Finally, south again

Sunday December 04, 2011
Hi all, we are back at our favorite park, the Rainbow Plantation in Baldwin county Alabama. I was slow getting the blog out because the internet was down for almost a week and we are right back in the swing of things, busy busy. I did try to keep a log of the trip down and that is going to fill out the rest of this post. No pics yet though.

Friday November 18, 2011

We're off! Up early, packed the truck, shut off the water and turned down the heat. There was a light dusting of snow to remind us why we were doing this. Said our goodbys to our good neighbours, Sandy and Horace(who are looking after a few things for us). A few of our local dog walkers (Nicky, Lois and Jim with Buddy, Molly and Bear) went by as we were packing and wished us well. Dorreen (another good neighbour down the street) called just as we were going out the door to ask what time we were leaving. When I told her she had just caught us at the door she said she would meet us on the road to say goodby.

We drove the 15 minutes to Greg McCracken's Repair Shop where we are fortunate to keep our trailer, and after a half hour hooking things up we were really on our way. South through Warkworth to the 401 and after 1 1/2 hours (maybe 2) we arrived at the Ivy Lea bridge and had a very smooth border crossing. When the Border Guard asked if we had any alcohol or tobacco products, I told him about our 2 bottles of Old Tom's Egg Nog. He chuckled and said “egg nog with the rum already in it. That's good, have a nice trip.” We joined Interstate 81 and drove through some ice pellets in upper New York, but that was it for bad weather.

We went on till after dark, stopping for the night at a recommended KOA campground in Pennsylvania. It was quite chilly but our furnace worked first try and the little electric heater made up the difference.

738Km.(443mi)

Saturday, November 19

Another uneventful day. Through Pennsylvania on  I 81, a little of Maryland and West Virginia then stopping at another recommended campground near Fort Chiswell, Virginia. 615 Km. (369mi)

Sunday, November 20

Interstate 81 ends in Tennessee as it joins Interstate 40 where we go west through Knoxville. We decided to make this a shorter day, do some shopping at Walmart then stay at the Escapee Park at Raccoon Valley. By now the temps had warmed considerably. We were welcomed to the Tennessee woods with shotgun blasts as some of the good old boys did target practice. They were uncomfortably close. Went to the Sunday ice cream social and by the time we returned to the trailer the shooting had stopped. 356Km (214 Miles)

Monday November 21

We were on our way early this morning but still got caught in Knoxville's morning traffic. It really wasn't too bad and soon we were back on I 40 west till we joined I 75 south. Other years we went south on I 59 at Chattanooga but there is a very bad stretch (about 40 miles worth) of really rotten road. We've been caught on it twice, but not this time. We went a little further west and got on a scenic byway called Alabama 75. We had to climb to get to it. At the top we were almost 2000 ft above sea level. It was a pleasant change from the interstate. By the time we reached Birmingham the temp had reached 80+ degrees. Just past Montgomery, tonight’s stop was a park near Hope Hull, Alabama. It was a former KOA that had seen better days. Expensive and nothing special. 605Km (353 Miles)

Tuesday November 22

Our first stop today was a Flying J for gas and breakfast at Denny’s. As we pulled out another truck pulling a 5^th wheel trailer was behind us. Surprisingly they followed for quite a while. When they did pass us I recognized them from last year. We caught up with them at a rest stop and we were greeted warmly.

I had discovered last night that we had a problem with the faucet set in the bathroom because they would not turn off. So we stopped in the Walmart in Bay Minette to see about a replacement. I didn't like what I found so we stopped at Camping World. Still no good. Next stop was Ace Hardware. There we got a nice metal (chrome) set and in line shut off valves. Total cost $50.

About 2 pm we arrived at our destination, the Escapees Rainbow Plantation Park. The park manager Gary and his wife Millie met us at the office and asked “what took us so long?” Our site from last year was open, so we took up residence again. It was nice being back in our winter home. 272Km (163miles) Trip total so far 2595 Km. 1557 Mi. Gas mileage seems worse this trip, not sure why.

Wednesday November 23

First on the agenda today was get that water faucet set working. Plastic pipe plumbing is a lot easier than that  old copper stuff. It still surprises me that it works as well as it does. The only real problem was getting down on the floor to do the work. All those years repairing photocopiers has taken its toll. My knees just aren't what they used to be. At least our home away from home has water now.

If this works like I think it does, you can clik on the location button below to see a map of where we are.

Damn the Torpedoes

"Damn the Torpedoes!- Full speed ahead!"

That was the battle cry of Admiral David Farragut as he began the Battle of Mobile Bay. The three week navel and land conflict resulted in the capture of Fort Gaines, 2 other forts and the Confederate Fleet by Union forces during what Southerners call "The War of Secession" not the Civil War as the Northerners knew it. That was back in 1865.

It was much more quiet last Friday the 25th of Feb. when we traveled with our friends Al and Joyce, around the whole of Mobile Bay.
The day started with me checking the weather forecast for Dauphin Island (the center of the trip) and finding mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. Luckily Al looked outside and declared it to be a beautiful day. He was right, those weather guys should look out their window more often. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable days so far this winter.

We left the campground just after 8am and soon we were exploring Fort Morgan on the east side of the Bay. We then caught the 10:30 ferry to Dauphin Island (Isle Dauphine was named after the heir of Louis XIV of France) where we had time to have a look at Fort Gaines (The fort protecting the west side of the bay). Back in 1718, the Island was the Capital of the vast French Louisiana Territory. The Island and area have had 6 different flags flying over it in the past. Of course that doesn't count any aboriginals that were there before.  We had a good lunch at a local Pub (sort of) where both Al and I enjoyed a bowl of seafood Gumbo. Then we went to a bakery for coffee and dessert.
Getting off the island isn't as much fun as the ferry was. It's just a causeway and the odd bridge.

                                The map shows our trip. We started near the Civil War Trail sign above.

Off the Island we found many boat building facilities. Al drove past one sign that said "Authorized Persons Only" and "Hard Hats and Safety Glasses Required" so we could have an up close and personal with some of the ships. Everyone was friendly until a guy in a white hard hat suggested we leave. Joyce had protested loudly when we drove in. I just sat there minding my own business (and taking the odd picture).
We continued North West through the Bayou's where many crops are grown  including the king of the south, Cotton. On through the city of Mobile where we could see all the Mardi Gras preparations.

Downtown Mobile as we sped through.

On the east side of Mobile; Battleship Memorial Park is another place we should visit.

We spent a day at the beach last week. The sun was warm but it was windy.

The BP crews are still working to collect tar balls from the recent oil spill. Carolyn picked one up and they took it and suggested we not do that while giving her a wet wipe to clean her hands.

We found this one too but didn't pick it up.

Back on the 19th of Feb. Carolyn officially became  a senior(yea, the cheque is in the mail) To celebrate a  dozen of us descended on  McGuire's, an Irish pub in Pensacola Florida. They are famous for their Senator Bean soup (18 cents with a meal) and Carolyn's fave, Bushnel whiskey bread pudding.






Mardi Gras is fast approaching. hopefully I'll have more pictures after that.

Pat and Carolyn

Some pics from Alabama

One of my loyal readers has strongly suggested it's past time to update this blog. So I thought maybe a few pictures would be a good idea. The one on the right is Carolyn at the new bear parade after ice-cream on Sunday Jan 9th.

On the left we are enjoying a warm day in front of our trailer under a live oak tree. There haven't been too many of those warm days yet but we are hopeful.
We have been busy reacquainting ourselves with the lower Alabama area and doing crafts as well as taking courses. 

On Jan 18 we had a visit from an Elvis tribute artist and Carolyn and our friend Joyce had a great time. In his real life he is the vice principal at Foley High school.

During the warmer weather I thought it was a good idea to get the furnace serviced. It had been working pretty hard and had never been checked out before. We are lucky at this park as there is a resident RV Technician who does work on site. He didn't mind me watching so I'm sure I can do it myself next time.

This is the sun coming up outside our side window.

Last Sunday we attended a cooking class that started with a lunch of roast pork with Jezebel sauce  and salad with balsamic vinaigrette. We then discussed how we could reproduce the same ourselves. We covered many other recipes and planned our next class.

Earlier this week we took a class called weaving on sticks. We both made bookmarks and plan to do more when we get different wool.



Take care till next time.

Two weeks in LA

Saturday January 15, 2011
We have been here in LA (lower Alabama) just over two weeks now and the weather has been up and down. It was quite warm the first few days but then turned cold and dreary for the last week. It was below freezing the last 3 nights but that seems to have come to an end at least for now. Our furnace has certainly had a workout. Not to mention I’ve had to buy propane twice. The morning after the first fill up I woke to a temp of 45 degrees F. (that's about 8 degrees C. for those of you who are metric challenged) in the RV. Because I had not tightened the connection properly, the automatic tank switchover had not worked. I probably won't do that again.

Carolyn has been busy with various crafts at the clubhouse. This has been so far the most active year the clubhouse has ever seen so we were told. Next week there are expected to be over 50 events and classes. Not bad when you consider all classes are put on by volunteers. I even took a cooking class produced by a lady who used to be in the catering business. The topic was easy, inexpensive, fly off the table (her words, not mine) pot luck snacks. I’ve signed up for her next class already.
Speaking of events, next Tuesday after dinner of hamburger stroganoff, we will have a visit from Elvis himself. You didn’t know he was hiding out in Foley Alabama, did you?
The computer group meets here every Thursday morning. We just sit around (about 20 of us) and discuss computer problems. All except the guy who has an Apple Macintosh who says he never has any problems. So what fun is that?
Last Monday we went to the monthly meeting of the local Escapee chapter called The Gulf Possee. They're Planning a rally at the end of March just about when we will be heading home. Could be interesting. 

The past 2 Sundays we went to St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Foley. We went there last year for Christmas and guess what? They even remembered us. They get a fair number of snowbirds this time of year and they go out of their way to make us feel comfortable and welcome. A large number of the people from this park go to the Methodist Church in a little place called Marlo, just down the road from us. A group of us are going out for lunch tomorrow after church so we will give the Methodist Church a try too. We were there today for a catfish fry lunch and it was very nice indeed. We went to another Methodist church in Summerdale last Saturday for Gumbo and it was great too. On Monday we have been asked to go to the Shrimp Basket (another local eatery). Next Saturday there is a fried chicken dinner at the Masonic lodge in Summerdale as well. There seems to be a pattern developing. We did go for a ride on our bikes today, but probably not far enough.
It's almost time for dinner so, hope you are all well.


Pat and Carolyn

Happy New 2011

I've procrastinated too long in getting this blog going again, but now that we are back at what has become our second home (The Plantation Escapee Park near Summerdale Alabama) I have no excuse. Besides it's raining and has been for over 24 hours now. That's what happens this time of year when you get a big warm, humid air mass moving north from the Gulf of Mexico. The weather map on TV this morning shows it reaching all the was to the Great Lakes. I'm not complaining tho, after all it is 70+ degrees and shirt sleeve weather is one of the reasons we make this trek yearly. I could do without the tornado watches but that again is normal for the Gulf States
Speaking of the trek, we left our northern home in Hastings in cold windy sunshine on Dec. 27. Four fairly uneventful days later we arrived. Gas when we crossed the border was $2.99/ gal. or about .75/ ltr. Prices jumped to a high of $3.19 in the northern states then settled to $2.85 +/-  as we traveled south. Our gas mileage seemed much worse that in the past; something else I'll have to check out.
Weather was fairly good with  almost no precip. to speak of and very little traffic. Not like the mess that happened along the east coast. I found a great web site for RV'ers and other road travelers called Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com) They has a road trip planner that not only gives the routing  but also the weather you can expect along the way.
We just came back from a New Years Day tradition here were crazy people (about 8-12 this year) do a polar dip in the pool then have hot soup and drinks afterward. We helped them with finishing the soup.
Last night there was a New Years Dance with a live band. We went late and left early but had a good time.
Tonight there is pot luck Popin John dinner which we will know more about tomorrow. Carolyn has signed up for a cooking class, a teddy bear making class and says she will try line dancing. I know I'll go back to the computer club and will help out in the kitchen when needed.

 Hope this finds you well and have a Happy New Year

Pat and Carolyn

Indiana calling

Hi Folks.
Things have calmed down a little so I can take the luxury of updating this blog. Some of the blogs I read are actually updated regularly, daily even. Oh well, not me.
We left our home in Hastings on Saturday, Aug. 28, on what looked like a beautiful day. We were in no hurry, planning on stopping for the night at the Flying J just outside London Ont. About 20 minutes down the road I turned on the radio to get a traffic update for the 401(that's the major east west highway through southern Ontario in case you're unfamiliar with Ontario.) Seems there had been a major accident near Whitby and the 401 westbound was closed completely. We pulled over wondering what detour we could take. Our easy drive suddenly didn't look as good.
While we were stopped a gong sounded and a dash warning light came on. The battery charge voltage guage had dropped to 0. I stopped the engine and did what any man would do, I looked under the hood. Nothing seemed amiss. The engine still ran so we continued. We drove on thinking we would take Highway 2 from Port Hope. The radio reports kept getting bleaker and I was worried about that charging light. I did know the battery was on it's last legs and had planned on replacing it before winter. More warning lights came on so when we got to Bowmanville, we stopped at a Canadian Tire store but they were too busy to look at our problem, so I bought a new battery hoping that would help. And guess what? As we left the parking lot all the warning lights had gone out. The battery gauge read normal. Fixed, so I thought. We hadn't driven far before the gong sounded and the gauge sank to 0. By this time we were on the 401 traveling slowly but still traveling. We got across Toronto alright but I was still worried. I thought we might make it to the Flying J but instead pulled off at another Canadian Tire in Woodstock. They were close to closing but since the truck wouldn't restart they took pitty on us and had a look. Bad alternator, and of course they didn't have one in stock. And even if they could get one, they were closed tomorrow! Well Dean the service advisor made some phone calls and found the Canadian Tire in London was open tomorrow and they could get the part. The guys charged up our battery and after getting gas we were off again. (They didn't even charge us anything.) We got to the London CTC store and spoke to the manager about staying in the parking lot overnight.(He already knew our story as Dean had called) He suggested we would be safer in the Walmart parking lot around the corner so off we went again. The Walmart people said no problem so we stayed the night. It had been a long day.
Bright and early we made our way back to CTC to find it didn't open til 9:30 (We had been told 9). The part hadn't arrived yet so we waited. They told us to bring the truck into the far bay so we wouldn't have to unhitch, which was a bonus. Guess what? It wouldn't start! We just made it that far. No problem, they boosted it and they got started on removing the altenator. By about 10:30 we were out the door and on our way to the next tie-up.

Yes, there was about a 1 hour wait to cross the bridge from Sarnia to Port Huron. There was no real problen with the boarder and our GPS told us we could be at the Elkhart Campground by 5:20 if we didn't stop. We hadn't planned on being there til Monday morning but I gave them a call and they said come on down. We experienced some very poor cement roads but still got to the campsite by about 6:30.

Monday morning we had to stock up on most of our food stuffs as we have been warned to cross into the US with as little as possible. Seems the items that are forbidden change almost daily and you don't really want to get caught. A search of your RV can take several hours and things never get back where they belong,(so I've been told).

The Gypsy Gathering Rally started at 3PM.
 The Rally itself was great. Very busy and of course we (I) didn't get to see all we (I) wanted to see. Almost every attendee won a door prize at some point. We won a pass for 2 to the RV Motor Home Hall of Fame and Museum. Haven't got there yet but I expect we will in the next couple of days. Did you know they are celebrating 100 years of RVing in North America. The first 50 years were pretty shaky but in the 60's getting back to nature took off, and not just the hippies.

Had dinner last night (Monday Sept 6) with Phil and Cindy, a couple we knew from the Escapee park in Alabama. They are parked right across from us. We talked til about 9 then got home to bed.

We took a tour of the Jayco plant today (where our trailer was born) and they are produceing 10-11 fifth wheel trailers per day. That's just one plant. They have several. There are parking lots stretching huge distances full of many different RVs waiting to be delivered. And that is just Jayco. We have a list of  17 RV manufacturers in the area, and those are just the ones offering tours. We met with a Technical Specialest after the tour and he was able to answer most of the questions I had.

Tomorrow we plan on going to Shipshawana. There is a big Amish flea market there and maybe the RV Museum on the way back.

Friday we leave for the ESCAPEE ESCAPADE RALLY in Goshen Indiana, just about 15 miles south of here. Not sure about e-mail so may have to wait till we get home to update again.

Sorry, no pictures. I wasn't in the mood for the first few days but have started again.

I will figue out how to include a map soon too.

Take care and happy trails.

P&C



 

about time -update

Hi all. This blog is usually about Pat And Carolyn on the road, but we are not now on the road. But we do have plans. That's what this update is about.
Coming up soon at the end of August we are going to two RV Rallies in Indiana. The first one is called "The Gypsy Gathering". It starts on Aug 30 through to Sept. 3 and takes place in the Elkhart Campground, in strangely enough, Elkhart Indiana. This Rally is put on by Nick and Terry Russell. They are publishers of a RVing Newspaper called the Gypsy Journal. In case you want to know more I've included some links.           http://gypsyjournal.net/about_the_gypsy_journal.htm
In case you don't know, an RV rally is a gathering of RV'ers and wanna be RV'ers. They attend classes on RVing as well as crafts see shows and just generally hang out together. We have been to one Rally a couple of years ago and it turned out to be a lot of fun.
The second Rally is a week later at the Goshen Fairgrounds in Goshen Indiana. (See the pattern developing.) According to the map the two sites are very close together so we don't have a lot of traveling once we're there.
It's put on by a club we belong to called The Escapees. http://www.escapees.com/escapade/2010/  This Rally will be bigger but otherwise much the same as the Gypsy one. It's called an Escapade and it is the 50th rally put on by the Escapee club. It runs until the 17th of Sept. It's also the 100th anniversary of the first RV's ever built and we plan on going to the RV museum which is conveniently in the area. Thia is Amish country as well and we should find that interesting.
We will be rushing home after the Rally because we both have eye appointments on the Monday.
We'll be home for a week then we are off to Ireland. A place I've always wanted to see and since our youngest son is living in Belfast it's perfect timing. Our first week we will be on a bus tour of the southern part of the Republic of Ireland then a train ride from Dublin to Belfast where Jeff and Nicola (Jeff's girlfriend) will meet us. We'll spend the second week touring the northern part of the Island.

Not sure when I'll update the blog again but I should have some stories to tell.

Pat and Carolyn