Heading Home!

 We spent 3+ days visiting Jerry & Heidi in Murfreesboro, TN before heading home with a stop at Warriors Path State Park overnight. The Jeep lost all of its power steering fluid so driving it is very difficult! Thankfully it can still be towed home. This was another good trip altogether. The slide is fixed, the step is fixed, the inverter is working properly and the engine seems to be running well...knock on wood!!! Hopefully it won't cost too much to fix the Jeep.  We are ready to be home for a while! The drive home has been nice and sunny even if it is still cold out. 

 

Coming thru Roanoke, we got a good view of the Basilica of St Andrew, then the budding trees lining Rt 460.

Last days at Gulf Shores

 We are coming to the end of our stay here. Yesterday we made our last drive into Pensacola, first to stop at Joe Patti's for some seafood to take home, and then on to Mike & Joanne's home for one more visit. Gus went with us and he was happy to be included. We all (except) went out to a taco Tuesday dinner where the Margheritas were $1.99 and so were the tacos....cheap dinner!!!

Today, we had a relaxing morning before getting packed up to leave in the morning. We will drive about 300 miles north tomorrow, staying at a campground north of Birmingham. That will make our drive on Friday a much shorter one to Jerry & Heidi's home for a few days. 

Visit from Friends

 Dwight & Jeanine came for a visit from Chicago on Friday. We picked them up at the Pensacola Airport Friday about 11 am. We have been going nonstop since they arrived. Our first stop was the Coffee Cup for brunch, then on to Joe Patti's to buy fresh seafood, and finally on to Gulf State Park, our home for 3 weeks so far. I fixed Jambalaya for our first evening meal together and we talked nonstop getting caught up. We hadn't seen them since 2017 so there was a lot of catching up to do. 

Saturday we all went to the Naval Air Museum for much of the day. It was a fun time, even catching a 30-minute movie about the aircraft carriers. 

After leaving the museum we headed back to the RV with a quick stop to buy a new hair dryer (my 20+ yr old dryer died). Gus was very excited to see us when we got "home". We enjoyed a dinner of grouper, salad, and key lime pie, then played games to finish out the evening. 

Sunday, after a good breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy, we headed to Fort Morgan to catch the ferry to Dauphin Island. Once on the island we spent about an hour exploring the small island, including the West Beach before heading back to the mainland.

From the island we took the bridge to the west side of Mobile Bay, drove up along the coast for a while, then continued up to the USS Alabama Memorial Park for a tour of the destroyer. There wasn't time to do more, especially after getting a little lost when they closed off a section without redirection info. We finally figured it out. We had been gone almost 7 hrs from Gus so we needed to get back for him. 

Mike and Joanne joined us late afternoon at the campground for dinner, bringing a few things to contribute to the meal of grilled shrimp, homemade cole slaw, potato salad and bruschetta, as well as a blueberry pound cake. It was a fun evening that ended with Dwight, Jeanine, Jim, and me sitting around the gas fire pit as the temperature dropped. 

Yesterday morning, after a simple breakfast, we took Dwight & Jeanine to Fort Pickens National Park to explore and then stopped for lunch at Whataburger before dropping them off at the airport before 2 pm to catch their flight home to Chicago. 

This was a wonderful way to cap our time on the Gulf. We fell blessed that Dwight & Jeanine were able to take time from their busy schedules to visit. Hopefully we will visit them in their home later this year if we make the trip north to Michigan & Wisconsin. 

Dog Park & Beautiful Sunset

 Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and today is almost as nice with a few more clouds. We stayed away from the beach in the heat of the day so we wouldn't get sunburn and could avoid the "Spring Break" crowd. About 5 pm we headed over to the beach so we could watch the sunset. We were not disappointed. 

We also gave Gus another chance at the dog park. I took him this time and for the most part he was good. Toward the end of our time there he got a little testy with another dog so I knew it was time to leave. 

We did a little grocery shopping today as well. We have company coming tomorrow for the weekend. Dwight and Jeanine are flying in to Pensacola tomorrow morning, and leaving Monday afternoon to fly home. We haven't seen them since 2017 when we visited their home in Palos Hills, IL. 

Sun, Clouds, Fog, and a Dead Battery

 The past few days we have enjoyed a mixed bag of sunshine, clouds, morning fog, with more rain expected today. The temperature has ranged from the low 60s to 75. Gus has been for lots of walks with one or both of us. He has tried to chase a rabbit or two, and several armadillos. We haven't taken him back to the dog park since his last behavior problem days ago. 

Jim and I got ready to go for a bike ride yesterday only to find my bike battery not working. We swapped batteries in the bikes to verify that. It will cost about $300 to replace and we may not be able to get a replacement until we get home....so I will stick to walking. My tailbone will be happy to have more recovery time. 

VERY RAINY DAY!

 Yesterday we moved down 7 sites to our new location for the next 2 weeks.  Thankfully the previous campers in that site left before 9 am so we were able to be moved and set up by 11 am. That allowed us to clean up and head to Mike & Joanne's home for the rest of the day. Joanne was hosting a luncheon for ladies only and Mike and Jim went out to lunch. We took Gus with us and he entertained everyone. 

Today it has been raining most of the day. We had a short pause this morning and got Gus to go out and do his "business". Since then he was been relaxing on our bed while we both read, watched a little TV, and paid bills.