Archive for the ‘Alabama’ Category

What? No diesel! oh no

Sunday, May 16th, 2021

                               Tree Tunnels

I find this fascinating.  So many trees, you have no idea what is behind them, often there are whole cities once to exit.  Sometimes there are signs for civilization and I just wonder, really???

Today we moved into Georgia and were planning to stop for lunch and fill up the tanks just east of Atlanta.  Not so fast!  We exit and 2 stations said they had diesel but then the pumps were out of order.  Choices, choices: keep driving and hope or head to a Walmart and hang out a few days.  The first choice was most acceptable except for the fact we had enough fuel to get to our next stop but it is pretty remote so what are the chances they have fuel.  Second option I ruled out right away!  I’m ok stopping at a Walmart at 9 pm and leaving before 8am.  I really didn’t want to relocate to one for who knew how long.

So, we came up with a new plan based on the information we could gather on a Sunday afternoon.  We would change course a little and head back to the interstate heading East and stop at the first truck stop.  The good news was there was 4 truck stops along the route before we had to bail on our plan of going to Tallulah Gorge.  So we got back on I85 and headed East, stopping at the first of four and jackpot!  The diesel was available, and not overly priced.  Great, we can breathe now and get back on track.  The whole thing delayed us about an hour.

Even better, as we were approaching Tallulah Gorge State Park another station had diesel and we topped off!  Yep, we are now part of the frenzy of buying more than you really need.  Paul added 3 gallons!

We are full and parked for 3 days.  The really good news is we have enough fuel to get to Paul’s family in North Carolina and we won’t need any more fuel for a week, plenty of time for the powers that be to get this mess straightened out.

 

The weekend is here!

Saturday, May 15th, 2021

Paul finished his work and now we have Saturday to explore outside the Park.  Before I get to that, the park filled right up on Friday.  We have neighbors that have 5 kids! Yikes, but they are so polite and quiet.  They love Teddy and Teddy loves the extra attention.  Teddy doesn’t run away so we let him off leash a lot and play some fetch right in our site.  We have a pretty big grass area.  He loves the kids so much that Saturday afternoon the screen door was open and he flew out!  He never does that but he saw one of the kids and ran right to them.

Back to exploring the area.  There are several towns with interesting names.  The first is Equality and the next is Eclectic.   There is Fishpond and Kowaliga. The town is named after a legendary Native American by the name and  Hank Williams Sr. wrote a song about the Kowaliga when he was staying a at lakeside cabin that he owned and still stands today.

Equality didn’t have a sign, in fact we never even saw a town or any indication we were there except a tiny sign.  The country is beautiful here and there is so much to look at.  Often when we are touring I observe the haves and the I don’t give a damns.

Everyone has lots of lawn! This one was nicely trimmed forever

Well they have a big lawn and they have a frigerator in their yard!(look next to the car)

                      Very pretty, They love their home!

            They have a lawn or at least a greenish field

                                They are downsizing

Just a glimpse from somewhere between Equality and Eclectic.

The perks of having a camp on the lake!  Drive right up in your boat, tie up and come to church!  Just beautiful.

Wow, it is cold

Thursday, May 13th, 2021

We arrived into Winding Creek State Park and it is freezing. I knew the temperature was suppose to come down but it is barely 60 and tonight it is going to dip down to about 50.  I was ready for summer and I don’t even have a jacket on this trip.  One set of sweats is going to be my look for the next 4 days.  It doesn’t matter because this is what I will be enjoying until Sunday.

                                        My front yard

The park is on Lake Martin north east of Montgomery, AL.  It is the largest State Park in the USA, there are about 300 campsites and most have a lake view.  Some are close together but the location is spectacular and we got a site with plenty of space.  We have neighbors across the road but no one near us.  The park is about 1/2 full.

Lots of different birds. Last night I saw a woodpecker right outside my window but when I got the camera he had moved on

While Paul works I will be enjoying my coffee each morning just like this.

More Beaches, interesting weather

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

We made it out of Florida and landed in Alabama just in time for a 1 day freezing weather day!  We have moved a bit inland along the Mobile Bay about 20 minutes from Gulf Shores where the condo’s and homes along the gulf are endless.  Gulf Shores was deserted as the wind was blowing so hard and the temps were barely 50 degrees but I was able to get a good sense that this is not my kind of beach town.

Along Mobile Bay is the town of Fairhope which is very small, quaint and lots of charm.  The weather was also much better on Saturday and we were able to get out and enjoy the area.

A beautiful view of the Gulf

A beautiful view of the Gulf

Spending the afternoon browsing in cute shops and then a nice walk along the gulf was lots of fun.  Fairhope is definitely an area I could get use to.  There are several towns dotted along the gulf that are old and charming and the fresh fish is very abundant!

Docks in the bay for viewing or fishing

Docks in the bay for viewing or fishing

Enjoying the view

Enjoying the view

Lots of cute homes along the gulf with cozy front porches

Lots of cute homes along the gulf with cozy front porches

Trading paperbacks right in your front yard

Trading paperbacks right in your front yard

Paul loved this!  We hardly ever read real paperbacks anymore but what a fun idea.  There were some good ones too!

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air

Always looking for the unusual, we found this statue in the tiny neighborhood park right on the Gulf!  Duke tried all the seats, this one worked the best!!

Where's Duke?

Where’s Duke?

This area is beautiful, spreadout and just the right mix of old, charming and big city,  I think we will definitely be back someday.

1st Birthday

Thursday, March 5th, 2015

Our RV is no longer a brand new baby!  It is very nice but like all new things that newness wears off.  There is dust in the crevises,  a couple tiny nicks in the paint, and most of the showroom has finally disappeared and it looks like “our” home!

Duke enjoying the "new" couch!

Duke enjoying the “new” couch!

We don’t even cover up the white couch anymore!  It took us awhile but we are quite settled in and loving the extra room.

We also left Florida today and are starting our trek back to California!  Florida was interesting, the weather was weird, we enjoyed it but I am ready to get to the west coast where you can count on the weather to always be great!

A few more days in the gulf, staying in Summerdale, Alabama and it was just gorgous and then today the wind started and now we have freeze warnings.  We did get out and checked out Gulf Shores.   A very busy beachfront town with lots of rental houses, white sand, condo’s and the mega, super stores where you can get any beach item you forgot!  I’m afraid I won’t be walking on the beach this week, although it is very beautiful and inviting, it’s just too windy and cold!

Wash, rinse, wash again!

Friday, October 17th, 2014

Poor Duke!  He got two baths yesterday as well as Paul getting a shower during what should have been cocktail hour!  Duke got a much needed bath in the morning and then another after chasing his ball right into a ditch!

Paul tosses the ball, Duke chases it, hitting it into the bushes.  Duke disappears into the bushes and doesn’t immediately reappear, and then Denise remembers there is a ditch!  Damn!  Paul starts to walk over, it is about 50 feet, Duke still doesn’t reappear so Paul starts running.  Denise begins to head for the bush too.  Paul disappears into the brush, Denise feels fear… what if??  After what appeared to be minutes, Duke reappears from the brush with the ball, then Paul!  Duke is soaked!  He went swimming, the only dry hair is on the top of his head!  Time for a bath.  The afternoon bath is not as nearly so soothing – this one is on the picnic table with the hose!  And now it is late afternoon, so no time to dry!  I’m going to have to blow dry him.   Play a little more ball, very carefully and then Paul notices a scratch on his leg!  I’m thinking peroxide and then Paul says “I hope there is not poison oak!  Panic strikes!!!!  Paul into the shower,  all the towels we used on Duke are into the washer.  And because we are so afraid of poison oak I hand Paul the ball and ball flinger into the shower!  Geeze…..

Oh yes, we are in Alabama for the week!  And I forgot.  In Tennessee while we were touring the Cherry Mansion I saw a Ground Hog!  He was huge, and I was so surprised that I didn’t get a photo!  His body was the size of Duke and he was fearful of me – running into a hole!

Things you see on the highway

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

With 2000 miles between us and Mesa Arizona we have seen a lot of the US highway system.  We have been trying to stay off the interstate until somewhere in Texas it got so boring we decided the interstate could be no worse and we were right!

On interstate 10 somewhere in the middle of Texas out of nowhere a swarm of bees decided that they could withstand a blow to our windshield and at least a 1000 bees met there maker on our windshield, for a few it was a slow painful death, others it was instant.  From inside the RV at 60 miles per hour it was loud and looked like someone was throwing mud at us from thin air.  At our next fuel stop we were scraping bee juice off the front end.  Now that is not something I have ever seen or heard of but it was exciting and made my heart skip a beat as it was happening.

We have been on the move for over 2 weeks now and we are ready to sit for a few days so we arrived at a nice State Park in Georgia today and will stay at least 3 days before moving to North Carolina for the weekend.

The BIG crash!

Sunday, April 26th, 2009
 

 

Carl Edwards makes the end exciting!

Carl Edwards makes the end exciting!

 
 
View from our roof

View from our roof

Paul chose Talladega for the excitement of the race and we got it.   We didn’t actually see the big one but we knew something big was going to happen.  We chose the infield because you can see the track from your camping site and there is lots of places to sit and watch the race.  We chose the most popular place where you could see a good portion of the track.   From our vantage point we could see the lead change and then watch the leader board and watch the lead change again before they crossed the start line and then change again when they got to the back side again.

nascar-raceIf you look closely you can see the Nascar Sprint Cup cars racing around the track.  This was taken 1 lap before the first crash that took a favorite out, Jeff Gordon.  He later returned to finish the race with a car that was missing most of its rear end!

nascar-2

Paul and I are not your normal Nascar fan;  Most fans sit on this lawn with only an ice chest full of BudLight and maybe a chair, never an umbrella and usually no shirt. 

The track is over 2 miles around so no way can you see the whole track from anywhere.  There were 3 big accidents that took drivers out of the race, the first happening with only 6 laps of the over 180 laps of the race.  This seems like such a waste to me but I guess it is part of the sport.  The second accident started right infront of where we were sitting and if we would have ran to the fence like many of the fans we would have been able to see the wreckage.  Pretty exciting to watch the fans -some were actually cheering when the accidents occurred once they knew no one was injured. 

#14 Tony Stewart during qualifying

#14 Tony Stewart during qualifying
 
 Anyway the race was exciting and I even enjoyed it almost as much as the partying on Talladega Blvd!

party4

 Talladega fans come prepared to party.  Once you enter the infield on Thursday you cannot remove your vehicle until Monday and the only way out is a little train shuttle that takes you out the tunnel, then you have to go probably 5 miles to find a store so everyone comes in with some food and plenty of beer – BudLight in particular.  If you look at my hand holding a glass of margarita I am demonstrating the pose that most every fan has from Thursday night until Monday morning!  I am sure there will be injuries just from having their arms bent like that for 4 days!

Notice the bent elbows and the coolers!

The other thing that is mandatory is that you carry or pull an ice chest so that you are never without the beer in your hand!!!

party1

Some of the fans feel a need to overdress!

party

And some do some really crazy things!  This guy below drinks charcoal fluid and then blows his breath and lights his lighter!  If you look close you can see the smoke but it was a huge flame – like Pete’s dragon from the movies! 

party2

 Paul spent a lot of his time on  Talladega Blvd.  trying to get pictures of the girls showing their boobs for beads!!!  We aren’t showing those, you will have to go and get your own!

Talladega or BUST!

Friday, April 24th, 2009

tall1It is about 550 miles from Branson to Talladega so we left Wed. afternoon spending the night on the road and we arrived at the speedway about 5 pm on Thursday to wait in line until about 8:30 before our group was allowed in.  Once we are inside the track there is no one to direct you so you are wandering among RV’s, tents, cars just looking for signs for your site.  This is pretty exciting, a bunch of beer drinking was going on in line and a bunch of people were already inside the track from Wednesday night – drinking lots of beer so asking for directions was not only hard but pretty entertaining!  Amazing how many people come every year and have “their spot”.  We found our spot, parked and began to get acquainted with the neighbors and the local customs – Budweiser Light is the prefered beer in this part of the country, in fact their are not many people wandering around without one in their hands!

A funny thing happened on the way to Talladega- Wednesday evening Paul pulled into the Walmart parking lot to get some groceries and parked next to another RV that was spending the night.  Chatting we found out they had lived in Los Gatos before moving back to Tennessee a couple of years back.  They had friends along that currently live in Los Gatos and the 4 of them were traveling to Branson and staying in the campground we just left.  Then we stopped on Thursday about 50 miles from Talladega and while we were pumping the 75 gallons into the tank another guy pulled into the pump next to us in an RV and asked where we were headed.  It turns out he was going to the same place we were and camping in the same section.  This place is huge and our section probably holds 2 to 3 hundred RV’s – He is parked 2 spots down!    This country is pretty small!!!

Talladega is a pretty big Party and I will tell more and share some pictures when we all sober up!