Signing Off For the Season

OK - this is it. The final blog until next season's journey.

We moved the 5th wheel from the Eureka KOA to the dealer - a mere 4 miles away, for the few warranty items we need fixed. Nothing major - just the toilet, awning, door leak, chair fabric, and a broken bracket on an outside cubbyhole.

Yesterday we got everything out and I began the monstrous task of doing all the laundry. I hadn't washed clothes in a week, plus all the towels, bedding, blankets, throws, rugs, etc. Somewhere in the emptying out process, I've lost my one and only pair of blue jeans. Hopefully they will surface in the near future since it's FREEZING, and even snow flurries in St. Louis!

A few trivial facts after going through my travel log that I keep in the truck:

7414 - number of miles traveled since December 26, 2007 - the date this adventure started.

4765 - number of miles we put on the truck while in Florida once we were set up in the park in Orange Lake. This is scary - did we make that many trips to the grocery store, Wal*Mart, and golf courses? This does include two trips to Orlando, two trips to Tampa, three trips to the RV park we'll be in next season, and two trips to the Cedar Key area in Florida.

$3.21 - cheapest diesel we found all winter, and that was on December 26, 2007 - probably somewhere in Kentucky or Tennessee.

$4.14 - most expensive diesel we paid, and that was yesterday, near Festus, MO - at the service center/gas station where we had the truck repaired after blowing off the hose.

0 - number of pounds we lost when our goal was to lose 25 apiece.

0 - number of days that we had snow while away.

106 - number of days we were gone from St. Louis (or number of days we missed family and friends)

I'm glad we got to share our adventures with everyone who was even remotely interested. We enjoyed rehashing each day's activities - no matter how boring they were - sorry you had to endure some of those. Hopefully we have encouraged some of you (and you know who you are) to get out there and retire, so you, too, can travel and see this great country we live in.

Now can we just figure out how to get the cost of diesel down?

Cheers until next November.

Not the Final Blog Yet

It' s been a strange past couple of days. No Internet until we got home today. We headed off to Tunica early, early, early Wednesday morning. We couldn't decide whether to keep going or just stay since we got in around 3:00pm. The next possible RV park was in Memphis or Caruthersville, MO. We opted for the buffets in the casinos; besides, you can't beat Sam's Town RV park - only $15 a night to camp. We had a so-so buffet Wednesday night, and no winning on the penny slots.

We were beat, so we set the alarm for 5:00am on Thursday morning to head back home. We knew bad weather was coming across the mid section of the U.S., but we thought we'd be able to get home regardless. When the alarm went off at 5am, I turned on the Weather Channel - it didn't look good. Too many storms in Arkansas and Tennessee and southern Missouri. We turned off the coffee pot and headed back to bed, since we'd already had a sleepless night interrupted by extremely strong winds.

After paying for another night, we unhooked the truck from the 5th wheel and found the Hollywood Casino for yet another dinner buffet - this one was good - it included king crab legs. Same story on the penny slots. We headed to bed real early because we we set the alarm for 4:00am today to get up. Why - we're retired! I know, but we were also ready to get home.

After a very stormy night, we headed out at 4:30 this morning, in the rain, to get home. A non-eventful trip until about a hundred miles south of St. Louis. We heard a very loud explosion under the hood. It still ran, so we crept on the shoulder to the next exit, which, thank God, had a truck service center. $38 dollars later we were fixed and back on the road. Who would think that a breather hose blowing off would make such a noise!

We finally made it to the KOA in Eureka to unload and clean early this afternoon. Dennis met us and brought a load back home for us.

We're tired, and we're headed to bed very soon. Our final blog of the season will be written tomorrow when I'm awake.

On The Road Again

Another bad weather day. 30mph winds, 60s, and nothing but clouds. The sun finally came out at 5:45pm, but only for a minute.

A great deal of the day was spent researching campgrounds for on the way home. Mark found two casinos with campgrounds - Tunica, MS; Caruthersville, MO; as well as a few other non-casino campgrounds.

Since the forecast is terrible at best, we spent the day getting ready to leave early in the morning. The coffee maker is set for 5:00am, the jacks have been taken up, tanks cleaned, "stuff" put away, and the trailer is hooked on and just about ready to go.

Running Out of Beach Time

After scrambling to find something to make for breakfast (the last of the cereal and bagels) we biked for 5-6 miles. The fridge and cupboards are just about bare. Since we're leaving here in a couple of days, we're trying to make do with what we have, not wanted to re-stock at the grocery store. It's getting tough!

Look what we found in the swamp right next to the RV park while on our bikes.

What started off as a very foggy morning, turned into a fabulous day on the beach. After an hour we walked to the Pink Pony bar/restaurant on the beach for a sandwich (again, no food in fridge) and then back to the beach. The kids in the RV park finally got to enjoy the beach.

After Mark had enough sun, we returned so he could start cleaning the outside of the 5th wheel. We're winding down now. No more public laundromats - I'm saving the rest for the weekend at home. We've made a reservation for Friday night at the KOA in Eureka, MO to unload and clean before returning it to storage. I can't even think about emptying out all that we have accumulated.

The last of the chicken I had in the freezer turned out to be bad (stinky). After throwing out the chicken, we walked to Jalapeno's restaurant, which ended up being closed. We sat down at another restaurant, looked at the menu, listened to way too many families talking way too loud, and got up and left. This required a walk back to the park to get the truck. All I wanted was a salad. Fortunately there's an O'Charley's about 10 miles away.

Tomorrow is heavy duty cleaning inside and out before beach time. Wednesday weather looks iffy, so we may head back on Wednesday. We're getting anxious to see everyone. The Weather Channel will let us know when to leave.

Idle Hands

This has turned out to be a do nothing day. The morning was cool and cloudy but the weather channel said clearing by noon. We waited but no sun by noon. Actually no sun until 4:30. We rode our bikes around the residential areas of Gulf Shores, spent $75 on diesel fuel (thankfully the tank was only 3/4 down), lunch at Subway and finally a walk on the beach around 5:00 pm.

We sat and had beers with our neighbors this afternoon for a while. They are from southeast Missouri near the Arkansas border. Always fun to talk to another couple that retired as early as we did. Tomorrow the forecast is sunny and warm. We'll see.

Not a Jellyfish Afterall

After watching the news last night, we realized we were fortunate to avoid all the storms in the area. Mobile, AL had 8" of rain; Destin, FL had tornadoes. We avoided everything until 7:00 this morning. After eating a bowl of cereal, we drove out to the end of Fort Morgan road. At the end of this road is Fort Morgan, along with the ferry to get to Dauphin Island. It's been a couple of years since we'd been down to the end of this road. Mobile Bay is now full of oil rigs.

We counted 12 of these oil rigs right in front of us.

After returning to the RV park, we realized that there are still thousands of kids in Alabama and Kentucky on spring break next week - most of which moved in overnight or early this morning. It's more crowded now with kids than when we were here in August. What a great spring break destination - thankfully the rains quit around 2:00pm - not that the rain stopped the kids from being outside and riding their bikes.

Clouds and big waves.

We once again walked the beaches this afternoon. It seems the storms rolled in a bunch of seaweed, which brings in the Portuguese man-of-wars with it.

They seem to be getting bigger.

Info I found on-line regarding these creatures:

Although commonly called a jellyfish, the Portuguese Man-of-War is actually a colony of 4 different types of polyps with specialized functions. It is said the Man-of-War got its name a long time ago when ancient sailors thought it resembled a Portuguese war ship. The Man-of-War is usually a blue inflated body with a pink crest and the tentacles are a combination of blue, pink and purple. As beautiful as it is, it should never be touched ! A dead and dried up Man-of-War is still poisonous and capable of stinging. The tentacles can be extremely long, so even if you are not close to the floating "helmet" body you could bump into one of its highly venomous tentacles.
The man-of-war stings are very painful. Symptoms include severe shooting pain described as a shock-like sensation, and intense joint and muscle pain. Pain may be accompanied by headaches, shock, collapse, faintness, hysteria, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting and in some cases death (usually from cardiac arrest). While the initial contact may result in only a small number of stings, efforts to escape from the tentacles may cause the stinging cells that have not discharged to do so and intensify the stings. Care should be taken when removing the adhering tentacles. Severe stings can still occur even when the animal is beached or dead. The Man-of-War sting may require further medical treatment to control the pain. If any breathing difficulty occurs, CALL 911 immediately.

This is why we are afraid to get in the water! One section of the beach had hundreds of these washed up.

Spring is in the Air and on the Beach

Today was one of those perfect days on the gulf coast. Bright sunshine this morning so we headed straight to the beach and enjoyed the waves. After about two hours the clouds started to roll in so it was off to the grocery store to replenish the freezer. We got spoiled in Florida with the local grocery stores stocking high quality meat. The same is not true here. We visited two stores and finally just bought some chicken to BBQ.

After lunch the sun came back and we returned to the beach. While we sat and watched the locals surfing and using boogie boards we saw something we have never seen before. We have been on beaches along the east and west coast, beaches throughout the Caribbean and have been coming to Gulf Shores for nearly 30 years but never did we have any idea where all these damn seagulls come from. Now we know. There were two seagulls right next to us squawking in unison for several minutes. We started to watch them to see what was going on and one of the local guys near us also stopped to watch. The larger of the two hopped up on the back of the other one and kept squawking while trying to keep his balance. At this point we still didn't know what this was all about but amusing just the same. All of a sudden there were conjoined seagulls right there on the beach. Of all the times not to have a camera, this would certainly have been the picture of the season! Diane swears I'm wrong but I'm certain I saw a smile on the face of the one and a slight swagger in his step. The local guy told me that he had never seen this in his life. This is something you might want to think about at the beach cabana when the bartender asks if you want a sex on the beach.

Canadians and a Sunset

Today was our first, and probably last, golf round in Alabama. We had a 9:00am tee time at the State Park golf course. After paying $20 golf all winter, it pained us to pay $44 each for golf. However, we were fortunate to play with two brothers, Dave and Don McCloud from Ontario, Canada. Both were in their late 60s/early 70s, and quite funny. Don was a good golfer while Dave hacked away with the best of 'em. They liked to laugh as much as we do while golfing. The only problem we had with them was they would yell " Hit it on the green " in Mark's backswing. It was a little disconcerting.

The course had some beautiful azalea bushes that all seem to be blooming now.

After golf we headed to the beach for a couple of hours. I guess we're getting used to the very cold water - Mark got in all the way today. Me - I just stayed on the beach enjoying the sunshine. People are getting braver, or just don't care about the jelly fish. The purple flag is still flying.

It was then back to the park for laundry. It's so easy here - no other people to argue with or fight over machines.

After dinner we walked to the beach for the sunset and stopped in the Pink Pony bar/restaurant for a couple of drinks. The live music that started at 8:15p was a bit much so we walked back. I think we're getting old - we complained about how loud it was!

Like Pea Soup

Dense fog so thick that we couldn't see the high-rise condos across the swamp is what we saw first thing this morning. Once that cleared, we saw the heavy clouds. This did not stop us from walking the beach.

Since the weather wasn't all that great this morning, we decided to check out the movie Bucket List. What a fabulous movie. Like the guy camped next to us said, "If you got a gray hair on your head, you need to go see this movie."

When we got out of the movie this afternoon, the sun had come out and warmed up, so we changed clothes and headed to the beach.

This was the afternoon we actually got in the water - at least waist deep. It wasn't too bad. The problem with being in the water - the Portuguese man-of-wars are still there. This morning we found a very large one, about 8" long, washed up on the shore. Once you get in the water, you're always on the lookout to see these jelly fish.




This was a tiny man-of-war we found this afternoon.

After dinner the fog started to roll in again so thick you could barely see across the road. Something new every day.

Tourists for a Day

Today we were tourists. Never having been to Ft. Walton Beach or Destin, we decided to drive over and take a look after a Waffle Hour breakfast. It was an hour and a half drive through very crowded towns full of spring breakers and fellow tourists.

We found a large public parking lot at the Crab Trap restaurant in Destin. This beach looks just like Gulf Shores, but the area is extremely crowded. All of the local high schools are on spring break this week and the kids were all hanging out on the beach.

Since the sun was shining, I was able to get into the water (shin deep at best). No red or purple flags on this beach. The Portuguese man-of-wars (type of jelly fish) have been coming ashore on the local beaches in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. These are extremely dangerous, and very painful when the tentacles get on humans. Yet another reason to stay out of the freezing water.

We next drove through an RV park on the beach just east of Destin. The RVs were crammed in, some of them right on the beach. This is not for us. I love sand, but I don't want to eat it daily, or have to vacuum daily to get it out of the 5th wheel.

On the way back to Gulf Shores, we stopped at the famous Flora-Bama bar that straddles the Florida and Alabama border. This bar has been here forever, but we've never set foot inside. I remember Aunt Nell telling me about it, as she and Chet used to stop in for lunch occasionally. She said there were bras that certain patrons felt they no longer needed, hanging up, and sure enough, they still are. The hurricanes have not been kind to this establishment, but it was never anything to look at to begin with. It's a landmark, and anyone who's ever been in this area, has certainly heard of it.

We each had a drink and then headed back to our park.