Living Our Dream

Lower Alabama

Fairhope, AL - Events of Thursday, April 14 to Sunday, April 17, 2016

On Thursday morning, we hitched up the 5th wheel, left Blueberry Hill behind and headed north and west toward Lower Alabama. We had a drive of a little over 4 hours to our overnight stop at Beaver Lake Campground in Quincy, Florida. Quincy is located a few miles west of Tallahassee.

We stayed at Beaver Lake on our way from Alabama to Florida last fall, and it's not what you would call a destination campground. It is basically a row of a dozen or so campsites in a field behind a Marathon gas station. The check-in is inside the gas station. The good news is the price is reasonable (around $20 at the Passport America rate), it has full hook-ups with 30/50-amp electric, it is conveniently located right off the interstate exit and almost all the sites are pull-throughs.

The bad news is the sites are very close together with side-by-side hookups and there is some traffic noise from I-10. Also, the ground can accumulate quite a few puddles if it's been raining like it was when we arrived on Thursday afternoon.

The other bad news is the lady in the gas station who does the campground check-in is strictly business and not very friendly. Check-in time at Beaver Lake is 2 p.m., and it is reportedly strictly enforced. We read reviews where people who arrived early were made to stand there and wait until exactly 2:00 before they could even begin the check-in process. We took our time leaving Blueberry Hill in the morning to be sure we arrived in Quincy after 2:00. Being forewarned about check-in also helps. Margery tried to be as pleasant as possible without going overboard by being too jolly, and she actually managed to almost get a smile out of the lady at the check-in.

Closeup of our site at Beaver Lake CG

When we stopped here in the fall, there were only a couple of RVs in the campground. This time, however, they were almost completely full by early evening.

View of the row closely-spaced sites at Beaver Lake CG

On Friday morning, we got a fairly early start on the second leg of the journey to Lower Alabama. Not only did we have a drive of less than 4 hours, but we gained an hour going into Central Time so we arrived around noon.

Up until last fall we always stayed at Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale; but on our last stop we waited until the last minute to make reservations and couldn't find a site at Rainbow Plantation where we were sure we could get satellite reception. Therefore, we stayed at Coastal Haven RV Park located a few miles away in Fairhope because Coastal Haven is more open with only a few trees. We liked Coastal Haven so much we decided to stay there again. Not only is it a nice campground, it is closer to Walmart, closer to the church we attend when we're in Lower Alabama and closer to several of our favorite restaurants.

Coastal Haven has paved roads, and the large sites have paved pads and patios with well-manicured grass between the sites. There are about 50 back-in sites and about a dozen pull-throughs. All sites have full hookups with 20/30/50-amp electric. There is free cable and free Wi-fi that was pretty fast and pretty reliable, and there is a good Verizon 4G signal in the area. The daily rate at Coastal Haven is $42. With a weekly rate of $146 (which is what we paid) and a monthly rate of $442, the average nightly cost for longer stays is pretty reasonable.

Our site at Coastal Haven

View down the road at Coastal Haven

We like coming to Lower Alabama because we have a lot of favorite things to eat here. One of our favorite things is the fresh shrimp that is available in the little fishing village of Bon Secour located a few miles south of Fairhope. We planned to have fresh shrimp at least once while we were in Lower Alabama and to take a bunch with us in the freezer. However, cleaning it all at once is a real chore, so we decided to buy and clean the shrimp in a couple of batches. On Saturday, we headed to Aquila Seafood to get the first batch of shrimp for the freezer.

Aquila Seafood

Bagging our shrimp

There are usually a number of fishing boats docked behind Aquila. This time was no exception, so after we got our shrimp and put it into the cooler, we snapped some photos of one of the picturesque boats.

One of the fishing boats docked behind Aquila Seafood

After we got back to the 5th wheel, we cleaned the shrimp and popped it into the freezer then we relaxed the rest of the afternoon. After church on Sunday, we made a quick stop at Sam's Club, then relaxed some more.

As we said, we like Lower Alabama because we have a lot of favorite eateries here. We had stops at a number of them planned for the following week, so stay tuned.

 

 

Back in Florida

Bushnell, FL - Events of Monday, November 9 to Wednesday, November 11, 2015

On Monday morning, we said "good-bye" to Lower Alabama. We were hitched up and on the road heading toward Florida by about 9:40 a.m. We had a drive of a little less than 4 hours to our overnight stop at Beaver Lake Campground in Quincy, Florida. Quincy is a few miles into the Eastern Time Zone, so we lost an hour and pulled into Beaver Lake Campground around 2:30.

Beaver Lake Campground is a no-frills campground located behind a gas station just off I-10. There are about a dozen sites, most of which are pull-throughs in a grassy field. There are a few sites under some trees off to the side and a couple of older mobile homes way off in the back of the property.

As far as we could tell, all the sites have full hookups with 30/50-amp electric. There were cable boxes on the utility pedestals, but we have no idea if they worked or not. The sites are very close together and the hookups for the pull-throughs are side-by-side, so you are really close to your neighbor on the off-door side. There was surprisingly little traffic noise for how close the campground is to the interstate. We paid $20 for the night with a Passport America discount.

Our site at Beaver Lake Campground

View of the row of pull-through sites

With a bunch of pull-throughs, full hookups, a reasonable price and easy access right off the interstate, this is a good place for an overnight stop. It is especially good for us because it is almost exactly half way between Lower Alabama and where we stay for the winter in Bushnell, Florida. The only problem is the lady in the gas station who does the check-in for the campground. She is very brusque and somewhat intimidating. She is all business with no time for pleasantries, and she is strictly by the book. We knew about her from the online reviews on rvparkreviews.com, so we were prepared. We weren't disappointed. We suggest that you keep a sense of humor if you stay here.

The check-in time at Beaver Lake is 2:00 p.m. There are reviews by people who arrived before 2:00 and were made to stand there and wait until exactly 2:00 before the lady would begin the check-in process, even though she had nothing else to do. That is really by the book! If you plan to stop here, just don't arrive early, and don't expect a warm and friendly "hello" at the check-in.

The good news is the check-in was fast and efficient. Except for a few campgrounds where there was self check-in, this was the fastest check-in we can remember in almost 10 years of full-timing.

We had a drive of a little over 4 hours the next day from Quincy to Blueberry Hill. We were on the road before 9:00 a.m. and arrived shortly after 1:00. The highs were in the 60s when we left Lower Alabama. It was only in the mid-50s when we left Quincy, so Paul was wearing jeans instead of shorts. It was 84º when we pulled into Blueberry Hill. Whew!

We checked in at the office at Blueberry, drove to our site and backed in. We were happy to see that our palm tree and shrubs were thriving. It was good to be "home."

Our site at Blueberry Hill

Even though we didn't arrive as early in the season as we did last year, Blueberry Hill was almost as full. Several of our neighbors to the right in the photo above hadn't yet arrived, but the street behind us was almost completely full as were many of the sites across the street.

View down the street

We needed some groceries, so we ran over to the Walmart next door on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon, we headed south to have lupper at Pancho's Villa. We didn't get much Mexican food while we were in Amish country in Ohio all summer, so we were really hungry for it. Pancho's Villa is about 30 minutes south of Blueberry Hill in San Antonio, Florida.

Pancho's Villa

We love the corn chips and salsa at Pancho's because the chips are warm, crisp and lightly salted. They serve two kinds of salsa - hot and mild. We like to mix them about 50:50. Both kinds of salsa also have plenty of fresh cilantro.

We both had ground beef chimichangas. They are served with rice and refried beans, although Margery always requests all rice. The chimichangas are served with guacamole, sour cream, lettuce and tomato on the side. The chimis were yummy - nice and crisp on the outside and with a flavorful meat mixture in the inside. Even the rice is good. Most rice at Mexican restaurants is rather bland and dry, but Pancho's is full of flavor.

Margery with her chimichanga

After dinner, we headed back to the rig to relax with an evening of TV. We will spend the next few days settling in. There is a little weeding to do, and we want to move a few things from the storage bay (like the grill, the lawn chairs and the smoker along with the charcoal and the collection of wood chips) to the shed to make them easier to access. Beyond that. we don't have any definite plans, but something is bound to pop up. Stay tuned.

Alabama Bound

Summerdale, AL - Events of Thursday, April 16 to Friday, April 17, 2015

On Thursday, we said good-bye to Blueberry Hill, hitched up the 5th wheel and headed out toward Lower Alabama. Although it still takes us quite a bit longer for us to pack the 5th wheel to get it ready for travel, this time we were much better at getting lined up and actually doing the hitching. We expect packing up the 5th wheel will get faster in time, too. After all, we had 10 years of practice getting the motor home ready to travel and this is only our third time for the 5th wheel.

Since it took us longer to pack up, we got a little later start than we had planned. After a drive of a little over 4 hours plus an additional 15 or 20 minutes to fuel up, we pulled into our overnight stop at Coe Landing Campground around 2:30. Coe Landing is a Leon County park located on the shores of Lake Talquin just west of Tallahassee.

The campground has 15 or 20 campsites with water and 30-amp electric. The sites at Coe Landing have gravel pads and patios. The campground is fairly heavily wooded, especially along the lake, so only some of the sites have grass. A few of the sites are a little close together, but it wasn't crowded at all when we were there on a Thursday so being close wasn't a problem.

There was no traffic noise, and there were no trains so the campground was nice and quiet when we were there. However, we suspect the place can get a little zooy on weekends since it's so close to Tallahassee and since it's on a lake that is popular for boating. The camping fee at Coe Landing was $27, which seemed a little high for only two-point hookups and the rustic nature of the campground. There was a pretty good Verizon 4G signal.

There are only a couple of long pull-through sites, and the one they originally assigned us didn't look like it had good satellite reception at all. Not only that, but the site was curved, and the front sloped fairly steeply. Therefore, we switched to a back-in site that was more open and level. We really didn't want to fuss setting up a satellite dish on a tripod for a one-night stop, and we also wanted a site that was relatively level so could still leave the 5th wheel attached to the truck and just extend the jacks to stabilize the rig.

The roads at Coe Landing aren't very wide, and with trees and shrubs everywhere, maneuvering is tight in a lot of places - especially at the entrance to our site. We had travel trailers years ago, and Paul had gotten pretty good at backing into tight spots; but after 10 years of motor home ownership, he is a little rusty at backing a trailer. The tight quarters were a challenge, but we eventually got situated.

Our site at Coe Landing

There are several lake view sites, but they are best suited to smaller RVs.

Lakeside site

View of the lake from one of the sites

Since we didn't have to hitch up in the morning and since we didn't do much unpacking for a one-night stop, we were able to get a relatively early start. With a drive of a little over 4 hours and with gaining an hour going from Eastern to Central Time, we arrived at the Escapees' Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, AL shortly after noon.

Rainbow Plantation has around 100 full-hookup sites. About half the sites have 30-amp electric and the other half have 30/50-amp electric. The cost for escapees members is $18 a night ($1 additional for 50 amps).

The widely-spaced sites are on grass and sandy soil. There are medium-sized live oak trees between many of the sites. Satellite reception is generally good, but you do need to be careful which site you pick because of the trees. There is a relatively good Verizon 4G signal, but our internet connection did bog down from time to time. Wi-Fi is available for a fee.

Our site at Rainbow Plantation

There were a surprising number of people still at Rainbow Plantation. The weather here in lower Alabama is still in the upper 70s and lower 80s as opposed to being in the 80s and 90s in Florida and only in the 40s and 50s in some places in the north, so we're guessing that's the reason there are so many still here.

Still a good many RVs at Rainbow Plantation

As we have mentioned before, Summerdale is one of our favorite areas. It is close to Mobile, AL, and not too far from Pensacola, FL, both of which have lots of sightseeing possibilities. However, since we'll only be here for a short time for this stop, we won't be doing much, if any, sightseeing, but then you never can tell what we might find. Nevertheless, we do have lots of favorite restaurants in the area so we'll be eating out a lot. Stay tuned.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, December 11, 2014

On Wednesday, we took a walk in the afternoon as we frequently do when we hang around the rig all day. We noticed a big increase in the amount of Christmas decorations from previous years, so we decided to take a rare, after-dark walk that evening to check out the decorations at night.

Now that many people have signed up for the 6-month rate and have sheds in which to store decorations, some have put up some pretty elaborate Christmas displays. Inflatable decorations featuring Santa or snowmen are popular. One site had an inflatable "Merry Christmas" RV in front of their 5th wheel.

Inflatable RV in front of an RV

Spiral Christmas trees are also popular.

Spiral Christmas trees

Speaking of trees, one site has a tree made from see-through ribbon that was lighted from the inside.

Lighted ribbon tree

Many sheds have been decorated with lights and wreaths. The shed in the photo below has a fireplace complete with stockings.

Shed decorated to look like a fireplace

Some of the owners of park models in the campground have always had fairly elaborate Christmas decorations, but now that the RV owners are also getting into the act, a few of the park model owners seem to be stepping up their game. The park model in the next photo has a Christmas tree on the deck, another in the front window, lights on some of their shrubs, and it has a spotlight shining on the large prickly pear cactus in front that is decorated with ornaments.

Park model with decorations on their cactus

The next park model has not only lights all around the roof and deck railing, but it also has a collection of 6 or 8 inflatable decorations off to the right that include Mickey and Minnie.

Park model with lights and 6 or 8 inflatable decorations

The biggest light display has enough lights to read by.

Biggest light display

And where else but Florida would you see a lighted flamingo with a Santa hat as part of a Christmas display?

Lighted flamingo

We enjoyed our after-dark walk, but it was chilly. We headed back to the rig to warm up and watch some TV happy in the knowledge we can enjoy other people's Christmas displays without having to take down and store such elaborate decorations ourselves. Check back after Christmas, and we'll tell you all about our holiday.

Blueberry Hill RV Resort

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, October 24 to Monday, October 27, 2014

We had been staying at the campground at Lazydays RV to do some 5th wheel shopping at Lazydays and at a couple of other dealerships in the area. One of the other dealerships was North Trail RV in Fort Myers. We visited them on Wednesday and requested a price on a DRV Tradition 5th wheel. They called on Thursday with a price that was a good bit less than Lazydays and much more in line with what we thought it should be. When Paul asked if they could do any better on price, they even came down a little more. We found a 5th wheel we liked at a price we thought was fair, so we had a big decision to make. We told North Trail RV we would need a few days to think about it.

In the meantime, we left Lazydays on Friday and headed to Blueberry Hill RV Resort. It was only a one-hour drive, so we didn't bother hooking up the toad. Margery drove on ahead and stopped in the office to check in so Paul was able to drive directly to our site when he got there.

We were both thrilled to see all our landscape plants had not only survived, but they thrived. All the rain central Florida had over the summer helped our plants, but we feared it might have also helped the weeds to take over the landscape beds. The good news is the mulch did its job and kept the weeds down to a minimum. It only took us about half an hour to weed.

Our site at Blueberry Hill

This is the earliest we have ever arrived at Blueberry Hill, and we're surprised to see more people here than we are used to seeing when we usually arrive almost a month later. It must be the fact Blueberry Hill had the promotion last year that offered paving, a shed and landscaping in exchange for a two-year committment to the 6-month rate. Like us, many others who took advantage of the promotion figured if you're paying for 6 months on the site, you might as well use as much of it as you can.

After considering 6 or 8 different makes of 5th wheels and after much deliberation, we finally made a decision to order a DRV Tradition from North Trail RV. Last Monday, we drove to Fort Myers to sign on the dotted line and give them a deposit. Our 5th wheel is scheduled to be delivered in late January. Clint Hatfield is our salesman, and we highly recommend him. We found him to be extremely responsive to all inquiries, there was no high pressure and he was knowledgeable about their products. Clint is a true gentleman.

When we were in Pittsburgh in September, we didn't yet know what we were going to do about buying a 5th wheel, but we talked to Colussy Chevrolet where J. Michael works while we were there to spec out a one-ton diesel dually just in case. As soon as we finalized our decision to buy the 5th wheel, we gave Colussy the go-ahead to order the truck. While we both love our Equinox and will be sad to give it up, Margery is looking forward to gaining more kitchen counter space and to having all ingredients for her menus in one location in the 5th wheel instead of being scattered all over the rig like in the motor home due to the small kitchen. Paul is excited at the opportunity to have a truck again. He had to give up his beloved Silverado when we went full-time. We're hoping the new truck will arrive in time to pick it up when we go to Pittsburgh for Christmas. And yes, the truck won't be as convenient or as economical for day-to-day driving, but it is a necessary evil for the 5th wheel lifestyle.

On the way back from signing the order for the 5th wheel on Monday, we stopped for lupper at Pancho's Villa in San Antonio, FL. We discovered Pancho's last spring, and it has become our favorite Mexican restaurant in the area.

Pancho's Villa

We started off with the traditional corn chips and salsa. We like the corn chips there a lot because they are nicely salted. The salsa is good, too.

Pancho's has lunches for around $6 to $8, and most dinners range in price from about $8 to $10. We both had a chicken chimichanga. The chimis are served with sour cream, guacamole, molé sauce, lettuce, tomato, refried beans and rice. Most Mexican rice is rather bland, but Pancho's serves some of the best, most flavorful Mexican rice we have ever had. Everything else was yummy, too!

Paul with his chimichanga

With our bellies full, we headed back to the motor home. While we wait for our 5th wheel and truck to arrive, we have several projects planned including starting to clean out the motor home storage bays. We also plan to eat out, and we hope to have some time to relax and enjoy our pavement and landscaping. Who knows? We may even do a little sightseeing. Stay tuned.