Florida

Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Chief Aripeka RV Park, Spring Hill, Florida
Cost for 2 weeks is $295: Cost for 1 month is $295.65 + electric
Rating: 2.5 stars

We drove here and arrived late in the afternoon and because it is close to Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, we looked for a place to stay and found this one on our GPS.  The woman Minnie, has owned and operated this park for 27 years and had room for us so we decided to camp here.  She is very nice. We need to hole up while we arrange for new tires on the truck.  Since the price for 2 weeks is the same as 1 month, we signed up for the 1 month.  It means we’ll pay extra for electricity but with our solar panel, we never spend more than $20 per month.  We can leave early if we want and won’t lose anything.  Or we can use this as a home base and just take day trips from here.

The park has decent bathrooms that are fairly clean although there were some dead ants in the shower floor and the floor needed sweeping.  The internet works only sporadically and there is no cable tv.  We do however, pick up about 15 channels through our antenna, so at least we’ll have some tv.  The park is a little rugged with no frills and the sites are not level so our trailer lists a little to one side in spite of stretching the leveling to the max.  Our neighbors are very close which is not unusual.  For $300 per month, we really cannot complain.  The weather is sunny but we’re expecting rain while we are here. 

Friday, February 10, 2012

We had a list of errands and expenses to deal with.  So we spent the past 2 days doing that.  We found a Triple A where we were able to get some maps.  We like paper maps as well as our GPS. 

I got a manicure and pedicure at a nice salon.  Everyone there was Asian which is common for nail salons.  The nice woman who did my nails did not even look Asian but she spoke Vietnamese and very little English.  It was the end of the day when I went there and it took 2 hours to do both.  The woman is very meticulous.  Since it was the end of the day, I was the last customer there and one other customer left just before me.  She created a scene complaining about the price and refusing to pay, which had everyone there upset.  The woman doing my nails dragged me into it, saying that woman changed her nail design 3 times, taking up 3 hours of their time and wasn’t satisfied with anything, and now she’s refusing to pay.  I told them that some days are like that, sometimes you get a bad customer and from now on, just refuse the woman service if she comes back.  There are so many angry, troubled people in the world.  Up to now I haven’t had to be around those types much.

My phone died so we went to ATT where I bought a new one.  I’ve never had an ATT phone so we’ll give it a try.  While in there another scene unfolded.  A man came in and proceeded to tell us all about his troubles.  He is in the middle of a nasty divorce and just got out of jail for contempt.  He’s old, his wife is young.  He’s broke, trying to start a new business.  Apparently, he’s a locksmith.  Our ATT rep was embarrassed by the guy’s ramblings but we took it in stride.  Coming on the heels of the Nail Salon scene, it was a bit too much drama for us.  We wished him well and were on our way.

Things were more calm after that.  We went to Wal Mart to stock up on supplies.  I’ve been wanting to buy a outdoor patio mat so I got one at Wal Mart.  It’s important to use patio mats that are mold and water resistant.  I used to use old canvas but it gets wet and mildewed easily, and is very heavy.  We also went to the market.  Then home.

The next day we went to have our tires checked and make a tire appointment at a local tire shop.  Tires for our Dooley will run about $1000 and to check our back brakes will run an additional $60.  If they have to replace the brakes, it’s going to keep us on a very tight budget until next payday.

We drove to Tampa which is about 40 miles away and visited the Camping World store.  We bought some awning stakes and a small outdoor folding table.  When it’s windy we can’t have our awning down, so the stakes will help keep it safe during windy times.  While in Tampa, Dan got his pony-tail cut at Super Cuts for $21 including tip. 

My feet have a rash of bug bites all over them, a result of wearing sandals and it’s incredibly itchy.  People have told me about the Noseeums, little flying bugs no bigger than a flea.  People have to buy tiny mesh screens for their windows here.  But in an RV, no such luck.  I’ve killed a few of these in the trailer.  They seem to come out for about a half hour at dawn and at dusk.  So, next on the list was a stop at the drug store to get some benedryl lotion for my itchy feet and arms.  My arms have bites too.  Dan doesn’t get bit like I do.  We even bought an ultrasonic bug machine.  It emits this god-awful noise to keep bugs away.  Don’t know if it’s working or not. Florida is a very buggy state, a result of its rain-forest climate.

We also picked up some lozenges for Dan.  Ever since his cold he’s had a dry cough and a dry throat. 

We went to H&R Block to get our taxes done, but we have to wait for a special form to be mailed to us so it will probably be the end of the month before we get them done. 

Saturday, February 11, 2012

We stayed in today.  The weather was gray and windy.  We set up our outdoor patio area and I cooked.  I made a little pasta and marinara with ground beef.  I made a big pot of beef stew, although I tried hard to make a small pot.  And I cooked the leftover ground beef with taco seasoning for tacos.  That makes 3 different meals we can eat over the next couple of days.  I also washed out the refrigerator and did my basic chores.  Did some writing.  Dan watched the golf game on TV.  A quiet day.

February 13, 2012

Today we went for a walk at a nature preserve called Wiki Watachi just up the road from our RV Park.  We went late in the afternoon and it was very peaceful and quiet there.  We met a family and walked part of the way with them.  We loved the crushed shell roads.  That’s what they use here to cover dirt roads and parking lots.  Like how we use gravel back home.  There is so much greenery everywhere and water.  The preserve has lots of small and large ponds.  We were careful of these though because we were warned about alligators.  They are everywhere now.  We didn’t see any though.

February 15, 2012

We went for a drive today.  We ended up at Baypoint, a little community at the tip of a peninsula, I guess you would call it.  There was no beach but there was a pretty park and pier where we gabbed with the crabbers and fishermen.  We met a local homeschooling family and another homeschooling family from Ohio.  That’s the best thing about travel is meeting new people.  There were lots of gulls here and to our delight, 2 otters right under the pier, stealing bait from the fishermen.  The water, and the marshes, are beautiful.  Florida is very much a beach-going, boating, water-sports and fishing state. 

February 19, 2012

This evening we went to hear the Hernando Symphony Orchestra play at the local high school.  They performed an evening of Broadway hits and it was very enjoyable.  We bought tickets at the door and were able to get front row seats.  It was nice to see old and young performing together.  One of the young men playing cello looked to be about 12 years old while the drummer had to have been at least 80.  We enjoyed it immensely.  The tickets cost me about one-fourth what I would have paid back home.

The internet is a great source of information on local activities going on in any area you visit.  That’s how we found out the symphony was playing.

February 20, 2012
Our funds are quickly slipping away.  A day’s outing can easily use up to ½ tank of gas and of course, buying even minor things and eating out adds up.  We’re going to have to lay low for the next week until Dan’s pension check arrives.  After that, we leave here a week later.

Today was an outing day.  We went to Tarpon Springs, a charming Greek community that used to make its living from sea sponges.  Though there are no sea sponges left in this area, it’s a nice tourist attraction now.  We enjoyed a few of the tourist shops and bought some more post cards.  Bought some hot sauces at a kitchen store, some tea at an herbal shop.  We’d like to go back later and buy the kids some things.  We ate lunch at a great restaurant—Hellas.  There we enjoyed the Greek décor and Gyros and Chicken Souvlaki.  I would have stocked up on pastries at their bakery to bring home but it was too crowded.  In fact, we were surprised at how crowded the town was.  It is Monday and we were amazed that so many people were on vacation and not at work.

I wish I knew more about Greek culture and food but where we are from there isn’t really any.  We loved the names of the foods on the menu at the restaurant.  Spanakopita, Tiropita, Mousaka, Pastitsio, Dolmades, Kabobs of all types, and oh, the desserts!  Best of all are the desserts!  Baklava, Galactoumbouriko, Karidopita, Flogeres, Kourambiedes, Saragli and much more!  If we weren’t so full from our meal we would have ordered dessert.

After leaving Tarpon Springs we made our way to Clearwater.  We wanted to go to the beach but the parking there was too crowded although it fulfilled my expectations of what I thought Florida should be.  We drove through it instead.  Large, colorful hotels, shops, boats, and a large beach with white sand.  We’ll have to go back later and perhaps even earlier to get a parking spot.  Coming back we stopped at a Starbucks for afternoon coffee and a game of cribbage and waited until the rush hour had passed.

February 26, 2012

We have 3 more days till payday and we are down to our last $140.  So we are laying low, trying not to use up too much gas in the truck, so no further exploring.  When this happens we fill our time with chores, cooking, playing games and we limit our outings to the grocery store, laundromat and McDonalds for cheap coffee and their $1 menu.  If it wasn’t for buying tires for the truck, we’d have more but this is the way it goes.  The good thing is that under normal circumstances, we have unlimited time and that allows us to see and do things, albeit very slowly.

Living this way, we have to be flexible and be prepared for the unexpected.  For example, we’ve decided to go home next week after payday which is a lot earlier than we’d planned.  When we set out on this journey, there was no grandbaby on the way and our son Brian was not planning to buy a house.  But now, the baby is coming (our first “blood” grandchild) and Brian needs help on his house.  So, we’re going to head home to help with the house and be there for the new baby.  We’re hoping we can take off next year again.  Ideally, we’d like to be able to travel 6 months per year, and be home with the kids the rest of the time.

We had originally planned to see all of Florida before we left for home but we’ve discovered how much there is to see and do and doing it all would take us a full months’ pay plus and additional months’ pay to get home on.  So it would be a couple of months, and our son really needs us now.

Florida has some must-see areas—The Everglades, The Keys, The Space Center and Cape Canaveral, the main cities—Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Miami, Daytona, Jacksonville, St. Augustine, plus all the great beaches and little islands off the Gulf, not to mention the little historic towns such as Tarpon Springs and others.  Then there is the Panhandle, of course.  And many beautiful state parks.

So, very expensive and one needs to allow at least a month or more to see it all.

In the end, Family trumps everything else, and besides, we’re looking forward to seeing our family again and we like helping them.  Dan is looking forward to helping Brian work on some projects together, and I can help out with the household stuff.

I plan to continue my blog even once I get home.  I’ll use it as a sort of diary or journal and then write about travel once we get going again.

At our sons’ house we plan to continue to live in our trailer as he has hookups and RV parking next to his house.

February, 27, 2012

Today brought us a leaking hot water heater, so after a few calls to service centers, the upshot is that it will need to be replaced at a cost of about $1000.  We’ve decided to wait until we are home to do this, otherwise we won’t be able to make it home on time.

Today is our youngest son Brians’ birthday too.  28 years old and a new home-owner.

February 28, 2012

Tomorrow is payday and we’re down to our last $110 so we’re still trying to lay low and not spend much.  We’ve decided to head home the day after tomorrow, so I doubt I will do any more journaling until we get home, unless I can find time and free internet along the way to do so, and whether or not I will have anything to report.  Tonight we will add bleach to our fresh water tank and then flush it out tomorrow.  We like to do this about every 4 months or so.  We’ll also flush out our black tank, which is something we do quite regularly.  We do this by bringing the hose inside the trailer and fitted with a special nozzle for this purpose, we let gravity do the job as we rinse and spray out the tank, while draining it on the other end.  Tomorrow we will also take down camp and disconnect the hookups towards evening and hook up the truck to the trailer, and start packing up everything inside before dark.  Hopefully, we can do laundry as well, at least a couple of loads.  We would like to begin the trip home by having everything clean and laundry washed.  We already washed our bedding yesterday.

Tomorrow we have an appointment with HR Block to get our taxes done and we have a couple of errands to do.  We will also fill the gas tanks.  On the drive home we hope to find a truck wash and get our truck and trailer washed.

The goal is to drive about 12 hours per day, or at least be on the move which will include stops and meal breaks, and then stop to sleep and rest for about 12 hours as well.  We plan to camp in either truck stops or Walmart shopping center parking lots like we usually do when we are on the road.  If nothing untoward happens, we should be home in about 6 days.  If unexpected things do happen we may not get there for 10-14 days, but hopefully not longer than that.

We’ve been on the road for 6 months now, shorter than we’d originally planned to be, but we are hoping to go out again in a year or two and pick up where we left off.  It all depends on what is happening back home, how the truck and trailer hold up, how our health holds up and how high gas prices will go.

Have we enjoyed it?  Yes.  Are we glad we did it?  Yes.  Looking forward to doing it again?  Yes.  Are there any big downsides to it?  Yes.  Having an old truck and an old trailer (11 years old) which frequently need repair isn’t fun.  Having too small a trailer isn’t easy to live in for extended periods.  Not having ample money to travel on isn’t fun either.  And missing our family and friends is hard too.  But all else about travel is very fun, interesting and educational.  So to us, it’s been worth it.

Meeting New Friends, and Visiting Old Friends

One of the very best things about travel is the chance to see old friends along the way, and the delightful experience of meeting new people too.

Lori J.

My parents have been dead a long time now but my mother had a friend named Carol who is still living and when I lived in Paso Robles, California she lived only 15 miles away and we got re-acquainted after not seeing each other for about 20 years.  Carol has 2 daughters, one who is 2 years younger than me and one who is about 3 or 4 years older.  The youngest one I played with growing up, but the older girl was quiet and I didn’t really know her very well.  Plus, she got married young and after the age of 11 or so, I didn’t see her again.  Her name is Lori.

While we were in Corpus Christi, Texas, Lori called me out of the blue.  Her mother had apparently given her my number and told her I was in Texas.  Lori lives in a little town outside San Antonio.  Over the course of a couple of weeks we had a couple of long telephone conversations and we agreed to meet.  We decided we would go up to see her for a weekend when we left Corpus Christi, and then head to New Orleans after that.

Dan had a cold the weekend we went to visit her and the weather was raining and cold the whole time so he stayed home while I spent 2 full days visiting with her.  I was a little bit leery of seeing her again because I didn’t really know if it would go well or not, nor whether we’d really have anything in common but I needn’t have worried.  We got on like a wildfire!  I got to hear her life story and many blank spots were filled in.  I love peoples’ life stories.  I find most people fascinating to some degree.  And when I left, I knew I’d made a friend for life.  She turned out to be intelligent, thoughtful and kind, just the kind of person I like best!  I feel lucky because not everyone you knew as a child is someone you’d want to know as an adult.

In Corpus Christi, the rv park was filled with Canadians and we made friends with Guy and Elise and when we left we traded addresses and phone numbers.  The same went for a pair of Australians we met too, named John and Maria.  And we’ve stayed in touch with them as well.  In Vernonia, Oregon we met Geri and her husband and traded addresses with them.  They invited us to stay on their Yuma, Arizona property anytime we wished.

With travelers and other RVer’s, the relationships are often fleeting and superficial which is fine by me.  I’m not really looking to make any deep connections.  Deep connections are wonderful when it happens but I enjoy the fleeting aspect of travel friendships.  We like the people, we are all helpful to one another, we love sharing stories and ideas, and then we all move on.

But once in a while, something kind of magical happens.  You meet someone who really touches you.  That happened to me 4 times on this trip, the first being my friend Lori.

Fellow Book Lover

In northern California on our way to Oregon we stopped in a little town called Healdsburg.  I love thrift shops and flea markets so that’s what we did there.  We went to a thrift shop.  I was looking through the racks of clothes with one hand while my other arm held a stack of books I was going to buy.  I became aware of a small presence next to me that wouldn’t go away so I looked down and discovered a shy little Mexican girl who gave me a big smile and showed me her stack of books she was going to buy.  I could recognize a fellow reader immediately, and a kindred spirit.  We chatted about books and favorite stories for a few minutes and I was grateful for the little Kodak moment.  We book lovers come in all sizes, shapes and ages and we always instinctively recognize one another, like secret societies which have subtle signs making it easier for the members know one another.  At last, I went on with my shopping but a little while later I felt the little presence again and looked down to see her holding a baby, struggling not to drop the poor thing.  It was her little brother and she was proud to show him to me.  Well.  I can also recognize a fellow baby fiend, so of course, I admired him and complimented her on her big sister skills.

I went away blessed to have met a little old soul who touched me and to this day, the experience of being able to tell about it.  Little children like this one always touch my heart but I don’t actually have the experience of meeting a kindred spirit in such a small package very often.

Lorraine
In Ocala, Florida I got to meet up with an old friend from my teenage church days, a friend who I spent a lot of time with when we were pregnant together.  I was pregnant with my son Joe in 1981 and she was pregnant with her second child, Glenn.  We ended up giving birth within 3 weeks of each other and stayed close for a couple of years until she moved away to Michigan and later to Florida.  In 29 years, I’ve only seen her once, so the opportunity to visit her was wonderful.  We only had a day together but still, it was great to chat and try to cram all those years of news into a single day.  I have been working hard to convince Lorraine to move closer to us, but so far no luck.  But who knows what the future will bring?

Chris & Kasey

One of the most delightful meetings took place once we came to Florida.  We stayed for a week in a little town on the Panhandle called Carrabelle, a little old town with a wonderful RV park right across from the beach.  We discovered a delightful little café just up the road—the kind of café the locals go to.  It is called 2 Al’s and we discovered that father and son, Big Al and Little Al, owned and operated the restaurant for years until the elder passed away and it was just the younger Al, who seemed to be about my age now, running the place.

Al waited on us while we were there and we just loved him and his restaurant.  What a nice man.  All over the walls of the restaurant is the history of his life and the town—newspaper stories of old floods and storms, paintings of his father and he.   Because we bring our Cribbage board to play at almost every restaurant we go to, Al chatted with us about the game.  Bringing a game, especially such an old obscure game as cribbage, has opened lines of communication with people, something that is really nice to have while traveling.

A young couple in their early 20’s stopped by our table on the way out, to comment on our game.  We were amazed they knew it was Cribbage and knew how to play, since most young people have never heard of it.  We got to talking about how we’d like to improve our knowledge of Backgammon, since we had recently learned how and weren’t convinced we were playing it right.  Chris offered to teach us, and touched by his friendliness and our desire for new experiences, we agreed to meet at the restaurant the next day, a Sunday.

So, we met on Sunday, enjoyed lunch together, and learned how to properly play backgammon.  Like Cribbage, Backgammon is a nice portable game you can take with you anywhere.

Chris and Kasey struck us as this very nice couple and they surprised us by inviting us for dinner the next night at their home.  I knew they had to work—Chris works in some sort of land deal for the government, and Kasey works at a law school as a tech support. I knew they had to get up early to go to work so I didn’t really want them to go to this kind of extra work.  But Chris insisted.  He loves to cook and he wanted to make us some real Florida folk food—alligator tail (from the alligator he caught and killed), hush puppies and corn grits.  They confided to us they are crazy about boats and their dream is to live aboard a sailboat one day and travel, a dream I confess that I shared in my youth.

So the next night, we went.  They live out in the boonies on the banks of a river in a little home with their 2 dogs Boss and Willie.  On the ride out, it was after dark, a little foggy, and felt very eerie.  I began to worry.  What if these people are serial killers?  What if no one finds our bodies?  Chris had us wait on the road by a church as he was going to come by on the way home from work and have us follow him home.  While we waited, my worries began to multiply, and to ease the tension Dan turned on the radio.  As luck would have it, Jim Morrison’s song from The Doors, Riders On The Storm came on, with the verse, “There’s a killer on the road….”  Yikes!  Now I wondered if that was a sign or something.  Dan quickly turned off the radio.

Before long here came Chris and Kasey, and for better or for worse, we followed them home.

Well.  More delights awaited us.  They couldn’t have been more fun to be around, and been more kind to us.  They told great stories.  It was some of the best intelligent conversation we’ve ever had.  Chris is very vibrant and sharp as a tack.  He’s got a very handsome face with good bone structure, very Nordic looking.  I told him that if he did some modeling, say for Calvin Klein jeans or something, it would be a way to pay for that sailboat they want, and the life they would like to have. Kasey is equally pretty in a very healthy way, but she is quieter than Chris although just as pleasant and funny.  The food was great, and they taught us how to play doubles in Cribbage, something we’d never done before.  They have a very unique cribbage board—it’s kind of miniature and is shaped like a canoe, a gift from a relative.  Cribbage boards often do come in very unique designs.  Their dog Boss is very sweet and they have a little black Chihuahua puppy named Willie.  Now, he’s quite the feisty character, especially in contrast to Boss’ mellow nature, and we enjoyed the excellent entertainment of just watching his antics.

At the end of the evening, Kasey was referring to Chris as ‘Pretty Boy', for all my encouraging him to be a male model!  We found their healthy bantering to be quite charming.

So, we had a really good time.  It got very late and we needed to make our goodbyes, knowing they had an early day the next morning.  And surprisingly, they asked us to return the next night for more Cribbage, although we insisted no dinner.  We didn’t want them going to any more trouble. 

Would you believe they even asked us back the following 3^rd night?  Chris wanted to make us Venison Chili, and helpless to refuse, we went.  It was our last night in Carrabelle, and of course they overwhelmed us with their kindness.  One of the sweetest things to witness was their genuine love for each other.  How rare in life is that?  And they’ve been together for more than 6 years, since high school.  Chris still treats Kasey like she arrived in a Tiffany box—gentle, loving, respectful, precious.  To be able to share such moments with such good people, well, it made me hopeful for the future of the world.

As we were saying our goodbyes, I thanked them and said to them that Dan and I found it amazing that 2 young people would even want to hang out with 2 old geezers like us.  Kasey deadpanned, “Oh, we hate people our own age!”  This sent us into peals of laughter!

And did I mention the food was great?  Chris can add the title of Chef to his many accomplishments!

I came away with this thought—how rare it is in todays’ world that someone would even be brave enough to take you home with them.

You never know who you’re going to meet while on a journey, nor what kind of experiences you’re going to have, but if you keep your mind open, all sorts of possibilities can happen.

Entering Florida

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Carrabelle Beach RV Park
222 Highway 33, Pelham, Alabama 35124
Cost $261.55 for 7 days.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

We left Birmingham for the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday morning. We made several stops throughout the day, including an hour at a McDonalds’ in the morning, where we were sweating whether or not Dan’s pension check was going to arrive into our bank account or not, and down to our last $7, once we got online confirmation that the money was there, then we felt confident to move on.  We wanted to avoid the freeway spider’s nest  in the Pensacola area, so drove on interstate 10 east to Quincy, where we decided to camp for the night.  It was dinner time and dark so we were lucky to find a Flying J Truck Stop there which was very nice and even had pull-through RV parking—that was a first.  In the morning we used baby wipes to give ourselves a ‘spit bath’, because the truck stop charged $20 for a team shower—double what we were used to paying.

Our destination was Carrabelle on the Panhandle, but we had to take a south highway to reach highway 98 and then back-track about 30 miles or so to reach it.  The highways in Florida are often marked by street or road names so if you don’t know that, you’ll miss your turn-off looking for a highway number that may not even be there.  That’s what happened to us but we wised up the second time.

So we arrived in Carrabelle and found our RV park to be quite lovely—the nicest park we’ve been in so far.  It’s not crowded and we had no trouble getting a site.  We have full-hookups, good internet, cable tv and all the amenities including nice, clean showers, a pool and even a clubhouse.  No complaints from us, even though it’s the most expensive park we been in, I think.  We spent the rest of the first day doing 2 loads of laundry, setting up camp and getting proper showers.

Thursday, February. 2, 2012

We can see the sea from our campsite and we only had to walk across the road to reach the beach.  It’s very pretty and we were the only ones there.  The sand is very white and the water looks shallow and virtually without waves.  We can see the island chain just across from us—Dog Island and St. George Island.  The beach is long and perfect for walking.

We drove around town today just to check things out and take pictures.  Carrabelle has a population of about 1100 so it’s very small and charming.  We stopped for afternoon coffee and dessert at Hog Wild, a local restaurant.  Dan had their home-made banana pudding and he loved it.  It had a thin layer of white cake on the bottom, and was topped with whipped cream.  Looking at it, I thought how easy it would be to make this for him.  I’m not a big banana-flavor lover myself, but he loves all things banana.  Plus, it would give me a way to use up all the extra eggs that were given to me and the very ripe bananas on the counter.  And Dan is in favor of it!

At lunch time we stopped at a little restaurant in town called The Fisherman’s Wife.  We had fish, cheese grits, fried potatoes, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes, Yum to all of it!  We had never had grits, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes before, although I did see the movie years ago.  Hush puppies are fried dough balls made of cornmeal and they reminded me of apleskiver without the sugar.

There is so much water here and it’s a very boating-fishing-beachy town.  Probably all of Florida has this ambiance about it.  The seagulls and pelicans are smaller than the seabirds back home, and have slightly different coloring.  I love seeing them.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Today we took a morning walk on the beach and got to talking to a man and his dog.  I think he said his name was Wallace and his dog is Ubu.  Then we yakked to a couple from Iowa—very nice people.  She is a retired teacher.  Wallace was very interesting to talk to.  He and his wife were biking and hiking through Florida and are now heading home to Michigan.  He had some sort of a “practice” but was forced to retire years ago due to a brain injury.  I assumed he meant a brain aneurysm, and his “practice” perhaps meant he is a retired doctor or dentist of some sort.  He told us he uses biking and hiking and physical exercise as a way to combat alcoholism and that he’s been sober for several years, although he emphasized that it is a day-to-day sobriety.  I could so relate to that because I have eating and obesity issues, and I know from long-term experience that it is a day-to-day struggle and that there is no cure for some types of addictions and that one must substitute healthy practices as a way to battle it.  I also admired how he handled having a health issue that forced his retirement.  Instead of giving up, he found a way through it.

I just love meeting people on the road.  I find their stories uplifting, delightful and sometimes heart-breaking, and I feel closer to the human race as a result.  People are the same, and yet different in ways.

We drove to Appalachicola in the afternoon.  It is about 20 miles west of us.  I love that town.  I could live there.  It’s a town of 11,000 and just the perfect size.  It’s an old town with antique buildings in good repair, just the kind of architecture and town I love.  We stopped at a chocolate shop and bought a few chocolates to take home, and we had a 1-scoop dish of gelato, something I had always wanted to try but never had.  I thought it would be like sherbet but it was really more like home-made ice cream, yet different.  It was wonderful, and now I will have another favorite food to haunt me.  Like I needed that.  We skipped lunch and ended up having a latté in a café with a piece of Key Lime Pie and we played our beloved cribbage at the table.  That pie was delicious but different from the Key Lime back home.  It was yellow, for one thing, not green like the pies at home.

We came home in a bit of a sugar haze from all the sweets but ate a light dinner and then puttered at home.  It gets dark at 6:00 p.m. so it’s not like the afternoon lasts all that long.

Since I was jacked up on sugar anyway, I decided to try making banana pudding tonight with a cake bottom.  And it turned out great—at least Dan thought so.  I use real cream for my coffee so I used a little of that to whip for the topping.  I thought, just for fun, that I would share the recipe here:

For 1 layer of plain cake:

1 ⅓ c. flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ c. butter
¾ c. sugar
¾ tsp vanilla
1 egg
⅔ c. milk
Grease and flour baking pan (although I just lined a small oblong pan with wax paper).  Combine dry ingredients; set aside.  In mixer bowl, blend softened butter with sugar, then add vanilla and egg  Add milk and dry ingredients alternately and beat well.  Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350°F 30-35 mins or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool 10 mins, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before serving.  Cut square pieces or wedges and top with pudding and then top with whipped cream.

Banana Pudding

2 cups whole or 2% milk
⅓c. cornstarch
¼ c. flour
1 c. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 mashed bananas
1 sliced banana

Scald the milk (but don’t over scald) in the top of a double-boiler.  In a separate bowl, mix together the cornstarch, flour, sugar and salt and gradually add the scalded milk, using a small mixer or whip to blend well.  Now transfer mixture back to the top of the double-boiler and cook over boiling water with frequent stirring until smooth and thick.  In a bowl, separate the eggs and discard the whites.  Beat the yolks a little.  Add a little of the hot pudding mixture to the yolks and mix together.  Now add the yolk mixture to the rest of the pudding mix in the double-boiler and cook about 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla, and mashed bananas and stir well to blend.  Add the sliced banana and stir carefully to mix and still keep the slices intact. Pour pudding into a bowl, let cool, cover and store in refrigerator.  When cold, scoop a couple of large spoonfuls over a slice of cake and top with whipped cream.  If you like cinnamon or nutmeg, sprinkle just a little over the top of the dessert.  Enjoy!

A Brief Sojourn in Alabama

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Birmingham South Campground
222 Highway 33, Pelham, Alabama 35124
Cost $241.00 for 6 days.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

We arrived in Pelham, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham yesterday.  This is our 10^th state so far.  We had good weather for the drive in.  When we left New Orleans, it was after 5:00 pm and already getting dark.  We drove until about 8:30 pm and camped overnight in a Walmart parking lot in Hattisburg, Mississippi.  We grabbed coffee the next morning and left to drive most of the day to Birmingham. 

I wish I could report that we saw Mississippi, but we only slept there, ate breakfast in Meridan, and then crossed over into Alabama.  So, I wasn’t able to get postcards or photos.  What little we saw of it along the interstate is just like here—very pretty and green with lots of pine trees, oaks and other trees.               

One of the things that struck us as odd, is how often we see the interstates with very few vehicles.  Daytime, nighttime, doesn’t make any difference.  The roads are less crowded than back home.  This is true of Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, so far.

So far, this is the prettiest park we’ve been in.  And the facilities are really nice.

On Tuesday morning, we left early from New Orleans and then went to Bent RV Services for the scheduled LP check.  What should have taken 1 hour took all day because there were a lot of repairs.  The good news is that they fixed our heater system and replaced the LP alarm and changed out all the hoses and regulator on the propane tanks.  They suggested we buy a Propane Tank Cover so that’s what we did.  They said it would help protect the hoses and parts from the elements a little bit more.  The bad news is we have a leak somewhere in the range, probably a simple thing like a rubber seal or something.  But the leak is so tiny they weren’t able to pinpoint where it was exactly.  And they didn’t have all the parts on hand.  The problem is that without knowing exactly where the leak is, it can end up being more expensive to start changing out a lot of parts than to just change out the range.  When we get somewhere we can hole up a while, we’ll change out what the tech is 50% sure it may be and if that doesn’t do it then we’ll think about changing out the whole range.  The cost for the days’ repairs and tests totaled $695.24.  We also didn’t get out of there until 5:00 pm.

The extra expense of the LP system repair left us almost broke. So, we’ve decided to stay here in Birmingham for a week until the next pension check comes.  We’re here because my sister and her husband are here.  He’s very ill and in the hospital.  They are playing the waiting game—waiting for a liver transplant.  Since we were in the general area we decided to stop and see them.  Unfortunately, we have driven into a storm system with a threat of tornado.  Our camp host says they’ve never had one here but of course there is always a first time.  He said if one comes then we are all to gather in the shower room when we hear the alarm sounding.

We went online looking for an RV park but really couldn’t find one with showers and internet in or near Birmingham except this one.  It had lousy online reviews but we chanced it anyway and came.  We don’t agree with the reviews at all.  It’s very nice here—better than most parks we stay in.  Goes to show you that everyone has their own rating system.  I rate this one a 4.

We had planned to do laundry this morning but it’s too rainy.  It’s supposed to be clear tomorrow so we’ll do it then.  We’ll head out this afternoon to visit my sister if the weather allows us.  We discovered a leak where the antenna is but at least the leak over the shower is so far, secure.  We just need to re-caulk and re-seal the roof and we haven’t had enough sunny days to do it.  We hope to do it in Florida.

January 31, 2012

We spent most of the week here just visiting with my sister and staying in to try to conserve money.  So we did not do any tourist activities or see anything really.  I can say that my impression of Alabama, especially of Pelham where we stayed, and of Birmingham, is that it is very green, pretty and clean.  We saw no poverty or squalor, even though there must be some of that, somewhere.  The roads are not crowded.  There are a lot of churches, most of them historical, with tall steeples and cemeteries attached.  There is a lot of brick buildings as well as Victorian-style.  A traffic jam here means the traffic slows to 25 mph.  The towns have pretty names—Burnbridge, Vestavia Hills, Gardendale, Bessemer, Pleasant Grove, Montevallo, Alabaster, etc. 

Alabama grows a lot of pecans and peaches.

We met a local sheriff’s deputy in Ozark, and he was very nice.  He said yes, ma’m a lot.  We told him we were traveling, that his state is very beautiful, and that he is the first cop we met along the road.  I don’t think he knew how to respond to any of that but he was very nice any way.