Peddling It All Over Town

The bike riding is going to kill us.  I don't know what happened.  Last year we rode all the time.  It must be the distances.  We are riding at least 5-6 miles every morning, and it is flat land here; the toughest incline is going over the speed bumps in the RV park. This means you always pedal and never get to coast.   

Pam and Dennis are dedicated "walkers."  They decided to venture out into the biking world with us this week.  Monday we biked to the fishing pier.  No one was catching fish.  After paying 2 bucks apiece, the least these people could do was entertain us. 

On Tuesday the "cold" front came in.  I woke up around 3am to lightning and thunder.  When I got out of bed at 7am, it was only 65 degrees out. We were excited about a cooler day.  Tuesday's ride took us several miles down the west beach to watch a couple trying to fish.  The wife was in charge of throwing a net to get the bait while her husband had a rod and reel.  She shared that she was catching more fish than he was. 

Since we had biked so far, we treated ourselves to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet.  This is how we rationalize buffets.

It was 60 degrees out this morning!  We had the window open, the a/c running, and the fan running.  I felt like a popscicle in bed!  Mark was in heaven. 

We had made plans last night for a special extra long bike ride today.  First we headed off to Waffle House enroute to the State Park campgound.  Weighted down with 20 lbs of food, we then headed down the beach road to the campground.  We were fortunate to finally see some wildlife.

 
This little guy just sat there.  Mark tossed a few sticks at it and he didn't even move.

We think we biked at least 8-9 miles; my back feels like we did 25.  The weather finally started warming up and Pam and I got to take off our long sleeve shirts halfway thru the ride.  We had been begging for a cool day and finally got it.  It was extremely nice on the beach; unfortunately it looked like a lake.  No waves at all.  This made finding the jellyfish and other swimming creatures easy to see.  I much prefer the big waves.

It was a healthy dinner tonight - grilled fresh grouper and crab cakes, and for the first time in several days, no trip to Scoops!

B.U.I.

Since I've waited until Sunday night to post, I hope I can remember all we did this weekend.

Friday we all decided to go to the calmer beach at Alabama Point.  Our intention was to get a good look at all the yachts and fishing boats going and coming.  The tide was going out which made a swift current for us to float in for about 100 ft.  Around lunchtime we headed to the BBQ joint that we all tasted at the contest last weekend.  Mark told the waiter that he was a judge for the contest.  This lead to a visit from the chef as well as a visit from the owner!  This did NOT lead to a free lunch! 

Mark and I finally biked down to the Hangout around 5pm.  The band was warming up, the draft beer was ice cold, and the bloody marys were great.  Pam and Dennis joined us shortly and we all proceeded to have a fun evening.  The Mizzou football game was on the big screen and we were able to sing all the songs the band played!  Unfortunately, around 10:30p we had to bicycle our way back to the campground.  I don't believe we biked in  straight lines, and only a couple of near-mishaps along the way.

Saturday started off nice when we headed off for our morning bike ride.  The waves we had been used to for the past two weeks had finally disappeared. 

Later the sky opened up and the rains came.  After watching a bit of golf, we got in the truck for a ride out to Fort Morgan and a visit to WalMart for ink cartridges.  It used to be cheaper to just buy a printer rather than a cartride; not so any more. The rain quit long enough for me to grill some chicken but then the lightning and thunder was back for the entire evening.  

Today Mark made pancakes for Pam and Dennis while Dennis provided the bacon.  (Thank you Clark and Sherry.)  Our bike route today took us about 6-7 miles.  We weren't prepared for this long ride - no ChapStick and no water bottles.  The beach started filling up early today but again, no waves. 

Three young men entertained us for a while.  They made some kind of ramp so they could jump over on their wake boards.  I think they are just learning because none of them were successful.

The Urn Man

It's mostly been the same around here - lounge about until lunch time, eat a sandwich, head to the beach for a couple of hours, then the pool for a couple of hours, dinner, a walk to the ice cream store, bed, then start all over again.  We admit, our lives are good. 

Yesterday friends of Pam and Dennis came to town on their way home to Atlanta from New Orleans.  Clark and Sherry are lots of fun.  They are staying at a hotel right where the rest of us hang out on the beach.  Yesterday they joined us for our beach time.

Mark and I have been trying to eat in, but sometimes it just doesn't work out.  I had gotten out a pork tenderloin yesterday.  Unfortunately I forgot to put it in the fridge and the sun kind of baked it all day through the window while it was sitting in the sink.  Yuck.  I pitched it and instead we headed to a local Mexican restaurant.  This place is on the 4th flour of a beach front condo building.  We got in the elevator, pushed the button, and immediately jumped out of it.  The door closed half-way and scared us, so we trekked up the four flights.  We were the only people in the restaurant.  We were pleasantly surprised.  Mark had a couple of the 99 cent margaritas and we pigged out on great cheap food.

Tonight Dennis cooked us burgers so we could say goodbye to Clark and Sherry. 

These two own their own business - Clark makes urns for pets or humans and sells to funeral homes or pet cemetaries all over the country.  He does beautiful work and brought one of his pieces for us to see.

So not only are we having fun, our trip is also educational as Clark has taught us a lot.

Every Five Thousand Miles

We had to make a trip to the local Ford dealership yesterday for an oil change on the big truck.  At home we trust this to our local mechanic; on the road we only trust the Ford dealers.  Unfortunately, the dealer is $30 more than Mike the mechanic. This allowed us about an hour to roam the lot for new trucks.  Luckily for us, there were no one-ton trucks that we just couldn't live without.  This dealership didn't have much of any inventory on the lot, except the $83,000 mustangs.  As near as we could tell, the dealership is being staffed by retirees from the area. 

After waiting what seemed like forever for the truck, we stopped at our local favorite restaurant, King Neptune's for their $5 lunch special.  Mark had the chicken livers; I had the shrimp creole.  The special comes with two sides, a drink, and dessert.

We had to get to the beach next since we missed going on Sunday.  Unfortunately the seaweed had returned.  Mark had time to feed a few seagulls what he believes is their favorite snack - puffed cornies.  I made him quit - I didn't want to get hit by seagull droppings!

We got in for just a few minutes and headed back to the pool.  I was making dinner for Pam and Dennis - real comfort food - sausage, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes.  We walked it off by walking over to Scoops for ice cream!

This morning we had to get up and at 'em early - we had an 8:24a tee time at the State Park golf course.  For the first time since we've been here, we had a cloudy overcast day.  Not many people were golfing.  A man from the Atlanta area asked if he could golf with us.  He was a real talker, but fun to golf with.  We did get a few sprinkles on us but they only lasted a few seconds.  It could have been much worse, especially since the thunder was all around us.

By the time we got back to the trailer, it started pouring -- of course, I started doing laundry.  The cloudy day was a relief as we all needed a break from the scorching sun.  We'll be back on the beach tomorrow.

Here Come Da Judge

It was a great weekend.  We're still enjoying the fabulous weather.  Saturday morning we got into Dennis' truck and the four of us headed up to the "better of the two" flea markets.  It was 99.9% junk but we did manage to buy a couple of books.  The strangest thing you could ever imagine was just sitting there for sale:

Yes, those are prosthetic legs!  We didn't bother looking for a price tag - that's just not right.

This morning around 11:00a we biked down to the First Annual Beach Blues and BBQ at the Hangout. 

You bought tickets for $2 a piece and went around to the eight different BBQers to taste their wares.  We ate some mighty fine pulled pork and ribs.   

While we were just sitting in the shade at a picnic table, one of the men in charge of the BBQ contest approached Mark to see if he would be interested in being a judge for the contest.

Yep - about an hour after we all finished eating from all the vendors, he had to start eating again as a judge. 

Since he was tied up for a couple of hours, Pam and Dennis and I got to enjoy the many sights, the great music, and a few beverages.  Luckily for Dennis, the MGD 64 girls were there handing out free beers and coolie cups.  Pam and I enjoyed the Bushwackers.  Mark got done around 3pm and the winners were to be announced by 3:30pm.  We finally left at 3:35pm because no announcements were made, and it was just too hot sitting out there.  We went back and jumped into the pool.

After I got a nap, we biked back to the beach since we really hadn't been there today.  By 6:00pm it was mostly deserted.

Needless to say, dinner was very light.  I grilled one ribeye steak; we ate less than a third of it and shoved the rest in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. But since we only had protein we had to finish the day at the local ice cream parlor.

Caught in the Rain Again

For the second time this week, I've been stranded in the laundry room because of downpours.  Upon jumping out of bed at 7:15 this morning, I gathered all the dirty clothes and walked up to the laundry. When it was time to put the loads into the dryer I just rode my bike and that's when the rains came.  Fortunately it was only for 15 minutes.  Some elderly gentlemen I was talking to outside the laundry building suggested that I just quit doing laundry. 

While I was doing laundry, Mark was washing the roof of the trailer and talking to another RVer near us.  Two hours later, we still hadn't eaten breakfast but Mark got Dewalt's life history out of him.  It always amazes me how complete strangers will give you all of their deep dark secrets in a manner of minutes of meeting them.  What's up with that?

After no breakfast, our truck headed to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch.  It's not a good thing to do this on extremely empty stomachs!  After pigging out we headed to the beach and were treated to much entertainment.  Lots of Gulf Shores employees were setting up for a triathelon being held tomorrow.  This involved a boat setting up a route with flags for the swimming portion.  What we got to witness not 50 feet from where we were in the water was a boat being swamped in the waves not 15 feet from shore.  They were loading it with concrete blocks to weight down the flag buoys; instead, they just sunk their own boat.  The sad part was that the driver of the boat got hurt and an ambulance had to come take him away.

After dinner we rode our bikes to the Hangout restaurant/bar on the beach to listen to the music and to see if the boat was still sitting on the beach (it wasn't).  The bloody marys were good; the music was just ok. 

This was a really neat looking skyline on our way to the Hangout.

After leaving the Hangout, we biked over to the Scoops ice cream shoppe; perfect for a hot September night.  It's always tricky biking at dark, especially since one of the four of us is bicycle-challenged (not mentioning names here).  I have to bring up the rear because I have a flashing red light on the back of my bike.

Woohoo!  Just watched Matt Holliday's walk-off homerun.  Glad we got that satellite hooked up so we can watch Cardinal ballgames again.  I had just told the tv - just hit a home run and end it, and he did.

Try, Try Again

Yesterday Mark and I set off for a bike ride down the east beach road.  By the time we got back to the park we had ridden 10 miles.  We stopped off to watch a retired school teacher fishing with a net in an area where the Gulf goes into the bay area.  When the tide comes in lots of locals fish with these large nets that are weighted down with about 50 small weights.  She told us she fishes daily for her dinner, and was lucky enough to catch a flounder and some crabs, but she releases the female crabs as they are now full of eggs. 

This was Mark on the first leg of our trip, trying to convince our friends Mark and Diane to come to the Gulf next week.

Instead of catching our own, we biked up the road to buy some fresh fish and crab cakes for our dinner.

Next was the test of trying to set up the satellite dish.  Dennis and Mark had been trying to get Dennis' up with no success so Mark decided to try ours as well.  Same success rate so he just bundled it all up and threw it back into the trailer.

Too aggravated from the satellite fiascos, we just headed to the beach while Dennis decided to keep messing with his. The waves were gigantic and quite rough.  We counted only 11 people in the water for as far as we could see in both directions.  To get the sand out, we again headed back to the pool where Pam and Dennis and our neighbors Ricky and Susan were all imbibing in their local beverages (beers, Hurricanes, Dacquiris).  We had a lot of catching up to do.

We finally got around to grilling the fish and crab cakes around 8pm.  This was our first attempt at grilling fish other than the crappie we caught at the lake.  We ended up with a pile of tiny bits as the two large pieces of flounder kinda shredded on the foil on the grill; however, it was good.  Next time we'll get a thicker piece of fish.  The crab cakes fried in the electric skillet I got from my Mom were yummy (thanks Mom - I set it up outside on a table.)

This morning Dennis walked over to tell us he got his DirectTv working - he called them for advice and got the info we all needed.  Again, Mark drug all the equipment back out and was successful!

We had to say goodby to the Baton Rouge couple - Susie and Randy, as they had to return home today.  We're gonna miss them as they were a lot of fun.

We celebrated by playing in the waves all afternoon and then yet another trip to WalMart.  We're been here since Saturday.  The only entries in my checkbook for six days are the seven entries from WalMart!  We're gonna try and stay away for at least two days - yeah, right!

Red Flag

The past two days the waves have been "St. Maarten-esk" in strength.  (St. Maarten is always our favorite cruise ship stop because of the monster waves.)  After the rain yesterday we biked to the beach (3 blocks) with Pam and Dennis to play for a while.  These waves beat us senseless, but were great fun.  Since our suits were jam packed with wet sand, on the way back to our campsites we stopped in the pool to clean them out.  I suspect the park managers don't appreciate it, but it beats getting all that sand in our holding tanks. 

Our evening with Pam and Dennis ended pretty early after the dinner I had cooked for them, since they had left home at 5:00am that morning.

Mark started waxing the trailer this morning.  It seemed to take him hours to just do the front, but most of the time was spent talking to Randy from Baton Rouge, who is parked next to us.  I love to hear his accent, which is a good thing since he likes to talk, a lot. We're going to miss him and his wife Susan when they leave on Thursday.

We made it to the beach by 10:30am.  The waves weren't as rough as yesterday's, but today they had a red flag and not many people were willing to play in them - I guess they value their necks more than we do.  After a couple of hours we couldn't take it any more; plus it looked like it was going to rain (it didn't).

I spent the afternoon in the shade at the pool with a good book.  It was wonderful. 

Since no planning was put into what to make for dinner, we finally decided to go out.  This was not a healthy dinner.  After fried clams and Mark's seafood casserole (butter, seafood, cheese, and yet more butter), we splurged on the Baked Cheesecake.  Oh my gosh - this was by far the best dessert I've ever eaten.  I guess we'll seriously start thinking about Weight Watchers tomorrow.

Glad They're Usually Wrong

It's was a new experience for us yesterday -- we broke down camp, hooked on, and drove off -- all in the downpour yesterday morning.  Luckily it was just 120 miles from Biloxi to Gulf Shores so we made it a nice and easy trip.  It quit raining long enough to set up our new home-away-from-home in beautiful Gulf Shores, AL.

After setting up in our spot, we realized that our electrical cord was about 20' too short.  This required a trip to Camping World for an additional 50 amp cord.  Yikes!  These babies are not cheap; but now we're set for any campsite, any where.  

Since it rained the rest of the day, we just did some stocking up at Walmart and managed to watch the golf as well as the Cardinal ballgame that was on national tv.  Why did they suddenly quit knowing how to win, especially against the Braves?

The glorious sunrise that we awoke to was a pleasant surprise since "no sun for the next 5 days" was forecast.  We rode the bikes down to the beach and played in the waves for an hour.  Since we had no suntan lotion on, we headed back to start washing the trailer - those nasty love bugs are everywhere.

Better prepared, we headed back to the beach after lunch for more frolicking in the waves.  An 11-year old local kid was tellling us that he comes to the beach every weekend, and "these are the best waves all summer!"  No seaweed and no jellyfish -- we're keeping our fingers crossed!

Since the thunderstorms forced us back to the trailer around 4pm, we got to see Tiger win yet again.  Now we await Pam and Dennis who will be showing up some time tomorrow afternoon - can't wait!

Birds Do It; Bees Do It ...

The partly sunny morning that we awoke to had us wavering on whether to golf or not to golf. All the weather maps had it raining on our parade but we decided to try it. We went to the Great Southern Golf Club - the oldest golf couse in Mississippi - established in 1908.  

For you golfers, you can appreciate our angst at having a six-some directly in front of us.  Also note - that's a train going down the tracks that run right through the middle of the course.  Luckily, the retired six-some allowed us to play through on the 2nd hole.  Just a bunch of retired old men who golf on this course 3 times a week.

A pair of mating bugs on the cart path (I knew you would appreciate this, Steph.)

After golf we headed to the Winn Dixie for some salad-y food, since all we had was dressing and carrots.  (This is rather funny since we haven't eaten dinner in since we got to Biloxi.)  Note the parking spot that Mark chose to park in.

After a quick ham sammy, we headed to the pool along with the dirty clothes.  We've only been gone three days yet we had two loads of laundry.  The pool was refreshing, unfortunately by this time, the sun was gone so it didn't feel real warm; it did, however, get all the sand and grime off of us after golfing!

Our plans to go sightseeing were hampered by the forecasted rain.  We had hoped to walk through the marinas and take some pictures of the Hurricane Katrina devastation but the weather didn't really cooperate.  I did snap a few through the windows.  Even though this hurricane was just over four years ago, it seems that the only things that got rebuilt were the casinos and the shopping mall.  

This building sits just 100 yards from the waterfront next to the Hard Rock Casino.  Speaking of casinos, we visited the Hard Rock and then the Treasure Bay one.  Happy to report we walked out winners in both places - enough to buy dinner and maybe 15 gallons of diesel fuel!

It's now raining cats and dogs.  We're hoping to leave for Gulf Shores tomorrow as we're gambled-out!  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Our winter has started early this season. After all the obligatory medical issues, we have headed south. Yesterday was our first day on the road. We stopped in Canton, MS (home of Nissan) for the night. To get the season started, this happened:

Ouch! We have to get him a hard hat for working around the trailer. This was one of the worst yet.

This morning we packed up and started our trek down to Biloxi, MS. We stopped along the way at the "Dizzy Dean Rest Area" off US49. They had this huge mural on the wall of him in his St. Louis Cardinals jersey.

The Cajun RV Park is right across the street from the Gulf of Mexico. Our trailer is the Cedar Creek; the Gulf is in the background.

After checking out one of the local golf courses and Walmart, we walked across the street to test the waters. The water was not what we expected. One would think that the beaches on the Gulf are all the same, but they are not. The water was very warm; very dirty; and very brown. The beach was nice and clean.

Luckily there's a pool here in the park that we'll try out tomorrow after golfing (unless the meteorologists get it right this time).

Since we hadn't eaten all day, we headed to the Hard Rock Casino for buffet and penny slots. Our plan was to win enough to pay for tomorrow's golf. A good idea; not good results. After 3 hours in two different casinos, we got back to the trailer with $1 less than when we left! It's like winning.