Making Our Way West….

  We left Mocksville Wednesday morning and tonight we are as far as Vicksburg, MS…stopped at Ameristar Casino & RV Park for the night. Last night we stayed in Heflin, Alabama at a new, little park just off the highway. Decent park..the owners are dog lovers and will be catering to dog owners as they add several amenities such as a large off leash area, agility activities, etc. It was 24 degrees when we got up this morning. Frost was thick on everything, including this tree stump that was near our RV site. These little sprouts were white with frost.
We arrived at the casino park this afternoon about 2:30. Got set up and filled the fresh water tank as it’s supposed to get cold again tonight. Hoping to get on the road by 7 tomorrow as we have a conference call tomorrow afternoon and will have to come off the road by 3:45 to get set up in time for the call. We’re going to push to make it all the way to Arlington tomorrow…have 400 miles to go. Route 20 hasn’t been too bad so far. Some construction going on and one stretch had lots of dips in the road that made the rig hop as went over them. Made me think of those custom cars you see on TV that hop up and down as they go down the road….our rig had the same feel today. Linda was trying to write up some paperwork while I was driving through hip-hop land….I’m sure that will look interesting.



Took the shuttle over to the casino and had the buffet for supper. Had lots of yummy things. Was a good girl and only looked at the chocolate fountain. The coconut macaroons were just like the ones I used to make at my bakery…very good. Outside the restaurant, there was this gingerbread house that the pastry chefs had created. It was cute ! After supper, we went into the casino and spent $12 on the slots…that’s my contribution to the Vicksburg economy.

Scottsboro,AL

Last night we spent the night in Scottsboro, AL out back of the Unclaimed Baggage Center. We had a very peaceful evening here...arrived too late to go in the store (they close at 6)so we are waiting for them to open to shop this morning.

Sunday evening was spent just inside the Mississippi border at a rest stop. I had looked at the weather radar and they were calling for severe storms and a hurricane warning was posted so we decided to stop before we got into bad weather. It looked really nasty on the radar and when we did drive up through that area we saw trees down from what appeared to be wind damage. Drove in light rain for part of the way yesterday and arrived here around 7:30 last night. After we look around the store, we'll hit the road again. Just meanderin' up the road...no tellin what we might find to explore ahead.

Shrimp

Today it was 83 degrees and quite humid....the first day where we ran the air conditioning pretty much all day. It's only now, at 8:30 p.m., that we could open the windows and it's cool enough to let the night air in.

For supper we defrosted some of the gulf coast shrimp that we had purchased with our friends, down in Bon Secor, Alabama at Billy's Seafood and cooked it for supper. We had some chipotle shrimp in the freezer so we combined the two and put it over some noodles. It was yumlicious !!

Went back to the ball field today and let the boys run. They weren't quite as anxious to run as long since it was so warm outside. Yesterday when we got to the intersection, right near the ball field, Linda thought there was an unusual amount of smoke coming from the exhaust of the TigerBait Grille (a restaurant right there on the corner). We proceeded to the ballpark and it was only a few minutes later that we heard the sirens and realized that the restaurant had been on fire and the fire companies were responding to it. When we came back by there, after leaving the park, there were a lot of fire trucks all over the place but the building seemed to be intact. Today it looked like business as usual as there were cars parked outside and they appeared to be open for business. It's good that it wasn't as bad as it appeared yesterday.

We are so happy for friends of ours who hope to RV full-time as soon as both have retired. They put their house on the market and in one day had gotten an acceptable offer on it. They have been working, step by step, on getting to the point where they could retire, sell the house and get their RV. Step by step they are making their dreams come true. We met these gals while at the Life on Wheels workshop, in Allentown some years ago and have been good friends ever since. We make our paths cross as we travel throughout the country. We wish them as much success finding their perfect RV as they've had so far with every other phase of the process.

Fairhope, Alabama

This afternoon we drove towards the coast to the cute little town of Fairhope. It's an artsy town with neat shops and the Fairhope Historical Museum. We went into the museum and there were some interesting items on display. This picture shows the accomplishments that one of the early mayors passed during his term (I believe it was from 1912 - 1914). Click on the picture to enlarge it. Looks like a pretty aggressive agenda of accomplishments, don't you think ? More than our modern day congress accomplishes with its bi-partisan bickering.

It appears that there must be a wealthy clientele of folks that live in Fairhope. I've never been in a thrift store, as they had here, where there is an extensive selection of furs and stoles for sale. Hmmm....
Once we left town we drove down to the coast where the beach was and there was a very nice park.There was this huge fountain at the entrance to the waterfront park and this sign showing all the wintering birds that come to the area. We drove down the coast for a little ways, looking at the nice houses along the shore. We circled around and came back down rt 32 and stopped at Coastal Haven campground to check it out. I got a quick look at it as we went past it, on the way to Fairhope, and it looked nice and clean...with concrete sites so we wanted to check it out. We drove in and went to the end of one row and came around to the backside of the office. I noticed a woman walking along behind our truck but didn't pay much attention. When Linda and I got out of the truck to go in the office and get a brochure we heard someone holler to us. Turned around and that woman who had been following us was Linda from the Amazon campground in Coffeyville. Seems her and her husband have been staying there for a while. Right across the street from her is where Vickie and Bob are staying (unfortunately they weren't home)....we were so surprised to run into them there and got a chance to find out where Vicki and Bob are staying as we want to visit with them while we are in the area. Small world....Seems the last month or so has been like an Amazon Old Home Days...bumping into the folks we worked with in Coffeyville. What fun !