Sick Bay

I got it. Then, he got it.

Today, I finally feel like myself again.

Paul, not so much.

We've been here in this beautiful park near Gulf Shores for 10 days.

Have we been to the beach?

Nope. Not yet.

Instead, we've taken turns being floored by this big, bad cold bug.

It hasn't been fun.

Between the sneezing and the hacking, we've managed to keep ourselves sane by getting out most days...just a little. A trip to Lowe's one day. Home Depot another. Yesterday was Walmart and the Post Office to send off some knitted gifts.

Today, as Paul slugged through the worst of this crud, I sat my nearly recovered body down at the computer and worked on two months worth of posts for Bullwinkle's Travels.

But, they're still not done.

One of these days, the blog will be up to date. We'll both feel better and be back to our healthy selves.

Then, you wanna know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna start over.

We might even fire this moose up, drive out the gate of this beautiful park and back in.

Just kidding about that, but we are definitely in big time need of a "do over".

Then, you wanna know what we're gonna do?

We're gonna go to the beach!!!!

We can't wait.

Sweet Home Alabama

Greetings from LA! That's "Lower Alabama", of course. We have arrived at this year's "winter home", lovely Bella Terra RV Resort in Foley. And, it is "sweet". The place is spacious, beautifully landscaped, and filled with some very friendly folks. The staff is simply the best. They definitely "get" that they are in the hospitality business. We are looking forward to enjoying our stay.

I say we're looking forward because, for me at least, it doesn't feel like our stay has really started. We arrived on Monday afternoon, and within 24 hours I was slammed with a nasty sore throat that evolved into a full blown cold. (This happens to me every January, but I thought I'd escaped it this year.) So, I've barely stepped outside. But, it feels like I've turned a corner and am on the road to recovery. We have lots of exploring to do in these parts, and we're eager to get started.

As we made our way from Louisiana to Alabama, we made a short stop in Summerdale to check out the Escapees park there. We were treated to a tasty travel day meal and lots of enjoyable conversation by Judy and Darrell. It was great to catch up with these two since our first meeting in Tennessee. We attended the Sunday night ice cream social where Darrell introduced us to Norm and Linda and Don and Gloria, whom we've heard lots about but had never met. Norm and Linda's web site was one of the first resources we discovered when we hatched this crazy idea of fulltime RVing, and it was jammed packed full of helpful information. It was nice to be able to personally thank them for the help they provided us. When we attended the Winnebago rally in Forest City in Summer 2010, lots of our RVing friends told us to be on the lookout for Don and Gloria. So, we went on a mission to find them among the masses. We did locate their Winnie among the 1200 or so that were on the rally grounds, but they weren't home. It was a treat to finally connect with these fine folks. Thanks to y'all for making us feel so welcome at Rainbow Plantation.

So far, the weather here in LA has been quite favorable. With daytime temps reaching into the 70s, we are oh so happy to be here. We're just minutes away from reportedly beautiful beaches. But, thanks to this cold, we've yet to see them. There's plenty of shopping nearby and a long list of restaurants we just can't wait to try. We're here for a couple of months, so we should have plenty of time to see and do it all.

But first, I have to get over this darn cold.

Lovin' Louisiana

When we were making our winter travel plans from Kansas City to the Alabama Gulf Coast via Texas, I looked for a way to avoid Louisiana. My prejudice for the place was based primarily on the experience of driving for a couple of hours a couple of years ago in the northeast corner of the state. That unpleasant ride soured me on the whole place. I had no desire to return. Of course, you don't have to look at a map for too long to decide that it's not really practical to route around this state. So, with me keeping an open mind, we left Texas and headed east on I-10.

My apologies to the good people of the great state of Louisiana.

We absolutely love it here! We have discovered, and the locals will readily attest, that there is a vast difference between northern and southern Louisiana. This lower half has it goin' on!

These last two weeks have been a whole lotta fun. The weather has mostly been down right pleasant. We've seen a big riva and a great big lake, visited some lovely plantation homes, enjoyed a day of sightseein' in N'awlins that started with tasty coffee and beignets in da' French Quarter, had some of the best cookin' anywheres and have met some downright nice people.

When it comes to food, southeast Louisiana might just be our favorite place anywhere. We've sampled po' boys, boiled shrimp, fried catfish, gumbo, crab bisque and New Orleans' own muffaletta. New Year's Day a neighbor delivered a huge plate of "real Cajun" home cookin'. And, this morning, we enjoyed an outstanding local brunch spot that served up tasty entrees with a side of the best grits ever.

Have I mentioned that we love Louisiana?

The real reason we decided to move from Convent to Mandeville was our desperate need of exercise. Fountainebleau State Park has miles of hiking and biking trails, and we're happily putting them to use every day. If we didn't, we'd be well on our way to weighing 400 pounds. Each!

The wonderful folks we've met have made our stay extra special. The locals are most welcoming of visitors. They genuinely seem happy that we're here. (We sure are!) We've had nice neighbors in both parks, and we've even met up with a couple of geeks.

Tricia and Keith (aka Geeky Explorers) have been on the road fulltime since November. They've been served up a couple of challenges in their early travels that would have frazzled most newbies. But, they've handled it all with patience, grace and a healthy sense of humor. These good folks definitely know how to go with the flow. Tricia left a comment here on da ol' blog a while back and we discovered that they were camped where we were planning to be. It's been a real treat to meet them. We look forward to getting to know them better before they take off next week.

And us? We're lovin' Louisiana so much we've decided to stay awhile. We've extended our stay in this beautiful park to the two-week maximum allowed. After that, we'll head to Alabama.

Meanwhile, as they say in these parts: Laissez les bons temps rouler!