Fri, Mar 25, Birmingham South RV Park, Birmingham, AL:  A beautiful, sunny spring day today. We took care of some chores before we head home on Monday.  Picked up a few groceries, fueled up the truck, and then went to Dreamland Barbecue on the UAB campus. And what a pretty campus. Mike has been looking forward to Dreamland Barbecue for a while. We had to endure rush hour traffic coming and going, but Mike says it was worth it. We leave tomorrow morning for W. Memphis. 70 today and beautiful.

Azaleas are in full bloom right now.

Thu, Mar 24, KOA, Tallahassee, FL, to Birmingham South RV Park, Birmingham, AL:  A long driving day today.  We headed west on I10 and then north on Rt. 231 which is a four-lane minimum access highway. A good road, but we got tied up in traffic around Dothan and Troy. Finally got on I65 north at Montgomery, AL, and arrived at our park and were set up by 4:30 or so. Ran into rain just south of Birmingham, but no severe weather. Temps were mid-70s until the front came through which dropped the temps over 10 degrees. We’re here for two days.

There was this one little lily in our site in Tallahassee. An Easter Lily no doubt. 

Wed, Mar 23, KOA, Wildwood, FL, to KOA (now a Good Sam), Tallahassee, FL:  Well, what started out as a really short driving day turned into a long day. We left Wildwood at 10:30 and after driving about 15 minutes on I75 the traffic came to an abrupt stop and we sat there for over 2 hours. Turns out an 18-wheeler jackknifed and turned over around Ocala. Not sure how many other vehicles were involved. We saw a pickup that was pretty banged up. Anyway, we were here and set up by 5:30. A beautiful day—sunny and 78. 

Historic courthouse in Tallahassee, FL.

Tue, Mar 22, KOA, Naples, FL, to KOA, Wildwood, FL:  I drove today for the first time in a long time. Left Naples at 10:45 this morning. I drove for 2-1/2 hours and then we stopped for food and fuel and Mike took over. There’s construction on I75 in several places. They’re expanding it to 3 lanes in places. Why don’t they just put in three lanes on each side when they’re initially built? Makes sense to me. But what do I know. We’re here in Wildwood for one night only and not unhooking. A pretty day today—clear, warm and sunny. Put together a roast beef dinner yesterday, so we have lots of left-overs. 75 today.

Rattlesnake!

Fri, Mar 18, KOA, Naples, FL:  Can’t believe it’s been a week since I last posted. We had to leave the Everglades after two days. We couldn’t get water into the tank easily. Besides, it was really hot. We ended up at Miami Everglades RV Park--an Encore Park. Had our Canadian friends over for a very simple dinner on Monday. Mike wanted to play shoes with them on Tuesday, which was interesting since they all spoke French. Then they invited us over for a sumptuous Chinese dinner on Wednesday. What a meal! Esther and Gerald made wonton soup, egg rolls, and coconut shrimp—all delicious. Charlie and Johanne made Chinese spareribs, fried rice, and broccoli beef. We left on Thursday and are now at the KOA in Naples. After we got set up we gathered our laundry and headed over to the laundromat. Put a couple of loads in the washer and then sat in the truck—Mike to make a phone call to an RV dealer and me to read my latest book. After we were out there for about five minutes, Mike tapped me on the shoulder and then pointed to the road in front of us. One of the biggest eastern diamond back rattlesnakes we’ve ever seen was crossing the road. I got out to take a closer look and alerted the people in the park model across from the laundromat. A guy came out and said, “are you sure it’s a rattlesnake?” Take a look at his rattles, I said. Yep, it’s a rattlesnake all right, he said. It slithered under the screen room (aka lanai) of a park model. This thing had to be at least 8 feet long. I’m thinking more like 10. It sure got everything stirred up around the park. I would not want to be the people living in that park model.

At Charlie and Johnne's site waiting for shoes to start.

Pretty Molly.

Mike and Gerald

Johanne and Molly over at Esther and Gerald's site.

Mike and Gerald

Hi Molly...

Hi Foxy...

Fri, Mar 11, Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf Key, FL, to Everglades National Park:  Didn’t need to worry about getting out of our site. We had no problems at all. Left at 10:00 and arrived at the Everglades and were set up by 1:30. Love it here. And we have a great site. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to fit into any of the sites in the Long Pine Key campground, but no problem. And they’ve built two new shower houses here in this campground—one in the RV section and one in the tent section. It is great to see money being spent in our national parks. After we got set up and had some lunch, we drove out to Mahogany Hammock to see if there were any new owlets this year. Didn’t see anything, but we’ll go back every day. They could have been sleeping or something. Or maybe they’ve already fledged. Came back and filled our two water jugs. We’ll top off the tank tomorrow morning after our showers. We’ll have no hook-ups for 7 days. We’ll see how well the solar panels keep up. But we always have the generator as back-up. 82 here and beautiful.

Our new, much bigger site here in the Everglades.

View out our back window.

Thu, Mar 10, Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf Key, FL:  After being down for a few days with a stomach ailment, I’m finally starting to feel better. Mike spent a few hours yesterday getting ready for our departure tomorrow morning. I was of absolutely no help. Today I did help folding up our outside mat and putting our lights away. We had signed up for a wine tasting today. Mike went over. Not feeling good enough for that—besides the drugs I’m taking do not mix well with alcohol (sigh). George and Jackie Licis stopped by briefly to say hello. We met them a couple of years ago. Another really windy day today. Hopefully it’ll be better tomorrow, although we only have a 3-hour drive to the Everglades. Wonder what site we’ll end up in, since our new fifth wheel is a lot longer. Keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t have any problem getting out of here.

Adieu Lazy Lakes--until November.