Alabama Fun

Chuckie the Alligator

The weather has been good and we're enjoying it. We visited the Gulf Coast Zoo, which bills itself as The Little Zoo That Could.  Growing up in Milwaukee, I spent a lot of time at the Milwaukee County Zoo, so I have pretty high standards for zoos, and Gulf Coast has some challenges.  They're landlocked and many of their enclosures are chain link fence.  But they are trying and the animals appeared healthy.  Our favorite exhibit was the lemur island where 3 lemurs were playing energetically.  We also saw Chuckie, the 14' alligator who gained fame when he escaped his habitat during Hurricane Ivan.  After his 15 minutes in the spotlight, he was recaptured and returned to the zoo.

Lemur

Next up, dinner and a Mardi Gras parade in nearby Fairhope, AL.  We had eaten lunch at a really nice bistro the day before and they offered dinner and a seat along the parade route on Friday evening.  The parade was scheduled for 6:45 and our dinner reservations were for 6pm, so we headed to Fairhope about 4:45.  I don't know what we were thinking...probably that this was a pretty small town and how big a deal could it be?   We were wrong!  Traffic slowed to a crawl blocks from the restaurant and the police had the streets barricaded.  People were pulling coolers and carrying chairs heading for where we wanted to be.  We watched the map on the GPS and finally I dropped Robin a couple of blocks from our destination and followed the signs to the Methodist church where $10 donation to their mission got me one of the last 3 parking spots a half a mile from the restaurant.  By the time I hiked back, we were questioning if this was really a good idea.  But, the staff at this small (40 seats) restaurant welcomed us warmly and dinner specials of duck etouffee and grouper with crayfish orzo were wonderful.  Then we moved outside for out first ever Mardi Gras parade.  What a riot!  Wild floats filled with the Maids of Jubilee Crew costumed in flashy gowns and glowing rings and feathery masks.  Parade watchers screaming as strings of beads were whipped through the air towards the crowd.  Children and adults scrambling for booty that hits the ground.  All this at a small town, family-friendly parade.  We can't imagine what New Orleans is like.

Waiting for the parade

Parade float

Maids of Jubilee Krewe

Jockey float

My booty - and I wasn't even trying!

The parade route was fairly convoluted and many watchers ran from street to street to catch it in 4 different places.  It was an amazing spectacle which coupled with a great dinner and more wine (we had to wait for traffic to clear) made for a fun evening.

I bet you're wondering about our boats.  Yes, two of them.  One, ordered from Amazaon, arrived on Friday.  In the meantime, we went shopping again for a paddle at the good boat store in Fairhope and then for a seat cushion at the Coleman outlet store.  While at Coleman, we saw the same boat we had ordered from Amazon, though last year's model, for a really good price and decided to buy it thinking we would open the Amazon boat and if we liked it we'd then open the Coleman boat.  If we didn't like it, we'd return the Coleman boat.  Makes sense, right?  Well, it our heads it did.  Yesterday was the big day.

Boat 1 inflated and ready to go

KT paddling our bay

We each took a turn and agreed we liked it enough to keep boat 2.  We need another paddle and seat cushion before we go out together, but it looks like we're boaters.  No names for the crafts yet, but Titanic and Hindenberg come to mind.  We'll keep you posted.

On another note, some readers wonder how the cats like the traveling.  The seem to love it and adjust to changing places and circumstances really well.  Like most cats, they can make anything a toy.

Beanie and Nortie happy that wine box is finally empty

 One last zoo picture because I really like it.

Stay warm while we try to stay dry!

Gulf Shores, AL

We're settled in here at Bay Breeze RV Park just outside Gulf Shores, Alabama.  This park was one of the Navigator's great finds on our way through the panhandle the first time, and we liked it so well that we're back for another stay.  It's small, just about 25 sites with some of them full of people who are here for the season.  About a third of the sites are transient, like us but everyone is warm and friendly, there are lots of nice dogs and the setting is great.  Just outside our door is Bon Secour Bay, which is an inlet of Mobile Bay at the opening to the Gulf of Mexico.  Another benefit of being in the area is reuniting again with my college roommate who lives here year round.  It's nice to have a local tour guide as well as someone who knew me when.

Being around water so much on the trip we've gotten the itch to actually be on the water.  First choice was a big party pontoon boat which would be easy to drive and give us all the room we're used to.  Unfortunately, it's impractical to tow a car and a boat so we started looking for smaller options.  Canoes and kayaks looked interesting, especially after our canoe experience on the Chassahowitzka River.  Rigid boats were a problem though since they tend to be heavy and we'd have to load them on top of the car.  Inflatables seemed to be the answer, and after much internet research and a day making the rounds of retailers to see examples, we settled on this one-person inflatable canoe.  If we like it, we'll get another one.  It's due to arrive from Amazon tomorrow.

I can't imagine we'll get out of this adventure dry.  It should be fun....and funny.

More Great Florida

When last these intrepid RVers reported in, we were in Cedar Key on our way to Candy Bar Bingo in the campground clubhouse.  I had never heard of this form of bingo but we were told that we were each to bring a candy bar to throw in the pot.  Then winners would go up and claim a candy bar as they won a game.  So first we had to go shopping for candy bars which meant some debate about giant Hershey bars vs. medium Lindt bars vs. tiny Toblerone.  Of course, anything worth doing is worth doing to excess so we got 3 for bingo and one Butterfinger “just in case”.  

Off to bingo!  We joined the dozen or so other bingo players, many with adult beverages which required me to ride my bike back to Chuck for a bottle of wine and several glasses.  We put our bars on the candy table and the games began!  The first 3 winners each took the candy bars we brought.  Guess we shopped well.  We still had the Butterfinger “just in case”.   We played “C” bingo, and “X” bingo and “four corners” and any number of other permutations.  Soon I won and scored a multi-pack of mini Kit-Kat bars and shortly after that Robin won and snagged a baggie with a variety of mini-bars.  The evening ended when we played “fill the card” for the pot where we each had thrown a dollar.  We missed winning that but had enjoyed our evening.  That Butterfinger did come home with us.  Unfortunately we aren’t going to be there next week for Hillbilly Bingo.  I’m thinking the next church fundraiser should be “Bottle of Wine” bingo.  We’ll see.

The next couple of days were pretty low key involving a slightly scummy Laundromat, though the clothes got clean, a fight at Walmart about returning a defective air mattress and a couple of really good dinners at one of our favorite restaurants.  

The Blue Desert Café is one of those gems you occasionally find.  With only 20 or so seats, it’s manned by 3 women; one in the front of the house hosting, bussing and serving.  Another 2 in the kitchen cooking, prepping and washing dishes. Everything is made in house from scratch and the service is relaxed as you wait for the dishes to come out.  The food is fresh and flavorful including pizzas, pastas, seafood.  It's so good we went two days in a row.

Thursday was going to be our last sunny day so we headed for the Cedar Key docks to schedule a sunset island tour.  It was beautiful, lots of birds, dolphins, island history, and at the end, a clear sunset.  It was a great way to see part of the Nature Coast of Florida. 

"Sit right back and you'll hear a tale....."

Pair of ospreys on the nest

Cormorants

Bird beach

Dolphins

Cedar Key from the water reflecting the sunset

Sunset

 Friday was a run to Gainesville which has the closest Trader Joe’s.  We were low on wine (down to 1.5 cases) and health and beauty products.  A few favorite snacks helped fill the basket.

Saturday we moved about 200 miles heading north and west and ended up at Three Rivers State Park, 50 miles west of Tallahassee.  It’s another great state park and after one wrong turn we found our campsite and set up overlooking the lake.  There’s no WiFi and virtually no cell service, but the scenery more than makes up for it. 

Campsite at Three Rivers State Park

 Interestingly, the line between Eastern Time and Central Time runs through the middle of the park, so all opening and closing times specify which time zone you should notice.  Connected devices (like cell phones) switch times in mid-park.  

Your faithful Blogger with a glass of inspiration

Sunday dawned rainy and gloomy but that didn’t stop us from going 20 miles west to Florida Caverns State Park where rangers guide tours through a limestone cavern.  It was a very “real” cave, no paved walkways or handrails, just the paths hacked out by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1938-1942.  

Dedicated to the CCC workers

Using pickaxes, 5 gallon buckets and wheelbarrows, they mapped and then excavated the cave to create the tourist attraction.  They also built the visitor’s center and other outbuildings.  They made $1/day or $30/month, and they were expected to send $25 of that home to their families and live on the remaining $5.  Their construction has all held up well and the cave tour was fascinating.  In places we bent double and turned sideways to get down the trail.  I did realize that spelunking was not in my future.  I couldn’t imagine crawling around alone down there without a guide and headroom.  Luckily it’s unlikely anyone will ask me to do so.  Here are just a few of my 200+ cave photos.  It's hard to appreciate the color and scale in these pictures so if you're ever in the area, it's well worth a visit.

Next stop, back to Gulf Shores, AL and one of our favorite campgrounds to date; Bay Breeze.  Initially we were going to spend a week there before heading on, and then we realized that would have put us travelling on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), which, in this part of the world is a really big deal and screws up traffic all over.  So we’re staying there for 10 days (yippee!) and we'll head out on Ash Wednesday.  Where are we going?  Good question.  We have 10 days to figure it out.  We’ll keep you posted.

Mermaids and Airboats

Home Sweet Home in Chassahowitzka

We left Homosassa yesterday after 3 wonderful weeks in the Chassahowitzka River Campground.  It was weird packing up after so long in one place.  We have to quit accumulating stuff, Chuck is bursting at the seams.  Somehow we're up to 2 cases of wine so some serious drinking will have to occur before we pack up again.

This area markets itself as "Old Florida" and we tended to agree, not that neither one of us ever spent any time in old Florida.  But it does feel very different than Orlando or Tampa or Miami or other heavily touristed areas.  Prices are better, real people are everywhere and sometimes it's a little gritty.  We like it.

One of the old Florida attractions is the WeekiWachi mermaid show.  Dating back to the 40's, mermaids perform in a spring-fed underwater theater.  Not the same mermaids as the 40's mind you.  They get new ones on a regular basis.  I remember seeing something about this in a magazine or on TV years ago and thinking it was a bit hokey.  However, we were less than 20 miles from park and the navigator was insistent that we needed to see the mermaids so off we went.

I don't have great photos of the actual mermaids, so to see them, go to mermaids.
It was fun, retro and yes, just a bit hokey.  But, the whole attraction is now a state park and they have a wildlife talk in the park that was fun and interesting.  I applaud the state of Florida for keeping these old attractions going and building some education into the experience.

Alligator Education

Florida Pine Snake

 There's also a river boat ride around the park but it was full up for the day so we contented ourselves watching a couple of manatees playing in the river.  It would almost be possible to get blase about seeing manatees, but we're not.  It's still a thrill.

More manatees.

I've always wanted to ride in an airboat, so next up was an airboat ride down the Homosassa River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Airboat Attraction

It was a beautiful day and Captain Tom gave us a few thrills as we wove through the canals and mangrove islands out to the Gulf.  There was lots of good birding along the way.  It's an amazing area, largely unpopulated and still very wild feeling.  The Navigator now wants an airboat.

Osprey on her nest

Heading downriver

White pelicans 

Civilization on our return

After all that fun we packed up and drove 65 miles back to Cedar Key RV Park, one of our favorite RV parks so far on this trip.  It's very tame compared to Chassahowitzka, without the wildlife at our door, but close to the neat town of Cedar Key and not far from Gainesville.  However, we won't be totally without thrills.  Tonight is Candy Bar Bingo in the clubhouse.  I'll report back after that.

Unexpected Moments

I'm back home in Florida after a whirlwind week back home in Kenosha.  Home is where stuff is (Kenosha) and home is where loved ones are (in Chuck).  I'll never be homeless.  The week in Wisconsin was bittersweet as funerals often are.  Grief for the loss, relief for the end of suffering and decline, joy at the gathering of family and friends.  Old times were rehashed and memories of good times shared.  The addition of food and drink made it everything we could hope it would be.  For those of you who would like to see the photos that were shown at the funeral, here's the link:  https://alicetraxelmemories.shutterfly.com/  Thanks to my sister for putting these together.

The Navigator picked me up at the Tampa airport and we headed for the town of Tarpon Springs which was on the way home and is best known for Greek sponge divers.  Along with the sponge divers comes good Greek food, which is where we were headed.  We had a great meal, found a Greek grocery where we stocked up on gyros for future meals and then, driving down the street saw a sign that said, "Inness Paintings, UU Church" with a arrow pointing down a side street.  I've been visiting various UU chuches on this trip and, while I had no idea what an Inness Painting was, we had to check it out.  The Navigator took a quick turn and another and another until we found ourselves sitting in front of a charming white stone church.

UU Church of Tarpon Springs

Hoping to maybe attend a Sunday service, I went up to the door and there found a sign saying something along the lines of, "Due to building problems, we meeting at the Elks Club.  The paintings are safe but not available for viewing".  Now I was intrigued.  The UU church I attend is a 100 year old building, so I couldn't help but wonder what disaster had befallen this old building.  Plus, I was currently participating in a FaceBook activity that was acquainting people with various artists and I was totally unfamiliar with Inness.  Where do we all go when we want more info?   Google of course.

So here's the bad news, planned renovations on the church revealed that Florida phenomenon:  sinkholes.  Two of them.  Bad enough to declare the church immediately unsafe.  Here's the story  Church sinholes

I still didn't know who Inness is, so back to Google for:  George Inness.  But this wasn't the Tarpon Springs George Inness.  Tarpon Springs belonged to George Inness Jr. who is a respected painter in his own right despite living in the shadow of his father's accomplishments.

UU Tarpon Springs Tryptych

So, the good news is that insurance should help fix the church, the church is sending the paintings off for safe keeping during repairs.  You can see more info at Tarpon Springs UU Church   And we all learned something new.  I'm not sure I'll make the drive (about a hour) to attend services at the Elks Club on Sunday, but hopefully we'll return someday and I'll get to see the paintings in their permanent setting in the charming old church in Tarpon Springs.  Oh yeah, and eat more great Greek food.  Isn't travel fun?

Heading Home

I'm at the Tampa airport heading home for Friday's funeral hoping that sneezing guy isn't on my flight.  And how is it that every US airport has the same incredibly uncomfortable seats in the gate area?  We all should have bought stock in the company way back when.  The Tampa airport is pleasant so far, no lines in security, lots of (bad) seating, clean and free WiFi.  Even better, I got upgraded so I'll be in 1st class.  So far we're delayed 15 minutes, hopefully that will be it.   The plane is coming from Chicago, then turns around and goes back...baddabing.

Meanwhile,  the Navigator has learned to dump the waste tanks and make coffee, though not simultaneously.  She's staying with Chuck and the cats and a friend is coming down to spend the weekend with her, so all will be well...no, really, they'll be fine...whatcanhappen in 6 days???

Another nice feature of the Tampa airport is it's efficient cooling system.  It's hard to dress for leaving 80 degrees and arriving to 20 degrees.  There are only so many layers one can wear.  So once I got into the terminal I could add a layer lightening my carry on a bit.  I also have shoes on instead of my usual sandals.  My toes are unhappy, but since I'm heading home I didn't have to pack any clothes.

If all goes as planned, I'll be back to Chassahowitzka a week from today.    I'll keep yup posted.

File This Under Life Goes On

I apologize in advance to those of you who follow us on Facebook.  Some of this will be a repeat, but for those of you who don't....

On the day my mom died

Some of my mom's proudest moments, that she spoke of all her life, were guiding canoe trips as a young Girl Scout leader, leading young girls from what was then St. Rose Orphanage, on canoe trips. This was long before she got married and had a family of her own. Seems fitting that today all things came together for me to be in a canoe for the first time in 40+ years.

We're loving this campground on the Chassahowitzka River and after spending 2 days driving around looking at other nearby RV parks, we were lucky to snag a site for another 2 weeks.  So on Monday we'll move 20 yards to a different site, but basically we're staying put.  Best travel day ever!   This will be nice for Robin as I fly home from Tampa for my mom's funeral next week.  Since we're staying so long, we feel like we should go to the campground Superbowl party on Sunday.  This will be the first time we formally socialize at a RV park.  We're to bring a "covered dish to pass".  We're still debating what that will be.

Time to wrap up the Disney experience.  We agreed that some of the dazzle is off the castle.  Fewer of the cast members are outstanding.  The technology troubles with their new wristband system are frustrating.  One day, 2 of our 3 FastPass+ rides were inoperable when we got to them and contradictory instructions from cast members and long lines made the situation worse.  The restrooms are not necessarily spotless all the time.  Campground wireless requires getting on a waiting list to borrow a modem and coaxial cable from campground.  The truth is, all of our expectations for Disney are so high, impossibly high, that we may be doomed to disappointment.  What would be considered a really good experience at Great America is not good enough at Disney.  And it's really expensive, which makes the little issues rankle even more.

Nonetheless, it's still a lot of fun with experiences you can't have anywhere else and 97.325%  of the time it is as perfect as you expect.  Animal Kingdom was fantastic.  Epcot has great food, fireworks and charm.

Epcot ibis with Italy in the background

Epcot fireworks show

Magic Kingdom had most of our frustrations but then it's the most kid-focused and all the kids who weren't crying with exhaustion seemed perfectly happy.

Gourmet Magic Kingdom lunch-see I can do food photos too!

So yes, you should go to Disney World and take your kids of all ages.  You will have fun, you will have stories and you will spend a lot of money.  Don't worry about that, just lower your expectations a bit, go and enjoy.

Now we're back in the Nature Coast area of Florida and we're enjoying the wildlife and the setting.  Yesterday air temps were in the 40s and it was damp and rainy.  We went down to the dock to watch the mist rise from the 72 deg spring water and saw easily a dozen manatees in the water just off the dock staying warm.  It was amazing and so peaceful.  Bird life abounds and even the abundant vultures are fun to watch.  

Yes, there are manatees in the water

Red-bellied Woodpecker

So that's all for now.  We'll have a total of 3 weeks here before we leave.  Yippee for long stays!