Living Our Dream

More Good Food

Fairhope, AL - Events of Monday, October 19 to Wednesday, October 21, 2015

When we said we had more favorite things to eat in Lower Alabama than just about anywhere else we weren't kidding. We had hit quite a few of our favorites already, but we still had a few more to go.

On Monday, we needed to make a stop at the post office. Since the closest post office to Coastal Haven RV Park where we are staying is in downtown Fairhope only a couple of blocks from Panini Pete's, we timed the run to the post office for mid afternoon so we could stop at Panini Pete's afterward for a late lunch. We had already been to Panini Pete's for beignets for breakfast, but we hadn't yet been there for lunch. Since it was a nice day, we ate out on the patio.

Outdoor seating on the patio at Panini Pete's

Margery texted a photo of our pleasant surroundings to Lora while we were waiting for our lunches to arrive.

Margery texting a photo to Lora

We both had our favorite - house-roasted turkey paninis with baby greens, Dijon, garlic aioli and house-made mozzarella for $8. The paninis include a side of either house-made potato chips, shoestring fries or pasta salad. We both had shoestring fries. Yum!

House-roasted turkey panini with shoestring fries

After lunch, we headed back to the 5th wheel to relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

This blog post is primarily about good food, and we recently acquired a whole array of new favorite foods like smoked pork shoulder, beef brisket, meatloaf, shrimp and turkey breast when we bought a Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker last summer. We already used the smoker twice since we have been in Lower Alabama (once for shrimp and once for a turkey breast), and we were hungry again for something smoked. Therefore, we fired up the Weber again on Tuesday to smoke a meatloaf.

The first time we smoked meatloaf, we followed a recipe we found online and used half ground beef and half breakfast sausage. It was delicious. This time, however, we decided to try a variation of that recipe and used half ground beef and half hot Italian sausage. The second meatloaf turned out even better than the first.

Smoked meatloaf

We have been having some very nice weather here in Lower Alabama, but the forecast was calling for some increasing clouds for a couple of days followed by a couple more days with clouds and a pretty good chance of rain. Therefore, we decided to take advantage of what might be the last nice day for a while and go to The Gulf Restaurant down in Orange Beach, AL.

We left a little early and made a couple of stops along the way including one at Gulf State Park Fishing Pier to check out the beach. Gulf State Park lies between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

Gulf State Park Fishing Pier

The sun was warm, but the air was a little cool, especially with the stiff breeze that was blowing so there were only a few people sitting and walking on the beach. With the fairly rough surf there were a couple of surfers but no one was swimming.

Fairly big waves

View looking west toward Gulf Shores, AL

View looking east toward Orange Beach

There is a charge of $3 per person to fish from the pier, or to just walk out on the pier. Since it was getting late and we were hungry, we skipped walking the pier and headed east to The Gulf.

The Gulf is a unique restaurant constructed from stacked shipping containers. All seating is outdoors. When we were there last fall, they had brought in more shipping containers and tables. The expansion, which is now complete, includes a new raw bar and taco kitchen that are only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The the photo below shows the restaurant from the parking lot with the new section to the right.

The Gulf

The next photo shows the restaurant from the beach side.

View from the beach side

The Gulf always has burgers ($7.75) and grouper sandwiches ($12.25) on the menu along with a mixed green salad ($5). There are also a couple of special items on the menu, usually seafood, that run $14 to $17 or $18. We both had burgers, and we split an order of fries ($4). Margery had blue cheese on her burger, and Paul had American ($1.50 extra for cheese).

Margery attacking her burger

The food is a little expensive, but it is excellent. You are also paying for the atmosphere, which makes you feel like you're on on a mini-vacation to a tropical island.

After we ate, we got refills for our soft drinks (free) and hung out around the beach area a while. In addition to the faux-wicker and plastic beach chairs, they have some unique chairs and benches made from reclaimed materials. The bench Paul is sitting on in the photo below is made from an old boat.

Paul on a bench made from an old boat

It was getting late so we finally headed back the the 5th wheel. With clouds and a chance of rain in the forecast for the following few days, we didn't have any firm plans. We'll have have to wait and see what pops up.

Good Food in Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Friday, October 9 to Wednesday, October 14, 2015

As we said in our last post, we have lots of favorite things to eat here in Lower Alabama, and we didn't waste any time heading out to a restaurant that is close to where we are staying at Coastal Haven RV. Since we arrived in Lower Alabama around noon on Friday and got set up fairly quickly, we decided to go to Big Daddy's Grill that afternoon for lupper.

Big Daddy's is located on the Fish River about 5 minutes away from Coastal Haven. We like to eat out on their deck overlooking the water if the weather is nice like it was on Friday.

Big Daddy's Grill

Big Daddy's has changed up their menu a bit since we were there this past spring. They used to have about half a dozen lunch specials every day from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 that were about $3 cheaper than the same items after 3:00. The specials included one side and a drink. With the new menu, there is only one daily special each day Monday through Friday from 11:00 to 4:00. In addition, some of the prices have gone up a bit and some have also gone down. We suspect the portion sizes are a little smaller on the ones that have gone down, but the portions were always quite large to begin with.

Margery had a fish basket, which was the special of the day for $10 ($16 regular price), and Paul had a Philly cheese steak at the regular price of $10 ($7 when it is the special of the day on Wednesdays). Margery had onion rings for her side and Paul had sweet potato fries. Big Daddy's has some of the best sweet potato fries we have had anywhere. They are crisp on the outside, tender on the inside and always very sweet.

Fish basket and Philly cheese steak

Saturday is usually our cleaning day, but we haven't been grocery shopping since before we left Berlin, Ohio, almost two weeks prior. Therefore, we put off cleaning and headed out to Walmart on Saturday morning. On the way, we made a short detour to downtown Fairhope to stop at Panini Pete's for beignets.

It was a nice, warm morning, so we were able to enjoy our beignets out on the patio. Panini Pete's serves their beignets with lemon to squeeze over them. The lemon creates a delicious lemonade flavor when combined with the powdered sugar.

Margery with our beignets in the foreground

After we had our beignets and stopped at Walmart, we dropped the groceries off at the 5th wheel then headed to Aquila Seafood in Bon Secour for some shrimp. Bon Secour is home to a fleet of fishing boats, and Aquila Seafood is one of two seafood packing houses there that sell to the public.

Aquila Seafood

Not only was the parking lot full on a Saturday afternoon, but so were the docks. There were three large and several smaller fishing boats tied up behind Aquila, and there were quite a few more boats docked a short distance up river.

Some of the larger fishing boats docked behind Aquila Seafood

Aquila always has several sizes of shrimp, and they usually have at least a couple of kinds of fish. They had flounder, snapper and grouper when we were there this time.

Bagging our shrimp

Back when we were in Ohio, we smoked the last of the shrimp we had in the freezer from our stop in Lower Alabama last spring. They were delicious, so we planned to smoke the shrimp we just bought. Pork, brisket and turkey take hours to smoke, but shrimp only takes 20 to 30 minutes. This batch was even better than the first because the apple wood chunks Paul used this time provide a lighter smoke flavor for the delicate shrimp than the pecan chips he used last time.

Smoked shrimp

We needed to go to the post office on Tuesday to pick up mail. As if we don't have enough favorite food in Lower Alabama, we decided stop someplace new for a late lunch on our way back to the 5th wheel. The Mellow Mushroom is a restaurant chain that specializes in pizza, calzones and hoagies. There are a number of specialty pizzas and calzones, or you can build your own. Pizzas range in price from $8 for a plain small (10", 4 slices) to over $26 for one of the large (16", 8 slices) specialty pizzas loaded with toppings. Calzones start at $8 for plain cheese and go up from there depending on how many different meats, cheeses and veggies you want to add. Hoagies are about $6 to $8 for a half and about $8 to $12 for a whole.

There are a couple of Mellow Mushroom locations near where were are staying in Fairhope. There is one a few miles to the north in Daphne and one a few miles to the south in Foley. We went to the one in Daphne.

Mellow Mushroom in Daphne, AL

We shared a medium pizza with Italian sausage and mushrooms. It was yummy. The crust was thin in the center so it wasn't too filling, but it was thick and deliciously chewy around the outside.

Paul waiting to dig into his pizza

On Wednesday, we fired up the smoker again to smoke a turkey breast. The turkey was delicious that evening for dinner - tender, moist and nice and smokey. However, the way we like it best is cold and thinly sliced on sandwiches. It is soooo much better than store-bought lunch meat.

Smoked turkey breast

We are enjoying our time in lower Alabama. We have hit quite a few of our favorite eateries in the area already, but we still haven't hit them all. We also hope to do a little sightseeing. Stay tuned.

Trek to Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Wednesday, October 7 to Friday, October 9, 2015

From the Knoxville area, we headed farther south toward Lower Alabama on Wednesday morning. Our first overnight stop was at River Country Campground located on the Coosa River in Gadsden, AL.

River Country Campground has 132 pull-through sites and 62 waterfront back-ins. The campground has partially paved roads and gravel pads. There is a boat launch, a large swimming pool, a conference center and a chapel. Most of the sites have full hookups with 30/50-amp electric except for 46 overflow sites that have only water and 30-amp electric. There is also free Wi-fi that was fairly fast most of the time and free cable. There is also a strong Verizon 4G signal in the area.

We got a nice pull-through on the end of the row. Most of the sites are very close together; but it looks like when the campground isn't full, they only use every other site.

Our site at River Country Campground

Our site was across the road from the river, and we had a nice view of the river out our back window.

View out our back window

View up the road from our site

After we got set up and had lunch, we took a walk down along the river. There is a nice walkway that runs behind all the riverfront sites, and there are numerous swings where you can sit and enjoy the view.

Margery and Freeway enjoying one of the swings by the river

The next morning, we headed out on the second leg of our journey to Lower Alabama with about a two and a half-hour drive to The Woods RV Park, in Montgomery, AL. The Woods has about 100 sites, all of which are pull-throughs with full-hookups and 30/50-amp electric. The roads and pads are gravel, and the grassy sites are fairly widely spaced. There is free cable and free Wi-fi that was pretty fast. There is also a good Verizon 4G signal in the area.

Our site at The Woods RV Park

View down our row a little later in the afternoon after more RVs had arrived

Our cost for one night at The Woods was $22.80. That price was a 50% Passport America discount off the base rate and included $5 extra for 50-amp electric and tax

Since the campground is close to I-65 and has all pull-throughs, it is a good place for an overnight stop. The downside to being close to the interstate is there is a fair amount of traffic noise both from the busy, 4-lane road that passes the campground and from the interstate itself. We also heard a couple of distant trains.

Although we usually don't like to travel more than two days in a row, the second two days of our three-day trek to Lower Alabama were fairly short so we made an exception and headed out Friday morning on the final leg to Coastal Haven RV Park in Fairhope, AL.

In the past, we always stayed at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation RV Park when we stopped in Lower Alabama; but this year, we made our reservations a little too late to get a site at Rainbow Plantation where we were sure we would be able to get good satellite reception. The live oak trees between the sites at Rainbow Plantation have gotten pretty big, and there aren't many sites with a good view of the southern sky to begin with. On top of that, having a new RV with the satellite dish in a different location on the roof added to our uncertainty about being able to get satellite reception, so we decided to try Coastal Haven.

Coastal Haven has about 50 back-in sites and about 12 pull-throughs. All sites have full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, and all the pads and patios are paved. The sites have fairly wide spacing for a private campground, and there is well-manicured grass between the sites.

Our site at Coastal Haven

All the pads are nice and long, but some of them (like ours) are narrow and are at 90º to the road rather than at an angle making backing in a challenge. Adding to the challenge is the fact that most sites have trees flanking the entrance to the site. If we come back to Coastal Haven, which is highly likely, we'll ask for one of the angled sites, one of the wider sites or one of the pull-throughs.

Coastal Haven also has free cable and free Wi-fi that is pretty fast. There is also a good Verizon 4G signal. Coastal Haven is located on a road with a lot more traffic than the one where Rainbow Plantation is located, so there is a little more traffic noise. However, during the day, we're running the air so we can't really hear the traffic that much from inside, and it diminishes to almost nothing at night.

We got a monthly rate at Coastal Haven of $442 including tax. That works out to a little over $14 a night, which we think is an excellent price given how nice the campground is. The daily rate is $42 a night, and weekly rate is $146.

As we said, we have lots of favorite things to eat here in Lower Alabama, so we're planning to enjoy as many as we can while we're here. We also have a list of sightseeing possibilities, so stay tuned.

Oak Ridge, TN

Heiskell (Knoxville), TN - Events of Monday, October 5 to Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is located about 30 minutes from Heiskell. Oak Ridge was the location of a secret city established at the beginning of WWII for the Manhattan Project, which was the code name for the secret project to build an atomic bomb. We headed to Oak Ridge on Monday to visit the American Museum of Science and Energy.

Originally called the American Museum of Atomic Energy, the museum first opened in 1949 in a WWII-era cafeteria. The present facility was opened in 1975. The name was changed to the American Museum of Science and Energy in 1978.

American Museum of Science and Energy

Outside the museum was a steel sculpture of the World Trade Center on loan from Limor Steel in Nashville.

Sculpture of the World Trade Center

Also outside was a pair of parabolic "Whisper Dishes." The dishes are placed about 100 feet apart, and if someone stands near the center of one dish and speaks in a whisper, a person standing next to the other dish can hear as clearly as if they were standing side by side.

Margery listening at one of the Whisper Dishes

Admission to the museum is a bargain at $5 for adults and $4 for seniors over 65. A popular feature of the museum is a bus tour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday of some of the remaining landmarks of the original Oak Ridge site. Seats on the bus are available on a first come, first served basis. Even though it was Monday, we decided not to do the bus tour because it doesn't start until noon and lasts three hours. That was later than we wanted to be tied up because we were planning to stop for lupper at a great place we found last year. More on that later.

Six weeks after the United States entered WWII, President Roosevelt formally approved a secret project to produce an atomic bomb. Scientists who had escaped Germany to the United States told of German efforts to produce such a weapon, and the race was on for the United States to be first.

Facilities for the Manhattan Project were located in three main sites. Site "W" near Hanford, Washington, was devoted to the production of plutonium. Site "Y" in the desert near Los Alamos, New Mexico, was where the bombs were designed, built and tested. Oak Ridge was Site "X" and was the location of uranium enrichment facilities and administration.

One reason the site at Oak Ridge was chosen was because it was located far enough from both coasts to reduce the chance of enemy attack. Its location on the Clinch River provided a good source for water, and there was also a dam nearby to provide electric power. Although the location was sparsely populated, which reduced acquisition costs, it had good access to rail transportation. The temperate climate also meant construction could go on year round.

The museum tells the history of Oak Ridge and of the Manhattan Project primarily by photos, written descriptions and videos. Construction of a secret city to house Manhattan Project workers and their families began in 1943. Oak Ridge was a self-contained city with housing, stores, theaters, schools, restaurants, sports facilities, churches and a library. The entire 59,000 acre site was completely surrounded by a fence punctuated by guard towers.

Margery reading about the construction of Oak Ridge

As is usually the case for any government project, this one expanded far beyond its initial estimate. It was originally thought Oak Ridge would be home for 13,000 people. The actual number was 75,000 by the end of the war. New houses were added at the rate of one every 30 minutes.

To help keep Oak Ridge secret, it did not appear on any map until after the war in spite of the fact it had 75,000 residents. For security reasons, everyone over the age of 10 was required to wear an ID badge. To further help maintain secrecy, workers at Oak Ridge were kept in the dark as to the purpose of their jobs. They worked only on their own part of the project with no knowledge of what anyone else was doing. There weren't many automobiles in Oak Ridge, but even those that belonged to top military officials were searched when they entered and left the site. The project was so top secret even Vice President Harry Truman didn't know about it until he took over the presidency following FDR's death in office in 1945.

The first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. With no surrender by the Japanese forthcoming, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9. Although additional bombs were being readied, they were not necessary because Japan surrendered on August 15.

Oak Ridge was shifted to civilian control two years after the end of the war, but it remained under the authority of the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1959, the city was incorporated and was freed from federal supervision.

There is still a site in Oak Ridge that is used for nuclear weapons processing and another that is now the location of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, both of which are operated under the control of the U.S. Department of Energy.

In addition to the history of Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project, the museum also has various scientific displays and exhibits, many of which are hands-on. In the next photo, Margery is operating a remote-controlled crane to pick up blocks.

Margery playing with a remote-controlled crane

The exhibit in the photo below demonstrates the Bernoulli Effect where the upward air flow from a nozzle flows around a ball counteracting gravity and suspending the ball in mid-air. Paul was pretending to levitate the ball.

Paul pretending to levitate a ball in a demonstration of the Bernoulli Effect

In the section of the museum on environmental protection, we came across a mannequin in a protective suit and wearing an MSA Ultra-Twin Full-facepiece Respirator. MSA is the company Paul worked for in his past life, and he did a considerable amount of work on molds for plastic components for the Ultra-Twin Facepiece and its sister product, the Ultravue Facepiece.

MSA Ultra-Twin Full-facepiece Respirator

In the area where there was a timeline of atomic discoveries there was a giant model of an atom. The swirling lights inside simulating electrons were mesmerizing.

Giant atom with swirling lights representing electrons

There is a large section of the museum that covers energy including nuclear, coal and oil. The next photo shows a scale model of an oil platform.

Scale model of an oil platform

There is a wealth of information available at the American Museum of Science and Energy. If you wanted to see everything in detail, read all the posted information and watch all the videos, it could easily take several days.

We finished at the museum in the early afternoon, and headed for the Holy Land Market and Deli in Knoxville for a late lunch. We discovered the Holy Land Market last year. They specialize in Middle-Eastern food in both the market and the deli.

Unfortunately, even though they are supposed to be open Mondays, when we got there we found a hand-written sign in their window that said "Closed - See You Tuesday." We headed back to the 5th wheel for lunch and made plans to go back to the Holy Land Market on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, we did some pre-departure chores in the morning then headed back to the Holy Land Market.

Holy Land Market

We loved the Reuben sandwiches we had at Holy Land last year, so that's what we both had again this year. They make their own Kosher-style corned beef, and it is really tender.

Margery with her Reuben sandwich

After our late lunch, we headed back to the 5th wheel and relaxed the rest of the day in preparation for our departure the next morning. We'll tell you where we headed in our next post.

A Stop in Knoxville, TN

Heiskell (Knoxville), TN - Events of Thursday, October 1 to Sunday, October 4, 2015

We were hitched up and on the road by 8:40 on Thursday morning headed toward Knoxville, TN. That was earlier than normal because we had a fairly long travel day (for us) of over 5 hours for an overnight stop at Fort Chiswell RV Park near Wytheville, VA.

We actually left a little earlier than we had planned because packing and hitching took us less time than we thought it would thanks to the practice we had gotten moving to a new site at Scenic Hills the Sunday before. Readying the 5th wheel for travel will probably always take a little longer than the motor home did, but we're happy to see the time for the 5th wheel getting shorter as we get better at it.

The temperatures in the Berlin area had been in the 70s, which is warmer than normal, but there was definitely the downward trend. That downward trend became a precipitous drop because the highs for the day we left and for the next several days were predicted to struggle to get out of the 50s.

It got a little warmer as we drove south, but not much. It was cloudy the whole way, but at least it didn't rain.

Fort Chiswell RV has 80 or 90 sites, all of which have full-hookups, and most of which have 30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-fi. The Wi-fi was fairly fast, at least until the campground filled up. There is a good Verizon 4G signal in the area.

The roads are paved, and most of the pads are gravel. We got one of the few sites with a paved pad.

Our site at Ft. Chiswell RV Park

Although the RV park is conveniently located less than half a mile from the interstate, there is little or no traffic noise because there is a good-sized hill between the RV park and the highway. The nightly cost was about $34.

Most of the sites are pull-throughs, which makes Ft. Chiswell RV a good spot for an overnight stop. The RV park is located near a place where I-77 and I-81 run concurrently for a distance of about 10 miles, so there are a lot of overnighters. Every time we stay there we are amazed at the steady stream of RVs arriving in the late afternoon. When we got there around 3:00, there were only a few sites that were occupied. By early evening, the campground was almost full. The next photo shows the rows of sites behind us filling up about an hour after we arrived.

View of the sites behind us

On Friday morning, we headed out on the next leg of our journey south. There was a light rain when we pulled out of Ft. Chiswell, and the rain continued off and on for the three-hour drive to Heiskell, Tennessee, which is just to the north of Knoxville. We got another relatively early start and pulled into the Escapees Raccoon Valley RV Park around 12:30.

We stayed in Heiskell last year on our way south because we were RV shopping and there are several RV dealers in the area who sell brands of RVs we were considering. This year, we planned to do a little visiting, a little sightseeing, a little eating out and a little relaxing.

Raccoon Valley RV Park has 68 full-hookup RV sites with 30/50-amp electric. The roads and pads are gravel. The sites are about evenly split between pull-throughs and back-ins. The sites are a little close together, but they're not awful, and there is a small strip of grass between most of the sites. Wi-fi is available for a fee. Our cost was around $21 a night including tax.

Our site at Raccoon Valley

View down the road at Raccoon Valley

As you can see from the puddles in the photo of our site above, it had been raining in Heiskell, too. The rain finally stopped by evening, but it started up again the next morning and rained off and on all day Saturday.

On Saturday, our friends, Darrell and Judy, drove two hours from their home in Crossville, Tennessee, for a visit. Darrell and Judy, who used to be full-timers, recently bought a sticks-and-bricks house in Crossville.

We offered to meet Darrelll and Judy at a restaurant half way between Crossville and Heiskell, but they wanted to see our new rig. After they got the 50-cent tour and after we visited a while, we headed out to have lupper at Buddy's Bar-b-q. Buddy's has about a dozen corporate and three franchise locations in and around Knoxville. One of the franchise locations is located just off I-75 one exit to the south of where we were staying.

Buddy's Bar-b-q

Buddy's has pork, chicken, ham and ribs. Sandwiches range in price from as low as $3 for regular ham to $4 for large pork and large chicken. Dinners are under $10.

We both had pulled pork dinners with two sides (potato salad and cole slaw) for $6.39. The pork had a nice smokey flavor and it was very tender and moist. The sides were good, too.

Margery, Darrell and Judy at Buddy's

We chatted for a while after we ate, then Darrell and Judy dropped us off at our 5th wheel before heading back to Crossville. It was good to see them again and to catch up.

Sunday finally brought sunshine and temperatures back in the mid to upper 70s. Ahhh, that's more like it. We relaxed around the rig all day. The weather forecast for Monday was for sun and a high around 80º. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and did some sightseeing. We'll tell you about it in our next post.