End of 2012, Merry Christmas to All

Christmas 2012

Hi All

The end of another year is approaching faster than I like. We have been keeping busy in our retirement and both of us wonder how we ever found time to work.

The weather has been a typical Canadian (at least southern Ontario) winter. I'm still wishing we had managed another trip south, but there are more important things afoot.

We spent the first 2 months of 2012 in Alabama at our favourite Escapee Park where I learned how to re cain chairs and took several cooking classes. Carolyn spent her time learning and teaching various crafts. We also toured several interesting places and even had a ride on a cotton harvesting combine. We discovered an interesting place to buy fish in Pensacola called Joe Patty's. The counter is over 40 Ft long with fresh fish from all over North America. Great cooked shrimp too.

In March we again went with good friends to New Orleans for the St Patrick Day Parades. I'm sure nobody does parades any better than the people of N'orleans.

The Gulf Posse (an Escapee sub chapter we belong to) held their spring rally at a pleasant park in Biloxi, Mississippi. We enjoyed learning about this city that was horribly damaged by hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. Many of the old homes will never be replaced because they can't get insurance anymore. The beach is one of the nicest we have ever come across.

On the way home we stopped for a few days at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania a place we have wanted to visit for a long time. The weather was great and we really enjoyed this area of so much American history.

The fun didn't stop after we arrived home. The Maple Leaf chapter of Escapees (another part of the Escapees Club we belong to) held their spring rally at Simcoe, Ontario.

We enjoyed our time with this friendly group. We joined them again at the fall rally in Meaford where we learned that the underground railway that helped slaves escaping from the south, actually ended. The War of 1812 had an impact here too. The guest speaker one evening was a high school history teacher with a specialty in the War of 1812. He spends his free time re-enacting famous battles with authentic replicas of the original equipment.

Our trailer is stored for now, but should be ready next spring when we plan on going to the spring rally near Kingston. Another busy War of 1812 area.

Kevin and Sarah are both working, leading busy lives. Kevin is working shifts for a temp agency with a contract to Rogers. Unfortunately he drives to Scarborough every day (and night) and frequently has to work weekends. Sarah is the trainer for a school bus company. She helps out in the office as well.

Emylee is 17 now,(that alone makes me feel old) doing well in school and plays for the school rugby team. (in June the team went to the Ontario Girls Rugby Championship and did very well)

She also just got her first job with Old Navy and is working on her drivers permit.

The younger ones Ethan (11 next Feb) is nice and tall and loves his hockey, while Evelyn (9 in January) follows her grandmother in her love of crafts. They spent a week with us this past summer, with a trip to the Reptile Zoo and swimming almost everyday. Another hi-light was a boat tour of the Peterborough lift lock.

The big news is our son Jeff's up coming nuptials. That is happening in March 2013 in Belfast, Northern Ireland and is the real reason we didn't go south this year. We plan on spending a month in Ireland and England and we didn't want to be driving home in late February, early March.

Jeff and Nicola are homeowners in Belfast and we connect on SKYPE almost every week. Jeff still does some acting (He had small parts (one speaking) in the first 2 seasons of HBO's "Game of Thrones") Other than working he is in the final year of a course on Environmental Studies. Planning the wedding is taking up all their spare time. More later.....

We hope you Have the best Christmas and New Year you've ever had.

Pat and Carolyn

Our time in L.A. is winding down.

As usual, time flies when you’re having fun. Or at least when you are busy all the time. We have been busy and most of it was fun. I should be keeping notes so I can go over it all but I haven't so I can’t.

The plan is to leave Lower Alabama next Friday morning (the 9th) going to New Orleans in Louisiana. We will be there for the St. Patrick day parades which spread over 2 weeks, then east again to Biloxi Mississippi for a week long camping rally before we start north. I expect to be home around Easter week end.

Mardi Gras is the big deal around the south and Lower Alabama is no exception. Carolyn did a piece on the history of Mardi Gras at the beginning of the festivities while the newly chosen King and Queen prepared themselves for their coronation. Carolyn did an excellent job. The clips are too big to include in this  blog, but I’m trying to put it on a service called “Drop Box” so all that want to can enjoy. More later if I’m successful. The following are just some random pictures. Hope you enjoy.

Carolyn and Barb at the Mardi Gras opening.

Mardi Gras parade in Pensacola. There were 61 parades in our area.

Birthday breakfast at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear.

We road our bikes through Gulf  State Park where there was a fire last year caused by a careless camper.


Carolyn and Dottie grooving to the music.


Carolyn teaching a class.

Tour of the USS Alabama.

Me on the bow of USS Alabama in the fog.

Helping in the kitchen at Mardi Gras.


Carolyn on her birthday with friend Joan.


Sea food sales counter at Joe Pattie’s in Pensacola on a quiet day.
It was the largest display of fresh fish we have ever seen. Shrimp were fantastic and they cooked them free. On busy weekends the crowd is 3-4 deep.


Learning how to make knitting needles from bamboo skewers.



Me with the 2 chairs I caned. About 50-60 hours each. The snow- flake pattern on the back of the left chair was particularly difficult. The chairs (22 in all) were auctioned off raising $4300 for CARE, a facility in Texas that helps full time RVers when they are sick.

Hope all is well were you are.

The past weeks have been exciting, interesting and fattening all at once.

The front entrance to our campground. Photo thanks to Barb Ellis.

Just before Christmas we went to see the Fish River Christmas Boat parade. Over 20 boats (a record number we were told) took part and it was a cold but otherwise pleasant night. We went with Terry and Barb then went out for pizza at the Yellow Mushroom, a place I have been wanting to try.

A tremendous amount of imagination goes into many boats.

Christmas Eve we attended the Episcopal church in Foley. St. Paul's was decorated like no other church we had seen before. There were evergreen boughs all over. The pine smell was delightful. Along the walls at each window large candles in hurricane chimneys were lit. The altar area was a red sea of poinsettias. We went early to make sure we got a seat and to listen and sing Christmas carols. Strangely enough half the songs were unknown to us. But the sermon was interesting. Its' theme was “what had brought us here tonight?” That sounds simple enough but the priest had some very thought provoking points. It was one sermon I would like to hear again. Meanwhile back at the ranch, there was a Christmas party of sorts on at the clubhouse but we decided to skip that and spend the rest of the evening in our home on wheels eating some snacks Carolyn had prepared.

Christmas day started with breakfast with our Canadian friends, Terry and Barb. Barb had prepared a delicious sausage and egg dish and Carolyn brought our Christmas morning traditional cheese pie.

Christmas morning with Barb and Terry

Around noon we went to the clubhouse to set up and decorate our table for Christmas dinner. We had 13 at our table. Normally the tables are set up for 10 but our table was so popular we ended up with 13. The way it works here at the Plantation, the park provides the meat and gravy and the table participants bring everything else. It took a little arranging  but it all worked out quite well and again we ate too much.

The next day we were eating again as the park had a pot luck dinner to use up all the leftovers. There was new stuff too.

New Years Day was fairly quiet except for one thing. At noon we jumped in the pool. This was a little unusual since the pool is not heated and is not normally open in the winter. A large crowd gathered to watch the 30 or so of us who can now officially be called dipsticks. We even have a certificate to prove it. Water temp was 65F and air was 69F. I don't know why but the air temp felt a lot better than the water. After the dip we were served a lunch of hot chile and drinks.

Carolyn showing off (last one out)

Joan lives in the park and organized this event.

Smiling before our dip.

Terry was late jumping in. (looks happy doesn't he) There's me in the background.

Most weeks during the winter there are 3 meals provided by the park. The Tuesday meal (at $5) is usually a simple dish while the Thursday dinner ($6) is a little more elaborate. Saturday morning breakfast ($3.50) is a straightforward bacon or sausage, eggs and coffee, sometimes pancakes or french toast replace the eggs. Sunday there is also coffee and bagels. I'm sure these meals are one of the reasons this park is so successful. This past week we skipped Tuesday’s meal (it was too close to Christmas) and Thursday's was moved to Friday. To keep costs down, Larry (our cook) asks for help preparing and serving the meal. We quite often help out and we jumped in on Friday. I got to cut up cucumbers and green peppers for the salad then we put the food (this time it was chicken steaks, linguine with broccoli and beans in tomato sauce) on the plates. The advantage to helping is you get to meet more people and you prepare your own plate. Yep, more eating.

Carolyn has been busy with knitting baby hats. These are donated to hospitals for newborn infants. She has also learned how to make fancy pillow cases. We now have a new rug in front of the kitchen sink in the trailer. Carolyn's talents go on and on.

Last Wednesday, Carolyn went on a day trip to New Orleans. Two bus loads pulled out of the campground at 7 in the morning. I was signed up to go but the original date was changed and I had already signed up for a cooking class on the new date. Carolyn was with several friends but still managed to accomplish the one thing she wanted to do, that was to purchase a Mufalata sandwich. In fact she got two of them. The sandwich was developed in the early years of New Orleans for workers who wanted a hearty portable lunch. It's made from a special loaf of Italian bread with slices of meat and cheese with an oil, chopped olive and a vegetable sort of salad. We had them last year in New Orleans and they are good. A quarter of a sandwich is a good meal.

In my cooking class Barb Phillips showed a select group her secrets to making chicken roll-ups, jezebel sauce, fresh garden salad (with pineapple, strawberries and pecans). Lunch finished with a custard pie. I've already put my name down for the next class in a couple of weeks.

I've also started caning another chair. This one will need the back done too, so I can learn the snowflake pattern. More on that later. 

Cook's corner- first class.

Barb showing her method for peeling a pineapple.

The class just before lunch.

I've been playing around with this blog entry too long now. There are many other activities I could include. All the best to all of you for the New Year.