Living Our Dream

Site Project: Landscape Bed Improvement

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, November 21 to Tuesday, November 29, 2016

One of the things we like about our new site in Wauchula is the landscaping. There are two pygmy date palms and a bottle brush shrub we can see right outside our door. However, the landscape bed in which those are planted needed a little work, The plastic edging around the bed had fallen over in many places and had become buried. The gravel mulch in the bed was full of sand, grass and leaves. Therefore, we came up with a plan to replace the edging and renew the gravel. We also decided to make the bed a little wider to make it easier to get the mower in under the trees to be able to mow closer to the edge.

Paul spent the weekend researching various options for edging. In the end, we decided to go with the same cast concrete edging we installed on our site at Blueberry Hill a couple of years ago because concrete edging is fairly durable. If a section or two gets run over by the tractor tires during mowing, they are easy to straighten again. If a section gets cracked or chipped, it is easy to replace. Most of the big box stores have shrunk their garden-related inventory in favor of Christmas decorations, poinsettias and Christmas trees, but Paul was able to find some of the edging in stock at the Home Depot in Sebring.

Paul went to the Ace Hardware in Wauchula on Monday to get some hardware cloth to use to make a screen to screen the sand and debris out of the existing gravel in the bed. Then on Tuesday, we headed to Home Depot in Sebring to pick up new edging. Paul started laying out the new bed outline and started installing the new edging when we got back on Tuesday, and he worked on it some more on Wednesday and Thursday morning.

Paul installing new edging around our landscape bed

After Paul got cleaned up, we headed to the Cracker Barrel in Bradenton in the early afternoon for Thanksgiving lupper like we have done many times in the past. Cracker Barrel has a very good Thanksgiving dinner that consists of turkey and ham, corn bread dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce and your choice of an additional side for $12.99. Also included are your choice of a beverage and pumpkin pie for dessert. When we first started going to Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving, the price of the meal was around $7. The price has gone up about a dollar a year, and this year the portion size looked to be a little smaller than we remembered, but we still got plenty to eat (like many people, we took the pie home with us for later), and even at $12.99 it is a good value.

As usual, the porch in front of the restaurant was full of people waiting for tables. The gift shop inside was crowded, too. We like to browse around the gift shop because they have lots of interesting Christmas stuff. Margery found a small Christmas tree that would have looked nice on our dining table.

Margery checking out a small Christmas tree

We eventually decided against the tree, but ended up getting a cute Christmas outfit for Lydia. It has a red dress with a big snowflake on it and red and white candy cane-striped tights.

It took about 35 minutes for our name to be called for a table, which was slightly shorter than usual and a lot shorter than we expected given the number of people we saw hanging out on the porch when we first arrived.

We headed back to the rig after lupper for an evening of TV. Later, we enjoyed our pumpkin pie.

On Friday, Paul finished up installing the edging and started working on removing and screening the gravel. Margery joined him a little later and worked the screen to remove the sand then picked out the twigs and roots by hand before dumping the gravel into the wheelbarrow we borrowed from the co-op. Meanwhile, Paul climbed under the trees, shoveled up the gravel and put it onto the screen.

Margery screening debris out of the landscape gravel

It took almost a week of working several hours a day to get all the gravel screened and cleaned up. Paul finally finished up late on Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately, even though we added about 25% to the area of the landscape bed, the existing gravel was deep enough that he was able to spread it a little thinner and still cover the new, larger area without having to buy any additional gravel.

Finished landscape bed with new edging and refreshed gravel

With the job of cleaning up the big landscape bed out of the way, Paul is already planning other projects. On the other hand, a little relaxation time might be nice. Stay tuned to see what wins out.

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Settling into Our New Winter Home

Wauchula, FL - Events of Monday, November 14 to Sunday, November 20, 2015

A week ago Monday, we hitched up, pulled out of Blueberry Hill and drove about 2½ hours to our new site in the SKP Florida Resort in Wauchula. After we got set up, we relaxed the rest of the day.

As we mentioned before, the SKP Florida Resort is a member-owned co-op that is sponsored by Escapees, which is an RV club that caters to full-timers. After paying a one-time buy-in fee, co-op members pay a very reasonable annual maintenance fee.

The resort has 127 sites with palm tree-lined, paved streets. The sites have been developed by their owners over the years so most have some degree of paving and some landscaping. Co-op members are encouraged to put their sites into the rental pool during their absence so there are also sites available for visitors to rent. However, the availability of rental sites decreases as the season progresses as co-op members arrive for the winter. There are also a limited number of overflow sites with 20-amp electric only (no water and no sewer) and a few dry-camp sites with no hookups.

View down the road at the SKP Florida Resort

The driveway, RV parking pad and patio of our site are all paved. The site also has nice landscaping and a shed, although the shed is kind of small and pretty old.

Our site at the SKP Florida Resort

So far, we really like our new digs. For one thing, the area is very rural. We are surrounded by cattle ranches and orange groves. Although Wauchula is a small town and the neighboring town of Zolfo Springs is very small, between them they have a Walmart, a Winn-Dixie, a large Ace Hardware that also has lumber and building materials, a Tractor Supply, several auto parts stores, most of the fast-food restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Sonic, Wendy's, etc.) and a number of sit-down restaurants.

Since the area is rural, it is also fairly quiet, especially at night. There is no interstate noise, and there are no trains. There are roosters, however, and they start crowing well before dawn. Paul hears them when he puts Freeway outside first thing in the morning, but fortunately, they are far enough away we can't hear them from inside the rig.

On Tuesday morning, we headed out to the Walmart in Wauchula. The Walmart in Bushnell next to Blueberry Hill is small, and this one is even smaller. There were a couple of items we needed they didn't have, but the items weren't critical so we planned to try the next closest Walmart in Avon Park a few days later.

After we got back from Walmart, Paul hooked up the pressure washer and completed cleaning the concrete on our site. It took a lot longer than he thought it would, but he was able to finish just before it got dark. Whew! We're glad that's out of the way.

Another thing we like about our new location is we are closer to Bradenton, Sarasota and St. Petersburg. In the past, we did some sightseeing and visited a few restaurants in those locations from our old winter home in Bushnell, but they were 2½ hours away. From Wauchula, however, they are only about an hour away, so we look forward to more frequent visits. In fact, we made a visit to Sarasota on Wednesday when we headed to Der Dutchman Restaurant for their breakfast buffet.

Der Dutchman Sarasota

The restaurant is located in the Pinecraft area of Sarasota, which is where a few Amish and Mennonites live year 'round, and where large numbers of them come to spend the winter away from the cold and snow in the north. The restaurant wasn't very crowded, and we didn't see many Amish walking or biking along the streets, so most of them probably haven't arrived yet.

Der Dutchman is a chain of 5 or 6 restaurants, most of which are in Ohio. Our favorite is in Walnut Creek near where we spend time in the summer, but the restaurant in Walnut Creek is almost 1000 miles away so the one in Sarasota will be a good substitute for the winter. One thing Paul does like about the Der Dutchman in Sarasota is they have a lot bigger selection of pastries on their breakfast buffet, but overall, we think the food is a little better in Walnut Creek.

Margery checking out the pastries

We ran a couple of errands in the Sarasota area after breakfast and then headed back to Wauchula where we relaxed for the rest of the day.

We drove about 25 minutes to the Walmart in Avon Park on Thursday morning to get the items we couldn't find at the Walmart in Wauchula. The store in Avon Park is really big and is very nice because it only reopened about a month ago following extensive remodeling. It had all the items we couldn't get in Wauchula and then some, and it seems to have most of the things we usually buy. Therefore, it will likely become our "go-to" Walmart even though it's a little farther away than the one in Wauchula.

Paul spent most of the rest of Thursday afternoon and much of Friday pruning the dead fronds from our two pygmy date palms and doing a little cleanup of the landscape. There is still more he wants to do, but it looks much better for now.

We did our weekly cleaning chores on Saturday morning, then Paul puttered around the site in the afternoon. We relaxed and watched the final NASCAR race of the season on Sunday. Congratulations to the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion #48 Jimmy Johnson. This is his 7th championship, a feat that has only been achieved by two other drivers - Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt, Sr.

Other than doing a little more puttering around our site, we don't have anything planned for the upcoming week. However, you never know what may pop up. Stay tuned.

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Getting Ready to Head Farther South

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, November 2 to Sunday, November 13, 2015

The day after we arrived at Blueberry Hill (Wednesday), Paul weeded and weed-whacked our site in the morning. The maintenance staff mows over the summer, and they will also mow when we're there in the winter if we request it, but they don't trim or weed. They use big, riding mowers that can't get close to the edging around our landscape beds or to our pavement so things always look a little ragged by the time we arrive in the fall. The hot summers also produce a good many weeds in the landscape beds in spite of the heavy layer of cypress mulch Paul put down.

During the last two weeks we would be spending in Bushnell, we wanted to visit our favorite restaurants before we moved to the SKP Resort in Wauchula. Therefore, we headed out to lupper at Dan's Clam Stand later on Wednesday afternoon. Dan's is about 45 minutes away in Homasassa, and they have the second-best fried clam strips we have ever had. The best were at the Ipswitch Clambake Co. in Ipswitch, Massachusetts.

Dan's Clam Stand

Their dinner-sized fried clam strip basket has either frozen strips for $8 or fresh for $10. We always get fresh because they tend to be sweeter and more tender. The baskets include two sides. Margery had slaw and onion straws, and had Paul slaw and Cajun fries.

Paul with his fried clam strip basket

We made a day trip to Wauchula first thing Thursday morning. As we said in our last post, Paul wanted to pressure-wash the concrete before moving the 5th wheel to the new site.

We first stopped in the office and introduced ourselves. After we spent a little time getting some answers to a couple of questions we had about the co-op, we headed to our site and got the pressure washer hooked up. The SKP Florida Co-op is 20 to 30 years old, and much of the concrete dates back to the early days of the resort. Therefore, it is well-weathered, and the porous surface quickly picks up plenty of dark stains in Florida's humid climate.

Paul pressure washing the concrete on our new site in Wauchula

There was evidence the concrete had been pressure washed at some time in the past, but as you can see from the photo above, it was pretty dirty and took a lot of time to get clean with our small pressure washer. Paul wanted to at least get the concrete that would be under the 5th wheel done before we moved the rig down to Wauchula, but with the time we spent at the beginning of our visit getting answers to our questions and meeting neighbors, Paul only had a little more than half that area done by mid-afternoon. Since we planned to stop to eat on our way back to Blueberry Hill and since it was getting late, we decided to call it a day and come back the following day to finish up.

Pancho's Villa is only a few minutes off I-75 in San Antonio, Florida, on the way back to Blueberry Hill, so that's where we planned to stop for dinner. It was about 4:30 when we arrived.

Pancho's Villa

Chimichangas are one of our favorites at Pancho's, and as luck would have it, chimis were the special of the day for $8.75 (regularly $9.75). We both had ground beef chimis with queso sauce instead of the regular rojo (molé) sauce. The chimis were yummy as were the corn chips and salsa. We love, love, LOVE the corn chips and salsa at Panchos because the chips are warm, thin, crisp and lightly salted, and the salsa has lots of fresh cilantro.

Paul with his chimichanga at Pancho's Villa

After dinner, we headed back to Blueberry Hill for an evening of TV.

Bright and early Friday morning, we drove back to Wauchula in the truck to finish pressure washing the concrete. Paul got the area done that will be under the 5th wheel plus most of the patio area, but he still didn't have enough time to finish the driveway where we'll be parking the truck. Oh well, he'll be able finish that after we get there with the rig in a week or so. We got back to the 5th wheel in time for dinner, then spent Friday evening and the weekend relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, Freeway is pretty good at it. If he's not on someone's lap, he likes to sit up on the back of the recliner. Here's a picture for his fan club.

Freeway relaxing on the top of the recliner

On Monday, we went to Beef O'Brady's up the road in Bushnell for Burger Monday. Their build-your-own burgers are great, and they're only $6 on Mondays (regularly $8) including fries. Margery had onion rings with her burger ($2 extra), and Paul had cheese on his burger ($.75 extra) and regular fries.

We needed a few things from Sam's Club, which is located in The Villages just up the road from OakWood Grill. OakWood has their delicious baby back ribs priced at $14 Wednesday through Sunday (regularly $17), so we headed to Sam's on Wednesday afternoon and stopped at OakWood afterward for ribs. The ribs include two sides - Margery had slaw and onion rings, and Paul had slaw and lima beans.

Baby back ribs, slaw and lima beans

Margery about to dig in

In addition to wanting to pressure wash the concrete that would be under the 5th wheel on our new site before we parked the 5th there, another reason we stopped over at Blueberry Hill on the way to Wauchula was because we were waiting for the new computer we ordered to arrive. We wrote about working on computer problems in a couple of previous posts. Not only does the old computer not have a resolution high enough for the work we do with our photos, but we were pretty sure the problem with the computer was a software (Windows) problem. We figured if we had to re-install Windows to get the old computer working again, we would also have to reinstall all our software and restore all our data from a backup anyway. Therefore, we finally gave up trying to solve the problem with the old computer and just ordered a new one that would be faster and that would have a display better suited for working with photos.

The computer came in Wednesday afternoon, and we picked it up in the office at Blueberry Hill on our way back to the rig after lupper. Paul was up bright and early on Thursday and dug right into setting up the new computer. He made good progress over the course of the day, and Margery was able to use the new laptop for web browsing, email and recipes by evening.

Unfortunately, the new computer started bogging down by the time Margery went to bed Thursday night, so Paul was on the phone with Dell tech support first thing Friday morning. The tech remotely installed some new drivers and updated the BIOS (the firmware that initializes hardware during boot up), and the new computer was back to normal. Not only does the new computer have a faster processor, but it also has a solid state hard drive that makes accessing files lightening fast.

Paul worked on downloading the last few apps for the new computer and he tweaked some of the settings on Friday. With the computer setup essentially complete, we relaxed most of the rest of the weekend.

Since Pancho's is a lot closer to Blueberry Hill than it is to Wauchula, we thought we would take advantage of that fact and head to Pancho's Saturday afternoon to eat one there more time before we left Blueberry. Margery had another ground beef chimichanga, and Paul had a chicken burrito. They were delish as were the corn chips and salsa.

Margery with her chimichanga at Pancho's

We did some pre-departure chores on Sunday then relaxed and watched the second-to-last NASCAR race of the season. On Monday, we headed to our new site in the SKP Florida RV Resort. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

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Summerdale to Blueberry Hill

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, October 31 to Tuesday, November 1, 2016

We headed out on Monday morning on the first leg of our journey from Summerdale to Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, Florida. It was a three-hour drive to our overnight stop at Beaver Lake Campground in Quincy, Florida. We timed our departure from Summerdale to arrive in Quincy shortly after 2:00 taking into account we would be losing an hour going from Central Time to Eastern because Beaver Lake reportedly has a very strict interpretation of their 2 p.m. check-in time, and we didn't want to arrive early. Beaver Lake has a few long-term residents, but we were the first overnighters to arrive.

Beaver Lake Campground is basically a row of 10 full-hookup, pull-through campsites in a field behind a gas station with a few back-ins along the sides. As far as we can tell, all sites have 20/30/50-amp electric. The pull-through sites are pretty narrow, and the hookups are side by side (meaning the utility pedestals are shared) so you are really close to your neighbor on the off-door side. There is no Wi-fi, but since the campground is right off the interstate, there is a good Verizon 4G signal. Because the campground is close to the interstate, there is also a good bit of traffic noise. Beaver Lake isn't anything fancy by any means, but at a Passport America rate of only around $20 a night, it's good place for an overnight stop.

Our site at Beaver Lake CG

A Class C motor home pulled in beside us an hour or so after we arrived. By dusk, only two more rigs had arrived so there were fewer people there this time than any of our previous stops at Beaver Lake. The truck camper to the left in the photo below is a long-term resident.

Only a few people at Beaver Lake CG on this stop

On Tuesday morning, we hit the road fairly early on the final leg of our journey to Blueberry Hill. It was a drive of a little over 4 hours that included two stops - a fuel stop at Flying J and a later stop to check hub temps (all good). We pulled into Blueberry Hill around 1:00 and got set up.

Our site at Blueberry Hill

As our regular readers know, we have been spending winters at Blueberry Hill for quite some time (since our second winter of full-timing in 2007-2008). A few years ago, we even signed up for a 6-and-6 deal at Blueberry (6 months of site usage and 6 months of optional, on-site RV storage). We were attracted to the deal by an incentive that included an allowance for a shed, paving and landscaping in exchange for a 2-year commitment. Even though we don't spend a full 6 months in Florida during the winter and even though we don't want to store our rig on the site in the summer, the cost for 6-and-6 is only slightly higher than we were paying for 4 months at the regular rate so we thought having the shed, paving and landscaping was definitely worth it.

Although we love our site at Blueberry Hill, we won't be here much longer. We will soon be moving to the SKP RV Resort in Wauchula, which is a little over two hours farther south.

Back in the late fall of 2007 as we toured around Florida before going to Blueberry Hill, one of the stops we made was at the SKP Florida RV Resort. SKP is an abbreviation for Escapees, which is an RV club we belong to that caters to full-timers. The organization owns campgrounds in numerous locations around the country (mostly in the south and west - Rainbow Plantation where we recently stayed in Lower Alabama is one of them). There are also co-ops that are sponsored by Escapees but are wholly member-owned. The Florida RV Resort is one of those member-owned co-ops.

We liked the co-op in Wauchula when we stayed there, so we inquired about getting a site. At that time, they told us there was a 10-year wait. Although we had no idea what we would be doing in 10 years, there was only a nominal registration fee plus a relatively small, refundable deposit required to get our names onto the waiting list. We thought if we were still full-timing by the time our name reached the top of the list, we might be looking for a home base. Therefore, we went ahead and signed up.

Because we started out at number 185 on the list, the possibility of getting a site was so far in the future we paid little attention to where we were on the list over the years. The economic downturn of 2008-2009 and the anemic recovery that followed apparently caused more people than usual to drop off the list, which resulted in our name rising more quickly than anticipated. We got a call last spring, which was a little more than 8 years since we had signed up, telling us we were approaching the top of the list, and that there would likely be a site available for us by late spring.

The buy-in fee for the Escapees Florida Co-op is fairly reasonable. Not only that, but the original buy-in fee plus the cost of any improvements the member makes to the site are refundable when the member leaves the co-op. With the buy-in fee being fully refundable and with a waiting list of people wanting to get a site, there is no risk of not getting our money back when the time comes to leave like there might be if we purchased an RV site outright somewhere else. In addition, the annual maintenance fee, which entitles us to use the site for the entire year if we choose, is less than half the rent we pay at Blueberry Hill, which is only good for a 6 month stay plus 6 months of RV storage. Therefore, when we were officially notified a site was available for us, making the decision to buy into the co-op and move to Wauchula made so much economic sense we couldn't pass it up.

Unfortunately, we had already committed to another year at Blueberry Hill when we found out we would be getting a site at the co-op. As we said, however, the maintenance fee at the co-op is very low so we'll be able to recoup the extra money we'll be paying out this year in a fairly short amount of time starting next year.

The sites at the Escapees Co-op are about the same size as the ones at Blueberry Hill. They are a little narrower, but they are somewhat longer. Our new site has a paved driveway, parking pad and patio. It also has a shed. There is a very large Sabol palm at the front of the site and two smaller palms (Paul thinks they are pygmy date palms) and a red bottle brush shrub on our site outside our door. The neighbors on the off-door side have a couple of citrus trees, which will not only provide some shade for our rig on hot days, but they have an intoxicating scent when they bloom in late winter and early spring.

Our new site at SKP RV Resort

Some of the landscaping on our new site

Our plan is to stay at Blueberry Hill for a week or so where we'll be doing a little weeding and maintenance so our old site is presentable in our absence. The maintenance staff at Blueberry will mow when we're not there, but we're still responsible for weeding and trimming as long as our names are on the lease. Eating at a couple of our favorite restaurants in the area is also on the schedule. In addition, we'll make a couple of day trips to Wauchula because Paul wants to pressure wash the pavement, and that will be easier to do if the 5th wheel isn't parked on it. We'll also reconnoiter to see what else may need to be done before moving the rig to Wauchula for the remainder of the winter.

We’ll definitely miss Blueberry Hill and our friends there, but Wauchula is only about two hours away so we may pop in for a visit now and then. We'll be spending the upcoming winter making new friends, investigating new restaurants, looking for new places to shop and seeking out new sightseeing opportunities. Stay tuned.

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Lower Alabama

Summerdale, AL - Events of Monday, October 24 to Sunday, October 30, 2016

After going out to eat on Friday, which was the day we first arrived in Lower Alabama, we worked on some computer problems over the weekend. Then on Monday afternoon, we headed to Panini Pete's in Fairhope for a late lunch. We love to go on a nice day so we can eat outside in the courtyard.

Outdoor seating at Panini Pete's in the courtyard

We both had our favorite paninis - house-roasted turkey on foccacia with baby greens, roasted red pepper, Dijon, garlic aioli, and house-made mozzarella. Turkey paninis are $8.50 and include one side. Margery had shoestring fries, and Paul had lentil salad.

Margery with her house-roasted turkey panini and fries

After our yummy lunch, we took the long way back to the campground like we usually do past the fancy homes along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. On Tuesday, we ran up to Spanish Fort to Sam's Club and worked on our computer problem some more when we got back.

Big Daddy's Grill is another of our favorite restaurants in Lower Alabama, and we headed there on Wednesday. Big Daddy's in located on the banks of the Fish River and it's another place we like to go on a nice day so we can sit outside on the deck overlooking the river.

Big Daddy's (view from the river side)

We both had the Wednesday lunch special (good until 4:00), which is a Philly cheese steak with one side and a soft drink for $7. The regular price is $10 without the drink. As usual, Margery had onion rings for her side, and Paul had sweet potato fries.

Paul with his Philly cheese steak and sweet potato fries

On Friday, we drove south to The Gulf Restaurant in Orange Beach. The Gulf is located right along Perdido Pass (the channel through which the Perdido River flows into the Gulf of Mexico). The restaurant is constructed from stacked shipping containers. All seating is outdoors, so they will likely be closed if it is a rainy day.

The Gulf

The Gulf always has burgers ($7.75) and fried grouper sandwiches ($12.75) on the menu, and they usually have one or two other sandwiches ($8 to $13), a couple of large salads (up to $17) and one or two kinds of fish (up to $17). In the past, we have always gotten burgers, but this time we decided to try the fried grouper sandwich. The fish was extra-crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. The sandwiches are served with lettuce, tomato and lemon-dill sauce. They were huge, and they were delicious.

We love the atmosphere at The Gulf because it is very beachy. They have picnic tables for eating and faux wicker furniture on the beach for lounging. It feels like you're on a tropical island.

Seats for lounging on the beach

After we eat, we usually like to hang around a while and soak up the atmosphere. We took a walk down by the seawall to watch the boats going in and out, and we noticed bunches of jellyfish swimming by. Most of them were sea nettles, but there were also a couple of moon jellyfish. We didn't get a good picture of a moon jelly because not only are they more translucent and harder to see, they seemed to be staying farther below the surface so the camera's auto-focus couldn't zero in on them very well.

Sea nettle jellyfish

We eventually headed back to Rainbow Plantation to relax with an evening of TV.

On Saturday morning, we did our weekly cleaning chores, then drove down to Bon Secour to Aquila Seafood to get some fresh shrimp for the freezer.

Aquila Seafood

Aquila always has several sizes of shrimp to pick from, and they usually also have several kinds of fish and sometimes crabs and oysters depending on the season.

Selection of different sizes of shrimp

After we got our shrimp and put it into the cooler in the truck, we walked around back to look at the boats docked there like we usually do. This time, they were in the process of unloading shrimp from a boat. They were hoisting shrimp up from the hold of the boat in a metal basket and dumping them into a hopper on the end of a pipe that ran along the dock.

Unloading shrimp from the hold of a fishing boat

Seawater pumped through the pipe gently washes the shrimp to a hopper inside a small shed.

Shrimp being delivered through a pipe to a hopper

The shrimp are then carried from the hopper by a conveyor into the building for cleaning and processing.

Conveyor taking the shrimp into the building for processing

After watching the fishermen unload for a while, we headed back to the truck and back to Rainbow Plantation. We then cleaned and vacuum-bagged our shrimp and put them into the freezer.

Margery has been hungry for a burger, and since we had grouper sandwiches when we went to The Gulf instead of burgers like we usually do, we decided to go to lupper at Big Daddy's on Saturday afternoon for burgers because we knew theirs are excellent. As usual, Margery had onion rings and Paul had sweet potato fries.

Ready to enjoy our burgers at Big Daddy's

With our stay in Lower Alabama drawing to a close, we had managed to hit our top favorite restaurants, but we still hadn't had all our favorite foods. On Sunday morning, we headed back to Panini Pete's in Fairhope for beignets. We love their beignets because they are served with lemon, which when squeezed over the beignets combines with the powdered sugar to create a delicious lemonade flavor.  

Margery enjoying a beignet

For all the years we have been visiting Lower Alabama, our favorite restaurants have been consistently excellent...just like we remember from our last visit. You might expect that from a corporate restaurant, but to experience that consistency in local restaurants is worth every mile we go for our return visits. 

After our beignets, we stopped at Walmart to get a couple of grocery items before we hit the road. Back at Rainbow Plantation, we did a few pre-departure chores then relaxed the rest of the day. We'll tell you about our journey in our next post.