Living Our Dream

Bon Secour, AL

Summerdale, AL - Events of Saturday, Nov. 26 to Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011

Bon Secour is a small town about 15 miles south of where we were staying in Summerdale. It lies on Bon Secour Bay, which is located along the southeastern edge of Mobile Bay.

Bon Secour was started as a Creole fishing village in the 1800s. The name means "good security" in French, which refers to the fact it was considered to be a safe harbor because it is located inside the mouth of Mobile Bay. The mouth of the bay was also guarded by Fort Morgan, which was completed in the 1830s to help defend the shore line of the fledgling United States following the War of 1812 with Great Britain. We visited Fort Morgan when we were in the area last November. Click here to read about that visit.

The main thing we wanted to see in Bon Secour was the Swift-Coles House, which is a mansion built along the Bon Secour River in the late 1800s. The mansion is normally only open on Tuesdays and Fridays, but they were having special hours on Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving for their Christmas open house. We thought about going then, but there was an extra charge for admission during the open house because there were refreshments. We decided we didn't need the refreshments or the crowds of the open house, so we waited until the following Tuesday. It's just as well because Saturday was cloudy and windy, then the heavens opened up and it rained over two inches from Saturday night right through Sunday. The photo below is a view of the lake outside our motor home on Sunday.

As we mentioned previously, the soil in this area is sandy so it doesn't get very muddy, and most of the water had soaked in by Monday morning.

The rain came through ahead of a cold front, and it was cloudy, cool and windy on Monday. Tuesday was still cool and breezy, but at least the sun came out for our visit to Bon Secour. The photo below shows the entrance to the Swift-Coles House...

...and the next photo shows Paul on the porch.

The Swift-Coles House was originally built as a 4-room, dog-trot fishing cabin around 1882. A dog-trot cabin is two small cabins separated by a breezeway (where the dogs tended to hang out in hot weather) all under one roof.

Charles A. Swift, who owned lumber mills in the area including one near the cabin, bought the cabin around the turn of the century and moved in with his wife and 9 children. They enclosed the breezeway of the dog trot and added on several rooms behind the original cabin. Around 1908, they added a second story. By this time, there were 11 children. The mansion ended up having 16 rooms with an area of about 6,000 square feet. There are also over 3,000 square feet of porches surrounding the house. The next photo shows another view of the sprawling mansion and some of the porches. The original dog trot cabin is the ground floor portion of the wing that juts out to the right.

And the photo below shows the side entrance, which is the enclosed breezeway of the original cabin.

Descendants of the Swift family occupied the house until 1976 when Nick Coles, a restaurant owner and antique collector from Gulf Shores, bought the house. Coles performed extensive renovations and furnished the house from his collection of antiques. Nick Coles willed the mansion to Baldwin County when he died, and the house is now operated as a museum.

There is a guided tour of the entire house, but unfortunately, photography is not permitted inside so we can't show you any of the rooms or furnishings. However, if you click the link above to the Swift-Coles House, there are several good photos of the interior on the web site.

After touring the house, visitors are free to walk the grounds. There was an old barn and an out building behind the main house. They were a little run down, but they had a lot of character. What stories could they tell if they could talk?

The Swift-Coles House is located on the Bon Secour River near the point where the river empties into Bon Secour Bay. Ferries bringing Mobile residents to their summer homes in Bon Secour used to dock near the Swift-Coles House.  The next photo is a view up the Bon Secour River from an area near the mansion.

It was a little chilly and breezy, so we didn't walk around the grounds long. Bon Secour is the home of several seafood packing companies, so another thing we wanted to do was to see if we could find some fresh seafood to take back to the motor home with us. We had gotten a tip from some of the other visitors on the tour who were familiar with the area that Billy's Seafood was a good place to get shrimp, so we hopped into the car and drove down the road to Billy's. On the way, we passed fishing boats tied up in the river.

We passed several other seafood places, and we soon arrived at Billy's at the end of the road.

They had a nice selection of different size shrimp at reasonable prices.

We picked out relatively large ones to sauté for dinner that night and some slightly smaller ones to freeze for shrimp au gratin at a later date.

After we bought our shrimp, we put it into the cooler in the car and walked back to the docks behind Billy's. The shrimp boat in the next photo was apparently preparing to head out into the Gulf because they were taking ice on board.

From the dock, we headed back to the motor home. We had some of the shrimp for dinner that evening, and they were outstanding! They were some of the best we've had. They were so good we went back the next day to get some more.

The cool air that moved in after the rain the weekend before was a reminder it is time to continue making our way south. We have a few errands to run over the next couple of days here in Summerdale, then we'll be off to Florida.

Let Us Give Thanks

Summerdale, AL - Events of Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011

As believers, we try to thank God every day for his kindness and provision, but a formal holiday is a good reminder to all of us that there is much to be thankful for.

We live in a country where we have the freedom to thank and to worship God as we see fit. We are personally blessed with good health, with a loving family, with good friends (both old and new), and we have the wherewithal to travel this beautiful country of ours to see its natural wonders and to learn about its people and its history. We are so blessed to be able to enjoy this adventure.

The above quote is from our Thanksgiving post last year. It sums up very well how we feel this year and every year. God is so good.

Our tradition of Thanksgiving comes from what is commonly considered to be the first Thanksgiving back in 1621 in Massachusetts. Last year, our Thanksgiving post talked a little about other Thanksgiving celebrations that took place many years before the one in Massachusetts. Click here to read last year's post about the history of early Thanksgiving celebrations in what was to become the United States. One of the earliest celebrations took place in 1541 in what was to eventually become Texas. Most of the initial celebrations were done by Spanish explorers; and since the English eventually won out in North America, they got to write the history books. Therefore, the 1621 Pilgrim celebration in Massachusetts is usually considered to be our first.

In our years of full-timing, we have cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner, we have had our Thanksgiving meal with fellow Escapees when we were at Escapees parks, and we have eaten out. This year, even though we were at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation, we decided we wanted a little quieter Thanksgiving, but we didn't feel like fussing with cooking our own meal. Therefore, we decided to go to the Cracker Barrel in Foley for an early dinner.

It was busy when we arrived at around 3:00 PM, and there were lots of people on the porch waiting for their tables.

It was a little cool in the shade on the porch, so we decided to wait inside where we looked over some of the Christmas items in the gift shop.

We have eaten Thanksgiving dinner before at Cracker Barrel, and they have an excellent meal. Their Thanksgiving dinner features turkey with dressing AND ham, sweet potato casserole, cranberry relish, choice of vegetable, choice of beverage, biscuits or corn muffins and pumpkin pecan streusel or classic pumpkin pie for dessert.

As always, the food was great, and the price for all that food was only $8.99. Needless to say, it was far from a low carb/low sugar meal; but what the heck, it was Thanksgiving, and we knew would it be a major cheat day from our diet no matter where we ate. We'll make up for it tomorrow.

We only have about a week left in Summerdale, and we did find some sightseeing we want to try to squeeze in before we leave, so stay tuned.

Printers and Paninis

Summerdale, AL - Events of Wednesday, Nov. 16 to Friday, Nov. 18, 2011

When we first started full-timing back in 2006, we bought a Hewlett-Packard all-in-one inkjet printer to carry around in the motor home with us. All-in-one printers can print, scan and copy. There are other models that also fax, but since we obviously don't have a land-line phone, we don't need that feature. The printer we bought was nice and compact, and it met our needs fairly well. The only problem was the printer was prone to paper jams. We had always had Hewlett-Packard printers at home and at work, and they had always been very reliable; but this one not so much.

We eventually ruined the printer by pulling jammed paper out from the front instead of clearing jams by the recommended method of removing the rear cover and taking the jammed paper out the back. Removing the rear cover meant we had to lift the relatively heavy printer down from the overhead cabinet where we kept it, so we took the easy way out and pulled the jammed paper out from the front. Apparently, that eventually stripped some drive gears so the paper feed no longer worked. The printer just sat there and clicked when you hit "print."

We replaced our first all-in-one printer with a different model HP all-in one. We hoped the newer model had solved the problem of frequent jams, but it hadn't. This time, however, we dutifully took the printer down from the overhead cabinet every time there was a paper jam (which was fairly frequent) rather than risk damage again by yanking the paper out from the front. The first printer lasted less than two years, but this one has lasted 4 or 5 years.

The next photo shows our second HP all-in-one printer in the overhead cabinet. As you can see, we also store paper and other office supplies in the cabinet, and much of that has to be removed every time we need to take the printer down to clear a jam.

Paper jams that would be an inconvenience if the printer were sitting on a desk become a major headache because of having to unload the cabinet and lift the printer down from overhead. In addition, we were not happy with the USB cable that hangs out of the cabinet and connects the printer to the computer, so we wanted a wireless printer (not yet available when we bought our prevous all-in-one printers) that would eliminate the cable and also make it easy to print with both computers. Therefore, even though our HP all-in-one printer still was still working, we occasionally looked at different makes and models of printers when we got to an office supply store.

When we stopped at Staples last Wednesday to pick up some office supplies, Margery started looking at color laser printers. Another thing we don't like about inkjets is the ink will run if you get the document wet. A laser printer would solve that, but most laser printers are too large for the space we have available. There are also very few all-in-one laser printers, and those are VERY large and quite expensive.

As we looked around Staples, we noticed an Epson NX430 all-in-one inkjet that boasted instant-dry, water-resistant ink. This printer is so compact they call it a "small-in-one." It prints, scans and copies, is photo capable, and has built-in Wi-Fi. We printed a test page, and, sure enough, the ink was very water resistant. We couldn't get the ink to run even when we took the freshly-printed sample page outside into the rain.

We went back to the motor home to make sure the Epson printer would fit in our cabinet and to look at online reviews. Because the paper feed is on the top of the Epson printer, Paul would have to modify the storage shelf that is in the cabinet above the printer; but, other than that, the Epson printer is actually smaller and much lighter than our old HP. Lighter weight means it will be easier to get down from the overhead cabinet when we have to change ink cartridges. Hopefully, we won't have to get it down to clear paper jams.

Most of the online reviews for the Epson printer were good. Margery's online research also turned up the fact the printer was on sale at Office Depot for $60 (regularly $100). The next day, we went to Office Depot to pick up the Epson Printer.

On our way back to the motor home, we stopped in Fairhope for a late lunch at Panini Pete's. We discovered Panini Pete's last spring after seeing it featured on the Food Network program Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. Panini Pete's features burgers and paninis that range in price from about $7 to $9. Included with the sandwich is a side of home-made shoestring fries, chips or the side of the day (usually a cold pasta salad). They are also open for breakfast and serve a couple of different kinds of breakfast paninis and beignets.

Panini Pete's is located behind a row of stores along the main street in quaint downtown Fairhope. There is outdoor dining on a nice patio surrounded by small shops and boutiques. Even though it was a little cool and breezy, we found a table in the sun and decided to eat outside.

Indoor dining is in a light and airy enclosure that looks like a Victorian conservatory.

We both had our favorite panini from last spring, which has house-roasted turkey, house-made mozzarella, roasted red peppers, baby greens and garlic aioli on fresh-baked foccacia.

The paninis were great! They were well worth taking a cheat day from our diet. As we usually do when we plan a cheat day, we try to just enjoy our special meal and not worry about the carbs and sugar. However, we do try to be extra careful with the carbs and sugar in our other meals for that day.

Speaking of our diet, we have been following the Belly Fat Cure low-carb/low-sugar diet for about 7 weeks, and we loosely observed some of the guidelines for about three weeks prior to that. Paul has lost a total of about 13 pounds, and Margery has lost a little over 7. We have our ups and downs; but the overall trend is definitely down.

It was fairly late when we got back to the motor home, so we decided to wait until the next day to tackle setting up the new printer. The setup turned out to be very easy. All Paul had to do was follow the quick-start setup booklet to get the printer ready and install the ink cartridges. Then he inserted the installation CD into the computer and followed the directions on the screen. Even setting up the wireless connection was a breeze. It was almost completely automatic. It even registered itself online.

After Paul got the printer working wirelessly with both computers, he started to modify the storage shelf he had installed at the top of the cabinet above our previous printer. After dragging his circular saw out of the storage bay and cutting down the old shelf and some of the supports, he realized the new printer was so much smaller than the old one that there was plenty of room for storage beside the printer and that the shelf was unnecessary. The next photo shows the cabinet with the new printer in place and with some of our office supplies stored beside it.

The new printer weighs less than 10 pounds while the old one weighs over 21 pounds. The Epson printer is noticeably slower in high-quality color printing mode than our old HP printer, but the black printing speed isn't too bad. We can live with the somewhat slower speeds. We're retired - what's our hurry?  The print quality is excellent, scanning and copying seem to be a lot easier and faster than with our old printer, the new printer is a lot smaller and lighter than our old printer and the ink doesn't run. We'll have to wait to see how long ink cartridges last; but so far, we're thrilled with our new Epson printer.

We don't have any firm plans for the remainder of our time here in the Summerdale area. We thought we might find some sightseeing to do, but we seem to be stuck working on projects for now.

Motor Home Project: Repaint Roof Edges

Summerdale, AL- Events of Friday, Oct. 28 to Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011

Last year on our way south, we stopped in Red Bay, AL to have the top of the front cap repainted due to peeling clear coat. The peeling was caused by the fact the original clear coat wasn't applied heavily enough or wet enough to the upper surfaces of the cap. Over time, exposure to the elements caused the bond between the clear coat and the paint underneath to weaken and the clear coat began to crack and peel off.

The vertical surfaces are easier to paint, and the upper surfaces of the motor home that curve away from the operators and are more or less horizontal are more difficult to reach to apply a good, wet coating of paint. When Paul was cleaning the roof and inspecting the caulk late this past summer, he noticed several spots on the upper surfaces of the radii at the edges of the roof were also starting to peel.

We contemplated stopping in Red Bay again this year to have the roof edges repainted, but since the radii at the edges of the roof are much less visible and are therefore less critical in appearance than the front cap, Paul decided to investigate doing the work himself to save money.

Paul checked out a couple of online sources that will custom match paint colors and put the paint into spray cans. They specialize in automotive paint, but one of them said they were sure they could get the proper matching code for one of the colors we needed for our motor home (there are two colors along the edges of the roof), and they hoped they could also get the code for the other color.

Paul wasn't too sure about the custom spray cans since they only hoped they could match the second color. Tiffin used Martin Senour paint on our motor home, and since NAPA Auto Parts is the distributor for Martin Senour automotive paint, Paul decided to check with NAPA when we were in Pittsburgh back in September. They said it would be no problem matching the original paint because even if they couldn't find the color mixing formula, they had a colorimeter that could do a custom match from a sample of the colors.

With the news that NAPA would have no problem matching the color, the only obstacle was how to apply the paint. We carry a portable compressor so Paul can keep the motor home and toad tires properly inflated, but the air volume output is marginal at best for spray painting. Therefore, buying an inexpensive spray gun to do the job was not an option.

Then in his online research, Paul came across the Preval Sprayer. The Preval Sprayer can be filled with almost any type of paint, including the two-part urethane that was originally used on our motor home. Paul was a little skeptical, but the Preval Sprayer got lots of good reviews. Since the edges of the roof are high and are not that visible, the appearance is not super critical. Therefore, Paul decided to give the Preval Sprayer a try.

The sprayer and aerosol power pack refills are available at most Home Depot stores and at Sherwin Williams Paint stores. When we were in Pittsburgh, Paul picked up the paint at NAPA (they had no problem finding the formulas for both colors), he bought a Preval Sprayer and a number of power pack refills at Home Depot, and he bought masking tape and sandpaper at Walmart. He planned to do the work while we were at Rainbow Plantation since we would be there for over a month.

Shortly after we arrived in Summerdale, Paul began preparation for painting. First, he sanded off all the peeling clear coat with 220 grit sandpaper to get down to sound paint. The damaged areas were then sanded with 400 grit paper and edges where the clear coat had peeled were feathered for smoothness.

Paul then sanded the entire radius areas along both sides of the roof, including areas that were not peeling, with 600 grit sandpaper to provide good adhesion for the new paint. Our motor home is 37 feet long, so there was a lot of sanding that took over a week to complete working off and on. Once everything was sanded, Paul applied primer to spots that had been sanded down to bare aluminum. The primer was also sanded with 600 grit.

Over the years, the caulk where the ends of the roof radii meet the front and rear caps had cracked, and Paul had applied more caulk to keep things sealed. After all the sanding and priming were done, Paul cleaned up all the old caulk buildup at the ends of the roof radii and applied new, paintable caulk that was also flexible in the hope it won't crack in the future.

With all the prep work done (sanding, priming and caulking), Paul picked a day for painting that wasn't supposed to be too windy and started out in the morning by masking off one of the roof edges.

He got all the paint and supplies ready. The two cans on the left are the two paint colors, and the tall can is the hardener. The Preval Sprayer is in the center, and that's the clear coat with it's hardener on the right.

Paul applied several coats of the first color. One fill of the 6 ounce paint jar of the Preval Sprayer was just about enough paint for one coat.

The paint dries very quickly, and shortly after finishing three coats of the first color, Paul was able to mask off the area and apply the second color.

The color base coat dries to a satin finish, and the clear coat provides the shine. After applying the second color, it was time for clear coat. The clear coat must be applied within 14 days or it may not adhere properly. The paint dries so rapidly, it was no problem finishing two colors plus the clear coat for one side all at in one day; but it was a lot of work. Paul started masking about mid morning after the temperature warmed up a bit and didn't finish cleaning everything up until after 4:00 PM. The photo below shows the final results.

Several days later, after waiting out a few windy days and couple of rainy days, Paul repeated the whole process on the other side of the roof. The second side was a little easier since Paul knew what to expect after having completed the first side. There was also a little less breeze for the second side.

While certainly not a full-sized spray gun, the Preval Sprayer did an OK job. There turned out to be a little more breeze than Paul had hoped, and the sprayer had to be held close to the work in order to not have most of the paint blow away. That led to a few runs in the final clear coat, but Paul was able to sand them out and restore the gloss with polishing compound.

The Preval Sprayer is probably better suited to smaller projects being done indoors; but overall, the results look good, especially considering how much money we saved. Based on what it cost to repaint the top of front cap last year, Paul figures we saved at least $500 to $600, and that's after subtracting the cost of materials. :>)

Paul has been working on the repainting project off and on for the entire 2+ weeks we have been at Rainbow Plantation so far. It's good to have the work finally done. Now we can concentrate on relaxing. We'll also be investigating more sightseeing opportunities and we're hoping to eat out another time or two. Stay tuned.

Blue Angels

Summerdale, AL - Events of Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011

Naval Air Station Pensacola is the home of the U. S. Navy flight demonstration squadron the Blue Angels. The purpose of the Blue Angels is to enhance the recruiting of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps and to serve as ambassadors of good will across the United States and in foreign countries.

The Blue Angels show schedule runs from March to November. In November, the "Blues" move to their winter home of El Centro, CA where they stay until sometime in March. We saw them from a distance when we spent a few days in El Centro in February of 2007 during our first year of full-timing. We have never seen them close-up, and since the practice sessions in Pensacola are open to the public, we decided to get up early and drive over to Pensacola on Wednesday to watch one of the last practice sessions before the Angels left for El Centro for the winter. Practice session dates and the show schedule are shown on the Blue Angels website.

The Blue Angel practice starts at 8:30 AM, and it takes almost an hour to drive from Summerdale to Pensacola. The practice sessions take place adjacent to the National Naval Aviation Museum located at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. The museum itself is fantastic; and it's free, so if you've never seen it, be sure to stop. We were there this past spring, and if you would like to see a preview of the museum, check out our post by clicking here.

The banner at the top of this post is at the entrance to the viewing area for the Blue Angels practice. There are bleachers to sit on, and there is also plenty of space for lawn chairs and for standing. We took our own chairs, but we didn't sit in them much because it was easier to see when we were standing. We liked to turn around and watch the Blues after a maneuver to try to guess what direction they would be coming from next.

The Blue Angels were formed in 1946 by Admiral Chester Nimitz as a means to boost Navy morale and to maintain public and political interest in aviation during cuts in defense spending following WWII.

The first aircraft used by the Blues were propeller-driven Grumman F6F-5 Hellcats. The first jets (the F9F-2 Panther) were used in 1949. There have been several other types of aircraft over the years, and the Blues are currently flying F/A-18A-D Hornets.

Although the Hornets have been modified somewhat (including the replacement of the nose cannon by a tank containing the paraffin-based oil used to create the smoke trails), they could be repainted and made combat ready within 72 hours. The next photo shows Blue Angel 5 and Blue Angel 6 ready for takeoff.

Six Blue Angels usually take part in the flight demonstrations. Blue Angels 1 though 4 fly mostly in the diamond formation...

...but occasionally fly in other formations as well.

When in tight formation, the planes are often less then two feet apart, and you can see from the photos above how low they sometimes fly. At other times, they perform their maneuvers at higher altitudes.

Blue Angels 5 and 6 are known as the solos. They usually fly at higher speed than the Blues in the diamond, and they do a number of high-speed passes that make it look like they are about to collide.

Later, one of the solos joined 1 through 4 to do a five-plane vertical loop.

The next photo shows the solos performing a maneuver called "section high alpha" where they slow their speed to about 120 mph and pitch the noses of the planes up to almost 45º to plow through the air belly first.

Toward the end of the show, the solos join Blue Angels 1 through 4 to form a delta.

The delta performs some real crowd-pleasing maneuvers.

The practice only lasted about 50 minutes, but it was well worth getting up early and making the drive to Pensacola to watch. Afterward, we made a few stops in Pensacola, then headed back to Summerdale.

We planned on having a "cheat day" from our low carb/low sugar diet and stop at the Shrimp Basket in Foley for lunch on our way back to Rainbow Plantation, but we would be arriving a little after noon just in time for the lunch rush. Therefore, we decided to go to the motor home for lunch and go back out to the Shrimp Basket later for an early dinner.

We have written about the Shrimp Basket before. They are a chain of about a dozen restaurants in southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle. They have sandwiches and po' boys for $6 to $8, fried baskets for $10 to $14 and platters for $13 to $14.

The Shrimp Basket also has all-you-can-eat specials on various days, and even though we were there on Wednesday for the popcorn shrimp special, neither one of us felt like we could do justice to all you can eat now that we were used to eating less on our diet. Instead, Margery had a fried clam basket, and Paul had a jumbo fried shrimp basket. We both had boiled new potatoes and slaw for our sides.

The food was delish. It certainly isn't low carb, but it wasn't all that bad, especially since neither one of us ate all our potatoes. In addition, we tried to compensate by being more careful with our other meals that day since we knew we would probably be eating out. We both lost a little more this week, so we'll see how we do on next week's weigh-in.

After our early dinner, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV and relaxation. We will be chilling out at Rainbow Plantation for a few more weeks. Paul is working on a motor home project, we're planning for a couple more meals out and we are hoping to do a little more sightseeing, so there will be more posts from Summerdale coming up.