MEXICO BEACH AND MORE APPALACHICOLA

Windy beach..........

Love the way they line up facing into the wind!

How did that boat get on top of the middle one?

This one is filled with water......I think it's seen better days, don't you?

MEXICO BEACH, APPALACHICOLA, AND BEYOND

Shrimp boats at Appalachicola

Condos along the gulf......I call them birdhouses!

Interesting tower on one side, isn't it?

A few if the larger homes along the gulf.

My feet in the gulf!

I love the beach and the beautiful decorating job that God does.

My friend wasn't very shy!

Another of God's decorating jobs.

That is the roof of a picnic shelter and bathhouse against the blue sky.

Wind swept sand dunes are beautiful.

Love the reflections in the water at Dead Lake.

Amazing reflections, don't you think?

TUESDAY POT LUCK

Every Tuesday night there is a pot luck up at the clubhouse here in the campground. This is our table and friends this past Tuesday. Carole in the pink, Glenn in the blue, Ernie in the striped shirt, Bev in the white and Dick in the blue, all waiting for the signal to head to the table.
The table is laden with tons of food. NUMMY!

Lots of people attend as you can see by the line up at the table.

People are pretty intense while eating! Notice in the whole room, no one is looking up from their plate!

CATCH UP DAY

Today was kind of a catch up day. I did a little laundry, just stuff that I could throw in the dryer. I have my Amish clothes rack along but with the humidity in the dripping zone, clothes wouldn't dry in days of being hung out. So I only washed dryer safe stuff. I read a bunch of blogs that I was behind on, but didn't comment on any. I was so far behind that it was all I could do to read them all! I'll do better, I promise. I cleaned the shower in the trailer that we are using as a storage spot, and straightened up things all around. If we don't keep it all picked up, we have no room to move. Now it's time to think of making something for supper.

What did Ernie do, you ask? He went golfing.

IT'S NOT EASY SEEING GREEN!

Here's our spot, only one spot away from where we parked two years ago!

Here's one of our neighbors.

This spot is about a 30 second walk from our site.

This is where I think I will be forced to sit in the early morning and drink my coffee made in a French press from fresh ground coffee beans. Too bad it faces West instead of East. But by evening I'm sure I'll be back to watch the sunset.

What color do you see? In case you forgot, it's called GREEN! And the water is in the liquid state!

Just thought I'd give you a few shots of green. Isn't it refreshing? Don't you just love it?

I suppose it's a good four months before some of you will see this color. I'm sorry.

FOGGY PHOTOS

Yesterday morning it was very foggy as we took off for the last leg of our trip. I love the hills but

it was hard to see them very clearly due to the fog. There was also a lot of traffic. I suppose it was the holiday travelers going back home.

It really would have been a beautiful drive had it been clear and sunny.

And remember, these photo were taken out the window of the truck, barreling down the highway at 65 or 70 miles an hour, so some are blurry in addition to the fog!

I was amazed that this picture turned out this well because it was a victim of the fog and the 70 miles an hour. It could be clearer, but isn't it a beautiful setting?

I figured this place was more in my price range.

When you see the tall, straight pine trees you know you're getting close.

And here we are! This bay is a few blocks from the campground that we will call home for the next two months. Hopefully we'll have sunshine and clear skies so I can get some better photos.

WE'RE HERE!

HIGH TEMPERATURE TODAY: 79 DEGREES

CURRENT TEMPERATURE (AT 8:30 PM): 66 DEGREES

We arrived this afternoon about four after 1300 some miles. No troubles along the way, good roads, and Mr. Garmin did his job and got us here. (I decided to change from her to him.....and we like him better!) It rained really hard right as we were going through Birmingham, but we needed the salt washed off the truck anyhow!

We had a horrible motel last night in Alabama. There was a crack along side the door that was about an inch wide! The floor creaked so loud I though the place was falling down. The clock/radio didn't work at all, and there were very few people staying there. Wonder why? And this was a major nationwide chain. Never again! Oh, the wireless connection dropped me right after I completed loading a bunch of pictures and writing a post, so I decided to just forget it. I'll get some photos up tomorrow.

I'm tired now. Good night!

GREETINGS FROM TROPICAL HANNIBAL MO.

We loaded the last of the supplies into the trailer, put the perishables into the truck.......and it wouldn't start! I guess it was tired of sitting in the below zero temperatures and decided this morning to refuse to turn over. So Bob-a-Loo and Chip crawled under the hood to see what was wrong.
Ernie jumped the truck with the van and soon it yielded to our demands and cranked over.

And we were ready to go.....10 below or not!

Let me introduce you to our traveling companions. First in the back on the left is Aqua Maria, friend of our granddaughter, Madison. Next to her on the right is Jammin' Jaden, friend of granddaughter, Jaden. In the front we have Chip with the bulging eyes, owned by grandson, Ben, and the much loved Bob-a-Loo, who belongs to granddaughter, Anna. We were only going to take the girls' friends, but somehow Chip got in there too. I tried at the last minute to get a friend from grandson Nicolas to come along, but Nicolas had already left on his trip to the Wisconsin Dells so we couldn't get permisssion to take anyone along. Maybe one of his friends can accompany us to Alaska next summer.

Everyone was excited. None of these extra travelers had left the state of Minnesota before!

They saw forests of wind generators in north central Iowa.

And lots of clouds of steam and smoke by the big cities billowing up into the cold, calm air.

There wasn't a lot of snow, but it was really sparklie, a nice touch for New Year's Eve.
Farm buildings silhouetted against the golden sunset make a nice picture,

as do the bare trees and bushes.

It was a very nice sunset in southeastern Iowa and we enjoyed it for many miles.

The travelers were tired and ready for bed when we stopped in Hannibal Missouri, where the temperature is a balmy 23 degrees. Above zero!

FLORIDA - HERE WE COME!

It's official. We are leaving in the morning. Yes, it's a day early, but there is snow expected again on Thursday, so we'll just head south tomorrow, going as far as we can, and hopefully getting away from the snow. I'm almost finished packing, but have a load of clothes to wash yet, and the frig to clean out.

We are going to be accompanied by a few little beanie babies or stuffed animals from the three littlest granddaughters. We're taking them on an adventure.

Hope we find a place with wireless tomorrow night so we can give you the details of our first day!

Happy New Year!

NO SLEEP AND THE BUG

I thought my hair cut and doctor appointment were today, but they are tomorrow. Thank goodness! I did not sleep last night, and when I got up this morning I felt sick. Yup. I am sick. I guess I caught the food poisoning my sister had! And I also guess that she didn't have food poisoning. It's the stomach flu bug.

Then this morning Ernie announced that we should maybe leave on Wednesday instead of Thursday because snow is expected on Thursday. I can be ready, if I start feeling better soon so I can get back at the packing and laundry.

But first I'm going to take a nap if the stomach cramps will allow it.

JUST THOUGHT I'D MENTION THIS....................

TIME TO PACK UP AND HEAD OUT!

This tiny sad looking tree will be taken down today. It is missing many ornaments. I had bought clear glass ornaments,

had gone to the bank and requested brand spanking new bills, and then rolled up the money and stuffed it into the clear ball and hung them on the tree for the grandkids. My money tree! The kids seemed to like the non-traditional way to receive their Christmas money. And it was easy!But today the thoughts are here! Time to dig out the little Nomad and

pack her up and head South. I just realized I haven't given you a tour of our home for the next two months, so I just put on some shoes and my jacket, and in my cute pink jammies I went out to take these pictures for you.
This is my stove. Just three burners, no oven. There is a small microwave above the stove though. Wish I had recipes for cooking in the microwave.....I seldom use mine! But I will bring my crock pot, and I do enjoy using that often.

This is the TINY bathroom. There are four inches between the seat and the counter, and maybe even less on the door side, so it's tight! There is a small shower on the left side, but we won't be using it as a shower. It's going to become a storage unit! I plan to have my dirty clothes, a Rubbermaid container of extra jackets, blankets and shoes, and other large items stored in here. Our closet is about 18 inches wide, so there isn't much room there.

We will have to shop about every other day for produce and meat as this is the fridge we will have for the next two months! It, too, is small. I think we'll also have to have a cooler to keep some water and juice in. We lived in here for a week this past summer, but never for two months. It may be a little tight!

BUT, we are excited to use our new cabinet. The bed/sleeping spot used to be the two bench seats on the side that are also the two beds, and then there was a cushion across the back, also for seating. We found that we never used that spot. With the table there, it would make it very awkward to get in and out if we were to try to sit there. So we took the cushion out and had a friend build this cabinet for us. Before the only storage space was the two overhead cupboards where you see the doors. That's not much space. Now we have three shelves behind the upper doors and a nice big spot on the bottom of this new cabinet. I think it will be great! And didn't Pat do a super job of matching the interior?

Now it's time for me to get dressed and as soon as Ernie plugs in the heater to warm up the camper a bit, I'll get out there and start packing stuff in. The hardest thing will be to remember not to put anything out there that might freeze! All the toiletries, cleaning supplies and foods that are in anyway liquid will have to be packed in a laundry basket and hauled in the back seat of the truck until we cross the freeze/no freeze line!