Our Travel Blog

An early start to the day. Around 4AM there was thunder, lightning and a rather ominous thumping noise just outside the trailer. The wind had risen as the storm approached and was catching the awning. Not a good thing! I got up and disconnected the tie  downs and brought the awning in. I came inside to watch the storm for a bit and then noticed lights on in our neighbours RV. A minute later he was out bringing in his awning.

At wake up time the rain was still coming down and it was a cool 18C. After breakfast we oiled some more of the wood cabinets and then sat around waiting for the rain to quit.

After lunch we headed out to do some shopping, When we returned the weather was looking a little more promising so the awning was put back out to dry. It will be brought in before bed time!!

We decided to go out for a meal to the place where they throw the rolls at you, described in last years blog. Unfortunately when we got there the place was mobbed and people were waiting 2½ hours to get a table. We headed across the road to try out the Cracker Barrel restaurant and had a good meal there.

Needless to say the trailer didn’t get a proper cleaning outside today as we had planned.

Time to bring the awning in!

Continuing on from last night. Earlier in the evening the truck started, there was no one in or near the truck at the time, but I figured I had somehow triggered the remote start on the  remote. Just as I was going to bed last night, the truck again started, this time the keys were hanging on the key rack so there was no chance the remote start was accidentally triggered. All I can think of was that it was triggered by the lightning that was all around us. I took the keys to bed with me!!

Anyway, the rain stopped overnight, but it was still warm and humid when we woke up. Lyn headed off to the laundry after breakfast and I did what I do best, nothing! After lunch Lyn decided to hit the shops— alone!

I had been wanting to wash the trailer down before it went into storage, in particular I wanted to clean off the roof. The roof is effectively a white, rubber type mat that is  laid in one piece over the roofing material and does a very good job of keeping us dry.

Once up on the roof armed with brush, hose,  water and cleaner I could see I had a mammoth task ahead of me, there was about 250sq ft of dark grey roof that should be white. Luckily the cleaner and a lot of elbow grease worked and about 3 hours later (coincidentally the same time as Lyn arrived home), the roof was back to its original colour. Hopefully the sun will now be reflected of the roof rather than heating it!

Very warm at wake up time, close to 80 and humid.

A lazy morning, although Lyn did spend some time treating all the wood cabinets and doors with Murphy’s oil soap to help preserve it during the summer storage. The rest of the morning we spent outside as it was a little cooler with the breeze. After lunch we decided that the we really should test the air conditioner, just to make sure it still works! We then headed out for 18 holes of golf. Admittedly it was crazy golf, but we enjoyed it. After that we headed down to the beach, which we thought would be fairly quiet with spring break having finished last week. It was pretty crowded, seems that other states may have their spring break this week.

Once we got back to the trailer we were glad to find that the air conditioner still worked. Although the temperature had not dropped dramatically, the humidity had as we could tell both from the feel of the place, and the amount of water coming off the roof from the air conditioner.

As I am writing this there is a fantastic lightning storm going on to the west of us and moving this way, this time we’ll remember to close the windows! Actually the storm just intensified, so awning in and windows closed.

A little cloudy when we woke up, but that gave way to sun and again we climbed into the mid 80’s.

The place is emptying out quite a bit now, the week-enders have left, and another group of the “snowbirds” have gone as well.

As it was the first of the month it was time to sort out the finances, always a fun job, so far we are not bankrupt!

After lunch we headed out to a couple of hardware stores to get some bits and pieces in preparation for closing the trailer up. While we were there we saw some LED patio lights on sale for a really good price so we bought a couple of packs, one for the trailer and one for home. Hopefully we can stop at this and not get the multi-colored lights that hang from the awning (Lyn take note!)

When we got back the inside of the trailer was over 90F. The temptation to put the air conditioning on was great, but there was a cooling breeze outside so we turned on all the fans and headed for the swimming pool.

The pool had warmed up quite a bit since we got here and is now at the ideal temperature, it’s warm enough to go in without gasping for breath but cool enough to provide relief from the heat.

The saving grace at the moment is that the temperature drops down to around 65 at night and cools the place down, which makes for a comfortable sleep. I suspect the A/C will be in use sometime this week.

Yesterdays storms were evidently running a little late. It started raining around 1AM but I thought nothing of it, but at around 2:30 the rain plus thunder and lightning woke us both up. It was then that Lyn remembered that some windows were still open! In fact all windows were open, and some of the floor was getting pretty damp. Once we battened down the hatches we hit the sack again, and when we woke up it was still raining.

The rain stopped shortly after breakfast, and the temperature was a cool 18C. There was plenty of standing water on the grass and roads, but it soon started to evaporate once the sun came out.

Nothing much happened today, the place is pretty full. It’s kind of a change-over time. A number of the winter residents have left, and the week-end crowd have started to arrive, which means a lot more children than before.

I think we are both winding down from the trip and getting ready to go home. We need to give the trailer a good clean inside and out prior to storing it as well as working out what needs to come back home with us and what stays in the trailer.

Woke up to clouds and warmth, up to 27C.

As the forecast was 70% chance of thunderstorms we decided to stay put today. Took a break from travel planning  and tried writing and programming some phone apps, not as hard as I first thought. Lyn spent the morning trying to sew, but there were so many trailers and people coming and going that her nose got the better of her and she spent most of the time trying to figure out who was who and who belonged to which trailer.

After lunch we had a short sharp shower and that was the extent of our “thunderstorms”. Following this we went for our daily walk around the site to dump the garbage and pickup the mail. On the way back we dropped into the clubhouse where there was a musical event in progress. Actually it was a private function but they welcomed guests. It was a get together of dulcimer players with a couple of violins and an instrument I had never seen before. We listened to the music for about 30 minutes, it had quite a distinctive sound, quite good for folk music.

There were three types of dulcimer there, two I have found pictures of

Mountain Dulcimer

Hammered Dulcimer

The Mountain Dulcimer is played horizontally across the lap with a pick, and the Hammered Dulcimer is on a table or trestle and is played using two small “hammers” on the wires.

The third type of dulcimer was Banjo Dulcimer or Dulcijo which looked like the Mountain Dulcimer but the sound box area was replaced with a banjo type sound box.

The unidentified instrument is best described as the soundbox of a double bass (slightly smaller) with no neck and strings. The sound was produced by a series of wooden pieces of different lengths fixed below the sound hole being “twanged” (best wording I can think of). Think of a wooden ruler half on a desk and pulling down and releasing the end to make a noise. I know the description is lousy, but if any one knows what the instrument is please let me know. Google was NOT my friend.

Again, warm and sunny up into the low 80’s.

Played travel agent again this morning and used up the last of my Marriott points for a four night stay in Seoul. Also did a little research on car rental in NZ.

Later in the morning we headed off for the weekly shop, again the smartphone shopping list was used. I’ve already been told I will be losing my phone on shopping day when we get back home!

After lunch we took a walk around the campsite, and discovered a couple of tracks that go off behind the pond. Unfortunately they didn’t lead anywhere and the mosquitoes were a little too friendly.

Other than that a day busy doing nothing, we have thunderstorms forecast for over night and the next couple of days, may make life interesting!!

A few clouds around but still up in the 80’s as the day wore on.

This morning we headed out to Daphne, a town on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay and some 30 miles from where we are staying. Lyn had a couple of stores earmarked for a visit.

On the way up we stopped off at next years campsite to see if it was OK to drop the trailer off on Easter Monday for storage, and to find out we we had to park the trailer. After we left there we spotted our first armadillo, unfortunately it was road kill!

We headed initially for the old part of Daphne where we saw a couple of murals painted on building walls, but like other towns in Alabama the big box stores have taken over and there is very little left of the downtown core.

We managed to find a little cafe before we left and had a great lunch sitting out on the porch of what had once been a fairly large house. We headed out to the stores, I spent a little time in one, then left Lyn to it. I went back to the truck searching for a WiFi signal on the phone (beats looking at fabrics!). It’s amazing how many stores have free WiFi. The next store we visited was purely fabrics so I never left the truck!

On the way back home we stopped at Staples as Lyn needed some special pens. I headed over to the computer section (surprise!) and got interested in a couple of printers they had, but I was good and didn’t buy one!

Back home I finished off booking the rental cars for the UK, then did a little research on printers! Turns out Office Depot had one on sale that would be just right. Office Depot is two minutes up the road. This time I wasn’t so good and did buy one!

No change in the weather!

Today being Tuesday is laundry day for Lyn and flush out the sewer tank for me. See it’s not all care-free camping!

Once that was done it was a switch into travel agent mode. Lyn remembered that there is a steam train ride up in Scotland that we will be able to take when we go over in July. It runs from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands down to the fishing village of Mallaig on the Atlantic coast. If you watched the Harry Potter movies you may remember a steam train crossing a viaduct, that is on this trip. I booked the tickets and also got a hotel booked for one night in Glasgow. All that’s left now is to book the rental cars.

After Lyn got back from her crafts class we headed out to the pool to cool off. It wasn’t as cold as last time, but still caused a shiver on first contact!