The best laid plans

Now that a great Thanksgiving is behind us, it is time to start thinking about the Christmas season. That involves lots of activities, but one of the first we decided to tackle was getting a special picture of our Granddaughter-Victoria. One of my main hobbies during our five years on the road has been photography and I think I have gained a bit of experience and gotten a good number of great photos of our journey. So taking some pictures of Victoria should be a snap.

Given the needs of assembling all the gear a small child needs to travel with these days and other interruptions, we did not hit the beach until later in the day than I would like for ideal pictures, not to mention the strong winds blowing off the water. The other major factor not considered was the fascination that Victoria was going to have with the beach, sand and water.

So with three people working on this project with at least two taking pictures for close to 45 minutes, we managed to take over 300 pictures! How many, you may wonder, met the planned need for a great Christmas picture of Victoria-noneL

We had a great time and certainly have some pictures that will be cherished through the years, but not the “one” we were looking for. At one point Victoria appeared to be a lemming returning to the sea. She just turned toward the water and started forward at full speed. With Grandma yelling, her mother intercepted her before she got wet, but clearly she has no natural fear of the water.

I have not given up and will get that picture before Christmas arrives-I hope!

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope you all are enjoying a great day with family and friends!

Back in Florida

We left Gulf Shores on Tuesday, feeling at least a bit better after the cold packs the doctor prescribed. We did finally get to walk the beach before leaving Gulf Shores, but did not get to the list of places we wanted to visit. So I guess we will have to go back.

The short drive to Navarre, FL was uneventful, except for when we pulled into a Love’s truck stop for fuel. After we entered the truck entrance we came to an abrupt stop with trucks lined up. The station did not put up any notices but half the fueling spots were closed for construction with heavy equipment scattered everywhere. Several employees were trying to keep some of the hostile truckers happy. The main problem appeared to be that the outgoing trucks could not get by the incoming traffic as the layout was one big loop mostly blocked by trucks and construction equipment. I had nowhere to go, so I just had to wait. Long story short it took almost an hour to get the 75 feet to the refueling location.

Our home for the next three months will be the Emerald Beach RV Park. This is a very nice place on the water and very near our daughter’s home. It is certainly one of our favorite campgrounds. This week has been spent catching up with our daughter’s family and especially getting reacquainted with our granddaughter Victoria, who at nine months, is a whole different person than we left six months ago.

Happily, she did not scream at the sight of us and quickly accepted us back into the fold of her “circle of trust”. We have already taken her for a doctor’s visit, which she did not care for, but apparently has not blamed us for the visit.

We will be adjusting to the lack of travel and considering the possibility of yet another of those transitions in lifestyle, as we enjoy our time here.

We surrender

It has been almost a week since we both developed colds. Also I have managed to get not one but two pink eyes. It has been unpleasant but not overwhelming. After this period of time we were just tired of it. So today, it was decided we would call our doctor direct. Well, actually I texted him about our problems. He called in some prescriptions to the local pharmacy.

We now have a little cheat sheet to figure out when we have to take all this stuff. It is great to have a doctor that I can call directly and discuss our issues without dealing with his office staff. He is available to us 24/7 by phone, if needed. In fact, this is only the second time we have needed to call him on the road in the two years we have been with him. But it is nice to know he is there.

We will now wait and see if any of this will really speed up the recovery process. He mentioned that those grandkids carry some powerful germs:)

We have mostly been enjoying our waterfront site when the sun shines. We have yet to see our first alligator to “not feed or aggravate”. We have found a good fish market and have looked at the beach. Basically, we are just resting and waiting for the bugs to DIE!

Veteran’s Day

This is a time to remember the many who have served their country at home and around the world.

Without those who served, there would be no freedom.

Last year, I covered my family’s service history. Click here if you would like to see that.

The Perfect Storm

Now that is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but that is how it feels. It seems that I am doing another post that we normally do not do, namely anything about our health. Again, no particular reason, It just worked out that way.

The last few days with our grandson Aleister, I started to feel not so good, and soon Anneke and Aleister’s mom, as well. The boy had gotten all of us. He was out of Pre-K for awhile with a really bad cold/flu.

We cut short our final visit, as I was not feeling well. The next day, Sunday, was our departure day. Anneke and I were taking the usual over the counter stuff to keep this crud at bay. Oh yes, we had to remember to change the clock. I did not get a lot of sleep and we did not adjust to the time change well. We were off our bio-rhythms, if you believe in such things. It was a long four hours to get to our overnight stop south of Montgomery, AL. To add insult to injury, we had another hour added to the day. All evening we kept saying, is it really only this or that time. Since we did not feel that hot, we were in bed at nine-unheard off. So, of course, I was done sleeping by 4AM.

Today we had an uneventful journey to the Gulf Shores State Park, AL. I was dragging and looking forward to a quick set up and some rest-right! We were instructed to drive around the five hundred sites to pick the one we wanted-really? Anneke does not let such a challenge go unmet. After a long and for me painful search, we did end up with a pretty nice waterfront site. This was much to the chagrin of the two folks behind her at the registration office, since they both wanted the same site.

I quickly set up thinking about sitting out by the water. Somewhere in here, we heard from Aleister’s mom that she had to go to an urgent care because of a fever and sinus infection. This does not bode well for us. Anneke had spotted a fish market on our way in and so off we go for fresh fish for dinner. I was definitely not improving. Upon return I checked my temperature-yep, I too, now had a 101 temp.

As I write this, I am drinking lots of water and hoping that I do not need to find an urgent care by morning. I cannot remember the last time I had a fever, it has been years.

There are no pictures to go with this since pictures of my red face are not that pleasing and I have taken no others for several days-also very unusual.

Harvest Moon

We do not talk much about the campgrounds we stay in. There is no particular reason for this, it just worked out that way. As we prepare to depart tomorrow for point south, we were discussing how much we really like the Harvest Moon RV Park here in Adairsville, Ga. This is one of the few places that we have returned over and over. The simple reason for this is that it is the best place we can find near our grandson.

Way back in 2006, we searched out the places we might stay and the closest was the KOA in Calhoun, GA. Now we generally are not KOA fans, but we gave it a try during our first stop here. It proved to be an absolute disaster. Since we were only months in to our adventure, we did not have the good sense to just turn around and leave. As we approached, we were greeted by a prison like sign with harsh words about condition s there. We pressed on and were greeted by a hostile staff but again, we continued on. Our site was small and very unlevel. Again being new at this I was worried about getting out already. We mentioned that we would be having our daughter come to see our new motorhome. That was okay but for the privilege of sitting in our motorhome she would have to pay $3 a person plus $5 for parking her car. The day of our departure was pouring rain and I was worried about making the tight turns. It turned out this was a valid concern , in that, the trees and a power pole at the far end of the park, where I was required to go, had sagged and were hanging over the road. It was the first and (so far) the only time I have had to disconnect the car to extract myself from a situation.

Anyways, the second place we tried was the Harvest Moon RV Park. It has very wide roads, great pull thru spots, full hookups including cable, WI FI, and laundry-all at no charge, and the cleanest we have come across. If you like movie theater popcorn, you can get all you want free in the office. The owner handles the office and is friendly and helpful. The one funny thing is; he does not use a computer and writes everything down in a notebook. Yet he has one of the best WI FI’s we have seen. In our five years on the road, this is definitely one of our top ten campgrounds.

This would make a great overnight spot as it is also very close the freeway.

Family Time

We have spent the last four days enjoying our time with our grandson Aleister and his parents. Aleister is in preschool, but we still have been able to spend time with him every day. This has included a visit to a pumpkin farm, trick or treat, and picking him up from school to hear all he has learned that day. The pumpkin farm included some fun activities including a maze, hay ride and games. Trick or treat was at the outlet mall, which provided a good location to see other kids enjoying the holiday, as well.

Aleister’s dad has built him the Taj Mahal of playhouses in the back yard. It will stand up to any weather and provide Aleister a place of his own for many years.

The only disappointment has been with the weather, even as we move south, we have had freezing nights so far this week.

We have two days left here and then we continue south, with our next extended stop planned for Gulf Shores State Park, AL.