. Stopped at the Mississippi welcome center and picked up a directory of MS state and historical parks as well as a brochure on the blues music trail to visit in the future. Noted that gas in Louisiana was about $0.20-0.30 lower per gallon than in Florida. Just before reaching Fontainebleau State Park, I stopped at Mandeville Seafood, having skipped lunch in anticipation of eating Cajun food. The place was crowded at 3:30 pm, lots of people waiting for a table, so I ordered take out instead. By the time I set up camp, it was almost 5 pm and I was really hungry. Ate the whole foot long poboy (stuffed full of fried shrimp), a cup of seafood gumbo and 3 lbs of boiled crawfish. I did not feel too guilty since this was lunch and dinner combined. But I could only take a couple bites of the rich bread pudding before leaving it for tomorrow. Yumm!

The campground looked pretty nice although the roads to the sites were quite narrow. There were still a number of sites available. I had reserved an improved site which meant that the site has a new concrete slab instead of gravel. On the downside. it would have been a challenge to pitch the tent awning on concrete. I did not even try since the weather was cold and I was not likely to stay out for long.

The temperature dropped sharply after the sun went down. The campground has good cell coverage and free WiF so I spent the evening getting caught up on the news and listening to an audio book. Had to run the heater most of the night.