13 – 19 November 2010

13 Nov, Saturday:  We were only about 20 miles from where Chuck and Kathy, Sandy and John, and Jim and Ellie were camped at Rainbow Plantation in Summderdale.  So today was the day to go visit before we left tomorrow.  We had a good visit and got to actually play with KoKo, John and Sandy’s dog, a little….she doesn’t like strangers very much; she liked Nolan better than me…..go figure, kids and animals always pick him!  Sure not like Lucy, she will play with anyone.  The park they are in is very nice and I think Chuck and Kathy are going to buy a lot.  That will be nice for them (forgot to take pictures).

14 Nov, Sunday:  Today was moving day.  We decided to try Flint Creek Water Park, in Wiggins, MS. The rain held off until we got all set up…..we’re scheduled to stay here a week.

Here’s the front gate

This is the road into the campground

Our site in the woods!!!!!

 

This is the view out our back window…..we just left the blinds open all the time…..we were about 40 or 50 feet away from the water.  That was very nice!

 

Our deck

Campsites down the road from us…..they are hard to see!

Everything was paved and nice BUT…..it felt like we were in a jungle and it was very dark all the time!  Not one of our favorite places but would be fun in the summer with a boat or jet ski.  Although, I think you would have to make reservations way ahead of time in the summer.  We were in the first come, first serve section and I think they stay full all the time.  There are a few permanent looking places with swings and all kinds of stuff around.  It was cheap…$90 for a week and included the electric, using Passport America.

15 Nov, Monday:  Still raining so we decided to go to the grocery and drive around town.  It’s always fun to drive around a new place to see what there is to see.

16 Nov, Tuesday:  Today was a “do nothing” day and Nolan grilled pork chops for dinner.

17 Nov, Wednesday: Nolan always remembers the strangest things, well, he really just remembers everything he ever reads and he remembered reading that “Dizzy” Dean, a famous baseball player lived around Wiggins.  So today we were off to find what we could find.  They have a rest stop named after him and he is buried in the Bond Cemetery, which we visited.

18 Nov, Thursday: Went to the post office and I was hungry for goulash(not that the two things really have anything to do with each other).  I found a recipe on line and I had all the ingredients; so I just made it…..it was good!  However, I think next time I will leave out the potatoes and put more macaroni in instead.

19 Nov, Friday:  Drove to Gulfport today.  We visited the area in 2008 when we were this way and I wanted to see if they had rebuilt it yet…..they had some but there are still way more empty sites than ones that have new stuff in them.  I was hungry for Mexican so we stopped at a restaurant that we saw was busy on our way in.  Just so so…..not the best.

6 – 12 November 2010

6 Nov, Saturday:  Still cold so I stayed inside all day.  Started laundry and the stupid machine overflowed again…..been having trouble for a while and I never know when it’s gonna do it; so, Nolan worked on the washing machine today.  Put a new water level control thing on it and of course we then had to clean up the mess and all the dirt behind the machine…..it always gets so nasty behind washing machines!!!!

7 Nov, Sunday:  Travel day…..moved to Azalea Acres in Robertsdale, AL.  Not a great park but it has full hookups and great WiFi and close to the Gulf.

It’s really just a big field with RV hookups on it.

Nothing was paved.

Here’s where we were parked…..sites were wide enough but we had some ants under the table.

Not bad but not the greatest either.  Lots of grass for the dogs.

8 Nov, Monday:  We’re only 30 miles from Gulf Shores; so, today we went for a drive to see what we could see.  Bridge to get to the beaches.

Very pretty place!

 

Lots and lots of place to rent along the shore road.

Was so surprised to see how white the sand was….it’s not that way in Rockport, TX, where we’ve been staying on the gulf.

And, then……we ate seafood…..very, very good.  Been a long time since we’ve done that!

Nolan looking over the menu before we went in!

What a fun day!!!

9 Nov, Tuesday:  Seems to be a lot of places to see around here…..I could stay here all winter but Nolan seems to think it may get too cold.  Today we drove to Foley and on the way we stopped at a very good farmers market, bought bananas and pecans and tomatoes.  They had lots of stuff!

Of course every night Lucy has to lay with me in my chair but it seems she likes to lay with her head hanging upside down…..every night she keeps hanging a little more off the chair…..strange dog!!!!!

10 Nov, Wednesday:  Oh……today is going to be a good day!  First we had made plans to meet Kevin and Arlene for lunch in Pensacola.  The place Arlene wanted to go didn’t open until 4 so we ate across the street instead….very good!!!!  AND, it was so good to see them and catch up…..

Then we were off to check out Fort Pickens because I wanted to stay a couple of days there…..no sewer hookups but it is close to the water.

We drove down the island to the Fort and checked out the campgrounds.  This is along the road to the campground.

 

Doesn’t it look like snow piled up along the road.

Didn’t take pictures of the campground, I was too busy looking to see if we might like it…..we finally decided not to stay this time but maybe some other time….it wasn’t very full and would have been easy to find a nice spot but Nolan’s not much of a beach person!

We went on down the road to the old Fort.  Here’s a few pictures…..Fort has been here a long time…..very interesting!

We missed the tour times mainly because we were watching the Blue Angels practice.  They were home and this coming weekend they were gonna have a 3 day show but I think we saw most of how they would be flying without fighting the crowds.

It was pretty cool!!!!  Another fun day….it was beautiful weather!

11 Nov, Thursday:  Rest and stay at home day.

12 Nov, Friday:  We saw a Book Exchange store in Foley and Nolan doesn’t have anything to read…..he won’t buy new books.  Got there and it was pretty unorganized and I don’t think he was in the mood to look so we left without a book!  Oh well, we got out and drove around!

30 October – 5 November 2010

30 Oct, Saturday: Nolan is always finding these great steak deals at the store and sometimes they are not so tender, well not as tender as Nolan likes them.  So, we went to the store to find something to marinate them in or put on them that might make them a little better.  My answer to everything is to look it up on the internet….so I decided to marinate mine in Italian dressing or something close that I had in the frig.  He put something else on his….some kind of dry stuff…..He didn’t care for his any better than he did the first ones…..mine was pretty good….don’t know that they were any more tender but that had a good taste.

31 Oct, Sunday:  Today was a do nothing day….Nolan grilled hamburgers for dinner and that was it.

1 Nov, Monday:  Today we decided to walk Bigbee Bottom Trail that we found when trying to get to the lock and dam to watch the barges for a while…..it’s all locked up and you can’t get near the water. 

Here’s what the trail looked like on the sign, we walked the red trail.  Nolan forgot his GPS so we don’t really know how far it was and the sign didn’t say….

We walked for quit a while……nothing to brag about.  It was pretty much just like walking in the woods at home.  We actually thought maybe it would go down by the river but it never got close enough for us to see water.  Oh well, good exercise!

Back to the trailer and took a shower cause we needed to make a trip to the good ole Wal Mart store and then Nolan grilled hot dogs for dinner.  Weather is very nice!!!!

2 Nov, Tuesday:  Today is my new son-in-law’s birthday……Happy Birthday Chago.  Nolan spent most of the morning washing the trailer it was pretty dirty!

3 Nov, Wednesday:  Rainy day so I decided it was time for a good internet fix.  Off to town in search of a free WiFi……found McDonald’s and it was not busy so I sat there for 2 hours playing on the computer while Nolan read the paper.  So good to be able to look up stuff and not have to wait a couple of minutes to get to the web site!!!!!   Another stop at Wal Mart to get the stuff I forgot on Monday…..we really like that store…..NOT!!!!

4 Nov, Thursday: This park has a very nice walking trail so I decided to take Lucy…….it’s way too long for Oscar to make it and I would have been carrying him….then I wasn’t sure I could make it carrying him, so just Lucy went!  It’s been a little cool at night so Nolan decided to find a place to fill the propane tank up.  I sent Chago a hat and scarf that I knitted for his birthday….hat was a little to small so I quickly made another…..finished it today.  Nolan went to Wal Mart to pick up my prescription and when he got back I saw that they had charged him full price….OMG, another trip to Wal Mart to get that straightened out!!!!

5 Nov, Friday:  Early afternoon we went to Wal Mart to get money back.  What a hassle that was.  They said, after waiting in line forever, that the insurance company was messed up and they were trying to get it straight and I would have to come back.  While going through the checkout paying for some yarn I bought, I heard them calling me back to the pharmacy.  Got back over there and they wanted my insurance card…..it’s in the truck and they are getting ready to close for lunch…..had to go back after going to McDonald’s for my WiFi fix again.  Finally got my $8 dollars back.  I know it’s not a lot but it was the idea of it that got me…..I get the same prescription there every month for the past 4 or 5 years and they should have everything in the computers!!!!!

23 – 29 October 2010

23 Oct, Saturday:  One of the reasons we decided to stay at Devil’s Step was that it was close to Lynchburg, TN,

where the Jack Daniels Distillery is located and we wanted to go check it out. 

However, we didn’t pick a very good weekend to do this……it turns out it was the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue context “Smoke in the Hollow”……. 

Lots and lots of people…..and you know how Nolan loves lots and lots of people…..NOT!!!!!

 

This is where all the BBQing was going on…..too many people for Nolan so we didn’t even go down there……

He tried to talk me out of going on the free tour of the distillery but I kept saying we should go since we were already there and so he agreed.  This is where you wait for the tour to start…..we only had to wait about 15 or 20 minutes for the tour.

Our tour guide

An old car that was there….

 

Nolan looking in the cave where they get the spring water from and of course he was wishing he had a cup so he could taste the spring water.

This would of course be Jack Daniels.

This was his office.

And this would be the safe he kicked that gave him an infection that killed him.

Some of the builidngs on the grounds.  And a picture of some holly that has all that black mold stuff on it that seems to cover everything around.

Another picture of Jack in the inside of the visitor’s center.

 

All in all, even with the crowds, we had a good time.  Returned back to the RV for leftover stew for dinner.

24 Oct, Sunday:  Travel day……I had made reservations at Foscue Creek Park, a Corps of Engineer park in Demopolis, AL.  Another great place to stay for very little money…..full hookups for $10 a night with Nolan’s Senior Golden Age pass.

Our site

Our patio

As site with a lake view

 

Our loop…..there are two loops, we are staying on the shorter loop.

We arrived around 2:00 and we had not stopped to eat so I quickly started something to eat while I was putting stuff up and opening the slides.  The weather here is so nice….I think we’ll be sitting outside some.

25 Oct, Monday:  Uh Oh, we may have to move to another site…..while Nolan was sitting up he discovered that the sewer didn’t look like it was draining.  So today they are supposed to send someone over to look at it and if they don’t fix it, we’ll move to a different site.  Started laundry and we decided to drive around the park and look at the other sites and then into town to see what’s there.  No pictures, I forgot but it’s a nice little town with our favorite store……Wal Mart.  Got back and in a little while the maintenance guys came and really couldn’t find anything wrong with it except they think one of the lift station pumps might not be coming on when it needs to all the time.  So, we’re staying put.

26 Oct, Tuesday:  Rain off and on with wind all day, seemed like a good day to find a laundry and wash the bedspread, too big for my washing machine in the trailer.  Nothing too exciting except there seems to be an ant problem here……Nolan is on the prowl for ants…..every hour or so, he’s outside spraying or looking around the trailer killing them…..

27 Oct, Wednesday: Rain off and on, Nolan went to Wal Mart and I didn’t leave RV except to walk the dogs….I think Nolan is getting bored.

28 Oct, Thursday:  We decided today we would go Montgomery to visit the Hank Williams Museum.

Couldn’t take pictures inside but they sure have a lot of his stuff and a very interesting little museum.

29 Oct, Friday: They have a very nice walking trail, about 2 miles or so and today we decided to go check the picnic area out and walk the trail.

Road to the picnic area…..

   

View of lake from trail…..

 

End of trail…..nice walk! 

As we were walking around our loop back to the trailer we saw a group of people with 3 labs over at the boat launch area……the dogs were having a great time jumping in the water to retrieve sticks!

Later in the day we made a trip to the post office to mail post cards (I’m still finding post cards of areas and things we’re doing to mail to my great nieces and nephew) and Chago’s birthday present.