CJ See's Sea Shells by the Sea Shore

Sunday 2/24/08

It's "SUN"DAY!!! The sun is out bright and warm again today. In fact it's a bit warmer than yesterday. We decide to brave the beach. I've made up some potato salad and fresh chicken salad to have a picnic with. Last night we picked up some Strawberry Shortcake fixins. I just got back from a great meeting in Crestview and good visit with the friends there. It's shaping up to be a wonderful day. We've got to go over to Navarre Beach to visit the Camping World. Our friend Bill, here in the park gave us a water filter we needed for the coach and we want to replace it for him. We've not been able to find them at WallyWorld and we heard they've got them at Camping World. I love going there. It's got all the fancy little doo dads a camper loves. Today I even found a couple hot dog sticks for campfires. CJ found some rubber caulk to use as a seal for the new light he's going to put on the side of the coach. We get some more of those little clips that hold our basement doors open while we are fishing through them. They've got an Alfa See Ya Gold parked out front. A used late model diesel that is 40 ft. long with 2 large slides. Of course we had to look through it before we leave. The seats and couches are made of white leather. It's as roomy as a house inside. There's a real oven in the kitchen and a nice size pantry. The cabinets, though, are all made of pressed board and none of them close squarely and you'd have to use a foot stool to get into them. The smell of formaldehyde is present even with the windows all open. It does have a washer/dryer and the closet with the sliding mirrored doors is huge but those are the only 2 pluses. The more I tour these giant new high dollar coaches, the more I love our 36 foot Monaco with the solid maple woodwork and cabinets. We have plenty of room and I can reach everything. We always get compliments on how well our rig looks. It's classic & Chuck and I both love that!

Back on the road again, we head over to the RV Park where my great Aunt Charlene lives. We had a nice visit with her and invited her to our picnic but she's not feeling well today. She's got high blood pressure and it's making her a bit unsteady on her feet. She's 84 and still in reasonable good health except for her blood pressure. She is one of 16 brothers and sisters of which my dad's dad was born into. Her and Uncle Bill are the only ones left now. She's living down here in Florida and all her children are living here within a few miles of each other. She has a travel trailer parked in an RV park that only costs her $450 a month. It's quite a nice one too, right on the water. She told us if she was to live in a small efficiency apartment it would cost over $1000 a month and she'd not have a bit more room than she does now. She loves walking down to the beach and sitting in the warm sunshine. They've got a lovely area finished off with plenty of chairs and chaises and tables with umbrellas. CJ and I checked into getting our coach in there next winter for a month and they told us they'll only accept coaches newer than 10 years old on the monthly rate. Well, La Di Dah for them. Guess they don't see too many 20 year olds as nice as ours!

Before we leave Charlene's we manage to get some nice pictures to show my folks when we get home. I always enjoy visiting with my older relatives. They are full of so many nice stories about the old days. I could stay and stay listening, but since Charlene's a bit under the weather today we don't want to tire her out too badly and soon we are off to our picnic at the beach.

When we get to the beach we discover it's quite cool even with the sun shining brightly. The breeze is coming off the gulf fairly strong. The waves are crashing onto the shore stronger than I've ever seen on the gulf side. There are even some kids surfing. We decided to eat first and then go hunt for seashells. Not far from where we picnic there's a couple hundred motorcycles parked at a bar with an outdoor concert going on. They are playing the old classics and Chuck and I enjoy watching them while we eat. I decided it was much too chilly to wear only my swimsuit so I stay covered up and after we stow our picnic fixings back in the trunk we head to the shore. We have to cross over the dunes on wooden dock type walkways. The beach is quite crowded with families and even a few fishermen. The color of the water is the most beautiful shade of turquoise. Chuck is excited to get down to the water and start looking for shells. It's one of his favorite things to do down here and you know how men are. The love to hunt ANYTHING! He's usually pretty cautious when he first gets started as he doesn't swim, but soon he gets so caught up in the game that he's out into waves up to his knees. Today there's some sandbar areas that stretch out quite a ways with only a couple inches of water before you get into the deep area. After I go out and he sees how shallow it is, he's right out there too. It's too cold for me to stay out very long so I come back to shore and enjoy my time taking pictures of him having so much fun. Every time he gets a big shell he holds it up for me to ooh and ahh over. We stayed out for a couple hours before calling it quits and he ends up with a nice collection for the day.

Just after we cross over the long bridge from the beach Chuck spots a half sunken old boat and he stops to take some pictures. He even met a couple there from up by Chicago taking pictures also. The boat had been damaged in the Hurricane and was waiting a team to come dismantle it.

The next morning (Monday) when I got up he had all his seashells cleaned and layed out on the picnic table for me to admire and I snapped some pictures for the album.

I've been having some problems staying on line for longer than 15 minutes and Chuck gets on the phone with tech help to figure it out. I have so many pictures to upload for my blogs and it takes a while. I can only do a few at a time before I get bumped offline. I'm not sure what the problem but Mr. Fixit manages to get it solved. The day actually makes it up into the 80's and I took a break from the posting on the blog entry to actually lay out in the sun on my lounge chair long enough to get strap marks from my swimsuit. Amazing, it's the middle of February! Chuck went over into the pasture next door to us and collected a bucket brimming over full of pecans... that hunting thing again. I soaked a load of white clothes in the bathtub before taking them over to wash at the laundry and we finished out the day with fresh fried chicken breast and that left over potato salad.

Today (Tuesday) is overcast and gloomy. CJ got a nice picture of the dew covered grass when he got up early this morning. The wind is pretty gusty. It's supposed to get cooler as the day goes by. Not a good day for polishing and waxing the coach so I think we're going to head over to Milton to do some antique shopping. We're still looking for a pecan crusher to make the job of shelling pecans easier and I'd rather have an antique one than a new one. They do have them at Ace hardware though, if we can't find an old one. I think we'll go on down to Pace also and stop at the health food store and WallyWorld. Then we're looking forward to supper at Whataburger before we return home.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.bbyvxw4g&x=0&y=-n0qkrp

Wine a little ~ You'll feel better!

Saturday 2/23/08

We had another beautiful week end. The weather was gorgeous and warm on Saturday. The sun was shining brightly although the wind was a bit too chilly to go to the beach as we had originally planned. So instead we headed over to DeFuniak Springs to tour the Chautauqua Winery and Vineyards. And of course do some taste testing. DeFuniak is about 40 miles east of here on I10. We've been past it twice but Saturday was the first time we actually drove that far in the daylight. Both the other times we'd left home in the wee morning hours before the sun came up. So this time we got to enjoy the view of the pine forests of both sides of the highway. The winery is located right off the interstate so we had no trouble finding it. They offered free wine tasting so we could sample away and pick out our favorites. They had some honey wine we'd been looking for and it was heavenly. We bought several bottles. All together we got a dozen bottles of assorted wines so we could get the deal price and stock up as we had drank our last stashed bottle the night we watched the lunar eclipse.

The name Chautauqua was chosen for the vineyards and winery because DeFuniak Springs was the permanent home of the Winter Assembly of the Chautauqua Assembly in "The Land of Summer" from 1885 to 1928. The Chautauqua Assembly had it's beginning in Chautauqua County New York. If you're curious to some of the details I've included this link to "History of Chautauqua in Defuniak Springs"

http://www.defuniaksprings.net/chautauquahistory.html

Many turn of the century homes and the Chautauqua "Hall of Brotherhood" still stand, gracing the naturally formed, perfectly round lake that is in the center of the city along with the old train depot, library & ornate churches.

The 40 acre vineyard was planted in 1979 and is located 12 miles north of DeFuniak Springs. The grapes grown by Chautauqua are Muscadine varieties. Muscadine grapes are native and found growing wild in most areas of the southwestern states. I hadn't realized till we got down here that Florida has such an extensive "wine country" A bonus for us since we both enjoy learning about and sampling wines. The variety of grapes grown by Chautauqua, Carlos and Nobel are improved varieties selected and propagated by the native grapes.

Carlos is a white muscadine variety used for juice and wine and is similar to the well known "scuppernong" muscadine. Nobel is a red muscadine variety and is known for it's full and festive flavor.

At the winery in DeFuniak the grapes are crushed and pressed in a state of the art facility which we got to see through an observation room where we also viewed a video showing the stages of processing. The winery was constructed in 1989 and boasts over 70,000 gallons of temperature controlled stainless steel cooperage as well as over 1,980 gallons of barrels for oak aging.

The current wine press was added in 2004 and is a 12,000 liter Europress custom built for Chautauqua by the Scharfenberger Company of Germany. It's currently the largest press of it's kind east of the Rocky Mountains. This press can extract the juice from over 30 tons of fresh grapes, or 35 tons of fermented grapes in a single load.

The vineyards and winery are owned by Paul and Kate Owens of Brewton Alabama.

It was a thrill to learn all about the operation and see pictures of the harvest and festivals that revolve around the harvest time in the area.

When we left the winery we headed into town to check out the Lake. It's one of two naturally formed, round, spring fed lakes in the entire WORLD. (The other one is in Zurich.) A perfect circle. There's a road that goes completely around it and it's lined with turn of the century homes and Victorian architecture. The sidewalk around the lake is exactly 9/10th of a mile

We walked out on the board walk to the little gazebo on the lake and saw Muscovy ducks. They are certainly odd looking. Chuck said they had them in Wisconsin when he was a boy but I've never seen them before. They were pretty hissy when you got close to them and Chuck thought they probably had nests they were protecting. We also saw loons way out in the middle of the lake but they had their winter plumage still and we couldn't see them distinctly . I was hoping to hear some call but they never did. When we were out on the board walk we met an interesting woman who filled us full of all kinds of information on the history of DeFuniak and the Chautauquans. She told us about the lake and how it had been formed. She said it was sitting over the caverns of lime fields that are in what she called their "basement" and that it was connected underground to the Blackwater River. She said in recent times deep sea divers had gone down into the lake and entered the caverns and swam all the way out to the Gulf of Mexico. I certainly intend to do a bit of research on that. I know it will be quite interesting.

The old train depot where thousands of people used to arrive for the annual Chautauqua Winter Assemblies has been made into a museum of area treasures and cultures and history. I wasn't able to get many good pictures in there as the lighting was poor. We did however manage to snap a picture of an ancient aerial shot of the round lake which turned out quite nicely.

When the railroad began operation in 1882, the train stopped in a little town called "Open Pond," named for the almost perfectly round freshwater, spring-fed lake located in the center of town and within sight of the train depot. The town's name was changed to DeFuniak Springs in honor of the Chief Engineer of the L&N Railroad, Frederick deFuniak. The road encircling the lake is appropriately called Circle Drive. T. T. Wright, was an early developer of the Florida Chautauqua and Defuniak Springs. Circle Drive was originally named Wright Avenue in his honor

The town holds several antique stores which we poked our way through. As a side note, the nice part about living in the motor home is being able to enjoy the merchandise but not having room to buy it and bring it home. Chuck and I both enjoy browsing and sharing discoveries with each other and leaving with nothing more than a few choice snapshots.

We got in on the tail end of a concert in the Chautauqua "Hall of Brotherhood" It was old Victorian music played on antique instruments. They were serenading out on the large back porch area and the music drifted over the grounds making a delightful background to our history lessons. The day was quite a bit more enjoyable than just a simple drive over to get a few bottles of wine which is all we had originally intended.

One thing I have to make mention of is the smell that permeated the town. At first, when we were at the winery I thought it was the smell of the wine and the potpourri they were selling in the gift shop and the grapevines out front. The grapes however don't produce fruit till August and they didn't appear to be blooming and it was just a small patch for show as the real vineyard is miles from there. When we got in town around the lake I could still smell it. Something was in bloom that smelled heavenly. The Camilla's were blooming everywhere we looked but they don't have much of an odor. I even went up and smelled a few to see if maybe they were a strain that did have a fragrance but it wasn't them. I have no idea what it was but I could go on smelling it forever it was so pleasant. Between the perfume and the music and the variety of birds and ducks we got to see along with the history and turn of the (20th) century architecture I would highly recommend a trip to DeFuniak to anyone passing through this area.

I've put together a slide presentation of our photos and some photos I got from the Internet to show you the sights we enjoyed. Click on the link below to get to them.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.94s92vq8&x=0&y=71ag8c

Jubilee Daytona

Saturday 2/16/08

This past week end marked 50 Years for Daytona International Raceway Fans. Chuck and I got to be there to join in the celebration. Thanks to our neighbors Barb and Wally, we had free tickets to the Camping World 300 held there on Saturday. We had the most fabulous seats in the 5th row right across from the pit entrance. We were so close to the cars we could taste them, literally. Our senses were saturated in the sites, smells and sounds of professional racing.

http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/544592.html

We were up early Saturday morning to be on the road towards Daytona Beach by 4:00am. It's over 6 hours from Holt Florida to the racetrack and we had to allow for the 1 hour time difference. We spent much of Friday preparing and the excitement made it difficult to fall asleep early but we both popped out of bed at 3:00am like a couple of Eggo waffles, hot from the toaster. We covered much of the drive east along Interstate 10 before daylight and avoided a lot of traffic. We got to Jacksonville in good time and crossed over the Saint Johns River bridge to make the connection with Interstate 95 South. If we weren't in such a hurry it would have been nice to stop off in St. Augustine for some site seeing but we'll have to save that for another trip. We made it into Daytona Beach by 11:15, their time. We found our way to the free parking on Clyde Morris Blvd. via US 1 to Granada and we were absolutely amazed at how orderly and sensibly they had it all arrainged. After we found our parking spot we made our way to the bus stops where a constant supply of them were waiting to shuffle us off to the track. The crowd was huge, but it kept moving. We hardly had to wait more than a moment or two in any of the lines. When we got off the bus at the speedway we were on the other side of Daytona Beach International Raceway Blvd. from the racetrack. They had tiered cement pathways, not unlike parking ramps for the crowds to move along up and across the bridge and down again on the otherside. Security was tight and we were only allowed to carry in small soft sided coolers and clear plastic bags. I had frozen a couple water bottles and also took several other bottles of drinking water in our coolers. I also made sub sandwhiches and brought chips so we wouldn't have to spend a lot of money on food and drinks. I was surprised they allowed people to bring in so much beer. A lot of people were carrying 24 packs. It didn't take us long to make it to our seats in the Depalma Frontstretch Grandstand and we were in them by noon. They had a giant Sprint Vision Screen directly across from our seats where we could watch the pre-race entertainment. Later this screen came in handy keeping us updated on the progress of the race and live shots of the race as it was happening. That was handy since you can only see the racecars when they are right in front of you. They go so fast you can't even read the numbers on them. As the drivers were coming out in the corvettes to be taken to their cars I was lucky enough to get pictures of Kasey Kahne and Matt Kenseth. We had seats right at the entrance of Pit Row which is where they were all parked when the famous words announced "Gentlemen Start Your Engines" The noise was fabulous. It sent thrills thru me which tickled my tummy. I can't even begin to describe how excited I had grown by the time the cars finally made it around the fourth turn and paraded past our section of the grandstands. The whole crowd was standing and waving at the drivers as they passed by. I even called my daughter Juli on my cell phone and put it on speaker and held it up so she too could hear the noise too. We settled in to enjoy the race. It was a good clean race and there weren't hardly any incidents and most of the pit stops were made on green flags. The one moment of agony was when Kasey Kahne got into the accident right in front of us towards the end of the race and didn't get to finish. I was so hoping he would win or at least finish top 10 and he was staying right up there until the accident. Thank goodness he wasn't hurt and everyone made it safely thru the race. Stewart led much of the race while Matt Kenseth, Kyle Bush and Dale Jr. put up a great effort so all and all it was a very satisfying race. Our only disappointment was Jeff Gordon not being in it. And it was Chucks very first big race. I don't know which one of us enjoyed it more. I did get a lot of pictures so I could share the thrills with all my friends. We made some wonderful memories.
When the race was over we stayed in our seats and watched the Sprint Vision screen so we wouldn't miss the interviews and celebrations of the drivers and their crews. We weren't in a big hurry to leave cause the crowd was so overwhelming. We were actually quite shocked when we did start making our way out at how easy it was. We followed along with the crowd and kept moving across the bridge and to the bus staging areas. They had the same kind of fenced mazes to send people thru single file that you see at the amusement parks and we never really had to stop anywhere for more than a couple minutes. As fast as buses pulled in they were loaded up and on their way and another bus would pull into it's place. I'm guessing there were at least a dozen buses at all times being loaded. Some smart people did some serious planning to make that go so smoothly. I'm thinking a woman had to be involved Even with all the alcohol being consumed I never did notice any bad scenes or drunk behavior. Maybe it was a hot enough day that the alcohol burned off as fast as they drank it. I did notice a lot of people trying to buy and sell tickets for the big 500 race on Sunday and there were a lot of vendors on the sidelines, even Pappa Johns pizza for sale by the slice for $2. At any rate, everyone was orderly and we made it back to the parking field within 45 minutes after we left our seats. As we were leaving the parking field we noticed a few stray cars going towards the east, away from the general flow of traffic. We wanted to head for the beach so Chuck decided to follow them and they led us out the back way where we didn't get caught up in the traffic jam going out to Clyde Morris Blvd.

When we left there we went straight to the beach and drove right on to it. We had about a good hour to spend before the beach patrol came along with their bull horn telling people to move their cars. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sun was still shining nicely and there were lots of birds. Chuck managed to find a few shells. We both got wetter than we wanted to but it's hard to go to the beach without getting your feet in and since we were on the ocean side, the waves were a lot bigger than what we're used to from the gulf side. We had fun and didn't mind cause the temperature was at least 80. We were also getting tired by this time and slap happy. It had been a long day so far and we were both getting hungry so we set off for Rte 95 in search for a rest area. We had planned on eating sandwhiches and chips and spending the night in our car. The sandwhiches were great, but try as I might I couldn't sleep. Between the noise and the lights and the cramped quarters I couldn't get comfortable and Chuck wasn't either. After a couple hours of cat napping and getting woke up by doors banging next to us as people pulled in and out we decided to give up and head down the road in search of a motel. We found them all full. With all the people in the area for the 50th Daytona 500 the motels and hotels were booked up as far as Cocoa Beach. We didn't want to leave the coast so we kept traveling south till we found a Days Inn in Satellite Beach right across A1A from the beach. We had a plan to get up before dawn and watch the sun come up on the beach but it was well after midnight by the time we got settled in and we didn't wake up in time. Oh well, there's always next year. We did get a good nights sleep though and headed to the beach after a quick continental breakfast at the motel. Chuck loves looking for shells and I of course love taking pictures. The waves were breath taking. We found an area where a pier had been blown away in a hurricane and just a few pieces were left sticking out and close to that were some rocks sticking out of the surf with moss covering them. We enjoyed standing on it and watching the waves roll in. After we had our fill we headed back for showers and checking out then up the road to Cocoa Beach again to hit some of the souvenir shops. It was well after noon before we started up Rte 520for Orlando. We were both getting hungry and found a Whataburger for a quick bite to eat. After we left there my friend Glenda called with detailed directions to her house west of Orlando. She gave such good directions I didn't have any trouble finding her at all. We hopped on 508 toll way and took it all the way across Orlando to the end where we caught the Turnpike north and made it to Winter Garden in no time. I think altogether we spent $3.75 on tolls and Chuck thought we probably saved that much on gas. It would have taken us a good hour or more to come thru Orlando on Rte 50. The last time I was down to visit Glenda, she and her husband Scott had just bought this five acre property in the country and had plans to build. Now they've got their house built and they've got horses and goats and dogs and cats and barns and tack rooms and she's even got a building for her birds. She's got 4 Amazon parrots and 2 Cockatoos. Glenda has always loved animals and worked for a Vet for many years. It was so good to see her again and catch up. We all went out to eat at Sonny's Barbque and had the "all you can eat" chicken special. We visited so long Sonny's closed the place down on us. Then we went back to their place and all turned in cause we had to get up at 5:00 and be on the road again by 6:30 when Glenda and Scott leave for work.

When we left Glendas it was still dark so we stopped at Starbucks and spent way too much on a cup of coffee each. It was the first time I've ever been to a Starbucks. I had a pumpkin spice latte and it was quite good but I doubt I would ever get another one. Once at that price is enough. When we finished our coffee the sun had come up enough for us to go pick some tangelos in the grove next to Glendas house. We got a whole big grocery bag full and some pictures of Chuck picking them. We didn't even see any snakes or alligators.

After we got done with the tangelo picking we got back in the car and headed for the West on Rte 50 to Brooksville and then on to rte.98/19 to Chassahowitzka on the Gulf to do some scouting for RV Parks for next year. We found a great park we really loved at Homosassa on Halls River. It's called Turtle Creek. http://www.turtlecreekrvresort.com/ and another one up the road a bit on the Withlacoochee River called Big Oaks. http://www.bigoaksriverresort.com/ Both resorts in close proximity to the endangered West Indian Manatee's which come in to the warmer water for the winter. It's a beautiful area and definitely on our list for next year.

As we traveled North we took a small detour over close to Cedar Key to check out the birding trail on the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. We would have liked to do some hiking but it was raining a bit so we just drove along and admired the sites from the car. We discovered we couldn't let the car idle too long with the air on cause the engine would get hot. We're thinking Chuck's going to have to change the thermostat this week. That should be a simple job.

By noon we were ready to do some serious traveling. We stopped at Dakotah Vineyards & Winery in Chiefland http://www.dakotahwinery.com/ to taste some wine and buy a bottle to go with our picnic which we then had at the Suwannee River in Fort Fanning. We took a walk thru the park by the river after lunch and saw some wild flowers and azalias in bloom. I found some ferns growing on a piece of bark that had fallen out of one of the oak trees. I put the whole thing in a plastic bag to bring home and plant. Chuck got to see some of the spanish moss up close. He's been watching it from the road ever since we got down here, not knowing if he liked it or not. I told him it's a trademark of the south and it gets much prettier in the summer when the trees are in full leaf. After seeing it up close and touching it he has a better idea of what it is.

It was now time to head home. We'd piddled away enough of the day. On the cruise north, when it started to get dusk we saw several deer along the highway so we had to be especially mindful of that danger. They certainly are small down here in Florida. We got off the smaller Rte. 19 and onto Interstate 10 just East of Tallahassee where they have tall fences along the highway to keep the deer away. From there, after we got past the road construction around Tallahassee it was clear sailing home and we pulled into camp about 10:00pm It certainly was a long and enjoyable weekend. We were sure glad to see our comfy cozy bed. We didn't even unpack the car or get online when we got home. We were asleep by 10:30pm and slept clear thru till 7:30am.

I spent the day Tuesday organizing the pictures and working on the blog to share with you all. The links below will take you to the photos from our week end. When the window opens up simply click the yellow "view slideshow" button towards the right top of the screen. I hope you enjoy them.

Race day photos
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.c0eou340&x=0&y=-m9qgjh

Daytona Beach photos
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.355azzls&x=0&y=-4ehuu8

Cocoa Beach photos from Sunday morning
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.9c9kxdmo&x=0&y=ax05kx

Photos of Glendas Ranch & Tangelo Picking & Wine Tasting
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.4oalk8dc&x=0&y=d3xr9h

Mardi Gras

Beads

Beads

Beads

It's Mardi Gras time in the south. Chuck had never been to one of the parades before. We went online to check and see if there were some good ones close to us this weekend and found lots to choose from. Now which ones do we pick? Our first choice was the one just up the road in the Pensacola. We got there about 5:00 Friday evening. We found an excellent parking place right on the parade route. Of course the parade didn't start till 8:00 so that might explain it. Waiting for the parade to start we walked all thru the historic district and down to the marina at the end of Palafax. We got to see some really super boats, or maybe you call them yachts. They were impressive. By the time we got back to our car it was almost 6:00 and CJ had time for a short nap before the parade started. As soon as the fence people closed off the street by our car we got out and took our place right next to the fence. We had perfect spots to watch the parade. I took some pictures but they didn't come out so well in the dark. At the very beginning of the parade one of the policemen dumped his motorcycle right across from where we were standing and that stopped the parade for a bit. Once things got rolling we caught a whole bag full of beads and toys and candy. Chuck even managed to catch me a lighted superball. After the parade we drove thru Pace and ate at the Whataburger. Now that's one really good fast food hamburger place. Especially the french fries! It was after 11:00 by the time we got home. That's pretty late for us old farts to be out wandering around. We went straight to bed and got up at 7am to get ready and head back into Pensacola to meet our friends Laura and Dave and their grandson Jay Jay. We all headed to Mobile Alabama to enjoy the parade there. Again, we arrived early and got excellent parking places right on the parade route. There was a huge crowd. Thousands of people crowd into Mobile to watch from the birthplace of the parades. There were 2 parades in one starting at noon. Jay and I both filled up our bags with lots of goodies. Chuck and Laura and Dave were helping us catch the tropheys. As soon as the parades were over we hit the streets to scavege goodies left behind. We were even lucky enough to find several coins. Laura had to get a picture of Jay and I when we were done. I've included it in our film strip below. We look like a couple clowns with all our beads and goofy hats. When we left Mobile we stopped at Daphne and checked out the Mardi Gras store called Toomey's. As if I didn't have enough beads, I had to buy some more. We stopped in Fairhope for dinner and then headed for home. Two whipped puppies. It's been such a full week for us old retired folks. We were out and going every day. Monday we went to Walton Beach to Sams Club with our neighbor Glenn. Tuesday we went to Navarre Beach to spend the day and visit my great aunt Charlene. Wednesday we went to Best Buy in Pensacola and stopped off to see Dave and Laura. Thursday we went shopping in Crestview for warm parade coats and groceries. Thursday nite we had big storms moving thru with rain and wind. I was running back and forth doing the laundry thru it all. Friday and Saturday were filled with the parades and today, CJ was outside washing the coach. In fact lots of people were taking advantage of the warm sunshine to wash and wax their coaches. All week long was pretty chilly with frost everynight but by Saturday it had warmed up and was a wonderful week end with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. Tomorrow we'll put the awnings back out and bring the hanging plants back out. Tonight after supper the campground is having a campfire across the lane from our coach. That should be fun. I'll have to send CJ to the store for the marshmallows.

Click on the link for Parade pictures.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.iys2btk&x=0&y=h41qsw

Here's some pictures of CJ washing the coach and roof.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.mbf77iw&x=0&y=-60ltm5

Link to Fat Tuesday Parade Pictures in Mobile Alabama (added 2/5/07)
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.190hdqug&x=0&y=-gxxfvt

A few links that tell about the history of Mardi Gras and what it symbolizes

http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm

http://www.novareinna.com/festive/mardi.html

http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/html/mardi_gras_history__timeline_mobile.htm

Eagles Landing

We've been camped here at Eagles Landing since the 14th of December. What was going to be a 2 week stay has evolved into our Winter Wonderland. We like it so well we are going to stay here till March 8th when we will begin to wind our way back up north again. We had planned on going farther south, even as far as the Keys... but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Being in the land of citrus, if you get handed a few lemons just make up a pitcher of sweet sweet lemonade. And that's what Chuck and I are enjoying now. A nice tall pitcher of the best lemonade we've ever had. In my last post I told you we were at the repair shop getting the coach looked at. They worked on it a good two hours trying to find something wrong. They took things off, checked them out and put them back on. Their thought was maybe something had jiggled loose or gotten dirty. After a couple hours of tinkering it was quitting time and time for them to all head home. We spent the night in their lot on Monday night. This was the 7th of January. The next morning they couldn't get right on the coach cause they had a truck to get finished and out first. We were in no special hurry as we had a full tank of fresh water and our grey and black tanks were empty. They provided us with electricity. So we were good for a couple three days. The sun was shining beautifully and it was 70 degrees out. Chuck started work at 6 am answering phone calls and working on reports. After I got my morning chores done I decided to go in town and pick up some groceries. I was halfway there and realized I'd forgotten my phone. Oh well, I decided to keep on going. If anybody needed me I'd call them back when I got back to camp. I went to the Winn Dixie because the lady in the office had told me about a scenic shortcut and mentioned the had a "buy one get one free" special going on their meats. We had leveled the coach at the repair shop so my refrigerator was running and I didn't have to worry about keeping things in a cooler. Might as well stock up. Since we don't have Winn Dixies up north and they are such great grocery stores, I was in no hurry. I took my time and checked out all their specialty departments. I was gone at least 2 hours and when I got back to the coach Chuck met me at the door and as he was helping me carry in the groceries, he mentioned I didn't take my phone with me. I told him I'd forgotten and asked him if anyone had called me. He said no. He helped me unpack the groceries and as soon as I got the cold things in the fridge he grabbed the phones and said "Let's go take a walk" I was a bit startled and asked him again if someone had called. It seemed as if he was walking me across the parking lot to give me some bad news and my first thought was something had happened to mom or dad or one of the kids. I asked him again if someone had called me while I was gone and he said no. So my next thought was about the coach.... oh no, had they given him some really bad news about our motorhome? He just kept walking farther out into the parking lot and my mind is galloping away. Finally he stopped me and said he'd gotten a phone call from Chris Cole, the guy who'd hired him many years ago and Chris had told him the company was downsizing and Chucks job was being eliminated Friday. Three days from now. My immediate reply was "oh thank goodness, I thought your were going to tell me some horrible news!" I told him I was afraid something was wrong with my parents or one of the kids or the coach. I could tell he was relieved to see my reaction to the news he'd been dreading to give me. He hurried on to tell me he'd be able to get unemployment and I could tell he'd already done the math because he was saying things about vacation pay and dollars and cents we'd have on our last payday but I could tell he was worried. I knew he was thinking of his disabilities and his age and the horrors of finding a new job. I told him everything would be fine. I told him we were a team. I told him thank goodness we'd moved out of the house and bought Big Blue. At least we didn't have any bills and our cost of living was minimal. I told him also there was probably some wonderful job waiting just around the corner that we'd never have found if he was still employed. We decided first thing to do was find out the repair shops ideas on what was wrong with the coach and discontinue any further work. The coach does run as long as you don't go any faster than 50 to 55. If necessary we could make it all the way back home on backroads. We were a bit worried about what it was going to cost us for the work they'd done so far because they don't take credit cards, only cash. Chuck went to talk to the shop foreman about their progress and to tell him that he'd just found out he was losing his job on Friday. The foreman told him they hadn't been able to find anything wrong except for their suspicion about the bad diesel fuel. He told Chuck that we needed to take it somewhere that has a chassis dinometer to investigate the problems further. He said he'd get us put together and there wouldn't be a charge for the work they'd done this time. We could hardly believe our ears when he said no charge. What wonderful, honest and helpful people they are there. We took it as a good sign that everything would work out. They put us back together and within the hour we were back on the road towards Eagles Landing. When we got back we told them we'd decided to stay in their park till March the 8th if they had space for us. A full two months from this date. If you pay by the month it's much less expensive. Chuck and I had discussed our options. We knew if we continued to head south, things were only going to get more expensive. We both agreed that we loved the countryside in this area. We were close to the beaches and recreation areas and shopping was close enough to be convenient for groceries. I'd already attended the Kingdom Hall in Crestview a number of times and had made a lot of new friends. The park here is clean and neat. The owners, Dick and Judy are wonderful people. We'd already made several friends in the park with people who are staying here long term. So it made sense for us to just stay put. Once our decision was made we decided to start enjoying our "vacation" instead of crying over spoiled milk. What might have been was history. We both like to focus on the future and keep going, so off we go, into the brave new world. And I have to say, if your gonna be stuck somewhere, Holt Florida is a darn nice place to land. Complete with Eagles!


So our adventure begins. We got our old site back and quickly set about unloading. Out with the awnings. Out with the lawn chairs. Out with the plants. Out with the grill. Home sweet home.


Before the day was over, Chuck was over in the pecan grove picking up pecans and back shelling them at the picnic table. I teased him and told him I'd have him over on rte 90 selling them right next to the boiled peanut guy if things got too bad. That gave him a good laugh.


The scary part is that Friday is the end of our insurance. I have a big back tooth that needs to be pulled by then and we have to make sure and get all our prescriptions refilled. I called around to some local dentists and they are all hugely expensive. AND, they don't pull teeth. You have to go to an oral surgeon. To get into the oral surgeon you have to first see the dentist. Pay for an office exam and x-ray and get referred. Then you go to the oral surgeon, pay his exam and x-ray fee in addition to the cost of pulling the tooth. All this takes considerable time and money. No way was I going to get it all done by Friday. What a racket! I asked around and found that there's a place in Dothan Alabama called the Dixie Land Dental Clinic which is very reasonable. They take walk ins but you have to be there by 8:00 am and they only take so many a day. Dothan is 2 hours from here. Friday morning we got up at 4:00 am and were on the road by 5:00. We had a pleasant drive and were the 2nd car in the parking lot at 7:08. I was glad we were there plenty early cause by 8:00 there were several people waiting in line at the door to get worked in. The place was very very big and I was so nervous. I'm not a big fan of tooth work. They told me at the window they'd work me in, could be this morning, might not be till closing time. I told them no problem. Secretly I was not in a hurry. Chuck had his laptop and phone with him and there was a table to sit at with a plug in and he was able to work. It was his last day of work so it was going to be a memorable one. By 9:30 they were calling me back to the work area and the butterflies were swirling in my tummy. The nurse took an x-ray and settled me into a comfy dental chair and told me to relax, yeah, right. The dentist came in, looked at the x-ray and began his speech about saving the tooth and I held up my hand and told him to just save the speech, the tooth was coming out. He kind of laughed at that and said I was probably right. So at this point he begins the chore of pulling out my tooth. Out comes the shot needle, OUCH! Then comes the pliars. He wiggles and wiggles and before I even realized it he had the thing out of my mouth and onto his tray. Wow, that was simple. But the best part was the price. For a grand total of $71.00 I was out the door and on my way. I could not believe it. We were on the road by 10:00. Too early to go home with such a beautiful day all around us so we decided to head down to the beach in Panama City. What a beautiful spot that is. We stopped at the marina and walked thru to look at all the boats. We stopped along the beach a couple times while CJ answered work calls and gave out passwords from his laptop. We went to the local Walmart to fill our scripts and they told us it would be a 3 hour wait. So while we were waiting we went to the "Ripleys Believe It Or Not" which was close by and browsed thru the gift shop. We were shocked to learn that it was $14.00 each to go thru the museum. No wonder the parking lot was empty. We told them that was the BIGGEST "Believe It Or Not" of all time. I also stopped at Shell world to see what all they had to offer. We stopped at the big public beach down the road from Wally's and took some pictures. We were getting hungry but I didn't know what I could possibly eat so we decided to try a Waffle House and I ordered a soft waffle. That hit the spot and was easy to eat. After eating we headed back to Wally's to pick up all our medicine and made our way back towards home. We took the scenic beach highway up towards Destin and on up to Rte. 10. CJ's last day of work turned out to be quite an adventure. It's been a couple weeks now and my mouth is healing up quite nicely. We're happy as clams sitting here in our motorhome. Even on the coldest of days it's warmer than the weather up home and at the most we're only a couple degrees lower than southern Florida. The winter is passing so quickly, before you know it, it will be time to head north again. So we're busy enjoying our free time.


One trip we've made is up the road a ways to Baker where they have a museum of local history. We had a wonderful time meandering thru and reading about the local industry and some of the past professionals. There were several items on loan to the museum. There was a display of antique medical equipment from some of the past doctors in the area. It gave us a chance to see what the area was known for and what kinds of animals were in the area. After we left there we went north a few miles and found a nice lake that had a famous trail used by troops in the civil war. We stopped at a small restaurant called Gators to eat supper. The inside is decorated with figures cut out of plywood and hand painted in a theme from the 50's. Reminded us of "Happy Days" They have good home cooked southern meals. Everything down here comes with coleslaw, cornbread and sweet tea. I feel right at home. On our way home we took some country roads and did some exploring. On quite a few of the roads the blacktop stopped abruptly and red clay roads began. We would immediately turn around and look for another road. We found lots of pecan trees and several times Chuck pulled over and we picked up pecans off the shoulder of the road. We passed lots of huge and beautiful horse farms.


I've included a couple links you can click on to see some of the pictures we've taken. Hope you enjoy them and stop back soon for more recent updates.



Eagles Landing Album http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.14x1d49c&x=0&y=-cjn1fj



Baker Museum Album http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.rvey1w8&x=0&y=vmjo5b

On The Road At Last~

In Chucks words:

We left Springfield Illinois for the south on Nov 23. What a job emptying the house. We only made it as far as Mt Vernon Illinois the first nite. We were exhausted from moving and had to stop. We had been using the coach in the driveway many nites to get familiar with it. And guess what, we ran out of LP for the furnace in Mt Vernon that nite. And of coarse no one has it at 3:30 AM. We took off and stopped at the Flying J north of Evansville, In. We fueled up and filled the LP as well. We caught some shut eye in the noisy parking lot and took off after lunch for Morgantown, KY. We overnighted at her cousin Roberts where we met up with her folks and took off the next day and got as far as Athens, Al. A caravan of 3. Me driving the coach, Candy following in our car & her mom and dad in their car. We stayed at an RV park within viewing distance of the KMart on the north side just off the interstate. The next morning I was up early as it was a work day for me. I finished about 3:30 and we drove to Birmingham and got in late. We decided to stay at the Flying J so I could work that following day in the coach in the parking lot where I had access to internet. Her parents took off from there in the AM to visit with relatives in Auburn, AL. We left in the afternoon to meet up with our good friend Karen who lives on the southeast side of Birmingham. We fueled up at the Flying J before we left. We enjoyed a dinner with our friend at an Italian Restaurant (shoot can't remember the name) where we had Lasagna and Spaghetti. This was the best Italian meal we had ever had. We took off in the dark and we were going to drive until we found a good RV Park. We stopped at Prattville for the night and the next day I worked from my laptop in the store at the park as they didn't have WIFI in the park. We left Prattville at 3 PM and went around Montgomery at rush hour. That was quite a chore as they had heavy construction going on. At mile marker 52 on I65 the coach quit running. Just died. No easy steering or brakes. I managed to get it safely to the side of the road and put the flashers on. We had to be towed back to Montgomery to Freightliner and we spent the night in the parking lot. The next morning they found a couple leaks around the fuel pick up pump. Fixed it pretty quickly & we took off from there heading south again and the same thing was happening 105 miles down the road. We got off at exit 93 at Castleberry as it was running terrible, and had been running funny since we fueled at Birmingham. I limped it 5 miles to an RV Park where we spent the night. The Next day we limped it back to the exit to a closed gas station and called freightliner. They sent a mechanic out with a new fuel pick up pump. I passed the time waiting, working from my laptop and answering calls while Candy fixed breakfast outside on a cardtable. It only took the guy a couple hrs. to get to us & he installed it onsite and test drove and everything seemed fine. We made it to Gulf Shores State Park that nite after meeting up with Candy's folks for a wonderful supper at Lamberts (home of the throwed rolls) in Foley Alabama. We stayed for a week at the State Park right across the highway from the Gulf and Candy's folks stayed in her Aunt Bobbies Condo in Orange Beach, just down the road a couple miles from the park. They left to go home Monday and we were on our own. When we left the State Park in Gulf Shores we drove to Pensacola to visit our friends David and Laura in Cantonment Florida. We plugged in at their house on the street. Our coach blocked their entire Christmas Light display. We left there Monday (3rd) after my workday ended and headed for Holt Floridas Eagle LandingRV Park. We didn't make it far. The coach had been running funny again just past the big bridge coming out of Pensicola on I10. I made it to exit 26 and pulled off. We stayed the night in the Stuckey's parking lot. Tue we were towed to Ward International in Pensacola. They found 2 leaking transmission lines and repaired those. They also found a leaking left rear wheel seal. We stayed at Dave and Laura's. Thursday we were back again to Ward Int. The wheel seal did not make it till late Thursday and we had to stay in the Coach in the parking lot at Ward Int. Friday they installed the parts and finished the repairs and we were on the road again to only breakdown at exit 26 again. Same exit as before (Bagdad/Milton exit) We limped it to Mckenzie GMC in Milton, FL. A mechanic named Tony worked on it replacing yet another filter and again dumping some water out of a fuel filter and we were on the way over the road again. Barely 4 miles from Holt, FL it quit again. We decided this time just to set along the road and wait for it to cool down. And for me to get over the trauma of having to steer this huge baby one more time down the highway with no power steering or brakes till it finally came to a stop on the edge of the road. Candy suggested we play some scrabble so that's what we did. Luckily no police came by to catch her beating my buns over the scrabble board. After she won & the coach had cooled down I sprayed a small amount of starter fluid in the breather and Candy fired her up. I limped it to Eagles Landing RV Park with Candy following behind in the car and we settled in for the nite. In the light of the next day we discovered we were at a very lovely RV park. It's clean & they have really nice shower rooms and a laundry facility just across the lane from us. Monday I drove over to West Florida Truck Service on the recommendation of Dick and Judy at Eagles Landing and talked to them about our troubles. They thought we should check the fuel tank for obstructions and said bring it over tomorrow morning. We took the coach there Tues morning and they started trying to determine the problem. They dropped the fuel tank and drained it and blew out the fuel line. It was getting late so we stayed overnight in yet another parking lot so they could put the fuel tank back on the next morning. The parking lot was noisy as there were trucks going in and out to a business behind there all nite long. We had chicken in the fridge we needed to use up so we got out the barbque grill and charcoaled it right there. Wed. morning they put us back together and we did a test run and again it drove very well. This was after he had let it warm up to 180 degrees on the radiator. We let it sit for 15 min and then shut it down. Paid the bill and took off for the RV Park. 1.5 miles down the road it was doing the same thing again. So we headed back to Eagles Landing and parked it. Put out the awnings, got out the lawn chairs and decided to just stay here and enjoy the neighbors and sites. We are only about 30 miles from the Destin/Fort Walton area. Pensicola is 29 miles west of here. We're situated about halfway between Milton and Crestview. There's a nice little cafe a half mile from here and a post office. I've got internet access and my phones are getting a good signal. The mechanic at the West Florida repair shop had mentioned he thought it was possible we'd gotten bad fuel. We told him we'd done all our fueling at Flying J's and he said that could very well be the problem. They apparently don't have a very good reputation good quality fuel. He said that might be why we had to keep having water removed from the fuel separator. He gave us a sample of the fuel he took from the tank and now we're going to contact the Flying J people to see what they have to say. In the meantime, this is as fine a place as any to be stuck for the winter. There's even a campfire circle right next to our parking space. At least we made it to Florida. We haven't seen any aligators yet but we've heard rumors of bears. We'll keep you posted.

For a slideshow of pictures we've put together for this chapter click on this link

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.dv0tqa8&x=0&y=vmgbmo

Thanksgiving Dinner~

We had intended to take off Thanksgiving morning. We were racing the clock and the clock was winning. Mom and dad were going down to the coast with us in their car and they left on Wednesday morning. We were to meet up with them in Morgantown Kentucky Thursday evening at my cousin Roberts house. However nothing ever goes as planned. On Thursday morning it was obvious that we were not going to get out of town anytime soon. We still had a couple trips to make out to Mom and dads house with the last of our stuff. We had some donations to drop off here and there of last minute things. We still had the cleaning to do on our nearly empty house. We were dressed like bums in our work clothes, we hadn't had showers and we were more tired than we'd ever been in our lives. We were passing McDonalds a little after 11:00 am and we were both hungry. We saw they had their sign on and there were people inside so we decided to stop for a quickie burger to hold off starvation but when we got up to the doors they were locked. They'd closed at 11:00. the people inside were employees cleaning up. Oh no, where on earth were we going to get a quick bite to eat on Thanksgiving morning. My kitchen was already packed up, movedand cleaned. The grocery stores were all closed. As we drove down the road we noticed a crowd of cars at Sgt. Peppers. We weren't going to be choosey so we pulled in. Thank goodness someone was open. As soon as we walked in the door a young man told us to pick a table and someone would be right with us. We chose a table and sat down and waited for a bit and another young man approached our table and asked us if we wanted tea or coffee. I thought to myself the soda pop machine must be broken but it passed right thru my thoughts and Chuck and I got busy talking about what we had left to do. We weren't paying much attention to anything or anyone around us. We were both bone tired and in terrible pain from all the hard work we'd been doing. Before we knew it a woman came to our table carrying two plates filled with food. Chuck held out his hand and said "Sorry, that's not ours, we haven't even ordered yet." She said "Oh you don't order, it's the free turkey dinner, everyone gets the same thing." We looked at each other and froze. Then we both started laughing. It seems as though a charity group was using the restaurant to feed Thanksgiving dinner to the needy. We apologized and told the woman we didn't realize what was going on and we got up to leave. She said, "Don't be silly, you're here, you might as well eat with us." Considering the way we were dressed, she probably thought we looked like we could use it. So we sat back down and ate a turkey dinner that was as good a turkey dinner we'd ever ate. Chuck of course gave me his sweet potatoes and I gave him my dressing. When we were finished with our meal Chuck excused himself to use the restroom and while he was gone the waitress came to our table and asked if we'd like pumpkin pie or pecan pie. I told her I'd love some pecan pie but knowing how Chuck feels about nuts I ordered the pumpkin pie for him. By the time he got back to the table the pie was sitting there waiting for him. I said to him, "wouldn't it be our luck for the t.v. station to show up to shoot a spot for the news." No sooner had I gotten the words out of my mouth than he said "You better eat fast cause they just got here!" We didn't even wait to finish our pie. We just dug into our pocket for a cash donation, threw it on the table and hit the floor running. We were out of there before the t.v. guy could even get his camera out of the case. We laughed about it all the way home.