Mobile Bay and the Gulf

Hi Everybody,

Happy Birthday, Troy!!  He is our son-in-law married to Carrie.  He brought the family to Louisiana to see us.  What a guy!!

The beautiful weather continues.  Today we crossed into Alabama for our one night in this lovely state.  We are down on the Gulf of Mexico on an island separating the Gulf and Mobile Bay.  Dauphin island is the home of Fort Gaines which we have not seen.  To get to the Island we crossed a huge bridge on which we took pictures and videos.  It looked pretty formidable from the RV but the bikers say that it looked downright impossible to them.  You approach it on a slow grade but then the climb to the top is steep.  It feels as if there is no end to it until the pinnacle is reached and then you can see the island stretched out before you.  Dauphin Island has about 1300 inhabitants.  There is one main road which leads from the bridge to the Fort.  Reminds me of the Outer Banks in North Carolina--houses on stilts, sand everywhere, boats of all shapes and sizes and the smell of fish and sea water.

At one of our stops today to wait for the cyclists, we parked in a Baptist Church parking lot (Dees, AL).  By the way, we are very fond of church parking lots because they offer us a great place to turn around if we need to!!!  While we rested, I walked around the cemetery looking at names.  The name Dees was on lots of grave markers.  The most interesting one was a large granite slab on top of a gravesite with a beautiful grand piano etched into it.  I found it fascinating to match up families by following the wife's maiden name,  finding brothers, parents, and seeing how many families were related by blood and/or marriage.

When Paula and I got to our campsite and went to unhook the trailer in order to maneuver the RV into the slot, we found that the crank on the trailer was missing.  We have no idea when it fell off, but we have made some very rough entrances and exits from various spots in the last few days and it could have dropped off anywhere.  We haven't had to hook up the trailer since Monday morning.  Mike thought it was on this morning but couldn't be sure.  Another camper came over to see what we needed and helped us jack it up with a wrench far enough to get it off the RV and then set it on some blocks.  When the guys got here, they worked on it for a while.  It will work but we will just have to use the RV jack whenever we want to take it off.  Meg, we will get it fixed before you have to use it on the farm!!

Paula and I watched fishing boats and the ferry come in before the guys rolled in at about 3:30. The park is very nice and while we did laundry for 3 hours (!!!!) we talked to great folks who have been staying here for a few months from Michigan, both upper and lower, and keep coming back each year.  They said that this has been an unusually cold and wet winter.

Tomorrow we will take the ferry over to Fort Morgan then on to Gulf Shores and Pensacola.  I think that we will go on to Milton to stay, but Friday we will take an extra day off so Dave can go to the Naval Air Museum.

We could be done in 1 (ONE, that's a single, lone, 7 days, ) week.  We will probably take Easter Sunday off as well so maybe that will add a day and we will finish on Thursday, April 8.  Where has the time gone?????

Full moon tonight over the Bay.  Wow!!!

Love & Blessings,

Lana

M-I-double s-I-double s-I-pp-I

Hi everybody,

Another beautiful day---sunny, cool to start out with and then warming up nicely.  this was a 94 mile day.  This time the guys got lost and rode around a lake instead of on the north side of it.  Paula and I were parked along the road in a stand of tall pines with a soft breeze blowing and the sun coming in through the branches of the trees.  I was knitting (almost have the baby blanket finished) and Paula was reading.  We looked up and the guys were coming toward us!!  A first for this trip!  The riding is mostly flat and gentle rolling hills now.  We are on small, back roads and there is rarely any shoulder.  Paula drove slowly today so that we would not miss the little signs on the corners.  Here are some names of roads from today: Four Mile, Frank Snell, Sam Smith, White Sand, Archie Wheat, Foots Stevens, Firetower, Sunflower.

Tonight we are in Vancleave, MS at a nice RV park on a little lake.  We drove into another one but rejected it as it was so crowded, there were lots of kids playing in the street, and we had heard that it had substandard shower/bathroom facilities and noisy clientele (permanent residents).  However it was the only one on our map.  On the way to that one we drove by this one.  We are certainly going to write to Adventure Cycling and recommend it.  The manager just took it over this year and is making lots of upgrades as she is able.

The guys are very saddle-sore tonight.  They are really pushing themselves here near the end.  We may take two rest days this week--Friday and Sunday.  If we keep this pace, we will be in St. Augustine on Thursday, April 8.

No alligators or snakes yet!!!!!!

Love and blessings,

Lana

Louisiana: Bah, ya'll!

Hi Everybody,

Well, this is our last night in the state of Louisiana.  I say that confidently and with no thought that there would be anything that would hinder our crossing the Louisiana-Mississippi line tomorrow!  

We barely avoided the dreaded Walmart parking lot overnight.  The guys rode about 112 miles today and when they met us at Walmart in Bogalusa, LA at 7 PM we had not found anywhere to stay.  I had phoned the only RV park in town twice during the day and had gotten a machine and no call back.  The internet gave us a fairly good map to the place but Paula and I were unsuccessful at finding it in two attempts.  Maneuvering this hulking thing down small side streets was difficult and we gave up.  The bike map didn't show anything here for camping at all.  Dave and Mike convinced us to try one more time and so we set out in the dark to find Willa-Villa mobile home and RV park.  We got to laughing so hard at street names and numbering inconsistencies, that we about missed it until we found ourselves in front of the Willa-Villa Laundry.  As we sat there, my phone rang and it was the gal who finally got my message and said that we could stay the night.  It is nearly all permanent residences with just a few RV spots.  Oh well, we are just glad to have the hook ups needed although no bathroom or shower.

The earlier part of the day was a steady stream of missed turns, U-turns, and mis-read signs.  This is for the RV!!  When we miss a turn, it takes so long to find a good place to turn around that we sometimes have to drive 5 or 6 miles out of the way.  Louisiana is full of little country roads with numbers into the thousands and all very close to the actual corner where the turn needs to be made.  It is not possible to slam on the brakes and turn on a dime!  There are very few signs that indicate what town is coming up so we have to rely on our compass and bike map to keep going in the right general direction.  The bike map is very detailed but not always correct as far as the numbers go.  The last big turn to Bogalusa out of Franklinton was tricky and we had stopped in a large parking lot to see if Dave and Mike wanted to go on.  We watched them go ahead of us and when we pulled out to go they were already out of sight.  We drove the prescribed route and never saw them again until the Walmart.  They missed the first turn and took another route and it turned out better for them--more direct, less hills, and a nice shoulder.  Our route was prettier.

Carrie and family went home today and made it all the way in less than 12 hours.  They started up the Natchez Trail which she said was beautiful but decided the boys were too young to get much out of it.  So they opted for a less scenic but faster route to Illinois.  Today is her birthday!!

Three states to go!!

Love and blessings,

Lana