Alabama Bound

I see it's been awhile since I posted (again)! To my followers, I'm sorry.

We haven't traveled to any "sights" to write about and the every day mundane things are really boring.

We really enjoyed our time at Orlando Thousand Trails and the time spend with Jake & Nancy and Henry & Anne. Both of them left this past Monday for other areas of Florida. We left Tuesday, slowly heading back to Fairhope, AL.

Our first overnight was in Lake City, Fl at Oaks N Pines RV Park. This is a nice park just off I-10 about 3 miles east of the junction of I-10 and I-75. This was our second time to stay there and will most likely make it a stop again the next time we are Florida bound.

Wednesday night we stayed at Arrowhead Campground in Marianna, FL. Driving in I remarked to Dean that I remembered staying here before. Everything looked so familiar. Then it dawned on me - this is the campground we came to when running from Katrina when we first began fulltiming. We, along with Jack and Danielle Mayer, left the Escapee park in Summerdale and came here for several days until we knew it was safe to return. It is a OK park, but not really designed with 40' motorhomes w/toad in mind. Short sites put you end to end with the roads and very tight turns getting out of the campground when you leave.

Anne called me that afternoon and said that they would be joining us at Arrowhead and sure enough, mid-afternoon in the come.

On Thursday we had already planned to go to Blue Springs State Park, Clio, AL to visit a night with Garry and Jenny, another couple that fulltime and were working at the park. We haven't seen them in a couple of years and the word on the street is that they are going off the road back to Wisconsin. We knew that this may be the last chance to see them in a long, long while and wanted to badly. The same went for Anne & Henry and they decided to surprise Garry & Jenny by showing up with us.

Thursday afternoon we arrived at Blue Springs and Garry was at the gate to meet us. At this point I need to tell you a story! When I pulled in, Garry of course greeted us and then I saw him look behind at Anne & Henry's motorhome. I told Garry "I don't know what's up with the people in that motorhome, but they have been following me since Florida and I can't seem to shake them". I don't know what their intentions are! Garry asked if I knew them and I shook my head. He goes "hmmmm" and steps back for a closer look and realizes who it is. Well, he all but hollers "You really got me, that's Henry & Anne". We all had a really good laugh! But the best is yet to come. Jenny still doesn't know that Henry & Anne are with us!

After selecting our campsites and getting settled in Garry goes to get Jenny who is at their motorhome just a short way from us. He tells Jenny that she needs to come up to our motorhome because there may be a problem and proceeds to tell her the same story I told him, except he added that I was really mad and scared and he didn't know if there would be trouble or not. Well, I'm standing in front of our motorhome watching Henry back his in and I hear the gold cart drive up and all of a sudden I hear a loud shriek. It was Jenny as she spotted Anne directing Henry. After all the hugs many times around, we all had a good laugh about "the story". Hope you did too!

That evening we went to Abbyville, AL for dinner at Huggin Molly's. Oh my gosh was it good! You need to know that Abbyville is a small town and one that I have to say, I'd never heard of. Well, I know about it now and hope one day I can get back!

Abbyville is home to Yellawood which I'm sure most of you have seen the commercial with it's owner Jimmy Rane as the star Yella Fella. Well the story has it that he is buying a lot of the closed up store fronts in Abbyville and putting antiques in so that it still looks nice and not boarded up. He has also put a lot of old signs up and you feel like you are walking the street of a 40's/50's town. It's so cool!

I have posted pictures at Picasa that I took around town to give you just a taste of what it's like. It is one place that if your in the area you really should visit. It's about 40 miles north of Dothan, Al on US Hwy 431.

Back now to our visit with Garry and Jenny. After dinner we all gathered in our home for a rousing round of Wii Bowling. Let me warn you - Garry is wicked! If I remember right, he scored around 220 and beat the rest of us!

The next morning we drove back to Abbyville to the local donut shop for breakfast. Dang, I forgot my camera or you would be drooling when you looked at the pictures of the sweets they had! They also had the traditional breakfast of eggs, hash browns, etc. We drove our motorhome to Abbyville since we were leaving Friday morning, going to Pensacola to Carpenters Campers where we are having some items worked on.

After about a two hour breakfast where we were served with a lot of southern charm, we said our farewell's to the others and got on the road.

Garry & Jenny - we sure hope to see you this summer in Janesville, WI. You know that we wish the best of everything to you in your new endeavors. Lots of love to you guys!

Henry & Anne - we will be waiting for you to catch up with us in Baldwin County, AL. Lamberts is waiting......

We are now parked at Carpenters Campers lot. They actually got two items done yesterday and the rest will wait till Monday morning. We got lucky though - they are having their annual RV Show here today so we get free lunch - hot dogs! They also have their "certified" techs do seminars on maintenance which are always good! Looking forward to a sunny fun day and of course I'll have to inspect some new coaches...

So till next time - be safe.....

Mount Dora, FL

Since arriving at the 1000 Trails park a week ago, we really haven't done much to write about. There have been a few mornings where we took off for breakfast - always fun and usually good food. There have been several trips to Wal-Mart, Winn Dixie and Publix. A couple of days ago, Dean and I took off to Target. What we found was my first true Target Superstore in Clermont. It's as big as any Wal-Mart I've been in. I found some new sheets, Dean got a new shirt (green - his favorite color) and we picked up a few other items.

This past Saturday we met up with Kim, a friend that I used to work with at Keesler AFB and her new hubby Tony. We had a very good time catching up with each others lives. It had been four years since we had seen each other. You just can't catch up with everything in 3 hours but we sure gave it a try!

Yesterday Dean and I took off in search of Mount Dora. Kim and Tony ride Harley's and said it was a must see. We finally got there, no thanks to our GPS. A cute little town on a lake (what town in this part of Florida isn't on a lake?). I would guess about three blocks square of small speciality stores. Dean and I had lunch at the Frosty Mug and it was very good - he had soup and I had a egg salad sandwich. We then walked a couple of the streets and looked in several of the shops. I'm proud of myself, I didn't buy a thing! We were going to Henry and Anne's for dinner so cut our time there to head back to Clermont. Again, our wonderful GPS got us home - the long way and on a toll road! Oh well, we made it. Dinner was really good - thanks Anne!

Today has been a very rainy day with strong thunderstorm and tornado watches. Fortunately all we have had so far is a lot of rain. Eight of us went out to dinner tonight at a brand new Golden Corral - today was their grand opening. It was very good and the restaurant was really pretty and laid out different from most I've been in. We are now back home and in for the night, watching lightening flashing in the sky.

I'm posting a few pictures of Mt. Dora at Picasa. Hope you enjoy them. See you next time!

Farewell's But Not Goodby's

This past Wednesday we bid farewell to the Preserve at Wilderness RV Park and to our friends Bill and Helen and our new friends Bob & Pam. We never say goodbye because we know that we will see each other again - down the road somewhere!

Our destination was the 1000 Trails Park at Clermont, FL After a two hour ride which took us past the Villages and through Leesburg, past a lot of old and new housing developments, through part of Clermont where the changes are astounding - so much new construction in this bad economic time, we arrived at the park. Much to our dismay there were no 50 amp sites available so we settled into a 30 amp site which was nice. We had cattle as our backyard neighbors!

A couple of hours later, Henry & Anne arrived and were parked just a short piece down the road from us. They were a little behind us leaving the Preserve - had more to do to get ready.

Our friends Jake & Nancy are here so I drove around to their site (the other side of the park) but they were not home. We did catch up with each other a little later on though. It's always nice catching up with friends you haven't seen in awhile. We last saw Jake & Nancy last year when we were in Lockport, NY visiting Niagara Falls.

I will tell you that this is no small park. I believe there are over 200 sites and well spread out! Their road system is not laid out straight either! Once you finally figure where your parked, getting there isn't hard - you just have to remember the turns!

I need to back up to one of our last days at the Preserve. Bill & Helen hosted a cookout at their clubhouse and we had sooo much fun! Sandy & Ken drove over from their home on the east coast and the eight of us staying at Wilderness were there. We had hot dogs, burgers, steaks, potato salad, broccoli salad, confetti salad, dips, chips, cheese, crackers, the best chocolate pie, strawberry shortcake and a lot of other food I can't remember! Us ladies even dipped our feet in the hot tub for awhile and boy did that feel good! The best part was the weather actually cooperated with us and we had a beautiful day that wasn't to cold! Great times and wonderful memories from there.

Yesterday, both Henry & Anne and us moved to a 50 amp site, across from each other and Jake and Nancy are just down the road a few rigs. Nice! We all got together for lunch at Henry & Anne's for a small cookout. Had a great time catching up with each other - especially with Nancy & Jake.

Dean and I and Henry took off in the afternoon for Lakeland and a company called Moulding By Design. They do custom interior lighting and we want to get rid of the florescent lights in our coach. I hate them! Anne & Henry had work done by this company and it looks so nice. I wanted to see just what they offered and find out the cost and how quick they could get us done. I will be calling back today with our order for seven replacement lights and covers for two fantastic fans. I was told having it done by the 16th of March will be no problem. Now I'm excited to get them in. I'll take pictures and post them - some before and after ones, once it's completed.

I'm not sure what else we will be doing while here, you will have to check back and see. Nancy mentioned she would like to go to Bok Gardens. I think Henry and Anne are talking about MGM at Disney or Universal. We have been to both of those so probably won't go. Bok Gardens - maybe.

Till next time, God Bless and Stay Safe!