3/28/07 A Visit to Fairhope, AL

We checked out Fairhope today. This little city has a connection for us as a very special friend of ours, Dianne, lived here for a few years a while back. We'll get to see where she lived. Take notice of the "bird" in front of the clock. Every corner had one of these decorated birds on it. Some were quite creative. Here are some pics of my favorites.

and we can't forget SUPERBIRD!

As you can see by the blue sky we had the perfect day to see Fairhope.

This charming little town is situated on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay and twelve thousand people call this small city home. It's hard to determine if one is supposed to call this place a little town or a small city. It doesn't have hustle and bustle that the word "city" implies but rather a laid back feel as one strolls the avenues. "Mayberry" comes to mind.

Fairhope is best known for its panoramic views of Mobile Bay, its quaint little shops and its flowers. It is called by some the "City of Flowers". They have them in abundance! Every street corner is "planted" with colorful blooms. Hanging baskets and flower boxes decorate the sidewalks in front of most businesses. I had the feeling they were competition with each other to see who could outdo the next.

On one corner they had some unusual yard art work. It seems as though the "artist" took a piece of tree, whittled one end into a point, stuck it in the ground and then took another small branch and carved out a notch so that it would balance on the first. Quite a few people stopped to look while we were there.

Thirst had set in and it was time to get something to wet the ol' whistle. The Pub looked like a good place so we made ourselves comfortable at the bar while we downed a beer and soda.
After walking a few more streets we wandered into what is called the French Quarter.


We didn't know what to expect when we wander-ed under the sign but we were delighted to find a little courtyard with tables, chairs and fountain all situated under a huge tree. The courtyard was framed by little shops. It was the perfect place for lunch!

We ordered lunch from Panini Pete's. We both ordered burgers and I had fries with mine for us to share. Now we've seen "skinny" fries in our day but these were the skinniest yet, but these were oh so good! Slivers of potato fried to a crisp.

We exited our lunchtime haven at the opposite end of the courtyard from which we entered. As we were walking down the street we couldn't help but notice this HUGE tree and its root system.

Have you ever seen anything like this?

So there was our day in Fairhope, Alabama. We enjoyed it thoroughly and would highly recommend anyone traveling through southern Alabama to stop and smell the roses here.

When we got back home our neighbors were out and we stopped to talk to them for awhile. I'm not even going to tell you where they were from because I'm tired of typing out the name of this "M" state!

We ended our day with TV and good memories of Fairhope.

3/27/07 Goodbye Florida, Hello Alabama

The time has come for us to leave Florida. Next stop? Alabama!

We've decided to visit the Gulf Shores area as neither one of us has been in this area of Alabama before.

Scenery from the road

We made our way to the campground we are staying in for the three nights we'll be here. We're staying in one of our Escapees' member parks. Its a bit off the beaten path so it should be a quiet place at night time. No noise from interstates and we didn't see any railroad tracks in the area. Staying in this park cost us only $11.50 per night. We like that!

Our site was big and we had a nice shade tree. Wanna guess where the couple in the site next to us was from? Right again! Michigan! Are they following us?

Since this was a travel day for us we tend to stick close to our HOW (home on wheels). While I got dinner ready Bob took a ride on his bike around the campground. This place is HUGE! Since this is an Escapee owned park there are lots in the back that members bought and built permanent homes on. Seems like they all have very tall garages to fit their rigs into.

Well, here we are in Alabama, safe and sound.

3/26/07 A Day for This and That

Today we did a little bit of this and little bit of that. We had to find a post office, do some shopping, get fuel and just take a ride to see the area.

Back home we started packing up for the move tomorrow, having dinner and just watching TV.

I did get to meet one of our neighbors briefly. When we returned to the campground Bob and I both noticed at the same time a trailer with Delaware tags. I went and knocked on his door and when he answered I told him we were from Delaware too. He said he would love to talk with us but he had burgers on the stove and would come over when he was done. I did find out he lived in northern Delaware. We never did see him again.

I also had the chance to talk with another neighbor for a little bit. They had been in this campground for a month and were heading home back to .....can you guess? Give up? Michigan! I swear that state is empty!

3/25/07 A Day at the Beach

We love Mexico Beach!

Here's a picture of our campsite in El Governor Campground. It is a no frills campground for sure.



We were on the beach by 11:00 and planned to spend the whole day. Here's a picture of Bob on his way to take some fish out of the big pond. He did too. He was pulling King fish in one right after the other for awhile there. He was truly enjoying this day!




I spent my day doing what I do best....soaking up rays on the beach. I watched this family that was fairly close by feeding the sea gulls. The little girl thought it was just the greatest thing. Each time one of the sea birds took her offering she just giggled. It was fun just sitting there watching her.


























Do you have any idea how many pictures you have to take to get a good one of a flying bird? I can tell you. LOTS!





We spent quite a few hours at the beach / pier today and I was sorry when 4 o'clock got here and it was time to head home.






I made sure we got to the beach for the sunset in time today.

3/24/07 The Forgotten Coast

We're heading north on our way to Texas to get the residency thing out of the way. Our friend Karen, from Michigan, was adamant that we take the route along the coast as we traveled north. Are we ever glad we listened to her! It was just a gorgeous ride.
Our view as we drove up the coast.....

WHAT A VIEW!

We tried to make reserva-tions for St. Joseph's State Park, with Karen's help, (thank heavens for cell phones) but they were full due to spring break. Uh-oh, we're hoping this isn't going to be a problem.

We drove further north to Mexico Beach and pulled into a little campground just across the street from the Gulf. How convenient! Yes, they had a spot for us. We decided to stay three nights here. It is definitely a "no frills" campground but with the Gulf of Mexico right our doorstep we didn't think we'd be spending too much time in the campground anyway. They did offer cable TV and WiFi at our site so that worked for us!

After getting set up we went for a ride to learn the lay of the land. First stop, the fishing pier!

This is a nice pier! Plenty of seating, lighting, trash containers and fish were biting!

Here is a view from the pier of the beach.

This is one of the nicest beaches we've been on. Fine white sand, no stones and lots shells to pick from.

This is a guy named Ralph from Panama City that was catching these fish one right after the other.

After a stop at the store for essentials, read that as beer and Pepsi's we headed home to make dinner.

After we ate I thought I'd go to beach to take some shots of the sunset but I get got held up doing something or other and the sun was down by the time I remembered. Maybe I'll get there in time tomorrow.

3/23/07 Hugs and Handshakes

Another day for goodbyes. We got up early this morning to finish up last minute things. I made a run to turn in our cable box we had for Internet connection, (I'm gonna miss that!) to get ice and gas and to cash the check that Suncoast RV gave me.

If we had left early on our own we would have just thrown away 9 days worth of rent. Since we were evicted Suncoast was obligated to return our money. We'll use this to pay for our camp sites up the road for a few days.

Friends pretty much hung around all morning wanting to help in any way they could to help us finish up last minute packing. We had it pretty much under control but we sure appreciated the offers.

We planned on leaving around noon. We spent the morning exchanging phone numbers and email/snail mail addresses and taking "couple pictures" of all the great friends we made while here.

To our Port Richey, Florida friends.....THANK YOU! Thank you for making our time there so darn enjoyable. We had a lot of laughs with you guys.

Our neighbor Dave came over and brought a "wifebeater" to Bob. He had one for himself also. Here's a picture of them.

This pic doesn't show it too well but Bob has a helluva farmer's tan going on. Look how tan Dave is!

Our next door neighbors, Gary and Louise, surprised us with a going away gift. They gave us a candle that is battery operated and flame actually flickers. Thanks so much guys.

The time has come for us to move on. It's sad but at the same time a relief. We didn't like this campground owner/management situation, the bugs, the on again/off again pool and a multitude of other things. It was certainly a lesson learned for us. NEVER pay in advance! But for all the bad things the good friends we made certainly outweigh them.

Some of the "girls" stood by as we pulled out singing Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again".

So at noon our time at Suncoast RV came to an end and we headed north. We didn't get to see my parents again and for that I'm sorry, but hey, this way I didn't have to say "so long" to them again. That is just so hard for me.

We traveled about 3 hours and pulled into a KOA campground in Perry, Florida. We had a nice big site and there wasn't a no-see-um anywhere!

We didn't do much of anything in the evening, just tried to find stuff. We had to pack so quickly that once again stuff just got put here and there.

So here we are.....On the Road Again

3/22/07 Oh, What a Day!

We woke this morning to brilliant blue skies. Laundry day again, so I made short order of the morning chores and took the laundry up to the pool area to get done. After finishing up two loads of wash I went back to the 5th wheel to find out what we were going to do the for day. Bob was on a ladder already doing whatever it was he found to do on the roof so I guessed a day trip was not in the plans. Hmmm....what will I do with myself today? I know, I'll go to the pool! After deciding that it didn't take me long to put the laundry away where it belonged and to gather my pool supplies.

I took my camera along so that I could shoot pictures of my friends in our "usual setting". While there, I snapped a few of the signs that are posted giving warning of being evicted. I also snapped one of the recently posted sign about the "cost" of doing damage to anything in the park. Don must still be on my mind.















Take note of yet another sign (yellow paper) with the word EVICTION on it! Friendly place isn't it?



So here we are sitting around the pool, talking, laughing and I hear Art, the manager, call my name and say that him and his wife Linda want to talk to me. I went into the office and Linda slid a piece of paper across the counter to me. I looked at it and it was the posting I made on RV.net! Seems as though a reader of RV.net thought it was his "duty" to forward the post to Suncoast RV with a note stating, "I thought you might find this interesting". Now I don't know the name of the person who did this so I'll just call him "Richard Cranium". (THINK about what I'm really saying with that name) Linda proceeded to tell me that since I wasn't happy in the park it would be best if we leave! We had been evicted! We were given 24 hours to get out. I made my way out to the pool area and told my friends we were evicted and the look on their faces was priceless! They each took a turn reading what I had written and I heard things like, "What happened to freedom of speech?" "You mean to tell me that you wrote the TRUTH and are being evicted for it?" All the while it is sinking in that I have to go home and tell Bob that we were evicted. Now this isn't the first time we've been threatened with eviction. Both Bob and I had previously been warned by the owner that if we didn't calm down or lower our voices that we would be asked to leave. (Think back to when they double billed us for our four month stay)

So off I go to tell Bob. When I reached our site Bob was on the ladder and the first thing he said to me was, "Is it electric bill time again, Art was just here reading our meter?" Yes, it was towards the end of the month so I answered him with a yes. I knew I couldn't put it off so I took a deep breath and told him we had 24 hours to pack up and leave. You should have seen the look on HIS face! After I told him why I think it is safe to say that I was not Bob's favorite person at that moment. In fact, it is safe to say that I was not Bob's favorite person for about two hours!

Word spread quickly throughout the park. It wasn't long before friends started coming by to find out what happened or was it true.

We made short order of taking down the screen room and putting things away. Maybe not where Bob had planned but away all the same. We finally finished up around 8pm and we were both too tired to eat. Bob settled in for a couple of hours of TV and I went to the clubhouse to hang out with friends who were there for Bingo.

Oh, what a day!