It's just not fair

 

Judy and I had our 50^th wedding anniversary and we had a big celebration.  It was our Golden Anniversary; it even had a name!  We got lots of attention.  The party was so much fun, and the 50^th anniversary felt like such a big deal, we decided to celebrate our Golden Anniversary all year long; answering every inquiry with “we’re Golden”, until no-one could stand us anymore.

 

But that year just flew by.  Now it’s over.  Now we’re having our 51st, and it’s not that big a deal.  We’re getting lots of congratulations, but this anniversary doesn’t even have a name.  Hey, fifty-one is more than fifty!  Shouldn’t fifty-one be an even bigger deal?

 

Well, the world isn’t getting off any easier now that we’ve cycled all the way through our Golden Anniversary year.  Want to know how we’re doing?  Just ask.

 

From now on, we’re Goldener!

 

 

Yesterday

 

Judy held her breath all the way under Mobile Bay.

 

I forgot to take any pictures of last night’s camp, so I got some this morning.  Alliance Hill RV Resort.

 

A charming surprise.

 

We drove across the Suwanee River today.  It will take a while for that song to clear.  That’s not as bad as driving through Winslow, Arizona and ending up with Eagles stuck in my head though.

 

Motored on down the road to Titusville, Florida.

 

2017 summer trip map

 

Manatee Hammock Campground.  The parking spot for the coach isn’t anything special.

 

But the surrounding scenery is wonderful!

 

 

 

 

 

The Kennedy Space Center is right across the bay (Indian River).

Campers can watch rocket launches right from here.  Space X has been doing most of the launches lately.

 

365 birds.  If we saw one new bird per day for an entire year, our year would be over today, May 6^th.

 

Darn it!

 

We were headed for Panama City Beach today to meet up with John and Jo; friends since we were all young.  John and I used to sit together and watch our kids at wrestling practice when they were single digit ages.  When we called to get a camp spot at Panama City Beach, we were informed it was Thunder on the Beach Week; all the RV sites had been booked up for months in advance, for miles up and down the coast.  There is no way we were going to get a camp site.  In fact we probably wouldn’t even be able to drive down the street for all the motorcycles!  With no place to stay anywhere along the coast, it was going to be impossible to see them.

 

Except!  We found an RV site in Marianna, right close to the interstate, well away from the beach, and John and Jo drove an hour north to meet us for dinner!  Yeaa for good friends like that!  A few days ago, when we unexpectedly met with Jim and Cathy, I totally forgot to take a picture.  This time I got us all as soon as they walked in the door so I wouldn’t forget.

 

2017 summer trip map

(Okay.  Every time I make a new map, it defaults to Private.  All I have to do is change the setting to Public.  How hard could that be?  I do it every time; every time someone reminds me to do it, and I’ve done it again.  The trip map is set to Public now.)

 

Alliance Hill RV Resort.  It appears that someone turned their old ranch on a hill into an RV resort.  The spots are nice, concrete slabs and 50 amp full-hookups, swimming pool, clubhouse, dog park, and walking trails.  The owner couldn’t be friendlier or more helpful.  It has a local charm.  It’s nine miles off the freeway, but well worth the extra few minutes.

 

Not only did we get a good RV Spot, but the owner recommended The Wharf Casual Seafood for dinner.  We met John and Jo there.  The food was wonderful and the staff was great.

 

I think I’ve run out of superlatives.

 

Fire drill

 

Know how, when you’re driving down the interstate, sometimes you see those black blotches on the shoulder where someone pulled their vehicle over and it burned to the ground?  It finally registered with Judy and me that maybe our disaster preparedness wasn’t where it should be.  Maybe we should have a fire drill.

 

So we did.

 

We didn’t pull over and run screaming from the bus, but we did talk about what we would grab if we only had time to grab one thing; besides each other.  My one thing would be the computer and phone.  Camera and binoculars would be second.  So we each put together a go-bag.  One knapsack each with all the stuff we’d grab first if we needed a quick evacuation.  Now, every time we pack up the bus to travel, we pack a bag as well.

 

 

The rain finally let up.  We got to drive today, and drive we did; to Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi and stopped for the night.

 

2017 summer trip map

 

 

It’s a very nice park; and it’s not crowded.

 

It rained earlier here but now the rain is gone.

 

It never rained on us all day today.  The storm moved east.  We were careful to not move as far east as it did.  We’ll be sure to stay in the trough behind it.

 

Saw a fish crow.

 

Won't they ever learn?

 

Thunderstorms happen in the afternoon.  They require moisture in the atmosphere, plenty of heat during the day, the clouds build, and then there is a downpour in the afternoon.  That’s how it’s supposed to work.

 

But down south, thunderstorms come rolling through just anytime.  It wasn’t very light when we work up this morning.  It didn’t get any lighter while we were drinking our morning coffee either.  We could hear the rumbling and the rain started.  We checked the weather map and found ourselves surrounded by red with severe weather and tornado warnings; our route east along Interstate 10 engulfed in storms!

 

 

We thought the storm would delay our start, but we were wrong.  It delayed our whole day.

 

When sea kayaking and camping on islands, sometimes the weather comes in and you just have to hunker down; have a “tent” day and wait for the weather to pass.  We’ll, we’re having a tent day today, but in a really comfortable tent (the motorhome).  Warm and dry, we’ll hope for traveling weather tomorrow.  We stayed hunkered down at our site in the forest; taking advantage of the shelter from the storm and a little extra work time, while it looked like nightfall outside all day.

 

Our view yesterday.

 

Our view today.

 

The squirrel.

 

My walk outside today consisted of a run inside.  (Yeah.  That’s right.  Try to imagine being Judy trapped inside with me during that!)  J

 

Sam Houston Jones State Park

 

Beautiful park.

 

2017 summer trip map

 

They could take better care of the campground, but the rest of the park couldn’t be prettier!

 

 

 

The coach; not so buggy today.

 

 

Saw a bald eagle and red-headed woodpeckers.

 

30 amp service.  Verizon internet.

 

Great blue heron.

 

 

Our house is united once more

 

We’ve finished moving back into the coach.  Everything we need is here.  We slept in the rig last night for an early start today.  We stopped for the night at one of our favorite places on the planet, Brazos Bend State Park.

 

 

 

Collected a few bugs along the way.

 

They all came off just fine though.  Ready for the next day.

 

We drove around after dark; we always drive around after dark here; looking for eyeballs.  We saw six deer, three armadillos, one raccoon, no possums, bunnyrabbits, squirrels, no alligators, many fireflies, and heard about a thousand frogs.

 

A surprise encounter with Jim and Kathy we’ve known for ten years, but hardly ever see.  Neither of us knew the other was going to be in this campground.  I was out scrubbing bugs off the front of the bus when they walked by and recognized us.  (It helps that they follow our blog and have seen pictures of us recently.)  Not a long visit, but great fun to catch-up.

 

30 amp service.  No Verizon internet.

 

Great blue heron.