Our Excitment of January

In our last blog entry, we updated through Christmas and again I have fallen down on the writing and now 6 weeks behind. It has been a busy, busy season so far. Always lots of fun and of course, some drama.

On New Years Eve, we spent the evening with Tom & Cheryl, playing board games, grazing on a layout of treats that the ladies whipped together and enjoyed a libation or two until the moment came to celebrate the New Year. Unlike Satellite or cable, we have the opportunity to watch other tokens drop, not just the ball in New York. There is the eatable Moon Pie in Mobile, the Pelican in Pensacola or the Mullet in Orange Beach, all from the comforts of our RVs, thanks to local Television station programming. It was an enjoyable night – again.

The early morning – 9ish is early enough - events continue with the men sitting around a table in the club house, fixing all the worlds problems over a coffe or two. Ususally, when the men are looking after keeping the chairs from floating, the ladies are sewing/quilting or just gabbing but its busy. At least one eveneing a week we get together for Fast Track with friends. We have down time so Barb can create and be busy sewing or painting – yes painting. My lovely bride has turned up the heat on her creative juices and now paints with Arcrylics. She has taken lessons with some local artisits and works with some other ladies in the club and is being coached by our friend Cheryl – who is a terrific painter. Now some of her tough decisions are does she do a landscape on a quilt or put it on canves.

You may remember a project Barb worked on last year – painting her own Barn Quilt that she started with Cheryl. Well, it is finished now and it needs a place to live and show itself off. Barb decided on a new sign post at the front of the site and we decided on looks etc so I set about rebuilding the post. The barn quilt needed a frame for hanging hardware and Tom just happened to have received a new trim router for Christmas and he was kind enough to ‘test’ it out on the frame and the post.

We had a couple of exciting days here, Lydia and Paul came into the campground for a visit. Now, lets turn up the heat on busy! We wanted them to meet our little gang, we had them all to dinner (8 seated) at our place. Lydia & Paul were only staying a few days so Barb & I picked a few of the area high spots to visit with them. We started out at Bamahenge, a home grown replica of Stone Henge right here in LA! We also attempted to tour the Swift-Coles house, a plantation here in LA but didn’t notice it was closed that day but we managed to tour the Bon Secour area and stopped at the Tin Top for a nice lunch – we know Lydia likes her Oysters and Tin Top serves some of the best around!

The next day we walked the board walk at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. There is a small display iniside and then the board walk that stretches out to Weeks Bay. It is a nice walk and this time we were lucky to view some wildlife – a squirel! After, we toured the downtown of Fairhope, one our most favorite little towns. After we all got tired, we ended up at McSharry’s Irisg Pub to replenish our batteries. A wonderful end to their visit as they are off the next morning for points west.

With a few happy hours here and there, excursions to the show, lunches and dinners out, the end of January nears with an evening enjoying some Blue Grass at a nearby campground. February is looking to be busy with Mardis Gras celebrations, Valentines and warmer weather approaching so come back again for more sintillating experiences.

Zip–Time Flies

I know, I say it all too often but where does the time go? I’ve also said in the past that there must a law against geezers having this much fun! The last time I posted, saw us arriving here at the Plantation and setting up decorations for Christmas in early December. I’ll try to describe our doin’s and bring you closer to today.

One of the issues we found when we arrived was our microwave had given in and would not work. I placed a call to the repair folks and explained our problems. Wow, the repair folks said that it was a known problem and that the 1 year warranty will be extended and we will get a free service call and a repairman will be sent out to fix it. True to their word, they did and in short order, it was working again – yeah! Now if I had known our luck, I should have driven to Florida and bought a Powerball ticket and we would be smiling bigger today!

Sunday, Tom & Cheryl & Barb & I went to the Tin Top Oyster Bar for a Champagne brunch. It was fun, good food, cold Champagne and good company. How can you start a week off any better than this? After, we prowled around the Bon Secour River for a good launch spot to put the boats in. The river mouth is not far down river and opens into Mobile bay near the Gulf so sighting Dolphins is a regular event. And we did – so we’re more excited to put in here in anticipation of the Dolphins swiming with us as we paddle!

Barb & I with 20 or so other Escapees from the Plantation took a bus trip to the Beau Rivage in Biloxi to do a little gambling, pig out on the buffet and take in the Christmas ice show. We had to hit the buffet first due to timing and then the slots. I lost my budgeted amount real quick but Barbie managed to hang onto and increase hers so she went home with some of their money! I’ll have to go back again to visit mine. The show was basically the same as last year but still good entertainment and more so listening to the jingle in Barb’s purse!

 

 

With happy hours and sundowners (a bigger happy hour gathering with lots of finger foods) we have been busy social butterflys. So, time to get down to work. With Christmas dinner soon, Barb is busy making something for each one at our table to take home. I had to give the Sago Palms a trim and we decided we needed more secure steps to enter or exit the rig. Barb has decided to channel her talents in another creative manner – painting with acrylics. She has been working with Cheryl – who is an excellent artist – and is creating a sunset picture we took last year. They are also taking classes locally and Barb is doing great. We also finlly got Barb’s wall hanging that she completed this summer hung in the bedroom to replace a picture that we moved into the house last year. Each time I walk into the bedroom and see it, I mentally thank her for her hard work and talent, it is beautiful.

Went to the local Christmas boat parade on the Fish River which is only a few minutes down the road. The parade was late going by us of course – there is a story about last year when I said we didn’t need to be there too early and when we did arrive, it had gone by! Ouch, took awhile for anyone to listen to my ideas again. So of course this years had to be late – but anyway, there was fewer boats this year but the good company, we had fun anyway. After, we went back to Tom & Cheryl’s to play Fast Track – the boys are having difficlties beating the girls but we’re patient.

Our next big event is Christmas. We could not decide on gifts or no gifts until almost the last minute. At our age we decided that we should go out and buy our gifts together and after a few days, we probably won’t remember what we bought so we’ll be equally surprised Christmas morning when we open the gifts from Santa! And it worked, we had wonderful surprised looks on our faces after the gift wrap went flying.

Our Christmas dinner was in the clubhouse with about 200 other Escapees. The club provided the meats (turkey or ham) while each table did pot luck. It was the same as the Thanksgiving feast but there was way too much food prepared so this time the ladies decided to cut back on the number of side dishes. Christmas dinner was delicious, we took our 7 layer salad and a large bowl of home made apple sauce, a bottle of wine and a growler of beer.

 

 

 

This brings us closer to today so come back again for 2016.

So Much to Do…

It is great to be back and we have had beautiful weather. Each time we talk about getting the boats wet again, the weather turns and we go to plan B. Now that we have the rig washed, our activities turned to helping out at the anual baby blanket blitz held in the clubhouse. A bunch of folks – men and women alike, work togther to cut, press, sew, press again baby blanketts. This year, the beehive made 475 blankets in just 6 hours of co-ordinated efforts. Bill & Ann and Barb & I were so tired, we had to go to Vinny’s for pizza & beers! We got back in time for happy hour at Chuck & Kelly’s here on ERPU row. Again, good fun with good people.

 

One of the problems we had with the rig over the summer was some mold growth. We didn’t set the A/C low enough and we didn’t put out any trays of charcol or cat litter. Our caretaker put out some charcol but if we had done it when we left, we may have avoided the cleanup. Barb spent a few days washing everything down with a bleach mixture – not good for her lungs either. While Barb was working hard inside, I had the easy job outside removing the Wisteria bush. I enlisted the help of a friend with a loader and before long, we had it out but not all of it. Removing the many root tentacles will be an ongoing task.

 

We found a new pub to us, an Irish pub in Fairhope so we don’t need to drive all the way to Pensacola to go to McGuires so often. But, we have to test it out first so it’s off to McSharry’s – the only draw back is it doesn’t open until 3PM but if it’s good enough, we’ll do ‘lupper’ instead of lunch! It was a hit for us, good food and cold beer (unless your drinking Guiness of course).

You know we’re at the Plantation when the quilters take a day to get out and buy some more fabric and today (Friday) was the day. While the ladies were out, Bill & I moved Dick & Marcia’s trailer and to repay us, Dick treated us to lunch at Big Daddy’s. All around, it was a fun day, helping a friend and sitting on the deck at one of our favorite haunts sipping a cool one.

 

The weekend is here and Barb continues to wash down the remaining interior of the rig. Once that was done, we put up our Christmas decorations both inside and out. We lunch out with Tom & Cheryl on ‘the deck’ and find out that they also enjoy board games – they have Sequence and we have Fast Track so we’re set for some fun evenings of the boys vs the girls.

I`m sure you have had enough of my ramblings, so until next time, Happy New Year and may you have a happy and healthy 2016….

Finally

Where has the time gone? It seems like it was only yesterday that we toured Jack Daniel’s Distillery and updated our blog entry but here we are, weeks after. Our trip down from Jack’s was uneventful, thank heavens and we rolled in at 7:30PM, a bit later than we would have liked. Excited to be in our second home but we find the rig did not summer well. Our caretaker did more than expected but we had some battery problems and we could not open all the slides. He had gotten the bedroom slide out earlier but the other slides would not budge. So we loaded our food stuff into the fridge and headed out for a quick dinner and to pick up a couple of new batteries – we still abide by the rule that we do not cook on a travel day. Once we got back, we unloaded what we needed and hit the sack!

Wednesday breaks with lots of sunshine and warm weather – oh hurray! Our first job is to check the rig out from top to bottom to see what needs first attention – the batteries are in rough shape. Even after topping off the water in each cell, they would not give us enough power to move the other 2 slides. So, we replace 2 of the 4 batteries and the slides zip out and we’re back to our comfort! Since we had all the batteries out, now would be a good time to renovate the battery tray and mechanism – after the slides were put out of course! So much to do, wash the roof, wash the sides and clean up the gardens and walkway. The Wisteria was damaged beyond repair during a sever storm last April and has to be taken out – it did grow crazily, in just the summer, it had branches grow under the rig from the back to the front landing gear, about 40 feet!

With the help of our friends and being back at the Plantation, it does not take long to get back into the rhythm of the activities in the park. Our first ‘big event was dinner at Larry and Marti’s to celebrate Larry’s

birthday. Larry grilled while Marti put together all the other dishes – of course, Bill & I had to supervise. After dinner, Marti broke out one of Jack Daniel’s finest whiskeys to cap off the celebration. Thank goodness our wives are non drinkers and helped us walk back to our rigs safely!

Barb set up her sewing area and continues to work on a couple of projects she had been working on back home in Ontario. We brought down a small Inuksuk and placed it in the garden under the Magnolia tree. The Sago Palms have had a wonderful growth through the summer and will needed to be trimmed and the young'uns removed.

We will be celebrating the US Thanksgiving here with a pot luck dinner at the club house. We’ll be sitting with about 200 other Escapees and always proves to be fun. Barb helps Marti & Ann to decorate and set up our table early and we converge on the event around 1:30PM for a 2PM start. This gives us time for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres - just what we need, more food! After, Larry & Marti came back to our place for more of the same, beverages and nibblies!

The day after – black Friday – was a busy day, 8 of us were off to Big Daddy’s for lunch then onto Mobile to view the Spanish Galeon moored at the Gulf Quest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico. It was an amazing vessel that a crew sails around to various venues. I can’t imagine what it was like on the high seas back in the day.

This tour took us to dusk and then we were off to view the Christmas Nights of Lights at the Hank Aaron stadium. It’s a drive through light display that is synchronised to the music of a local radio station that you tune to the radio in your vehicle. It was one of the better light displays we have seen.

The next day we washed the rig, roof first and then we managed to get about half of the sides completed before we both ran outta gas! We’ll finish it up tomorrow. But, enough for now, we are entering December and will be decorating for the Christmas season.

Come back again….