The Fall Trip Continues

We're having a great time in Gulf Shores.  Monday we set out to kayak with Pam and Dennis in the bayous that are right here in the park.  Unfortunately, after we inflated them we discovered that Mark's had a hole in it.  He stayed behind to do the necessary repairs while the rest of us paddled four miles.  No gators to be found but we did see some guy throwing out a net to catch tiny minnows to feed his 10 black cats. 


Our days are almost always the same - we get up, have coffee, and then either bike or walk for about an hour.  Lunch is either a sandwich in the trailer or we eat out.  As frugal retired people, we only eat out at lunch as it's much cheaper than eating out for dinner.  The afternoons are spent at the beach, the pool, and then a shower, happy hour, and dinner.


We are only seeing a few jellyfish this week.  Mark learned how to pick them up and throw it onto shore from one of the local kids.  The rest of us will not be trying this.

This is the beach on Saturday.  Not many people, which is why we come here in September. 

Scenes from the fishing pier Saturday evening:

Some guy caught this baby shark.  Unfortunately, it's illegal in Alabama to even bring one out of the water.  It took him forever to get the hook out of its mouth.  By the time he was back in the water, he was half dead floating on his back. 

We loved watching this kid fish.  The first time we saw him, he was trying to land a similar fish, but he kept yelling, "it's breaking my wrist."  He finally got it dangling 5' above the water when the line broke.  He was bummed, saying, "it's my birthday, why did it have to break."  Mark told him that it was probably the fish's birthday too, and he got his wish.  About an hour later we went back to this kid, and he finally landed this guy.  He was so excited, he kept wanting me to take his picture.

The best sunset pictures come from the pier. 

Yesterday Mark and Dennis put the new decal on our trailer to replace the one they removed last week.  it turned out perfect!

The grocery store of choice in Gulf Shores is the very pricey, but very clean and with very friendly employees - Publix.  We first got to shop at Publix when we spent two winters near Ocala, Fl.  After several attempts to buy grapes at the local Walmart, we now only buy produce at Publix.  We're eating at least 4 lbs. of grapes every 3 days (much healthier than cookies or ice cream).  It's all all-service store with very strange things for sale.

Golf balls sold in the middle of the chips and snacks aisle!

It's good To Be Back in Gulf Shores

We began our fall trip this year at 4:45am Wednesday morning in a torrential downpour.  Fortunately it quit by Farmington.  It was an uneventful trip when we finally got off the road around 5:00pm that evening.  We stopped in a park we had never stayed in before because we were looking for something that got us past Jackson, MS on the first day.  We would never stay here again, only because it required making U-turns to get into and then back out of the park the next morning.  This is not fun while pulling a 38' trailer and doing this on a 4-lane road. Also there was a tent in front of the park where they were selling rebel flags. We had never met anyone who sold these flags at a roadside stand and now we have. We did have a great view from our spot though.

Thursday morning we got up and headed to Gulf Shores.  As always at this time of year, the RV park is once again mostly empty.  Instead of heading directly to the beach after setting up, we had to do some repairs on the trailer.  The second air conditioner didn't work.  Luckily Mark can now add A/C repair man to his resume.  After cleaning out about 5 lbs. of muddaubers, it started working just fine. While on the roof, a guy stopped by in his truck with his Mobile RV Wash trailer looking for business.  While we didn't really want to spend the money, Mark's back wouldn't allow him to wash and wax the trailer, so our new friend Chris and his employee got the job.  Chris is a Gulf Shores policeman and has this business on the side. (Mark justified hiring Chris because he saved so much money fixing the a/c himself!)

Early Friday morning, Chris and Beau showed up to do the first washing.  The total job is two washings, and a final wax just before we head home in October.

Beau doing all the work on the roof.  The trailer looks a million times better now.


Mark has now started removing the defective purple decals on the one side of the trailer.  After much research and advice from fellow RV owners (Big Dennis included), and several different cans of chemicals, he finally removed the worst of them.

On our visit to the water on Friday, we saw lots of jellyfish and most people were on shore instead of the water.  We were told by the guy running the jet ski booth that those jellyfish won't sting, it's the small ones that get you.  An hour later I got out of the water with the back of my leg on fire with jellyfish stings.  Yesterday Mark got stung on his stomach, but didn't get the red rash. 

Upon opening this morning's newspaper, the front page had this story:

My favorite line of the article, "While the moons don't sting, feeling their heavy, gelatinous bodies brush against arms and legs as you swim through a cloud of them ranks among the least pleasant sensations to be had in the Gulf of Mexico."  I couldn't have said it better myself!  With this in mind, we headed back to the water this afternoon to play in the big waves.  We saw a few jellyfish, and we still "yelled like a little girl"; however, we didn't get stung.