More Fun in Lower Alabama

Our second month in Lower Alabama has flown by. And, by the looks of the virtual stack of photos that are slated to be inserted into this post, it's obvious we had lots more fun. We kicked off the "second half" of our stay on Fat Tuesday by attending three of the last of the Mardi Gras parades in downtown Mobile. 

When it comes to Mardi Gras celebrations, New Orleans may have the most famous. But, Mobile hosts the "original". They've been celebrating Fat Tuesday here since 1703. That was more than 15 years before The Big Easy was founded. The festivities in Mobile are very family friendly. But, like New Orleans, the day is all about the beads here, too. As Mardi Gras "newbies", we joined fellow Bella Terra guests in spending much of the day reaching for the sky and took home a bunch of beads. It was all very festive!

Between activities, Paul found time to complete a moose-sized waxing job. (My job, of course, was to be the official photographer!) With this annual job wrapped up, Bullwinkle is one super shiny moose! 

A highlight of our stay here in Lower Alabama was a day trip to the nearby Naval air station at Pensacola, Florida, to visit the Naval Aviation Museum. We spent a morning here, and it really wasn't enough time. 

Our visit began with a trip out to the "flight line" to view the planes on display outside. Our tour guide was this retired Naval aviator who added so much to the experience with his very personal perspective. His flight jacket alone told many stories.

Inside, in nearly 300,000 square-feet of exhibit space, the museum houses a most impressive display of more than 150 aircraft and spacecraft from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Coast Guard. 

NAS Pensacola is home to the Navy's Blue Angels. The squadron conducts practices here twice a week, but we were a couple of weeks early. These retired A-4E Skyhawks on display in the museum's atrium were as close as we got to this elite aerobatic team. (One of many reasons to come back!)

Can you guess what makes this helicopter famous?

This VH-3A Sea King helicopter was part of the Marine One fleet during the Nixon and Ford administrations. Doesn't Paul look presidential?

As a couple of kids who came of age in the 70s,  we found the display saluting those who served in Vietnam particularly poignant. This replica of a typical Vietnam-era Navy stateroom was a reflection of that "groovy" time. 

It had been years since either of us had seen a POW/MIA bracelet. But, this simple and powerful display rekindled vivid memories of wearing a simple metal band engraved with the name of a captured or missing member of the military whom we hoped and prayed would make it home safely. 

The museum is definitely the type of place you can visit again and again. We look forward to making a return visit the next time we're in the area. It's a very interesting and special place, indeed.

We topped off our day in Pensacola with a wonderful lunch with fellow travelers. Marti and Paul (center) are new fulltime travelers whom we had yet to meet in person. And, we hadn't seen Chuck and Anneka since we tracked each other down at Winnebago's Grand National Rally in 2010. It was a real treat to see these good people and spend time getting to know each other. 

Lower Alabama is a popular spot for winter travelers, which has made it a wonderful place to reconnect with friends. We enjoyed catching up with Darrell and Judy and Mike and Peggy over a delicious lunch in Gulf Shores. 

We also had the great pleasure of meeting Loralie and Lee, with whom we lunched in nearby Summerdale. These two fine folks are members of our fulltime RVing "Class of 2009", but it took the four of us a few years to cross paths. We're so glad we finally did. 

We met lots of wonderful people during our stay at Bella Terra. A couple of our favorites are neighbors and new friends Christi and Kim. We thank all of our traveling friends for the great fun we've had together during our time in LA. We wish them all safe travels and look forward to seeing them down the road. As exciting as it is to visit so many amazing places, it's the people we meet that make this journey so satisfying. (Thanks, y'all!)

We marked off another stop on our "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" list and paid a visit to Panini Pete's in nearby Fairhope. The Muffaletta panini was a tasty reminder of our recent visit to New Orleans. And the handmade chips were worth every calorie. (And, of course, we washed it all down with some sweet tea!)

With all that food-oriented socializing, we made sure to make extra time to get out and exercise. We particularly enjoyed the trails in nearby Gulf Shores State Park. We spent enough time on these trails to log some much-needed miles and pick up a few geocaches, too.

Speaking of geocaches, we went back to the scene of our record-breaking caching day to break another record! This map shows more than 200 caches that have been hidden along a 30-mile stretch of a highway between Bay Minette, AL and the Florida state line. This is how our map looked before our return trip. The yellow "smiley faces" are the 67 caches we found on our first record-breaking day. (Click to enlarge and actually see those smiling faces.)

On our return trip, we picked up 100 caches! Here's the map after we logged all those finds. A "century day" is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for these geocachers! The little green icons are caches we left for next time. (We will be back!)

The highlight of our record-breaking caching day was making our 1000th find. With that, it's official: We are geocaching geeks!

Between the parades, motorhome maintenance, tours, food, friends, exercise and geocaching, we have managed to make time to kick back, relax and just chill.

We're just following the lead of our boy kitty. When it comes to chilling, he's a champ!

As the sun sets tonight on the last night of our stay at lovely Bella Terra, we're looking forward to getting back on the road tomorrow. It's always a bit tough to leave a place after you've fallen in love. We will take with us many wonderful memories, and we look forward to returning to this lovely spot again.

Our First Month in Foley

Greetings from LA! (That's "Lower Alabama" in these parts.) We reluctantly left Louisiana and headed east through Mississippi to that little part of Alabama that touches the Gulf of Mexico. After spending a couple of nights catching up with fellow traveling friends in nearby Summerdale, we traveled a few miles south to Bella Terra Resort in Foley. We've enjoyed this spacious, beautiful site for just over a month...already!

Bella Terra is a lovely park with a staff of professionals who are committed to ensuring that every guest enjoys their experience here. We sure have!

With around 100 sites, Bella Terra is a nice size for us. It's small enough that you have the opportunity to meet all of the great people who are staying here, yet large enough to have nice amenities like this hot tub, infinity swimming pool and beautiful pond. The resort is just over halfway completed. When it is, this beautiful park will have about 175 sites. As much as we love staying in more rustic settings, like state parks, every so often it's fun to park our moose in a swanky place.

With views of beautiful sunsets like this through our "Imax" window, we're resisting the temptation to buy one of the lots that are currently for sale.

We're not the only ones who are enjoying those sunsets. This is our boy kitty's favorite spot at the end of each day.

The first couple of weeks of our stay were pretty much a blur. We were both knocked out with a big, bad nasty bug that made all of this stuff a daily necessity for awhile.

As soon as we could emerge from our sick beds, we headed straight to Gulf Shores and checked out the beautiful white sand beach, which is just a short drive from the resort. We look forward to spending more time exploring this area.

By the time Super Bowl Sunday rolled around, we were fully recovered from our bugs and ready to participate in the resort's viewing party and chili cookoff. Paul's very tasty batch was there in the lineup. It was the first time he's ever entered his chili in a "competition", and he tied for second place!

As avid geocachers, we were delighted to discover there's a noteworthy swarm of geocaches placed not far from here. North of I-10 between Bay Minette, AL and Muscogee, FL is a 50-mile stretch of US highway and county roads that is home to some 200 caches. (That's a lot of caches!) We took advantage of a beautiful February day to take a run at this run. About half of the caches were these little tubes hanging in trees and bushes. The other half were a bit easier to find.

By the end of the day, our finely tuned geocaching eyes were spotting those little tubes from across the road! (So, I didn't even get out of the Jeep!)

Our total number of geocaching "finds" for the day was 67, which is a personal best. This second to the last find of the day turned out to be a milestone, marking our 900th since we started our geocaching escapades in 2006.

We are definitely seeing a promise of Spring here in Lower Alabama. The weather has been generally mild, and since our arrival there's been more than enough rain to bring these beautiful Tulip Magnolias into bloom.

With all of that rain, we've managed to keep ourselves busy with inside activities. Determined not to take on another hobby, I went to a bracelet making class in the clubhouse and came home with a new addiction: crochet. (How did that happen?) My first completed crochet project was a little basket to hold kitty toys. So far it's serving its purpose and hasn't become a toy itself, yet.

Paul took advantage of a sunny afternoon this week to start the process of washing and waxing the moose. It's a big job, which he quite wisely spreads over a few days.

Of course, what happened after he finished his first phase of this big washing job? More rains came! However, the forecast calls for sunny days in the future. (We're keeping our fingers crossed!)

After 24 hours or so of soaking rain, thunderstorms and wind, Mother Nature treated us to another stunning sunset yesterday.

With less than a month left in our stay, we're looking forward to more fun in LA. And, it all starts tomorrow. That's when these Mardi Gras "newbies" are boarding a bus to Mobile to spend what promises to be a fun-filled day at America's oldest Mardi Gras party.

Let the good times roll!

Montgomery

Our visit to Montgomery can be summed up in one word: Hope.

Driving in from Selma to Montgomery we learned about the history of the five days in March 1965 when 25,000 protestors marched to the state capitol filled with hope for equal voting rights. So much of this city's history is centered around hope for civil rights and equality.

Here in Hope Hull, just south of Montgomery, we went for a geocaching walk late yesterday and found this little kitten on the side of a dead end road. Our guess is she's six or eight weeks old. We brought the little thing home and tried to give her some food. But, she ran off behind the campground office before we could. With two adult cats in our house, we have no room for another. But, that didn't stop us from falling in love and giving her a name. We named her Hope.

Temperatures overnight here dropped into the 30s. We thought about the poor little stray out in the cold and wondered how she fared. As we were getting ready to leave this afternoon for sightseeing in Montgomery, guess who showed up? We placed a call to the Montgomery Humane Society and confirmed that they would take her. We put her in a crate and took her along for the first leg of our sightseeing afternoon. It was a bit sad to surrender her to the Humane Society. But, she'll get good care and, hopefully, be in a good home in no time.

We ventured downtown, which is easy to do here. You just point yourself toward this very impressive capitol building. We met a volunteer outside who pointed out some interesting tidbits about the place. He pointed out the bricks on the sidewalk in front of the capitol, which he said were made by slaves.

Just a block away from the capitol is Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. It's the only church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a pastor. Thankfully, this important bit of history has been saved amidst the renewal around the capitol.

The most poignant stop in our afternoon was the Civil Rights Memorial Center. The memorial honors those who died during the Civil Rights Movement.

The black granite memorial is covered with flowing water. In the curved wall is engraved a quote from Dr. King paraphrasing Amos 5:24: "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Water streams over a circular black granite table in front of the wall. Etched on the table like a clock are historic dates and events in the Civil Rights Movement, starting with the Supreme Court's decision on Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.

Around the circle the last date is April 4, 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis.

The memorial was designed by Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. This memorial shares that same quiet impact. The water makes you want to reach out and touch the words. "This is not a monument to suffering," Maya Lin is quoted at the memorial. "It is a monument to hope."

Hope Hull

We have arrived in Hope Hull, Alabama, just south of Montgomery.

We have a level site, full hookups, smokin' hot wifi and have locked on to DirecTV. We have our fingers crossed that we'll get the KU-Colorado game here in a few minutes.

Our plans are to hang out here for the next three nights to rest up, explore Montgomery and catch up on our blog. We have lots of pictures and stories we're eager to share. Stay tuned.

Rock chalk!

P.S. We've published a post recapping our travels in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Check it out!