Beaches, Birds, and uh oh, alarms??? #4

4/11/09
Drove out to dauphin island and visited an old fort where they fought the civil war. This is where Captain Farragut coined the phrase “damned the torpedo's, full speed ahead.” the union navy was attacking the confederate fort gaines that was protecting mobile bay. The guns and history of the battle were really interesting, and the fort was set up with many cubbys and storage areas for ammunition. Also it housed between 400 and 500 soldiers. We couldn't believe it would have held that many people, it wasn't very big at all.
Afterwards, we headed to battleship memorial park outside mobile. We did a partial tour of the USS Alabama battleship. Dang, I'd never find my way around that place, it's HUGE!! there was also an aviation museum where many of the navy planes and world war II planes were shown. They even had a flight simulator you could try out. Neither of us did, however, just too weak stomached!
We returned to the RV park and went to bed early because we were really tired from walking and climbing around the battleship.
4/12/09
We headed toward Destin and the beach and campground there. The wind was pretty bad so we ended up canceling our reservation at Henderson Beach State Park. Taught me to not make reservations until I KNEW FOR SURE we would make it. Anyway, we pulled into a trusted WAL-MART and spent the next 2 days there to wait out the storms that went thru. It worked out great since the storm went thru and we had great weather when we did get on our way. We also got haircuts, a very important activity at the time. We are now lifetime members of the Wal-Mart RV club. Unfortunately, they are much more expensive than many other RV parks. Can't stay out of those danged stores!!
4/13/09
WAL-MART
4/14
Left Wal-Mart and headed to Destin. We LOVED Pensacola beach. As we were parking the rig, I saw a bird sitting on the fence. It was with a trailer where there was a man and woman and large weimereiner dog. The bird was a Macaw! Gorgeous! Naturally, I went over and talked with the people and asked if I could take pics of the bird. His name is Tito! I took video and photo's. It was fun to watch Tito and the dog. They are very fond of each other and play together a lot. The people told me that they go everywhere with them and when they go to the grocery store, the dog would sit on one side in the front seat and Tito on the other side watching out the window for their parents to return. What a picture that would make. Hey Pearl, wouldn't that be a good shot??? lol After my fill of photo's, I joined Nan on the beach with Trav. It was white sand, very few people and long ways to walk. Trav loves beaches. He says it is so nice on his paws. No stickers, no rocks, no pickers, just soft, soft, soft. I would have liked to stay longer, but we were told to definitely go to Destin beach. So, we headed to Destin. We hit Fort Walton and were overwhelmed with people on the beaches. It was so crowded, we didn't even try to find a place to stop. As we were driving thru Ft. Walton Beach, we came on a place advertising as the Gulfarium. Sounds like a sea critter place to me. “Wanna stop”, “sure”, “great”. So we pull in and go see what its about. Well, it was exactly what we thought it was. An acquarium with shows and stuff. We paid to get in, $20 whew!! oh, well, we wanted to see what it was about. We saw little shows with dolphins and sea lions. There were penguins and sharks and sting rays. We both enjoyed the shows. I always enjoy sea world like shows with dolphins. They are fantastic creatures. And cute too! I took lots of video and pics. When I get somewhere where we will be a few days, I will convert the videos and put them in the blog. Some of them are really fun. Afterward we continue on to Destin where we were greeted by tons of people. We both are rather fond of empty beaches. So we kept on going. Guess where we ended up this nite? Yep. Our member park. WAL-MART in Panama City. We were both tired and it seemed a good place to stop. I did pull into a Sam's first, but Nan wasn't happy because she couldn't shop at Sam's. We don't have a membership to Sam's. So I turned around and we found a real WAL-MART and Nan was now happy. And you all know, my only goal is to make Nan happy!!! So, off she went, happy as a lark, into the store.
4/15/09
Today! We drove along the seashore all day. Found some terrific beaches, no people, and white sand for as far as you could see. We found a place to pull off. Nan said it was for handicapped parking and I told her that we WERE handicapped because we couldn't park anywhere else cause we were too big. She gave in and we walked the beach for a while and Trav RAN! What a boy! He is being sooooo good.
Nan went back to the rig cause her knee was aching a little and I went on to walk further down the beach. Trav and I went about another ¾ mile and then came back. We ate lunch and then continued on our way.
We had another suggestion to go see St. George Island. So we parked the RV in a parking lot and unhooked the car and drove over to St. George island. We drove from one end to the other and then back to the rig. Hooked up and on our way again. We started getting an alarm but no warning lights so we had no clue what the alarm was about. So, I read the manual and decided to drain the water from the dryer. OK, go into the cubby where the dryer was, open the vent, and what I thought was supposed to be water, was gas!! oh, no!! Can't get the valve closed! What am I gonna do now? What the hell did I do? OK, now think, what else can I do to stop the flow of gas? Block the valve with my finger. Now, what? Read the instructions on the filter/dryer. OK, that didn't work, try turning the valve the other way, hmmmmmmm, that worked. I was turning it the wrong way, I love it when I figure something out that I was dumb enuff to do in the first place!! whew! And Nan didn't even know what I did! And I ain't tellin her! Start the rig and see if there are leaks, YIKES!! OK, so I didn't figure it out. Now, try again, “Nan, start the engine.” uh oh, it won't start! It says to manually work the pump to prime, WHAT PUMP??? what now? OK, I got in the rig and just pumped the pedal until it finally started. And it didn't leak? Dang, am I lucky! So, off we go, alarm still came on. Went off in a few minutes and hasn't come on again since. We'll see how long we can last without another alarm scaring the crap out of us. I had called an RV park that is a passport park and made reservations when he told me he could get us a spot on the waterfront. YIPPEE!!!! Nan, however, was very skeptical. Passport parks are usually passport parks because they don't' get much business. Dang it, Nan, don't be so pessimistic. Think good thoughts. OK, so the park isn't the nicest park we've been in, but we ARE on the waterfront. It's not all that bad, I have Internet access. We can't walk the beach cause there isn't one. It's all rock. Oh well, we will be able to see a great sunset and listen to the lapping water all nite. We are going to take a drive tomorrow in the car and go to another beach not too far away. Hopefully, that will be a bit better. But we aren't too disappointed. We have water, electric, sewer and waterfront. What else could we want?? Wal-Mart doesn't have all that!!! We are staying 2 nites here and then going to another waterfront RV park in Homosassa, FL from here. There, we are going to see the manatees. There is some sort of tour or something about seeing manatees. So that's where we are headed from here. After that, we'll get into Bradenton, FL where my dad and his wife live. This part of the new trip is going pretty good. We are loving the sights and the water and the beaches.
Hope everyone is having a great summer, that is if your summer has started yet!!!
hugs and love to all.........