Our Travel Blog

Warm and sunny again, up to 80F

Lyn spent the morning sewing, and was on the phone trying to sort out some issues with credit card companies, oh joy! Also had a look at the camera system I fitted to the trailer and truck so that I could see behind the trailer form the truck cab. I installed it last year, but it wasn’t a great success. Took a look at the wiring and found a bad solder joint, so far that seems to have cured the problem.

We went over to the office to collect mail, and to try and book a spot for next year. The intent is to leave the trailer down here for the summer rather than drive it back now and back down in January. It is cheaper to store it down here, plus we’ll save a lot on fuel costs. With the UK and NZ trips this year there won’t be time for camping anyway!! Problem is they are fully booked January through March, although we can go on a waiting list, it doesn’t help us too much. We looked up a couple of local sites on the web, and went out this afternoon to look at them. One was a no go, the other one looks promising. We have another one to visit over the weekend, then it will be decision time. We’re retired, we don’t do decisions!!

This evening it was Jam session time at the club house, so we headed over there for an hour of musical entertainment.

Another warm sunny day in Southern Alabama. Much prefer the climate here than Texas, you can walk around without getting blown over.

Today was dolphin cruise day. One of the resort residents organises a special rate for the cruise and lunch afterwards. We went on this trip last year and enjoyed it, so thought we’d try it again.

Before we headed out Lyn told me that there was no cold water in the bathroom. A little perplexing as there was hot water. Everywhere else in the trailer had both hot and cold water except the bathroom sink! I hate water problems.

We got down to the marina and were a little disappointed to learn that the general public would be joining our group. The disappointment was not because we had to mix with the riff-raff, but because only one boat would be going out. One of the ways to get the dolphins to come and “play” is to run two of the tour boats close (20ft) together and create a large wake between them. This gets the dolphins all excited and they start jumping about.

Come boarding time, most people headed for the bow area, but from last years trip we learnt that the stern was the best place.

We headed out into the bay and a couple of dolphins were spotted on the surface, the skipper positioned the boat closer to them and gunned it so we had a reasonable size wake. Sure enough the dolphins followed us jumping behind the boat.

Above Water Dolphin

There were 3 dolphins and they played around in the wake for about 5 minutes. We then cruised around the bay, but no more dolphins were sighted. We were a little disappointed as we had seen more activity last year, at least we had seen some dolphins though.

After about 30 minutes cruising a couple more dolphins were spotted, and the boat was brought closer to them and off we went again. This time there 6 dolphins following us, and they were close enough to the stern that we got wet when they jumped and landed back in the water, they were probably about 10 feet behind us. As well as jumping they spent a lot of time just under the water following us.

Underwater Dolphins

These six dolphins stayed with us for close to 15 minutes. In the end we got a much better show than the previous year.

Once the cruise had finished we went into the marina restaurant for a shrimp basket featuring local shrimp. Very tasty!

Back at the resort it was time to tackle the pesky water problem. I took the taps out then removed the cartridge, blew through all the pipes, put it together and it worked. Must have been some debris in the system blocking the flow.

Next stop was the pool as the outside air was in the 80’s. The pool was “refreshing” i.e. not heated, but once in it served its purpose and cooled us down nicely.

A foggy but warm morning that turned into a sunny and hot day.

Today was laundry day so Lyn headed off for her morning of excitement. After lunch we headed of to the (in)famous Piggly Wiggly store for our weekly shopping. We were somewhat disappointed at the lack of choice there, I am sure it was better last year.

After shopping I removed the protection I had put around the caulking in the bathroom and reconnected the taps. Let’s see how long this lasts!

Lyn was sitting outside when a police cruiser turns up and parks outside the next door trailer. A couple of minutes later the owners pull up! Barbara (one of the owners) came over to explain that they weren’t about to get carted away to jail; they had just traded their motor home for the 5th wheel and in some states the insurance companies require  that a police officer physically verifies the VIN of the trailer before they will issue insurance. What a glorious waste of police resources. We spent some time talking to the couple and we visited each others trailers. Both were musicians and had been asked to go over to a friends trailer later and play, and we were invited to join them.

They took three instruments over a guitar, a mandolin and a hammered dulcimer. I had never heard of the last one, yet alone seen one. Probably the best description given was a piano with a manual transmission. It looked like the innards of a piano minus keys and strikers. The player has two “hammers” used to strike the wires.

Anyway a pleasant late afternoon was enjoyed by a group of people listening to the music.

A warm and muggy day, up into the high 70’s.

I’ve finally got over the cough / cold and Lyn is about 95% recovered, just a slight hissing noise in the ear.

Another lazy day (retirement is soooooooooooo difficult). I sent some time researching new tail lights for the trailer, the design of the current ones does very little to protect the bulb base and the connector from corrosion, plus the rear end of the trailer gets bounced around a fair bit when we are on the road causing the filaments to break. I found that there is an LED conversion kit for this model so that has been ordered. Lights should be good for 100,000 hours, or 11.5 years of use.

While internet shopping, it was time to load up on the stuff we (I) needed (wanted) as in most cases free delivery is available in the States. Should have some new toys in the next couple of days.

This afternoon Lyn headed off to the craft meeting and met up with some people from last year. I attacked the truck whose alarm went off for no reason this morning. The alarm has been misbehaving for some time. Randomly when you close the door with the remote you will get a single “chirp” which is good, but about 30 seconds later there will be 5 more chirps (which is bad). The only mention of 5 chirps in the book suggests that the hood is open, so the hood sensor has been snipped, hopefully that will fix it!

Opening the blinds this morning we were greeted to an almost black sky to the north. The weather radar showed a sharp cold front just bout to hit. Sure enough in the middle of breakfast the skies opened. After breakfast and for most of the mornigg there was also thunder and lightning. We probably had around an inch of rain by the time the skies cleared.

After lunch we headed out to find some stuff for the trailer. There is a Coleman outlet store just up the road and a large Camping World about 12 miles away. When we got back I decided to refinish the caulking around the tiles in the bathroom. Hopefully this time the caulk will cure fully before it gets wet.

Rumour has it that the weather will dry out and improve starting Wednesday, until then we will probably just hang around the trailer and campground.

Message for Liz; hopefully you have now found the address bar that someone lost for you, and you are able to read the blog.

Remembered to put the clocks forward, which is always a plus. Woke up to temps in the mid 60’s but mostly cloudy.

Hung around during the morning and did the weekly finances, we’re not totally destitute….. yet. That may change as we have decided to go across to the UK in the summer; we spent some time trying to sort out accommodation and paying for it. A job made a little more challenging by the fact that one place didn’t take credit cards and I can’t access my UK account until we get home! A quick call to the UK solved the problems. Aren’t Mum’s wonderful.

This afternoon we took a drive around to re-acquaint ourselves with the area and then took a drive along the beach front. We parked and walkwed onto the beach for a short while, plenty of wave action with the wind and a few surfers playing around. Despite it not being overly warm the spring breakers were there in shorts, flip-flops and heavyweight hoodies! Saw a different drinking machine being hauled onto the beach, it looked like a cows udder on a pole with half a dozen tubes with taps on the end coming from the udder. I assume beer was poured into it and drunk from the tubes?? What happened to the simple yard of ale?

As the weather looks a little damp for the next couple of days we stopped off at Lowes for some stuff so I can touch up the caulking on the bathroom tiles. Also filled up with diesel, these $100++ fillups are not pleasant!

Coolish start to the day with the furnace running when we woke up. Got into the low 70’s by midday.

Must have been further out of it than I realised when I wrote last nights blog, the title “Finally” was actually a reference to my feeling a lot better, somehow that didn’t make it into the text! Lyn is still suffering with her ear, hopefully the antibiotics will kick in soon.

We’d both forgotten a number of things about this resort, the sites are spacious with large concrete pads to park the trailer and truck on, with enough concrete to house the BBQ, picnic table, some chairs and still with some space left over. This means no more tramping through mud or sand to get from the truck to the trailer, which in turn means a cleaner trailer. Because of the concrete pads there is a clear definition of each site, and it is much easier for the grounds people to keep the grass cut, which makes the whole place look tidier. Finally the people here are very friendly, both the campers and the staff. We have spent some time talking to our neighbours as today they traded in their mobile home for a 5th wheel.

Apart from talking, the day was spent setting up the stuff outside, and doing some basic cleaning and tidying. We have signed up for a dolphin cruise next Thursday, we went on this last year and it was a great trip. Tomorrow we’ll probably head off into the outside world to see what has changed in the area.

Woke up to heavy rain and a thunderstorm.

We stayed at an El Cheapo(ish) Days Inn last night, and we were impressed by the size and quality of the room. We went down to breakfast around 0800 and the weather channel was on; seems there was a cold front going through the region and we could expect heavy rains and thunderstorms for the first part of the journey.

It wasn’t until we reached the Mississippi border that the weather began to improve.

We got to the campsite around 1445 and got everything set up relatively painlessly.

The weather looks as though it may be a little wet on the weekend, that will give me time to recover and prepare for trips to the beach during Spring Break.