On Monday 18 September, we got the rig detailed inside and outside. They did a pretty good job, but the exterior detail didn’t include any waxing which disappointed me. I think we will go back to the guy we used before next time. We left on Tuesday morning and spent the night at the Perryville Elks Lodge. It was a big parking lot that wasn’t very level, but we managed to get the rig in the best place possible and leveled with blocks. They had a 20 amp socket for electricity, but we didn’t need it, so we dry camped. I had planned on having a drink in the lodge, but it stunk of cigarette smoke so I gave up on that idea. Wednesday night we stayed at the Mississippi River RV Park in Canton, MO. It is run by the city. It was a great spot immediately below Lock and Dam 20. We got to see a few barges coming through, but the river is so low there wasn’t much traffic.
Little tug
We decided to put the rig at Big Woods Park again to get everything cleaned, emptied, and winterized. It was nice to be home again. The cats seemed to agree, and they were running around immediately. While we were home in the first week I had a doctor’s appointment, met with our financial advisor, went to church and later choir practice, and got my COVID shot. I didn’t do any sewing at all!
We went on a charity UTV ride on Saturday, 30 September. It was for the Waterville Fire and EMS, a volunteer group. It was HUGE! They had three different groups starting at different times along different routes for a total of almost 600 rigs. The vast majority were UTVs, but there were a few ATVs in the mix. It is mostly on private land open only to donation rides like this. There had been a LOT of rain in the last week – 6+” – and the trails were wet and the creeks full. We got that figured out when our first creek crossing got people stuck! In the picture below the one in the back was buried to his axles. The two in front of him on the left were pulling him out with tow straps, and the one with the red lights went around the stuck rig on the right like we did. The water did come inside the RZR, but it is designed for that, and we were fine.
Stuck!
This is about the separation of the rigs on the trail. As you can see, the trails were quite muddy. But the rain made for some lush vegetation.
Lush
There were pre-planned stops every hour or so. I liked the view at this spot a lot. It is absolutely a classic view of the northeastern Iowa a landscape.
Classic Iowa
The ride was billed as the “Fall Colors” tour, but we were at least a week away from significant color.
Only a bit of colorOne of our stops“And the woods were lovely, dark and deep”
It was a 5.5 hr trip going only 39 miles with long stops, but that is to be expected with a large group. We had to wait for at least one rig with tire problems. We went on this same ride last year when the RZR was brand new, so it was nice to how much more comfortable we are with it this year.
Another thing we got done was to replace out dying maple tree with a new honey locust tree. Frost Tree Farm is great to work with. He took out the maple for free, planted the locust, added mulch to it and the elm, plus even pruned my crabapple tree in the front! He is retiring soon though, so these trees better grow.
Skyline Locust
As always, the posts will be less frequent while I am at home, and we will be here until after Christmas. I will be doing some sewing though, and I will post that as I finish the quilt tops I have ready for quilting.
It was an amazingly relaxing time at home. Maybe I should use a more appropriate term – lazy time! After all the running around, it was nice to just relax. I didn’t sew a single thing! We did have three separate get togethers with the kids since they are all so busy a single one wouldn’t work! Lots of cooking, but nice.
We left home on Friday, 8 September. Our first night we spent at Bowling Green, MO Walmart. I like small town Walmarts. They are generally not too crowded, quiet, and safe. We have stayed here a number of times.
We had a bit of excitement the second day when we spotted a blimp descending south of Cape Girardeau, MO. The Subway blimp was on its way to Kansas City, but took a breather here. The pictures are awful because we were on a highway with no place to pull over. Kevin took them out of the window. The front is supposed to look like a sandwich and the back is like a wallpaper with the words “Subway” in different fonts and sizes. Why does Subway need a blimp? I sure don’t know!
Coming downDown
We spent Saturday night at the Elks Club campground in Cape Girardeau. Pretty, but I won’t stay again. They didn’t have the trees trimmed, and I had to go through overhanging branches that rubbed my roof. None of the were big, just little stuff, but they shouldn’t advertise they handle big rigs! Then the campsite itself took a lot of work to get level. Never again! We did have a pretty view when we finally got situated. The sky was overcast and gray, and the water was the same color with reflections. This is in the boot heel of Missouri, so the trees are only just thinking about changing colors.
Flat colors
We spent a lot of time getting the motorhome worked on. Monday we had a major motorhome service (oil, filters, transmission drain and replace, chassis maintenance, etc.) plus added a bunch of suspension upgrades. I haven’t had a lot of time with them yet, but it feels promising on the few roads we have had it on. The work basically reset the clock on all kinds of items so next year we are back to a Year 1 maintenance.
Tuesday we had a Shower Miser installed. This is a valve and plumbing where I close a valve in the shower, turn on the hot water, and the water flows from the water heater back to the fresh water tank until I open the valve. It saves quite a bit of water that would otherwise be wasted waiting for the shower to get hot. Obviously this isn’t an issue when we have hookups, but I am hoping it will save quite a bit of water when we dry camp and boondock. It works great! We also had a leaking Hepvo valve replaced (an alternative to a P-trap for RVs with limited space) and our black and gray tanks power flushed. We keep them in pretty good shape, but the gray tank is a bigger bother. Fats and food deposits accumulate on the sides of the tank, and we don’t have a good way to clean them out.
Wednesday Kevin installed a new rear view campers. Ours was just becoming intermittently bad. He checked all the wiring, so we just got a new one. So far it is MUCH sharper than the old one.
Thursday we got our old Schwintek slide mechanism in the big back slide (bedroom and bath) replaced with a Vroom system. This was the reason we really came down. Every time I opened or closed the slide, I had to pray it would work, and generally Kevin ahd to help it along from the outside. Turns out it was truly broken. We had it worked on two years ago, and I just wasn’t willing to do it again. So far so good! The mechanics of the slide are much more robust and the motor is more powerful too. I think the Schwintek was just not up to the job.
Friday we getting our lounge/bathroom wall slammed back into place and re-tied down. The wall was literally moving away from its position. Chris Berry had fixed it 3 years ago or so, but I think the Alcan Highway between Tok and Destruction Bay did it in. The screws Chris had put in were all either broken or gone completely, so this time he added backing boards, REALLY big screws, and even screwed through the tile grout to anchor the wall to the metal frame in the floor. You can see how far it moved away from the wall by looking at the ceiling dents. The soft fabric will eventually expand back. Oh, and on this trip Kevin had already slammed the wall back in place about 6 weeks ago.
Ceiling
Saturday we visited the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and the Shiloh National Military Park. What a sobering visit it was. We started at Corinth because that was where the major museum and interpretive center was, and it out the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Corinth in perspective. These were the battles that lead General Grant to control the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers plus the major rail lines of the Confederacy, splitting it in two and severing supply lines. After these battles he headed to victory in Vicksburg where visited last year.
Pittsburg Landing is where Grant landed his troops.
Start
And far, far, far too many never left the battlefield. Soldiers from both sides were originally buried in a multitude of mass trench graves. The Confederate soldiers are still there, marked by solitary large monuments. The Union soldiers were reburied at this national cemetery. Note the big monuments surrounded by smaller ones. The unit of the soldiers could be determined by their uniforms, but not their names. The vast majority were buried with their unit. The larger stones indicate the unit, and the smaller stones are individual graves.
End for too many
The battlefield ranged over a few miles, and the liens are very well identified by the NPS. This shows a sample of the location of a particular artillery battery at a particular time in the 2 day battle. These types of markers were numerous.
Battery location
The battle was named for this little Methodist Episcopal Church (a south), part of a pro-slavery split from the anti-slavery Methodist Episcopal Church. “Shiloh” means “place of peace” or “peaceful one.” The battle raged around the little church, and it was totally destroyed. However this faithful replica was hand built and completed in 2001 based on church records and other historical documents.
The reconstructed church
During the Civil War, the military units were mostly from a single geographical area. Many states whose units participated in the battle built monuments to their soldiers. This is the Iowa monument. According to the NOS records, 6664 Iowa soldiers were at the battle and 2409 were killed, wounded, or missing, the greatest loss of Iowans in any bottle of any war. This is one of the reasons I was always so furious with former US Representative Steve King who always kept a Confederate battle flag behind his desk, prominently displayed in any picture he took in his office.
Iowa monument
This is the Confederate monument. Only 25% of Confederate soldiers were from slave owning families, but the other 75% fought and died to keep human beings as property.
Confederate monument
The film shown at the Shiloh Visitor Center was one of the most sobering and heart-wrenching things I have ever seen. I cried. Such waste to support an unsupportable cause. We ended up eating at Cole’s Smokehouse with the most fabulous smoked chicken I have ever had. We come every time we visit Red Bay, and they never disappoint.
Sunday we took a trip to the Rattlesnake Saloon outside Tuscumbia, AL. It is in some type of natural cave with a huge opening, and it a fabulous place to visit. You park on top in a large lot, then they ferry you down a steep one lane road in a specially set up pickup to the cave. The food is just so so, but the atmosphere is what you go for. Well worth a trip if you are in the area. We even got some live local music this time.
Some live music for lunchNot too busy on a Sunday at noon
Tomorrow we get the motorhome detailed and(probably) buffed, the we leave on Tuesday. Whew, I really should post more often so they don’t get as long!
We had a good trip in the Red Bay Area. Ricky McGee at Pro-Finishes touched up a bunch of dings and scratches, a few fairly big. Great paint match, and the guys were super interested at making us happy with the outcome. We also had good work at Precision RV where they found a broken slide slider, a fairly common problem, and one I have been surprised we hadn’t had yet. We are not gentle on this MH! They not only replaced the broken one, but let us buy a spare since it might happen on the other side of the slide in the future. We could find someone to fix it, but getting parts is what always takes a long time. They also discovered and fixed a leaky hydraulic line for the same slide, adjusted all the bay doors so they shut easily and evenly, installed a propane furnace igniter that Kevin had bought but didn’t want to install (the current one was only working intermittently), and re-tensioned the slide toppers. Hopefully the slide toppers won’t hold as much water after rains now. Then we had Rocky Johnson do a complete detail on the motorhome – wash, wax, put 303 on the roof for UV protection, inspect the roof while he was up there (everything is still good), and polished the wheels. The coach just gleamed, but of course it had to rain later that day. Sigh. At least the wax is a good protection.
As usual we stayed in Red Bay RV Park which is like all but one of the Red Bay area spots – a gravel parking lot with full hook ups. This time we had a particularly outgoing group, and we met some nice folks.
We ate at all the standard places – Stark’s for breakfast, Cole’s for the absolute best smoked chicken I have ever had (and fabulous white sauce!), Home Town Pizza for great great pizza, and Big Star Grocery for some of their specialty snacks. I even bought extra of their fruit cake cookies, and I froze them in sets of twos for future consumption. Each cookie is the equivalent of a big slice of fruitcake, so two is plenty for the pair of us.
We left Red Bay this morning a little after 8:00, and we are now in Morrilton, AR a bit west of Little Rock. We are spending the night at the Walmart here. It started out pretty noisy, but it gradually got nice and quiet. Monday is Shawnee, Oklahoma at a casino. I went to college in Shawnee, so it will be interesting to see how it has changed.
After we left Bowling Green, we drove Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO. Nice place. We had a huge pull through site with full hookups at $45/ night. We didn’t have to disconnect the UTV trailer from the MH, and there was still room for the Jeep. We decided to stay 2 nights, knowing New Year’s Eve is noisy a lot of places. This place was nice and quiet, mostly with a mix of long term residents and migrating snowbirds.
The night we arrived, 30 December, we went to Lambert’s Cafe, home of the “throwed rolls”. It was decent cafe food, but you don’t go just for the food; you go for the fun. Yes, they really do throw dinner rolls to you across the dining room! The servers were working hard, and they had other staff come around with additional standards like fried okra (a favorite or mine), apple butter, and fried potatoes and onions (another favorite).
On New Year’s Eve we just relaxed. I did cut a bunch of quilt components with the Accuquilt though. We got to try out the new Starlink system, and it is fabulous. A good 5G signal gives about the same throughout, but it is hard to find 5G where we go. We actually made it to midnight Atlantic time (aka 10:00 pm Central time). We wanted to get up early and drive, but New Year’s Day started out quite foggy so we took our time. We did get to Red Bay at a decent time, and we are settled at Red Bay RV Park. “RV Park” is a strong name for a very nice gravel lot with FHUs, but it is level and roomier than some of the alternative places.
Since we are going to be here a while, I pulled out the sewing machine and got lots of little blocks completed. It is nice to sew while listening to audiobooks, and I did that while Kevin messed around with the water softener and a few visits to hardware stores. We had our first repair appointment today with the paint folks at Pro-Finishes. After 60,000 tough miles, it was time to get some chips filled in plus we had a couple of big scratches on a slide. They got all that done while we went to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Fabulous! Be prepared for incoming pictures.
We started in the main indoor section of general space “stuff” including training facilities for their Space Camp. Interestingly the exhibit started with a collection of space themed toys ranging from the 1930s to present.
Astronaut Barbie
After the toys were a combination of models are true artifacts.
Of course there were real artifacts too including these space suitsPlease some concept suits for the future.Model of the current STS rocketSpace station simulationFacilities for Space Camp
We then went to the Planetarium where we saw a presentation about the James Webb Space Telescope. Quite interesting! After that we visited the next museum building that was centered on rockets and manned space flights. Again, a combination of models and actual artifacts.
Saturn 5 rocket model outsideJust to understand the true scale
The inside of the second museum building emphasized manned flight. There was a docent who was giving a very interesting guided tour that we lucked out with. There was an actual Saturn 5 rocket inside this building, laid on its side (all 300+’ of it!), and I took lots of pictures. I will spare you those! This specific rocket was built for vibration testing, and obviously the designed passed. I will emphasize more on the manned capsules now.
The silvered thing in back was an actual training module for the Mercury Apollo returned capsuleDamaged heat shield from the capsule – ouch!A real moon rock!
There was even the sole remaining component from Sky Lab, the first space station. This was the only piece that didn’t end up burned up or lost in the ocean. You can see the insulating pieces of fiberglass that didn’t burn up.
Oxygen tank remnant
We came back to check out the coach painting, and found a couple of spots they had to re-do. Looks pretty nice though! Tomorrow is a visit with Precision RV for slide check and maybe hydraulic pump repair, slide topper tightening, and replacing an igniter on one the propane furnaces. Of course they may find other stuff! Saturday is a full exterior detailing, then Sunday we head for Arizona. I can’t wait. It is so humid here that my towels don’t dry overnight, and we have to wash them every 3 days or so. Ugh. I want my nice dry desert again.
I really haven’t felt like updating since we just haven’t been doing much. I wrote that, then I realized it was incorrect; we have been doing stuff, but the vast majority of it isn’t travel related, so I haven’t been posting. I was on the site of one of my favorite bloggers, and she said she was in the same funk. It isn’t really depression, just a bored funk. Hard to get motivated to write though.
We did take one trip on July to Alabama to get work done on the motorhome. The results are great!
Television lift and cabinet modifications to accommodate it.Old TV removed and added shelves for a pantry.Cabinet doors over the new pantry.The top pull is for the new prep surface.Pull out kitchen preparation Surface.Small cabinet to hold maps and atlases in the bottom with remote controls in the top. There is even a spot in the back to store our iPads.New heather colored carpeting in LR and kitchen slides plus bedroom.
Oh, and we added a 12v and a USB port, but I didn’t get pictures. I am very very happy with the mods. It took a couple of weeks, but that is the way it goes. While we were waiting, we visited the Natchez Trace some, and we drove to the far eastern Alabama to see the very edge of the Appalachians. It was mainly just a way to kill time, but the country is pretty.
When we got back we just put the motorhome up, but that doesn’t mean Kevin hasn’t been playing with all kinds of things. He has now bought two separate 3D printers, one with one color only and one that can manage three colors. He is having a blast learning the software, a huge job actually. He has made a bunch of mask holders, the ones that elastic from masks slip,over to keep them from behind your ear. The school aged grandchildren all have multiple ones with their names on them. We bought a BlueFire data bus reader for the motorhome (fabulous BTW), and he not only made a custom dash board I canwatch while driving, but a custom holder for the iPad we use as a display head.
Now everything is easy to see!Holds the ipad
He also made all kinds of little custom holders for our cell phones, etc.
Holds phone, GPS, and TPMS on co-pilot’s side. Something similar on driver’s side.
While Kevin has bee printing, I have been sewing. I quilted 4 quilts for the local quilt guild. There are always lots of pieces, but not many quilters. I really don’t like the quilt tops, so I won’t show them! They are the worse type of scrap quilts, but I am sure the recipients will find them warm. I finished the Drunkard’s Path lap quilt for Kevin. The texture is luscious – wool batting and fairly loose quilting.
Kevin chose the layout. I call it “setting sun”.All the corners match! I just did a gentle meander for the quilting and a decorative stitch for the binding.
I also did a small quilt using the design I am going to do for our bed at home – Jewel Box. I really like this one, and it will be a nice little baby quilt.
I am quite proud of the circles and scallop ruler work.Also pretty proud of the straight ruler work!
I will be using most of the same quilting designs on the king sized quilt I am working on now. I have always had problems with getting my machine completely flat and level in its table. It was off just enough to make the rulers rock on the needle plate. I enlisted Kevin and his new printer, and he made custom pads to make it perfect! He used a micrometer to measure and then printed the right size of pad for each corner.
Oh, and like all the sewists in the world, I am still making masks. I wish I had kept track of how many, but it is between 350 and 400. Wow! Lots went to kids and grandkids since everyone really needs 7-10 to let them be replaced once or twice a day before washing. I ended up buying the mask die from Accuquilt in both the medium adult and the child sizes. They made the volume possible! I gave 60 to my grandchildren’s school and 45 to another public school.
Children sizeAdult (red stars) and child size (snoopy and rainbows) for comparison
I have made dozens and dozens of masks with licensed University of Northern Iowa fabric. Those are so popular I bought an entire bolt. I figure masks will be needed until at least next summer, and I can use any left over for baby presents or home dec items. There is only one fabric store that has it (they did a special order from the supplier), and it was too far away to go often.
After writing this post, I figure I might just keep it up. We actually are doing things, even if I feel bleh.
We got on the road about 10:00 on Friday and headed north. We were only going to somewhere just south of Birmingham, so we weren’t in any rush. We tried a number of campgrounds, but they were full. Between Spring Break, nice weather, and a weekend, we shouldn’t have been surprised. We ended up in a Walmart in Pasqua, AL. It was very nice! They had pull through sites marked and ready for semi overnight parking. We left that to the truckers and found a spot off to the side where we could put out our slides easily. We did do some trash pickup and bought some things. The passenger seat of the coach had a couple of loose bolts and a broken cotter pin, so Kevin bought the pin to replace it. Good thing he found it!
We spent the next three nights at a KOA in Calvert, KY not far from Paducah and the Land Between the Lakes (LBL). It was a nice little campground in need of some modernization. The new owners just bought the place in January and have a lot of plans. It was very, very quiet.
The view from our site. Sorry for the electric box.
We spent Sunday wandering through the LBL. Those lakes are BIG! They even had shipping on the lakes.
This barge was headed from Kentucky Lake (Tennessee River) to Lake Barkley (Cumberland River)
We wandered around the LBL looking primarily at the historic sites. Turns out they mined iron in the area. There were a few ruins in the old town of Hematite (named after the iron ore). Here is the central furnace where the ore was smelted. The white rock was where the heat was applied and the bricks were insulation.
Our favorite spot by far was the Homeplace Historic Site. It is an interpretive site with an 1850s farm with docents working on the farm using historic tools, seeds, and animals. Here is a bunch of pictures of great spots.
A “Two Pen” house (two main rooms each with a fireplace)The Two Pen had an addition at the back tooLots of historic buildingsA more macro viewThe first house would have been a “One Pen”. You can see one of the costumed interpretersHistoric sheepAnd, surprise, historic cattle
I picked up a great book that included history and recipes of the area: “The Homeplace History and Receipt Book” by Geraldine Ann Marshall. I loved reading about the history from a woman-centric view. It is organized by the activities that occurred seasonally.
Monday we went to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. I was underimpressed. The quilting was absolutely stunning, but the vast majority of the pieces were appliqué. I expected a more historically-oriented display, but it was mostly drop dead gorgeous modern quilts. I actually preferred looking at the murals on the river wall. They had numerous historic scenes that were quite interesting. I also went to Hancocks of Paducah, a big fabric store. I picked up a bunch of fabrics for my granddaughters nursery, with the approval of her mom. I will show those as I finish them.
Today we left about 9:00 and arrived at Peoria, IL a little after 4:00. We are staying at Spender Marina Campground, a municipal campground right in town. I am sure it would be impossible to find a site during the summer, but it is on,y about half full tonight. $27 for full hookups is a good deal. Kevin is going to clean all the tanks really well, and I am going to finish the deep clean inside that I started yesterday. Tomorrow we get back to the “sticks and bricks” house.
On Wednesday the weather was again surprisingly good, so we took a trip to Johnson Beach, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The beach was really, really lovely though. Since there is an entrance fee to the National Seashore, there were very few people around, a nice change from the spring break crowds at Gulf Shores. While here was some blue sky occasionally, the wind was fierce. I am still amazed at how super fine and white the sand is. “Sugar sand” is a very appropriate name.
Thursday would be our last day at the Gulf, so we decided to visit the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola NAS. Like every other military museum I have ever been to, it was fantastic. I always prefer looking at the older planes because I have less experience with them, and they had a tremendous collection.
The oldest one from WW1 daysOne of the last “Flyting Boats”. It even has a keel line and rudder.Just a great older helicopterFantastic replica of the Apollo moon landing
While at the NAS, we also visited the headquarters of the Gulf Islands National Seashore so Kevin could get a pin. He tries to pick one up at each park we visit, and his collection is pretty impressive. We took the long way back across the beaches, then went to dinner at Acme Oyster Bar. Luckily they had more than oysters since neither of us like them. I had a great lightly fried fish with a gorgeous butter/shrimp topping, and Kevin ate a good roast beef open face sandwich. I hadn’t had seafood the entire trip, and I just had to get some. We also finished catching up on laundry and other exciting housekeeping chores.
We left today, and we are spending the night in a Walmart on the south edge of Birmingham. We tried to get a campground, but all the good ones were already full (oh the joys of spring break in the south). Lily is really getting into the groove of travel.
She just loves this one particular lap quilt, and I am sure she thought Kevin left it on his lap just for her. She probably sat there a total of 2 hours in a couple of different shifts.
Tomorrow we arrive in Paducah, the quilting Mecca. We will stay 3 days so we can see the National Quilt Museum, do some shopping for my granddaughter due in May, and probably drive some in the land Between The Lakes area.
Today we decided to take the ferry from Ft. Morgan to Dauphin Island and back. It was a quite enjoyable ferry ride, and the gardens were incredible!
First, some pictures of the ferry ride. We were on the small ferry that only holds 18 vehicles. The big one that can even carry motorhomes was in repair. That made for some long wait times.
We were up front both directions.There were gulls that sat on the ramp at the beginning and end of the trip looking for fish the engines kicked up.
We then went to Bellingrath Gardens, a huge estate begun in the 1930s. We chose to just go to through the gardens, not the house, and I am glad we did. The gardens were huge, and my back couldn’t have taken anything more than the gardens. The azaleas were the star of the show.
The view at the entrance to the gardensCamellias and azaleas togetherLook at the size of this southern magnolia!Isn’t this a perfect camellia?
The audio guide to the gardens said this was the most popular photo in the park. It used to be a muddy creek bottom, but good design, a lot of dredging, and a small dam made a lovely little lake.
There was a lovely glass house with multiple rooms for different types of flowers.
I really can’t recommend the gardens enough, at least this time of year. There are many, many plants other than the azaleas, but they really are the star of the gardens.
We ended the day with a short trip to Orange Beach. I want to collect some shells for the grandkids, but my back told me very, very clearly I was DONE! I did find a few nice small ones, but we will spend more time at the beach tomorrow when we have chairs and a sunshade.
We made it to our RV Park on Friday. We are staying at Gulf Breeze RV Resort, and it seems like a nice place. Folks are friendly, the sites are level, and we have at least a small amount of space between sites plus grass and trees. Lily the cat is thrilled! It took a bit of maneuvering to get the coach backed into the site due to the narrow roads, but we made it. Friday we just stayed put and started laundry.
Saturday we went to Ft. Morgan, an Alabama historical park. While the first fort was built for the War of 1812, the big effort began in the 1830s and continued through World War II, with various times of deactivation. The main masonry/earth fort is pretty impressive.
Kevin at the main gateThe vaulted rooms were pretty impressiveSorry it is dark, but this thing is BIGWorld War II modificationsThere was a group of red actors there this weekendThey even had a WWII surveillance plane flying
We also took a long drive along the coast, stopping for lunch at Picnic Cove, a nice restaurant I recommend, at least for their smoked chicken and brisket!
Sunday we just stayed around the coach, doing laundry and relaxing.
Today we took a trip to Mobile Bay to look for dolphins. We had lunch at Lambert’s, a tourist spot that has “throwed rolls”. It was barely so-so. The green beams with my meal were definitely canned, and Kevin’s beans seemed like standard canned pork and beans. The rolls were good though, as were the fried potatoes and the hamburger steaks themselves (loaded with onions, mushrooms, and green peppers). The charter was a bit over two hours, and I enjoyed it immensely! We took a charter from A-Pair-A-Dice at Barber Marina, and saw lots more than dolphins. Eagles, cormorants, ospreys, terns, loons, and brown pelicans were showing off in the area. Note most of these pictures were fromKefin since his camera takes much better zoom pictures than mine does.
Some of the pelicans posed for picturesLoons in their winter plumage
One group of dolphins were mating, so they were rolling all over themselves.
Mating dolphins
It was a long trip, and I am afraid my face is slightly sunburned!
We drove into the Tiffin Service Center campground in Red Bay, AL on Sunday, 3 March. We got seen by the evaluator on Monday, and we were told it would be the middle of the next week before we could get into a service bay. That gave us some time to wander around, but it was so cold we didn’t enjoy it much. We did get to a small shop in downtown Red Bay and ordered a custom hand towel in the basic colors of the coach.
However we got a call early on Friday morning to head to a bay! We got everything we needed done by Tiffin early, a nice change. However we still had some woodworking to be finished by an outside vendor, and we had an appointment for diesel service and installation of a SafeTPlus steering system on Wednesday. The woodworking was done on Monday, and we got the diesel work done as planned by Bay Diesel. Since the service center work was complete, we moved to a private campground nearby, 1st Class Campground. It is another gravel parking lot, but at least the owner turned the water on a few hours a day. Pretty much all the other campgrounds had water shut off completely due to the freezing temperatures.
The diesel service went well, and I already LOVE the SafeTPlus. It makes driving much, much easier and less tiring.
Today we had the coach detailed, the first time it has been washed in months! We were scheduled for the 4 hour job to begin at 9:30, but just after we left it the water faucet they used broke due to the cold! The detail guy had to spend the first few hours replumbing the water line, so instead of being on the road by 2:00, we didn’t leave until after 4:30.
We had thought about gradually heading back to Iowa, staying at some Corps of Engineers sites for a couple of weeks, but I was so tired of the cold! Even Red Bay was getting down to lows of 20 or so, almost unheard of for March. Kevin found a campground in Gulf Shores, AL near the coast. We will be spending a week there, hopefully warming up. The forecast is for lots of rain though, so it is not an unmixed blessing. We are spending tonight in a Walmart parking lot in Cullman, AL.
