Southern AL - Dec 30th 2012 – Jan 1st 2013

It’s Dec 30^th and we’ve stopped for the night about 30 miles east of Fairhope, AL. We are staying at the Jellystone Campground in Elberta, AL. It’s a cute campground with nice ‘treed’ sites. We have site 14.

We just got tucked in back at home….we didn’t have much daylight left, but after setting up our site we headed out in the car to explore the beaches a bit (Orange Beach and Gulf Shores). We stopped at LuLu's —a restaurant owned by Jimmy Buffet’s sister—and grabbed some dessert before heading home.

 Dave and I both worked until noon on the 31^st then packed up the RV and headed into the historic AL towns of Point Clear and Fairhope. They are so cute and charming and I am in love with the southern coastal cottage architecture!! We set up camp at Meaher State Park (on Mobile Bay), what a lovely little RV Park! We had site 4.

(Our new bear who greets you at our camp site)

We milled around downtown Fairhope and heard that they were having live music and a ball drop for New Years so decided to come back around 10:30.

Bridge Over Mobile Bay

Tunnel under Mobile Bay

Around 5:30 we headed over to Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, AL. It’s an amazing 65 acre garden estate with a 15 room 10,500 SF historic home on site. The original owners made their fortune with a Coca-Cola Franchise they started in 1903. The home and gardens are open year round and during the Christmas season the gardens are decorated with 3 million lights and 950 displays! It was amazing! Below are some photos:

As planned, we arrived back in Fairhope around 10:30 and walked around enjoying the lights and the music. We were fortunate to get an outdoor seat at a café right where the big ball was being dropped! The lighted ball was being suspended by a huge crane!

We chatted with a lovely local couple while we rang in the New Year. It felt a little weird counting down for the ‘New Year’ when, back home in Florida, it had already been 2013 for an hour, lol! It was a great evening!

Considering we didn’t go to bed until 2:00 AL time, we got up pretty early New Year’s Day at 8:00. The weather was beautiful…much warmer than it has been on our trip thus far. I got up and out and took some photos and washed some clothes while Dave had an adventure…not a good one! The indestructible sewer hose we bought, turns out, is NOT indestructible! It busted apart (thankfully it was mostly gray water, lol) and we had to go get a new one at Wal-Mart. I’m not a huge Wal-Mart fan but it sure was nice that they were open on New Year’s Day and had what we needed!!

We are leaving Alabama now and heading only about 50 miles to our next RV Park in Gautier, Mississippi just east of Biloxi.

Until later this evening…..

Blessings~

Misi and Dave

St. George Island, FL Dec. 28, 2012

It’s December 28^th, 2012 and we’ve had a wonderful Christmas, albeit very busy! Dave and I are sneaking away today for a 10 day RV trip through the panhandle and coastal gulf states. The stops will be quick, but we will stop in St. George Island, FL on the way out and in Destin on the way home. In between we will stay near the coast in AL, MS and LA.

We are on the road again (insert Willie Nelson song here, lol) and it is cold and getting colder! The beach in the winter? We’ve never done this before but hey, Snowbirds do it, so I guess we can too! We will be scoping out cool places we want to come back to when it’s warm (not hot, but warm).

Oh, as a side-note, for Christmas, I surprised Dave and did a little redecorating in the RV (cabin style-his favorite!) Here are a few pics:

It took about 5.5 hours but we arrived at  St George Island State Park (near Apalachicola) and got checked in. The park is already near the end of the island, then once you check in the camp sites are 4 or so miles further. It’s all big, rolling sand dunes and glimpses of the water. We got to our site (#33) and set up. It’s a cozy spot. We are going to go exploring now.

We just got home from being out all afternoon. We went to the St. George Island Lighthouse and walked up the 100 steps to the top. Here are a few pics. We went to Harry A’s restaurant for a ‘snack’, just a drink and a couple crab cakes—oh so good! Fresh!!

Back at home base and it is pretty darn cold and windy!! Glad we have a good heater in Winnie plus the new electric fireplace (also part of Dave’s Christmas present). We’re going to watch ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ since we haven’t gotten to yet this Christmas Season. Night Night.

Day two, we are up and heading out to the eastern tip of the island. FYI, you have to purchase a day pass and get a combo code for the gate lock if you want to drive your car out there. It’s free if you walk or ride your bike but it is about 10 miles round trip and is too cold and windy today for anything other than a car ride. Wow, the sand dunes just keep going and going!

The green arrow is the eastern tip of St. George Island. We drove to the beach from our campsite, then walked to the tip. It was freezing!

Whew!! We are back in the car now….that was invigorating!! It is freezing, lol!! Above are a few pics of the unspoiled beach here. Now time to warm up!

We are heading into Apalachicola…..oh, it’s so cute! Adorable downtown looks very promising for some good food and maybe a bit of shopping!

This town did not disappoint! We ate at the Owl Cafe and it was so good! We had BBQ beef sandwiches with homemade dill pickles and homemade coleslaw—yum!! While eating, we watched a little of the Rice/Air Force game…enough to know that we are not fairing well with this year’s football pool! After lunch, we explored some cute and artsy shops and picked up some souvenirs.

While we still have daylight we are blasting over to Port St. Joe and St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. Port St. Joe has a cute little historic downtown, Just one street really, but nice. The State Park is a little remote but once you are in the park it’s quite nice. Several sites have a lot of privacy with mature trees and brush and you are very close to the beach. There are some wonderful rental cabins there as well right on the water.

We headed back to St. George Island and planned to eat at the Blue Parrot but they only had outdoor seating available (are you kidding me??). We decided not to wait 40 minutes on the cold patio with the hopes of getting an indoor table so we went to The Beach Pit instead. Good choice! It was just a homey locals place with BBQ, chicken and steaks, plus comfort food. I had a BLT and Brunswick stew (yummy!!) and Dave had smoked turkey with green beans, baked beans and of course, key lime pie.

We are tucked away cozy and warm back at home base. Going to play a new game we got for Christmas—Word Thief and maybe do some reading.

We are packing up and moving on today (30^th). We will be heading towards Fairhope, AL…about a 4 hour trip.

Until tomorrow or later tonight at least…..

Blessings~

Misi and Dave