More Pleasant Days in Gulf Shores

Time to catch up on here again, I've been lazy about keeping up the blog here.  On Jan 7, Janice's mom flew down to Pensacola and we picked her up there. She will be staying with us until we get back to Georgia on Feb 1. We are enjoying her company. We go to bingo on Monday nights and card bingo on Tuesday nights here in the park. Janice and I have each won a bingo and Mom has won 4 now. Saturday we went over to Mobile to the big flea market and another outlet store. Yesterday we drove over to the Gulf State Park Fishing Pier near here. It extends about 1200 feet out into the gulf. We walked out the the end of it and back. The highlight was getting to watch a couple of groups of dolphins swim past.
Heading up the ramp onto the pier.

Looking at the beach in both directions.

A long walk to the end.

Several pelicans waited along the railing for a handout.

Tornado Warning

We had thunderstorms predicted for most of today, so we just tackled a few indoor projects. About 2:30 the weather radio went off with a Tornado Warning for our area. Several of the residents were headed to the bathroom/laundry building, so we put the slides in to protect the slide covers from the wind and walked over to join them. Not sure if there was a nearby tornado or not, but suddenly we had branches and debris flying everywhere with high winds and followed by heavy rain and close lightning.  Scary for a few minutes, with branches hitting the building and flying by. The rain stopped shortly thereafter and we headed back to the motorhome. No damage to ours other than a torn up bicycle cover. Two of the campground lampposts are laying in the street, a tree is down across from us, one motorhome roof was lifted up on one side and another's awning torn off. Overall we were all pretty lucky. The power has been off since then, but we have the generator.

The RV Park Here

This has turned out to be a very comfortable place to stay. We are about three blocks or so from the beach and right on the highway where most of the local businesses are located. Here are a couple of pictures of the beach, looking both ways.

There is a little park right next to the RV park entrance.

The entrance to the RV park. We are located right behind the Pizza Hut which is convenient.

As you drive into the park, there is a large marsh on the right side.

This building houses the office where we pick up mail and there is a pool behind it.

As you drive on in you can start to see the RVs.

There is a bike path between the RVs and the adjoining marsh.

This is a little building used for parties and get togethers.

The view from behind our motorhome looking across the bike path and the marsh at some tall buildings on the beach.

We have met a lot of friendly people here and will hate to leave at the end of January.

Christmas is Coming

Life here in Gulf Shores, AL has been quiet and peaceful. Our days have been spent doing a little local sightseeing, a little Christmas and grocery shopping, some minor motorhome repairs. and just relaxing and reading. We put up our small tree and some lights and decorations inside, but we didn't put up our light tree outside this year because the RV park has lights and decorations all over throughout the park already.

We had picked up a couple of folding chairs at my sisters rummage sale this summer with a plan to reupholster them. Janice had found some material to use and we bought some foam padding at a fabric store up the road from here. Neither of us had done reupholstering before but we didn't have much to lose so we tackled it the other day. It went pretty well for not knowing what we were doing.The finished product:

Janice had wanted some hermit crabs for Christmas, and with our plan to leave here 2 days after Christmas, I thought that it would be better to get them and set up their home before the move, so she got them early. One of them has already latched onto her hand with his claw and wouldn't let go. Here is the group of crabs which is technically called a cast.

They are really shy, but like to change from one shell to another when you aren't looking.

Tuesday night the RV park had a potluck Christmas party. We went and had a good time.

We have had a change of plans, originally we had planned to leave here two days after Christmas to go up to Georgia to spend some time with Janice's mom. The new plan is to stay here until January 25 and then go up to Georgia. One of Janice's sisters is going to bring her mom down here in January to stay with us for awhile until we go up there. We are looking forward to the extra month here.

December Already

We have really been enjoying our time here at Gulf Shores. The RV park is quiet and friendly. The laundry is only 1 site away from us so it is handy. We spent a couple of days this week checking out a few stores around here, an outlet mall, some flea market stores, a Habitat Restore, and a few others, and had lunch one day at a Lambert's restaurant up the road from us. We had eaten at one in Missouri a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. They are famous for throwed rolls. After you get your meal, they bring around fresh baked rolls and throw them to you. They also bring around fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, black eyed peas, fried potatoes and onions, and cooked cabbage. Loved it. Walked away stuffed and brought home leftovers for supper. We had our mail shipped to us so I have a few magazines to catch up on as well as some books from the library here. Last night they had a lighted Christmas parade that went down the street in front of the RV Park, so I walked out to watch it. It was fun. Here are a few of the units in the parade.

And last but not least, Santa on the fire truck!

Today I drove over to a huge flea market in Mobile that I had been to when we stayed in Mobile a few years ago. It's about an hour and half drive from here, but worth the drive. Stopped at a Camping World on the way back and picked up some drawer latches for the motorhome.