Living Our Dream

More Good Eats

Summerdale, AL - Events of Wednesday, April 10 to Monday, April 15, 2013

Our friends, Pat and Mike, left Blueberry Hill about a week after we did and pulled into Rainbow Plantation on Tuesday. Their friends from Blueberry Hill, Harlan and Linda (Harlan and Linda were part of the group with which had Easter lupper at Cracker Barrel a few days before we left Florida), were staying down the road from Rainbow Plantation in Foley. On Wednesday, we met Pat, Mike, Harlan and Linda at the Shrimp Basket in Foley for lupper.

The Shrimp Basket, which is a chain of about a dozen seafood restaurants, is another one of our favorite restaurants here in Lower Alabama. We both had fried clam strips, which were delicious. The rest of the group had a variety of other things including grilled shrimp, shrimp tacos and all-you-can-eat fish.

Our group at Shrimp Basket (clockwise from the left): Margery, Paul, Mike, Pat, Harlan and Linda

We had a good time catching up with Pat and Mike and with Harlan and Linda.

We shopped for groceries on Friday then did our weekly cleaning of the rig on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, we took Freeway to the dog park at Rainbow Plantation. We have been doing a little training after dinner in the space behind our site, but the training goes better at the dog park where we can allow Freeway to run freely.

Freeway continues to show progress in his training. We are now able to get him to sit even when we are some distance away.

Freeway, sit!

When we call Freeway's name, he sometimes even seems to be paying attention to see what we want him to do next.

Freeway waiting for our next command

Come continues to be the biggest challenge. If he is distracted, Freeway acts like he is totally deaf. However, when he feels like it (which is increasingly more frequent), he comes running.

Freeway, come!

Of course, we continue to mix play with training so the training won't be a chore for Freeway or for us.

Play time

We had a big rain storm pass through the area on Sunday, so we just hunkered down in the motor home with a movie we picked up on the way home from church from the Redbox kiosk at Walmart. Fortunately, the storm didn't cause any local damage that we're aware of, but we did get almost an inch of rain during the afternoon.

On Monday, since we had to go out anyway to return the movie, we decided to head to Panini Pete's for a late lunch. Panini Pete's is located on a small courtyard patio called the French Quarter behind a row of shops along the main street in Fairhope.

Entrance to the French Quarter in Fairhope

There is indoor seating in an enclosure that looks like a Victorian conservatory, and there is also seating on the patio.

Indoor seating

Outdoor seating on the patio

Panini Pete's is yet another of our favorite area restaurants. They A have nice selection of paninis including house-roasted turkey and house-roasted beef. Turkey is our favorite, so that's what we both had. The turkey panini is served on fresh-baked foccacia with baby greens, roasted red pepper, Dijon, garlic aioli and house-made mozzarella.

Roast turkey panini with shoestring fries

Margery about to take a bite of her panini

The paninis cost around $8 to $10 and include your choice of homemade shoestring fries, homemade potato chips or the side of the day (usually a pasta salad). Several types of burgers are also available for around the same price, and there are gourmet hot dogs that are a few dollars less.

The patio is surrounded by shops and boutiques. While we ate, we watched an artist from one of the shops who was outside painting.

Artist painting on the patio

After our meal, we strolled down the sidewalk for a couple of blocks. Fairhope has a quaint, picturesque downtown area that has an artsy feel. There are coffee shops, book stores, high-end antique shops, gift shops and boutiques all over the downtown area.

This garden shop was open by appointment only.

Gift shop

One of the things we like so much about downtown Fairhope are the beautiful flowers that are planted along the sidewalks and on the street corners. You can see an example of some of the flowers in front of the gift shop shown above. We especially liked the white iris we saw in front of another shop.

White iris

As we headed back to the motor home, we heard the news of the tragic bombings in Boston. Our prayers are with those who were injured, with their families and loved ones, and especially with the loved ones of those who died.

We are about half way through our stay at Rainbow Plantation, and we still have a number of eateries we want to visit. We are also hoping to do some sightseeing, so stay tuned.

A Little More Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, March 6 to Sunday, March 10, 2013

The weather here in Florida had been very changeable lately. Cold fronts have been passing through at least once a week, and each cold front that comes through brings with it clouds and sometimes rain. Although we prefer sunny weather, Florida needs the rain. Not only that, but the clouds can also make for some beautiful sunsets like the one shown in the photo below.

Sunset at Blueberry Hill

It was nice to get out to Bok Tower and Tarpon Springs to do some sightseeing recently, but in between the sightseeing, we are still busy with daily activities, chores and errands. Those things go on whether you live in a stick house or an RV.

One of the things we have been doing just about daily is working with Freeway to reinforce the training from the intermediate obedience classes we enrolled him in at PetSmart in January and February. The most important things he is learning are to sit, stay and come when there are distractions present like other people, other dogs, different sounds or favorite toys. We are also trying to get him to recognize and obey hand signals. We mix his training with play to help make the training fun.

Freeway will come most of the time when we're inside the motor home; and he will come, at least some of the time, when we're playing with him outside where there are more distractions. He's also pretty good with stay even when we add diversions like rolling his ball right past him - as long as we don't roll it too close and too fast. If it gets too close and it's going too fast, excitement sometimes overcomes Freeway and he tries to grab the ball as it goes by.

In the exercise shown in the next two photos, we have Freeway stay then walk in a circle all the way around him several times. Freeway can follow with his eyes, but not with his body.

Freeway, stay!

Freeway practices stay while Paul walks around him

We can see progress because the times he comes are more frequent, and he can stay for longer and longer periods with more and more distractions.

While we're on the subject of Freeway, we have mentioned before he needs frequent combing because he has long, fine hair that tangles easily. He also needs frequent baths, especially now that he is spending more time training and playing outside in the dry Florida grass and loose, sandy soil. We have to make sure we comb Freeway before his bath because any tangles that are starting to form before the bath get much worse when we shampoo him. Freeway doesn't mind the bath so much, and if we happen to catch him in the right mood, he doesn't mind the combing either. Margery usually does the combing and bathing, but Paul volunteered to take on the combing task before one of Freeway's recent baths. Sometimes he fights us when we try to comb him, but the next photo shows what he's like when he's mellow...he just lies back and relaxes.

Paul combing Freeway before his bath

Since the weather was cool, Margery decided to blow dry Freeway rather than let him air dry. Freeway's favorite way to be blown dry is to have the dryer placed on the floor so he can lie down and scoot along the carpet in front of the dryer and dry himself.

Freeway using the blow dryer on his terms after his bath

By the time the weekend was approaching, we realized we had several errands to run in the area of The Villages. Since the Market of Marion is located a short distance north of The Villages and since it is open on Fridays during the winter, we decided to head there on Friday morning and make our other stops in The Villages on our way back to the motor home. That way we could mix a little fun with our errands.

We weren't in a big hurry to get going in the morning, so we didn't get to the Market of Marion until about 11:00. We parked in one of the side lots where there was a vendor making and selling chainsaw carvings.

Chainsaw carvings

Bears are always a popular subject for chainsaw carvings. We thought the expressions on the faces of the ones done by this vendor were especially cute.

Closeup of bear's face

It was a nice day so the market was fairly busy. We waited for a lull in the foot traffic to take the next photo looking down the main aisle so it doesn't look quite as busy as it was.

View down the main aisle of the Market of Marion

Margery liked the purse she got earlier this year at the Market of Marion, and she decided to look for the same purse in a different color. Unfortunately, the vendor she bought from before didn't have a purse in a style and color she liked. She checked several other vendors who had similar purses, but no luck there either. Oh, well...the one she has will do fine, and we saved a couple of bucks.

We did get some produce. The market usually has a nice selection at reasonable prices.

Produce aisle

We got a bunch of asparagus, a basket of tomatoes for our sandwiches, a basket of poblano peppers to make poblano pesto (great on turkey sandwiches) and an eggplant. We found a cool eggplant that had a nose. The eggplant was a little bigger than we needed; but because it was nice and firm and so cute, we took it.

Eggplant with a nose

From the market, we drove to The Villages and made stops at Lowe's, Sam's Club and Kohl's. After making all our stops, we conveniently found ourselves near OakWood Grill, and it just happened to be mid afternoon. Actually, it wasn't a coincidence - that's the way we planned it. The reason we weren't in a big hurry to leave in the morning was so we didn't get to OakWood too early and hit the lunch rush. Also, Margery having to cook dinner on a day we eat lunch out is a definite no-no. Therefore, when we plan to eat out, we usually have "lupper" in mid-afternoon that takes the place of both lunch and supper.

In addition to loving the baby back ribs we had the last two times we went to OakWood, we also love their delicious smoked turkey and beef. They also have pulled pulled pork, chicken and smoked sausage; but the ribs, turkey and beef are our favorites.

Margery had a beef sandwich lunch special that includes a drink and one side for $7.49. She added Swiss cheese to her sandwich and had onion rings for her side. Paul had a smoked turkey lunch plate that included two sides (he chose lima beans and slaw) for $7.99. Our lunches were delish! The meats are always so moist, tender and smoky.

Turkey lunch plate (top) and beef sandwich

Margery and her beef sandwich and onion rings

We headed back to the motor home and relaxed during the evening. Saturday brought more chores with cleaning the inside of the rig and dumping. After church on Sunday, we relaxed some more and watched the NASCAR race from Las Vegas.

Our time in Florida is winding down, and we still have several things we would like to see and do before we leave; but as we said, the weather has been very changeable. There is another cold front and more rain predicted, so we'll have to wait and see if we get a break. In the meantime, Paul has another inside project planned that he can do regardless of the weather. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Miscellaneous Musings

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, February 19 to Wednesday, February 20, 2013

We had several errands to run in the vicinity of The Villages, so we headed there on Tuesday. One of the stops we wanted to make was at a mobile home community called Water Oak, which is located on the same side of The Villages as Home Depot, Kohl's, Sam's Club, PetSmart and OakWood Grill. We have driven past Water Oak dozens and dozens of times because we go to that part of The Villages frequently.

Since Water Oak is owned by the same parent company that now owns Blueberry Hill (Sun Communities), and since we're very pleased by the way Blueberry Hill is being run and by all the improvements, we decided it would be a good time to check out Water Oak after we finished our other errands for future reference.

As we said in our last post, we sometimes have a desire to put down roots when we stop in one of our favorite locations for an extended period of time. However, we have several other favorite places that we're not willing to give up yet, and we still enjoy seeing new places as well. Even though we have no plans to give up full-timing in the near future, we were always curious about Water Oak, and we thought it would be a good idea to get some information so we would know if Water Oak or something like it could be a possibility when we decide to slow down our travels someday.

We met with the sales manager who told us all about the history of Water Oak and about their facilities and activities. We are pleased to report there was absolutely no high-pressure sales pitch.

Water Oak was started in the 1980s, so some of the mobile homes there are older. Pre-owned homes are available; but Water Oak still has vacant lots, and they are still installing new units.

After chatting with the sales manager, we walked over to view several models of new mobile homes on display. Mobile homes have come a long, long way in the past 10 years or so. In fact, they don't even like to call them mobile homes anymore - they are manufactured homes. Manufactured homes have begun to come very close in appearance to site-built homes. Outside, they have vinyl siding and asphalt shingle roofs. They have good insulation, and most of the newer ones have dual-pane windows even in Florida. Inside, newer mobile homes have drywall throughout, and many have 9-foot ceilings and features like tray ceilings in the living area.

The models on display were attractively staged and very comfortable looking. They ranged in size from a little less than 1000 sq ft to over 1500 sq ft. The models featured open floor plans, which helps optimize the usage of living space.

Typical living room

Even the smaller units with smaller kitchens usually have lots of cabinets for storage and ample counter space thanks to an island or peninsula. The kitchen in the next photo was in one of the larger models and was huge.

Margery checking out the kitchen storage space

We learned that manufactured homes have advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage is you can get a very nice home at a very reasonable price. The disadvantage is manufactured housing depreciates over time. A site-built home, if properly maintained, will normally go up in value over time (except for the recent bursting of the housing bubble).

We also learned that even though Water Oak was nice, we didn't feel it would suit us. It is very large (1100 to 1200 homes), and there is much shade in the older areas (we like sun, especially in winter). The lots in the older sections are fairly large, but the mobile homes in those areas, although well maintained, look very dated. The lots in the areas where the new manufactured homes are being placed are small. It's not that we want a huge lot that we would have to mow and care for, but we don't want our neighbors house right outside our windows. Paul would also like to do a little gardening.

The other downside to Water Oak is, even though you own your home, you rent the lot. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the rent at Water Oak seemed high to us. That's probably because part of the rent helps pay for all the amenities like two swimming pools, an 18-hole golf course, shuffleboard courts, pickle ball courts, tennis courts, two clubhouses, a softball field, bocce ball courts, etc. There are also lots of activities like card clubs, craft classes, exercise classes, dance lessons, pot luck dinners and pancake breakfasts. Amenities and activities are nice to have, but they're not really that important to us.

As we said, we aren't planning to quit full-timing any time soon, but we are happy we were able to gather some information. We will tuck it away in the backs of our minds for sometime in the future.

It was mid afternoon when we finished up at Water Oak, and we were starved. Since we Water Oak is close to OakWood Grill, we stopped at OakWood for lupper on the way back to the motor home.

OakWood Grill

OakWood has delicious smoked meats and barbecued ribs. Since they have a special price on a full rack of baby backs all day Sundays through Wednesdays ($12.99 vs. the regular price of $15.99), and since it was Tuesday, we both had the baby back ribs.

Margery and her baby back ribs

We love the ribs at OakWood. They are fall-off-the-bone tender. The barbecue sauce is thick and sweet with a hint of tartness.

Wednesday was Freeway's last intermediate training class. He has come a long way in 6 weeks. We had slacked off on much of his training from puppy class last year, so our first couple of classes this year were a little frustrating. However, perseverance has paid off, and things began falling back into place by the third class, especially after we found a secret weapon to assist with training - Cheetos. After 6 weeks, Freeway is a star pupil.

We started the class off with a few minutes of play time for the dogs.

Melanie handing out treats during play time

Then Melanie, the instructor, started a review of what we learned. The one thing we and all the other dog owners in the class were having the most difficulty with was getting the dogs to come when called. We practiced a bit in class out in one of the aisles of the PetSmart Store. We all still have work to do with the "come" command.

We also worked on sit-stay in class. Freeway is pretty good with that command, but adding distractions like other dogs, people, a favorite dog toy or an unfamiliar environment can derail everything, so we need to continue working on that, too. Getting Freeway to obey basic commands like come and sit-stay no matter what else is going on around him is our goal.

After class, we made a few other quick stops in The Villages. The sun in Florida can be very hot, even in winter, so one of us stayed in the car with Freeway with the windows open. After our errands, we made our way back to the motor home.

Now that Freeway's training classes are over, we were hoping to be able to plan more sightseeing. However, Paul unexpectedly got a new project on Wednesday evening. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Out and About

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, January 30 to Tuesday, February 5, 2013

We finally found a secret weapon to motivate Freeway just in time for his Wednesday training class - Cheetos. We normally don't give Freeway people food. The only time he gets any people food is if we accidentally drop something on the floor. Even then, Freeway doesn't always run over right away to gobble up what we drop - except for Cheetos. Even though he has only had a few Cheetos in his young life, he has taken a special liking to them. Either the Cheetos bag has a distinctive crinkle, or Freeway can smell the Cheetos all the way across the motor home because as soon as Paul opens the bag, Freeway comes running right away and doesn't even wait until one accidentally falls to the floor.

Since Freeway normally isn't motivated by food and has such a fondness for Cheetos, we decided to try Cheetos as a training aid. We break the Cheetos into small pieces and alternate regular doggie treats with bits of Cheetos, so Freeway only gets a total of about 1 or 2 Cheetos for an entire training session. The Cheetos were very successful at overcoming most of the distractions when we went to his training class at PetSmart on Wednesday. Freeway did well with the "heel" command, and we worked on getting the dogs to stay with distractions in class. Freeway did well with that, too.

Between classes we practice Freeway's training inside the motor home, outside around our site and at the dog park. We usually let Freeway play before training when we go to the dog park to burn off a little energy. We know we've shown pictures of Freeway playing fetch at the dog park before, but he plays with such enthusiasm and exuberance we can't help ourselves from showing yet another one.

Freeway playing at the dog park

On Friday, we decided it was time to get out and about because we were tired sitting around the campground due to Paul's cold and due to of the wiring project. We drove about 20 minutes south of Bushnell to the Deep South Barbecue in Brooksville for lupper. We had passed Deep South numerous times over the years because there is a chiropractor in Brooksville that we sometimes go to if we get a kink in our backs or necks. Last year, we finally stopped for barbecue, and we thought the barbecue was very good.

Deep South Barbecue

Deep South Barbecue is owned by a former Marine who has decorated the place with politically incorrect signs and bumper stickers. The signs give guests something to read while waiting for their food to come out.

Politically incorrect bumber stickers

There are also several decorative wood carvings that are interesting.

'Gator carved from wood

We both had a pulled pork barbecue sandwich and potato salad. Paul had cole slaw, but since they only had one serving of cole slaw left, Margery had French fries. Yes, that's right - she had potato salad AND French fries. Now that we're on maintenance on our low carb diets, we can get away with really cheating occasionally.

Margery had potato salad AND French fries with her pork barbecue

Everything was delish! The pulled pork, while not extremely smoky, was very tender and moist. The sauce is sweet with a hint of tartness.

We hung around the motor home over the weekend. We relaxed, practiced training lessons with Freeway and watched the big game on Sunday.

Hanging around the motor home for the weekend also gave us time to enjoy one of Paul's Christmas gifts from Lora and J. Michael. Paul used to be an avid gardener when we had a stick house; and gardening is one of the things he misses most now that we are full-time RVers. For Christmas, Lora and J. Micheal got Paul an amaryllis bulb. Paul planted the bulb as soon as we got back to Florida after Christmas, and it is now blooming inside the motor home. The bright red flowers have a festive, tropical appearance that Paul really enjoys.

Amaryllis blooming inside the motor home

On Tuesday, we decided it was time to take the motor home for an exercise drive. Paul likes to pull off the site once or twice during the winter and drive up the interstate a couple of exits to warm up the engine and transmission and to get all the lubrication flowing. We also run the generator while we're driving to exercise that, too.

Since we have the new Equinox and it is all wired up and ready to go, Paul decided to hook it up and tow it on our exercise drive just to make sure everything worked as expected. The old Saturn tracked very well behind the motor home, and the Equinox tracks even better.

The color of the Equinox, which is a new color for 2013 called Champagne Silver, goes very well with the color of the motor home. We pulled into the check-in lane when we got back to Blueberry Hill to unhook, and we took the opportunity for a quick photo.

Motor Home with new toad hooked up

After we got the car unhooked, we got settled back into our site and got everything set up again. We had a few hours to relax before we took off again. We made plans in the afternoon to go to OakWood Grill near The Villages for lupper with our friends, Pat and Mike.

OakWood Grill

OakWood has a special price for a full rack of baby back ribs from Sundays through Wednesdays, so that's what we all had. The regular price is $15.99, and the special is only $12.99. The ribs at OakWood are nice and juicy and fall-off-the-bone tender.

Baby back ribs

Margery, Paul, Pat and Mike

After lupper, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. Depending on the weather, we tentatively have some sightseeing planned, so look for our next post.

Just Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, January 23 to Saturday, January 26, 2013

We really haven't been doing much since the Tampa RV Show. Paul started feeling a cold coming on the day of the show, so we have been taking it easy ever since. It certainly wasn't the cool, rainy weather the day of the show that caused the cold, but being out in that weather may have made things worse because this cold was a doosey.

By the following Wednesday, Paul was finally starting to feel a little better, which was a good thing because Wednesday was Freeway's puppy class at PetSmart in The Villages. The dogs got a little play time at the beginning of the class before we got to our lessons.

Play time before training class

Last week, we were having difficulty getting Freeway to the starting position to teach him to heel. Getting the dog into position is called the "place" command, and the goal is to get the dog to come to his place sitting facing forward right beside your foot. Getting freeway to sit is easy, but getting him in the correct position isn't. We worked on that during the week, and we thought we had made some progress. However, when we got to class there were many distractions, and Freeway had trouble paying attention. Without being able to get Freeway into the correct position, we didn't accomplish much with the "heel" command that the rest of the dogs got to practice in class. Therefore, we had our work cut out for us to try catch up before the next class.

In the days following class, we practiced our training with Freeway around the motor home and around our site, and we also went to the dog park to practice in a more public place. Distractions make training harder, but that is one of the things more advanced training is all about - getting Freeway to obey even when he's tempted by other sights and sounds. We are still having difficulty with the "place" command to get Freeway into position by our foot; but once he gets there, the "heel" command is going relatively well.

Margery and Freeway practicing the "place" command

Freeway, heel!

One evening, Margery decided to start a crochet project. Freeway was very interested in her ball of yarn. He jumped up on her lap and began playing with it.

Hey! Put that down!

Ball of yarn starting to unravel

We had to practice the "leave it" command to avoid ending up with a tangled mess. Freeway was still fascinated with what Margery was doing with the yarn and eventually settled in and just watched her crochet.

Freeway eventually left the ball of yarn alone and just watched

Margery recently 'liked' the Facebook page, Join the Love, which is a guild of crafters working together to create memory blankets for grieving families. The blankets are made of donated granny squares that are stitched together to make memory blankets for families who have recently lost a child. After going through the jury process, Margery is now eligible to sign up to contribute granny squares to individual blankets being created based on the child's favorite colors and likes. This kind of compact project works well in our small living space, and the variety of granny square patterns are endless. She's going to have fun!

Saturday was Blueberry Hill's annual, resort-wide yard sale. We had several items we were looking to get rid of, so we set up a table in front of our site in time for the 9:00 a.m. start of the event.

A potential customer stops to check out our yard sale items

The weather was beautiful so we had a fairly good turnout. People even came from other campgrounds located nearby to look. We didn't sell much, but it helped clean out our storage bays a little.

With Paul on the mend from his cold, we are definitely hoping we can be a little more active. We'll let you know what we found to do in our next post.