Barred Owl

Good morning. After a few cold days it looks like today will be a nice day to be outside. Our high here in Gulf Shores, Alabama is going to be around 70º. We plan on getting some outside work done along with leisure activities.

Yesterday was a busy day. In the morning we went to the nature center where they had a presentation on the barred owl. This beautiful gal, named Sherlock, ran into barbed wire and was injured. She no longer has the ability to fly quietly (which is necessary to capture its prey) or well and now has a permanent home at the nature center.

After visiting the nature center we moved to our other site. We weren’t due to move until Saturday, but with rain in the forecast for this weekend and the site vacant now, we decided it was a good day to switch over. This is the site we will be on until we leave here January 1st. We are now on site #281 which is on Gator and is at the end of a loop. From here I can see the water (always a plus) and we are in a more remote area which hopefully will help keep Patty Pepper a little calmer.

We then did our necessary grocery shopping. I said it was a busy day.

Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Good morning everyone. Happy Thanksgiving.

We decided to stay here in the campground today. We will watch some football, play some games, take a walk and enjoy a good meal. Not turkey though, grilled chicken breasts.

Have a safe and happy day. Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

 

Christmas Crafts

Good morning. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This year sure has gone by quickly. I have no idea what we are doing for dinner tomorrow. Our little convection oven isn’t big enough to cook a turkey, nor do I want to eat leftovers for the next month. It is only the two of us.

I have a couple of thoughts in mind. We can grill chicken or some other small fowl and have sweet potatoes, dressing, and other holiday foods or we could go to Cracker Barrel and just eat out. Clyde read that Thanksgiving is their busiest day of the year. He hates crowds and hates to wait for a table.

If we stay here we can watch football. We like to watch football, especially when the Lions play the Bears. Both teams are favorites of ours as we have lived in both Illinois and Michigan for our entire lives. If we go out I don’t have to cook and we get more of a variety but, there are no leftovers and there will be a wait.

I had a nice time with the craft group yesterday. There were about 20 of us crafters; two large round tables full. I took a beading project to work on but one of the ladies brought a project for all of us to make if we wished. Most of us worked on her Christmas craft project. We made little trees out of circles of fabric gathered together with a dowel in the center and a star glued to the top. She had all of the circles of fabric already cut out for us. It was a perfect project for the time allotted and easy enough that we didn’t have to think about what we were doing. That enabled us to sit and chat. Which is why we get together. I made the gold tree, but I love the little green ones too.

Next week one of the ladies is bringing the supplies to make angel ornaments that are very cute too. It is always nice to see and get new ideas.

Another lady makes pine needle baskets that are absolutely beautiful. I wanted to take her class last year but she didn’t come to the campground until January and we were already on the road by then. She is here now and is offering a class on December 7th for a limited number of people. I signed up immediately. Now Clyde and I will have to go around and collect long pine needles. I was told they need to be 15″-18″ long. The longer the better and not to take them off the trees. And, we need to watch for snakes as they like to burrow under the fallen needles. Oh boy. Once I learn the basics of basket making I will be able to make them on my own. (Big Grin). I just need to gather enough pine needles before we leave here.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

Red Tailed Hawk

Good morning. This morning the craft group meets. Each Tuesday morning the gals get together to do a craft of their choosing and chat with others. Some women come just to chat. That’s ok too. They may be gleaning ideas for themselves to make.

Yesterday we went to the park Nature Center to hear the presentation on Radical Raptors. This presentation was on the Red Tailed Hawk. The hawks’ name is Hawkeye and he is in captivity because he contracted the West Nile virus and no longer has the vision needed to survive in the wild.

We love going to these presentations. We have been to a few other presentations along our journey and each time we learn something new. This time we learned that hawks mate for life. If a mate dies the surviving mate finds a new partner fairly quickly. The babies stay with their parents only 6 weeks then they are off on their own. The babies will be pushed, jump or fall from their nest before they can fly and spent some time on the ground before learning to fly. They are still fed by their parents during this time.

The park also has 3 different owls. We will go back to hear the presentations about them another week.

Busy day. Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

A Nice Day Outside

Good morning. It is going to be another nice day here in Gulf Shores, Alabama with a high around 70º. Only partly sunny, so not as nice as yesterday but a far better day than anyone else I know is going to have. It is nice not to have to bundle up in a winter coat and hat.

Yesterday morning we went down to the beach. We enjoyed watching the birds. We collected some sea shells and got our feet wet. The water was cold. Not a day for swimmers.

When we got back we spent some time getting our patio set up. This is the first time since summer that we have been able to sit outside. It was beautiful out but, even in the sun I was a bit chilly. We even turned the football game on the outside TV for a while. We weren’t able to watch either the Lions or the Bears game, but Clyde was happy just to get a station that came in good and enjoyed the game that was on.

After dinner we decided to go do our laundry. It was piling up and we were running out of clothes. Soon we would need to turn our underwear inside out-not. The park has a very nice laundromat that equals any you would go to outside the park. We picked a good time to go. There was only one other couple doing their laundry. After $20 we were able to go home. I did say we had a lot of dirty clothes.

Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Good morning everyone. And what a nice morning it is. It’s only in the mid 40’s right now, but our high today is 70º with full sun. It will be a perfect day to go to the beach and walk along the shore. Maybe I’ll find some shells.

We’ve switched time zones since yesterday. Alabama is in the central time zone. Florida was in the eastern. Which means it gets dark earlier in the evening here. We also have daylight a bit earlier too. And a side note on time change; I love that our TV programs come on an hour earlier. I won’t have to stay up as late if I want to watch one.

As we were packing up to leave yesterday we got to see the deer one last time. Clyde also had his little lizard back on his chair. I’m not sure what wildlife we will see here. I’m hoping to spot an alligator. There are signs are all over the park telling us not to feed them. This morning I had a little bunny rabbit outside my window.

For those of you wondering which way we went yesterday, we went north along I-10. It was a safer and faster drive. If we would have taken the route along the water we would have added another hour and a half to our drive, which was already pushing our limit for a comfortable days travel for us.

We arrived here around 2:30 pm yesterday. We are now in Gulf Shores State Park. This is a large park, almost 500 sites, that are all a nice size. We have a large paved patio, new picnic table and charcoal grill (which we won’t use). We are in site #319 which is right by the restroom; also large and very nice. We will be on this site for 2 weeks, then we move to a different site for the month of December.

Loving our lifestyle. Have a nice weekend.

Until next time,

Kathryn

 

 

 

 

 

Decisions Decisions

Good morning family and friends. Oh my it got cold last night. The temperature is only 34° now, but at least it is supposed to warm up to 61°; which is warmer than it was yesterday.

Tomorrow is a travel day. Our original plan was to spend the next two weeks in a Corps of Engineering campground along the Georgia/Florida line. We have had to change those plans. One month ago hurricane Michael decimated much of the Florida panhandle and surrounding areas. The East Bank corps of engineering park on Lake Seminole was one of the areas that suffered damage and is still closed for repairs.

So what are our choices and where do we go. We could stay here another 6 days, but that would mean we would need to leave on Thanksgiving day. No thank you. We have reservations for the month of December at Gulf Shores state park in Alabama. We were there last year and really liked it. Looking at our options heading that way were slim and none. The parks were either damaged from the hurricane and closed, or they were full or too expensive for our budget.

Fortunately we were able to get a site at Gulf Shores state park. It is not the same site we have for the month of December, which means we will have to move in 2 weeks. But, that’s fine. At least we were able to get in. They have a long waiting list. It is a very popular park.

Gulf Shores is about 265 miles from here. For us that is about a 5 1/2 hour drive. The park is also in a different time zone. We are in the eastern and the park is in the central time zone (1 hour behind us).

Mapquest has us going north along I-10. I would like to take the scenic drive along the ocean, but I am a bit leery. I am not sure the roads are all clear from hurricane Michael. For us, driving a motorhome pulling a car is not as easy as just going through an area in a car. We cannot back up. If we get stuck some place we have to unhook the car to turn around. What to do. Decisions decisions.

Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

A Day Indoors

Good morning. A brisk one at that. It is 48° now with a high of only 57°. I am glad we are not up north with the rest of our family. Some are getting measurable amounts of snow and none have high temperatures that will reach 40°.

We are happy the rain is now out of the forecast for the remainder of our stay here and the temperature is forecast to improve each day with lots of sunshine. So, pleasant days ahead.

As yesterday was another gloomy rainy day. We spent the day playing games and watching movies. I even did some beading. Our “go to” games inside are Skip.Bo and Phase 10. We have a couple other games we like to play outside on the picnic table where we have more room.

I just have one picture for you today. I took it yesterday morning while I was sitting here writing to you. I can never get enough of watching the wildlife around us. I don’t know what kind of berries are there, but the deer sure do like that tree.

Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

 

Movie Day

Good morning. As predicted we had an overcast gloomy day with lots of rain. It was a great day to stay in and watch old movies. We do not pay for cable or satellite TV and our antenna channels come in spotty here. It is frustrating to start watching something and have the program fade in and out continually looking for reception.

A good alternative is DVD’s. Thanks to my sister and niece who were cleaning out their stashes while we were visiting them during the summer, we became the grateful recipients of a very large bag of old DVD’s.

We are not movie goers. We wait for the movies to come to TV or DVD. That means there are many movies we have never seen. On the other hand, we do (or I do) have a tendency to not remember movies I have seen. I can watch a movie almost to its entirety until I remember I may have seen it before. So this very large bag of movies we were gifted with was perfect for us. Thanks again Barb and Tina.

For those of you curious as to what we watched, we viewed 3 movies. #1-Friday Night Lights, #2-Crash, and #3-Good Will Hunting. None of which we had seen before. We’ve also been enjoying a movie in the evenings. It’s been a nice change of pace for us.

On our walk yesterday between the rain I didn’t find anything new and exciting to share with you. But, Clyde did find a tiny lizard that blended in with the twigs just outside our motorhome. I believe it is an Ornate Tree Lizard.

I was also able to take a picture of a bird through the motorhome window. I think it is the Northern Mockingbird which is the state bird of Florida.

Loving our lifestyle.

Until next time,

Kathryn

P.S. As I am sitting here I see 3 deer right in front of our motorhome. How cool is that.😊

 

Sopchoppy

Good morning. As the song says “the sun’ll come out tomorrow”, that’s what we are hoping for. Today is going to be an overcast rainy day. Good thing we have nothing planned.

Yesterday we took a drive into Sopchoppy for a few groceries. It is a very small town with less than 500 people. The town has more churches than anything else. We counted 6 in town and 2 just outside of town. There is one mom and pop grocery store that even has a small deli.

On our walk around the park we ventured down a few paths that lead to the water. The path behind our campsite is blocked with fallen trees and debris left from hurricane Michael. We can see the water from our site, so the walk isn’t a long one.

The white squirrels are fun to take pictures of, as they seem to pose for you. We were hoping to see the white deer they say is in the area or a black bear or even a snake, but no such luck 🍀 yet. We don’t leave here until Saturday so you never know.

Here are a few more pictures for you.

 

Enjoying our lifestyle.

Until next time.

Kathryn