Travel Day

We left Gulf Shores AL today about 7:45am.. We knew we had a long day ahead of us.. We had decided earlier in the week to do the trip in one day, (it's about an 8 hr trip.) It was a good thing we'd planned that cause half way was around Birmingham and that wasn't going to happen since the terrible storms this past week. We didn't see the worst of the damage but from I-65 about four miles north of the city you started seeing the trees down, snapped off or stripped bare of bark. We did see some buildings (I'm thinking one was a hotel) that had crumbled. We saw several carivans of utility trucks and phone company trucks heading up and down the interstate, most likely coming from other towns and states to help. We're finding that there are several families from Alabama staying in town here (Shelbyville) with either families, friends or at hotels cause power is still out in AL. Let's keep praying.
Our time in AL seem to go fast.. We had a blast with friends..and we had plenty in and out of here to visit with. Tim and Jean are still there. They are heading back home for the summer soon, Rich and Betty, Peggy and Jimmy, Rita and Dan and Geo are either in MI or heading that way soon. So glad we got to see them (even though we spent the winter with most of them it's still fun when we see each other on the road). If we get to MI this summer I'm sure we'll see then again before we all met back up in TX for the winter...can you call sunny and 70 in Jan winter...
We'll be getting Dr's apts out of the way this week and visiting with our Moms and other family members then getting back on the road on Thurs.

Fast Month

Wow, this sure has been a fast month.. Time does fly when you're having fun. We could stay longer if we didn't have dr apt's in TN. This is one of our favorite areas to stay in. If it wasn't for my allergies it would be just about perfect.
Another rv friend stopped by today. Geo is making his way from FL to MI. and stopped at one of his membership parks in Robertsdale, AL. for a few days. He knew we were in the area so we made plans to get together this afternoon. Tim and Jean stopped by too since they are friends of his also. We didn't have a long visit since we're heading out tomorrow but we'll see him again later this summer. We plan to see Tim and Jean this summer also.
Rita and Dan left this morning making their way back to MI. (I'm beginning to think the entire state of MI are RV'ers since most of our RV friends are from there.)(laughing)
I have a full schedule planned for the next several days visiting family.. I have one dentist visit hopefully it will be a simple filling but with me dental work is never simple.
We'll be traveling through the state of Alabama tomorrow and as we travel through I'll be thinking about and praying for the families affected by the storms this past week.

Storms

I'm sorry about all the storms that happened yesterday. they were all north of us, remember we're in south AL and south of where we're at is the Gulf of Mexico..
We had rain showers overnight but nothing bad.
I've talked to both my (our) kids and they missed the bad weather too even though it was all around them as well.
As we travel through the state on Sat we'll probably see some of the distruction. I'm praying for these families.

Rita and Dan

Our friends, Rita and Dan arrived on Monday evening and we headed out to their park to see them and see their new rv. They decided to trade their travel trailer in for a motorhome and they got a nice Discovery (remember we also have a Discovery) It's very nice.. We had to check it out and compare the differences between the two rigs.. We then headed to The shrimp basket for supper. Rita and I made plans to get our ped's on Wed.. So we met them for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom (not as good as it use to be) and while the guys came back to our place to solve the worlds problems we headed to the nail salon.
They will be leaving on Friday heading to MI for the summer.

Busy with friends

We spent the week visiting with friends from TX. they are actually from MI but we winter with them in Tx.
In addition to Rich and Betty being here for a week and a half, Peggy and Jimmy arrived on Sunday afternoon. We made plans to get with them on Monday at Lamberts...Lamberts is a restaurant here that "throws the rolls" fresh out of the oven to you. The serving size are super big and the place is always packed. You get the sides that you order but then there's the pass arounds too that come with every meal...like our favorite, fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, cabbage, & black eyed peas. As long as you want to eat they keep bringing food, just ask Jimmy.
Tues we met at Lulu's so Peggy and Jimmy could check it out. It's a great place to start happy hours.. We got a table outside where we could watch the boats go by.
One Wed we decided a cook out was needed. So we grilled hotdogs and Brats with the trimmings and fresh strayberry short cake. The gang left on Thurs heading north.
This weekend we're grilling out with Tim, Jean, Trina and Alexi. Rita and Dan are heading this way sometime next week..

LuLu's

We got together with Rich and Betty yesterday and went to Lulu's. It was our first time there and it was a fun. It's down by the marina and there's climbing stuff for kids, a gift shop and a stage area for bands. The building is open with no sides and plenty of tables.. it has a stage for a band and restaurant.. Some of the Tx gang is picturing Pepe's and yeah that's what I said when I saw it but it's newer, nicer, younger, got the food faster..and it's geared toward the family crowd.. There was music playing but no one line dancing. The food came quickly and it was good. Our waiter Jeremy was fun too.
Reid had the Cheeseburger in paradise and I had a grilled chicken wrap.. BTY did I mention that Lulu is the sister to Jimmy Buffet. he plays there sometimes but it would never happen while we were there.
Peggy and Jimmy are heading this way and will arrive later this afternoon. Can't wait to see them again.
I missed my trip to Shrimp basket this week with Tim and Jean..we'd eaten a late lunch and then they called with the invite.. hopefully we'll plan better on thurs. hint hint.

Betty and Rich

We got a call yesterday from Betty and Rich.. Friends from TX. We met them through Phyllis and Larry.. Betty and Phyllis are sisters. Anyway they left TX and headed here for a week or so. We talked about going to LuLu's but decided it was too cool (LuLu's is right on the water and mostly outside seating) we'll get there before they leave. We visited briefly at their park Island Retreat then followed them to Desota's seafood place. It's one of their favorites and one we had't found yet. The seafood gumbo was very close to as good as Doc's according to Reid. Afterwards they followed us back to our park and we visited a while longer. It was fun to see them again and have plans to get together again soon. Peggy and Jimmy are headed this way. They'll be here over the weekend. Peggy is Larry's sister..

Lets eat

Doc's, Mellow Mushroom and The Shrimp Basket.. just three of our favorite places to eat while in the area and yes we've tried all three since we arrived last week.
TSB is Reid's favorite for blacken fish. He loves it and they have all you can eat nights a couple times a week. (Tim and Jean love the blacken fish too) Then there's the MM for pizza. We always try a local pizza whereever we go. We've been told by T&J that there's another pizza place that opened in Nov that we need to check out. Then there's Doc. Reid swears they have the best seafood gumbo on earth and he also likes their burgers. What a combination right. I keep mentioning Reid's favorites and your wondering about my favorite.. That would be peel and eat shrimp and I've never found a place on the gulf that doesn't have wonderful shrimp.. The sides are great too. Shrimp cole slaw.. yum, then there's the hush puppies..just thinking about it makes left over spaghetti sound blah doesn't it.
We're going to add to our favorites by trying some other places so stay tuned.

Plantation Harbour RV Park

I think we made a good choice in parks this spring. In the past we've stayed at another park that is a very nice park and has anything you'd want but this place is a little farther from the coast and it doesn't cater to the spring break crowds.. This park is a lot like our place in Texas. There are deeded lots here and we tried to rent one of them but we wanted a really long site and the one we found was heavy treed so we decided to rent one of the park rentals and it's working out just fine. There's a couple of trees for shade and once our tv and internet came in we were ok with the trees.
The park is quiet and not a lot of traffic which is unlike the other place.There was constant traffic going in and out all day and evening. This park seems to have a lot of snow birds here with some leaving each week. Lady is watching the golf carts drive by wondering what up with this...she can't find her's.
April is spring break month and the other place had a lot of tweens in it So this place is gonna work out just fine. I'll let you know if my snow bird neighbors move on and a family of kids deside to park beside us. It could happen.

here's an update

I'm sorry I haven't been doing so well with my updates. As soon as we left Texas my allergies kicked in. I keep telling everyone that I'm allergic to the south even thought I've lived here most of my life. We hit Louisana last Wed and the symptoms started up: sneezing, sniffing, stuffy head, my voice is in and out..(Reid's smiling over that) anyway I don't feel to bad most of the time just miserable and tired and headaches off and on. I've gotten some meds that are masking the symptoms but they want really go away till we leave the south which wont be for about 6 more weeks. So I'll try to hang in there.
We've had good weather with only one evening of rain and mild storms. That was when we were in Ms. Most of the heavy stuff went south of us through the gulf. We waited till Thurs to travel to Gulf Shores since the rain that MS had on Tue was hanging around GS on Wed. While in MS we drove the Challenger up the coast a couple of times. I love riding along the coast and looking at the gulf. We checked out one of our favorite Seafood places called McElroy's while we were there. They had a location on the coast of Biloxi that was destroyed during Katrina but have another location in Oceans Springs which is on the back side of the gulf.
We arrived at Plantation Harbor RV park and got set up on Thur. Tim and Jean have a place here and they arrived a couple weeks ago. We met them for an early supper at The Shrimp Basket that afternoon to get caught up. We last saw them in Ohio in Aug.
We're going to be hanging out here for about a month before getting to TN to see family and Reid's dr visits. We do expect to be busy here with all the wonderful restaurants to check out and friends to visit with. We know of three couples that are heading this that we winter with in TX. Some have been here before and some haven't so we'll check things out with them. I'll keep you informed and updated on what we're doing.