January 9, 2013. I remember sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 9, 2013.  Gulf Shores, Alabama.  I remember sunshine.  Even, after a week of not seeing the sun, I remember sunshine.  We arrived at Gulf Shores around noon today and found ourselves socked in by fog.  We also found the third Lambert's Restaurant in the United States.  The original is in Sikeston, Missouri.  The second is in Ozark, MO.  The third is in Foley, AL, a few miles up the road from Gulf Shores.  The lunch crowd was light, so we got all the "throwed rolls" we could eat. 

 

The first picture above is one I copied from Wikipedia.  The second is one that Annie took out the window as we drove past the USS Alabama, a decorated destroyer active during WWII.  It is now docked in Mobile, Alabama.  No, we didn't stop.  We never stop.

 

Tonight, we are in Gulf State Park, with the largest campground I have seen.  There are about 500 camp sites here, 75% of which are filled.  We biked around in the fog and discovered that vehicles from Michigan, Illinois and Iowa are the most numerous.  There are a few other travelers from Missouri, but not many. 

 

The Gulf of Mexico is across the road and the land behind the park is low-lying swamp land.  The map of the park cautions against feeding the alligators and that they may be "dangerous."  Annie pointed that out to me as though I might not know that alligators could bite.  Well, I did know that.  I am not as stupid as I look.  That's a good thing. 

 

The trees here that survived the hurricanes are bereft of limbs.  They stand as tall observers of a parade of RVs toting snowbirds from colder climes.  Oh, there is one common trait among the snowbirds.  They are all retirement age or older.  Annie and I are the young people here. 

 

We are five miles from Florida and 25 miles from Pensacola.  We will be here two nights, departing Friday for Fort Walton Beach, FL.  The rest of the trip will be in Florida.  An exhaustive study of Weather.com convinced me that if we want warm weather and sunshine we need to be in Florida, the Sunshine State.  We may drop the portion of the trip that would take us to Key West.  We're not sure that the excitement of Key West justifies the additional mileage.  If we drop Key West, we will spend more time in Sanibel, one of our favorite places.  There, there are seashells down by the seashore.  Sally sells 'em. 

January 8, 2013. Flight from Galveston

 

January 8, 2013.  Yep, you were right.  We left Galveston Island this morning trying to stay ahead of the rain and predictions of flash flooding.  We did stay ahead of the flooding, but not the rain.  We drove 400 miles today and are staying in Buccaneer State Park on the Mississippi coast tonight.  The pictures will give you a glimpse of what the day was like.  The final picture shows the Gulf, just over the crest of the hill.  A mile to the left is Buccaneer State Park.      

 

The rain continues tonight.  And, probably, tomorrow.  We have designs on staying in Gulf Shores, AL, tomorrow night.  We may spend several days there.  We'll see.

 

This campground was destroyed by Katrina in 2005.  It is now two-thirds rebuilt.  The park faces the Gulf, but that part of the campground has not yet been restored.  When the restoration is completed, there will be a water park here.  It is partially constructed and the rangers told me they hoped to have it open by Memorial Day.  That's an unusual feature for a state park. 

I am having computer problems tonight, so this has to be short.  When the problems stop, I will be wordier.  Goodnight.



January 7, 2013. Galveston on Stilts

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 7, 2013.   The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast, the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, caused more than 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of approximately 1,800 people.

 

The excerpt is from Wikipedia.  I recalled reading about the Galveston Hurricane in James Michener's book, Texas.  I did not recall exactly how deadly it was;  somewhere between 6000 and 12,000 people lost their lives.  The best estimate is 8000.  Many lives were lost because residents ignored warnings to retreat to high ground.  Now, houses are built on stilts, so residents are already on high ground. 

 

The local weather forecast informs us that 2-5 inches of rain is expected over the next two days.  Some areas will get 7-8 inches and we are warned to be alert for flash floods.  Annie says we should cancel the second day of our planned stay here and move east to get out of the storms.  I say jellyfish bites and storms aren't so bad.  I wonder who will win this debate.  No, I don't.  You know who will win, too.

 

 

 

 

 



January 6, 2013, Mustang Island, a better day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 6, 2013. Today was a better day on Mustang Island.  It began with a beautiful sunrise over the Gulf viewed along side Harvey and out the rear window.  (The shadows you see are the bikes racked behind the RV.)  The temperatures reached the low 60s by mid-afternoon which prompted another walk along the beach.  Birds abounded today; sandpipers (including the one shown standing on its one good leg), pelicans and gulls feeding on a dead baby shark.  There was also a dead monarch butterfly, apparently on its migration to Mexico.  Ironically, but for the Texas succession from Mexico, he would have made it.  The day concluded with a sunset viewed through a clump of sea oats. 

This entry has taken some time.  For some unknown reason, I couldn't get online tonight.  When I finally did, the pictures loaded so slowly, I was ready to give up.  I hope you enjoy the photos.  I had several others I intended to upload, but it was simply taking too long.  Perhaps, another time. 

We also ventured in to Corpus Christi this morning.  We made our obligatory stop at Walmart and had lunch at Olive Garden.  It was our first boughten lunch for several days.  Tomorrow, we will move up to Galveston Island.  We spent several days there on our Tour America trip of 1988.  Annie was bitten by a jellyfish and hasn't been back in the ocean since.  See, that's the difference between us.  I would have gotten back in right away to challenge the jellyfish to bite me again . . . and again . . . and again.  Who's smarter?  You think?  That's okay, I have other attributes.  For example, I am an excellent driver.  It gets pretty thin after that.

The temperatures promise to be in the low to mid-sixties until we get to the Florida panhandle.  By the time we start down the west side of Florida, it could actually be warm.  Temperatures in that area are predicted to be in the low 80's late next week.  That's about the time we'll reach Florida. 

 

January 5, 2013, A cold day on Mustang Island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 5, 2013.  Do these pictures make you feel lonely - a single hawk sitting atop a light fixture, abandoned seashells and sand on a picnic table, forlorn shelters on a beach, a single sandpiper scouring the beach for food, a sentinel stock of sea oats and a half-frozen woman hidden under four layers of clothing and wearing ski gloves?  The key to the first five pictures is in the four layers of clothing and ski gloves in the last picture.  There is no one here because it is COLD!  I didn't drive a thousand miles to be cold.  I can drive seven hundred miles west of home and be cold.  I came here to be warm.  Oh, elusive warmth, where art thou? 

 

So far, the only place I've found it is in front of the furnace in Harvey the RV.  As you will deduce from the pictures, we ventured out this afternoon.  We weren't out very long.  After a quarter-mile stroll along the beach, into the cutting north wind, we were ready to return to Harvey.  As we returned, a three-quarter-ton pickup truck was backing a trailer into a camping space.  The driver was wearing a hoodie under a Carhart jacket with a wool cap on his head.  As I passed by him, I muttered, "A wool cap and camping - it's just wrong, that's what it is, it is just wrong."  Maybe tomorrow will be a better day. 

 

 

 



January 4, 2013, Mustang Island State Park

 

 

 

 

 

January 4, 2013.  Good grief!  When we were away in June, the security company which monitors our home security system called my cell phone to tell me there had been a breach of the basement door.  I didn't get the call immediately, so they called the police.  When I got the voice message, I called our oldest daughter, the one who lives closest, and asked if she would check out the alarm.  She went immediately to the house and waited for police, and waited, and waited.  After 45 minutes, she returned home.  I got another call telling me the police were at the gate but had lost the code.  I called our oldest daughter, so she went back a second time.  They walked around the exterior of the house and found nothing.  They entered the house and found nothing.  The police officer left but not before excusing her delay by saying the call came in on a shift change. 

 

Same trip, a few days later, the security company called again.  The second floor smoke detector had alerted.  So, I called my oldest daughter who drove to the house to again find nothing.  On my instruction she shut off the alarm system so no more alerts would go to the security company. 

 

When we returned home, the security company serviced both the basement door and the second floor smoke detector, replacing the batteries.  Then we left home again the week after Christmas.  Just about the time we were 600 miles from home, the security company called to tell me that the second floor smoke detector had alerted.  This time, our daughter was with us and could not respond to the house.  I told the caller that I guessed the house would just have to burn.  I also told her that she should not call it in to the fire department.  I suspected it was another false alarm.  If it wasn't, I didn't want to spend the next three months sifting through water-soaked fire debris. 

 

When we got home, I changed the batteries again.  We left on this trip two days ago.  As soon as we entered the state of Oklahoma, guess who called.  Right.  The security company wanted me to know that the second floor smoke detector had alerted.  "But, I just changed the batteries last night," I whined. 

 

"Well, it could be the basement smoke detector, they are connected."  That was the first time anyone ever told me they were connected.  Aurghhhh.  It was probably the basement smoke detector that alerted last week and I changed the wrong batteries.  So, I called my oldest daughter and asked if she could replace the basement detector batteries.  Uncomplainingly, she did so last night. 

 

This morning, the security company called to report an alert in the second floor/basement smoke detector.  "But, the batteries in both have been replaced this week.  I'll set up a service call when we get home," I said, mustering as much patience as possible. 

 

"Well, it may be working now, it says it has been restored," said she. 

 

"Then why are you calling me?" I asked.

 

"I wanted to be sure you didn't want us to call the fire department," she responded. 

 

"No, thank you and goodbye," I said.  "Wait, may I have your home address?"

 

"Why?" she asked. 

 

"We've talked so often this year, I feel like I should send you a Christmas card," I answered.

 

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" she inquired, likely mustering as much patience as she could. 

 

"No, thank you and goodbye," I answered. 

 

Yes, you are right, there isn't much to report on this day of our trip.  We drove from Austin to Padre Island, about a four-hour drive.  The temperature is 50, but the wind makes it feel like 30.  This is not what I expected.  The pictures show Harvey sitting in front of the dunes separating us from the Gulf of Mexico.  You'll have to imagine the shimmering blue Gulf waters just beyond the dunes.  The blustery overcast sky gives you some feel for the the weather here. 

 

There are two pictures of Annie, the second one after I opened the door for a moment.   Fortunately, it is not as cold as she makes it appear.  She is such an exaggerator.

 

We'll be here three nights.  The weather will warm up Sunday to a high of 67.  That's more like it!

 



 

 



January 3, 2012 - Gulf Coast in January

 

 

 

 

 

January 3, 2013.  Today is a good day to be in Texas, heading south to the Gulf Coast.  Annie and I just finished a week in the mountains with the entire family and a handsome moose.  We drove home New Year's Day, unpacked, repacked, picked up Harvey the RV and headed south yesterday.   We spent a cold night outside of Tulsa.  About 5:00 AM, the furnace stopped working when the outside temperature was 23 degrees.  By 6:30, the inside temperature was about the same as the outside temperature.  We are not sure what caused the failure.  I started the engine and warmed the van with the front heater.  Shortly thereafter, the furnace began to warm again.  ????  I have no idea.  Tonight, the temperature will stay above freezing.  I have hope that the furnace will be sufficient.  We'll see.

 

Tonight, we are just outside of Austin, Texas.  We were looking for the state park where we stayed in 1988, with the girls and Clyde.  Now that we are here, I don't think this is it.  My recollection of the 1988 state park was that it was littered with large round boulders and mesquite.  This, McKinney Falls State Park, has larger trees and no big rocks.  It does have deer.

 

The lone star reposes at the visitors center at Dennison, Texas.  It is huge, very much what you'd expect at the front door of Texas.  Even the bathrooms in the center are huge, about a thousand square feet.  Only the sinks were normal sized. 

 

So, we are off on our fourth trip in Harvey.  Alaska, New England\Orlando, Michigan\Wisconsin\Colorado and Wisconsin\New York\Vermont\Pennslvania and now the Gulf Coast.  Annie is beginning to lose some enthusiasm for these sojourns in Harvey.  Me, I am as excited as the first time.   

 

Tomorrow, Padre Island.  We are reserved at Mustang Island State Park for three nights.  We may not stay that long, it depends on what we find to do.  I doubt there will be any swimming in the Gulf.  Annie was just reading about a Polar Bear swim hosted by locals in January.  From the name of the event, I assume the Gulf waters are chilly. 

 

More as we move on.