Despite Hurricanes and Oil Spills…………

The Alabama Gulf Coast is beautiful and full of life. We certainly did our part to help with the economic recovery. Thanks to us the local shrimp industry is thriving! We’ve been here for two months and are leaving this Tuesday. We’ve already made our reservation for next fall/winter, beginning in November for 5 months but able to make up to two changes so we can arrive any time after 11/1.

We’re moving 135 miles east to our fav, Panama City Beach (or PCB!). We’ll be at St. Andrews State Park for two weeks and our daughter, Samantha, is coming down on Thursday for 10 days! Her boys are out of school for a week for winter break and her hubby, Nate, is working on the remodel of the Sam's Club in PCB…..perfect timing for a great visit. Weather is supposed to be in the 70’s! Crossing fingers for that. We have a great water front site for part of the time and look forward to just watching the boys play.

Between Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, there are so many places to eat, we just had to save a few for next time. And such good deals $$ with their BOGO’s and Sr. Specials.

Welcome sign at LuLu's, owned by Lucy Buffet, sister to Jimmy Buffet.

Aerial view of LuLu's. That's all sand, where the kids can play with all kinds of beach toys.

Waiting on the Shrimps!

Gulf Shores, AL

Yesterday we returned to Gulf Shores after spending Christmas at my daughter’s house near Douglasville, Ga. There was a white Christmas in Atlanta for the first time in 128 years! It was beautiful to look at but I didn’t leave the house from Christmas Eve until Tuesday morning! We brought 2 of the grand kids back with us to spend the week….Kyle and Logan.

Today was sunny and windy. We went to the beach after lunch and stayed about 2 hours, then the wind picked up and the clouds covered the sun….brrrrrrrrrrrr. Hopefully, the weather will warm up a little in the next few days and the wind will calm down.



The campground here, Gulf State Park, is level and all the roads are paved so the boys can ride their bikes and new razor scooters all over. The sites are the largest we’ve seen anywhere and are concrete and level. The area where the hookups are located is also concrete and lighted. The laundry room is large and there is a camp store, activity room and very large swimming pool for summer use. Everything is new, of course, and the beach pavilion, pier and parking areas are all very nice. The State Park also has two more beach locations in the town of Orange Beach which are smaller than the 2 mile beach inside the park boundaries.
The city of Gulf Shores has a very nice, very large, public beach with 2 restaurants adjacent.

Beachcombers

I'm definitely getting some pictures of the campground tomorrow. There are 496 sites and most are full!

Gulf Shores

We arrived in Gulf Shores on Wednesday afternoon and were greeted by these ominous clouds. The sun had just gone below the edge of the cloud layer. This was beautiful, the way the front was advancing all across the horizon. I'd never seen anything quite like it.
We were able to arrive at Gulf State Park and get set up just before dark. The front had totally covered the area but it never did rain....just very windy all night.

This morning we were greeted by 61 degrees and sunshine. The picture is of the new beach pavilion, looking out our window and across the lake toward the beach.

By late morning, the clouds had returned. The Gulf looked more like the Atlantic!

Lunch was at Tacky Jack's. We shared "Mexican Garbage" to go with our beer (Sam) and Margarita (me)!

After lunch, we explored Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to locate the essentials: Walmart, Publix, Lulu's and other favorites. Tomorrow is supposed to be 70 so maybe a good day to walk the beach before the forecasted rain on Saturday & Sunday.

Catching up.....

We've been back from Georgia since last Saturday. Nothing much to 'blog' about....just a couple of trips to Gainesville for Sam's doctor appointments. Two more times and he'll be done. His last appointment for a checkup is Jan.7th. We'll either come back for that or change to where we are at the time. We're ready to move on.

We plan to head out to Gulf Shores around 12/15 (just 2 weeks away), and definitely looking forward to seeing the Gulf area again. Hopefully it will be a warm winter for the most part. Next winter we may have to plan ahead and go further south in Florida to get the really warm weather.

We are going to check out Manatee Springs and Fanning Springs once again before we leave to see how many Manatees have come into the warm waters for the winter. This cooler weather should have brought a few more up into the springs.

Planning for the Future...............

This past Sunday we drove down to Homasassa to visit Bill & Betty, friends we met in Del Rio, Texas in 2009. They are staying at the Turtle Creek RV resort year-round while going home to Erie, PA, in the summer (leaving their RV at Turtle Creek). We had a great visit and enjoyed lunch at Cody's Roadhouse in Crystal River. Coconut Shrimp was yummie! Next time I will take pictures! ;-) And next time we will leave Buddy at home so we can tour Homasassa Springs Wildlife State Park. That looked like fun.

We thought about moving to Turtle Creek later in November but decided to stay in Chiefland. We are close to Gainesville and Sam will need to get some treatments there for the next 5 or 6 weeks, as a result of his bladder surgery.

Our new (revised 11/15) 'plan' is to remain here at Chiefland RV Park until about mid-January (which is only 8 weeks - yikes!). Sam has doctor appointments that will continue thru 1/7/11. Then we'll move to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL, where we've had reservations for over a year! It takes that long to get a site in the winter! We'll stay there a couple of months, and hopefully have some of the grands visits while school is out for their winter break, the week of February 21st! :=) In the meantime, we'll go 'home' to Georgia for 2 or 3 weeks around Christmas.

Of course, all of this could change by next week....lol......but this is the new 'plan'.