Adventuring to the Gulf Coast

We arrived in Theodore, AL (actually Mobile) on Good Friday for a stay at All About Relaxing RV Park.  Isn’t that a great name for a RV park?  It is a smaller park but super clean and well maintained.  There are even electric gates to get in and out of the park so the secure feeling is heightened as well.  I have been very impressed with the staff and the super fast wi-fi in the park that is included in the fee.  This is a place I will visit again.  What a great welcome sign!

Welcome Larry and Beverly

We attended the Easter sunrise service at Bellingrath Gardens just down the road a bit.  The weather was perfect and we really enjoyed worshiping with others this special day.  Afterwards, we ate at the café on the grounds and then toured the gardens and house.  A lot of the folks at the sunrise service were locals that left and went to their home church so there were times when we felt as if we were the only ones wandering the grounds.

Easter Sunrise Service Cross

Supposedly most visitors only take about 45 minutes to view the gardens.  We were so taken with the beauty and the moment that 3 hours later, we finally had seen enough and were tired enough to go back to relaxing at our aptly named RV Park.  From big to small, we saw it all.  See if you can spot the butterfly.

The next day, we enjoyed a meal at Dick Russell’s BBQ restaurant.  Even though the meal was good, the really fine time to eat here is at breakfast.  Yes, you heard right, breakfast.  The reason is some of the best Southern Breakfast dining in Mobile and they make homemade biscuits every 15 minutes.  Even at other meal times when offered garlic bread versus biscuits, choose the biscuits.  They alone are worth the stop, no matter what time!

Reading these accounts you might get the impression that we do not do anything but go sightseeing.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  We live every day just as if we are in a sticks and brick location and do the things one would ordinarily do in that situation.  These include, but are not limited to things such as cleaning the house, cooking meals, washing clothes and all the required maintenance on the home.  Occasionally, we even have to look for something, or in the case below, retrieve something that has fallen underneath the couch.  Of course, there is only one of us nimble and thin enough to make the trip fully up under the sofa and manage to back out again.

Besides the ordinary and mundane tasks associated with living, we do have the opportunity to work on projects and hobbies.  Here is proof that Beverly knows how to sand wood.  She is prepping some wooden crates prior to painting and assembly.  The finished project will be posted again later.  Its purpose is to organize and house some of the items she likes to keep beside her chair in the living room.

I have always wanted to visit Beauvoir in Biloxi, MS.  Since it is only a few miles away, we made a trip to tour the house and grounds one afternoon.  Why you ask?  Well let me tell you.  The house is the last residence of Jefferson F. Davis, the former President of the Confederate States of America.  As a matter-of-fact he is the only President of the CSA.  My great-grandfather, who was the first Quinn in my paternal ancestry line born in Texas, was named after him and both my father and myself were named after our grandfather and great grandfather.  We forgot our camera and did not use the cell phones, so no pictures of this stop.

I come from a long line of Southern ancestry and have always been interested in the Civil War time period in U.S. history.  Learning of the name connection increased my curiosity and interest in the story surrounding Davis’ life after the end of the war.  The home is situated right on the beach looking out at the Gulf of Mexico waters and has survived numerous hurricanes, even the most recent Katrina.  Most of the furnishings are original to the Davis family that occupied the house.  The house tour host was great and added a lot of back story to the house, history, construction, furnishings and daily family life so our trip was well worth the visit.

While in the Mobile area we were bemused to hear the many news stories surrounding the building and opening of the first Buc-ee's outside the State of Texas.  The first location in Louisiana fell through so the next location, which is around Mobile, is now the first.  It seems there is a lot of interest and curiosity about this 'convenience store' in the bay area.  Being Texans and familiar with Buc-ee's, we are definitely excited about this development too.  This could be like Cracker Barrel and become a well-known institution nationwide.

Our last stop in the Mobile area was Dauphin Island and Fort Gaines.  The fort is located on a spit of land (Dauphin Island) that was the base of operations for the French when exploring and maintaining a presence in the New World before Napoleon sold the holdings to the U. S. under President Thomas Jefferson.  The fort was built to protect America’s coastline prior to the Civil War and is the site of the naval battle for Mobile Bay where the Union Admiral David Farragut supposedly uttered the famous line, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

We saw this as we arrived on Dauphin Island.  We have labeled these the 'World's Skinniest Condos'.  They are indeed condos and are indeed 'skinny'.

We had a great time exploring and poking around the fort, imagining all kinds of things as we learned the history of the site and about the folks that worked and served at the fort.  Our next stop is the beach.  We are headed to Gulf Shores State Park on the beach in Gulf Shores, AL for the next two weeks.

Sign at entrance with famous quote

Entering main grounds inside the fort

Each circular platform is for cannon emplacement

Cannon ball dent inside the fort wall

Stay tuned for more Adventures in the Adventurer.  Be safe until next time.

Finishing up Branson

Our last week in Branson was actually quite busy.  We had a quiet weekend and celebrated our anniversary on Sunday by eating out and attending a show put on by Dailey and Vincent.  It was a great show by a great bluegrass group.  They recognized us during the show and sang a song (My Only Love) during the performance in our honor.  Afterwards they gave Beverly a T-shirt and CD (which contains the song) for being at the show and liking their Facebook page.  We had a great time and capped off our perfect day.

Dailey and Vincent show, snowing inside the theatre

We received several free show tickets from our campground hosts and decided to fill up our remaining time in Branson with shows and performances.  Monday we ate with the Chuckwagon gang out at Shepherd of the Hills.  They cook the old-time chuckwagon meal right on the premises and then provide entertainment ala cowboys around the campfire at Christmas.  They told stories, jokes and sang songs as would have happened in days gone by.  The food was good and the time passed fast.

Afterwards we headed over the Hughes Brothers’ Theatre to see the Hughes Brothers and their families in a Christmas show.  It was a variety type show, similar to the Andy Williams shows on TV in years past.  They featured their entire families which included 35 children varying in age from early 20s to just a few months old.  At the end, they had a story about the symbols and colors of Christmas and how they all point to Christ.  A very entertaining group, with a lot of mouths to feed, that put on a great feel good show.

On Tuesday, we headed over to the Little Opry Theatre for a Sanders Family Christmas.  This is the sequel to Smoke on the Mountain.  The theatre is small and was not very full.  The audience was enthusiastic and would interact with the performers which made for a great evening of fun for all.  This particular cast was very entertaining to the point that we would actually go back to see them again.  Little June was a hoot.

The Sanders Family is a group of singers performing their annual Christmas presentation for the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church but poor Little June does not have a singing voice.  She instead ‘signs’ the songs for the audience, even though there are no deaf folks in the congregation.  Her signs are a combination of real sign language and her own interpretation of an appropriate sign to use.  She also has a ‘key’ role in a particular song using bells as you see from the picture below, she did not have enough hands to ring all the required notes so she improvised her own method of ringing the bells.

Lil' June displaying her bell ringing cleverness

We also enjoyed a dinner show at Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.  You get a full meal to eat but no utensils to eat them with so a different experience for sure.  During the meal, the waitress tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I wanted to 'participate' in the show.  I being the gullible, likable person I am shook my head yes between bites of chicken.  Little did I know it was a competition and I was representing my side of the arena in a battle of horseshoes.  Not just any kind of horseshoes but Ozark style horseshoes.  You may not be able to tell from the picture below but the 'horseshoes' we are throwing are toilet seats.  Yes, but never used for their intended purpose toilet seats.  Alas, like Casey at Bat, I too failed to deliver the win for our side of the arena.  Close but not close enough.  I think I was distracted.

Ozark horseshoes, mine are red!

Having finished our ‘Christmas’ trip to Branson we headed back to Texas to enjoy the holidays with family and friends.  We also attended to some doctor appointments.  One thing led to another and we did not get to head out of state as soon as originally planned.  So we spent some time in and around North and East Texas.

Goodbye little yellow tree that is no longer yellow

This allowed us to catch up with friends and make new friends.  We met a wonderful couple from Canada.  We called them our Canadian neighbors (they literally were parked next door as neighbors) and we really enjoyed visiting with them during their brief stay.  We also caught back up with a high school friend and his wife that introduced us to a volunteer group.  Having a bit of time on our hands before actually hitting the road once again, we decided to join in and see if we could enjoy this activity.

The group we volunteered with is Texas Baptist Men Camp Builders.  It is one of several ‘builder’ groups with the Texas Baptist Men volunteer organization.  The organization also has other areas of volunteering under their umbrella with one being the well-known Disaster Relief group that springs into action when needed during and after a disaster.

The builder project we helped with was in Lone Star, Texas at Lakeview Baptist Encampment.  Each year the Texas camps schedule jobs with TBM and for three weeks the volunteers show up and work on whatever building project is underway.  This year the project(s) at Lakeview included renovating a worship/meeting center and upgrading bathrooms in an older dormitory.  Our traveling friends David and Sophie also joined in as first-time volunteers.

I can say we had a very good time and will definitely do more volunteering in the future.  However, the first week I truly wondered what I had got myself into.  All of my muscles were so sore and my body was so tired.  We quickly realized that not working (i.e. retirement) had allowed our bodies to atrophy and become accustomed to the easy life.  It did not take long to get back in shape but man oh man the aches and pains during the process.

The ladies were involved too.  Beverly and Sophie found themselves at the center of attention at the first break with the ladies.  When it was discovered both of them had given up the sticks and bricks for a life of full-timing in the RV, the ladies in the group peppered them with twenty thousand questions.  It seems they mostly wanted to know the mental process of being able to give up a fixed location and ‘material things’ to move into and enjoy a rather nomadic way of life.  Some of them even commented there was not any way they could fathom that as a possibility.  It seems there is a definite difference between how one gender views full-time RV living versus how the gentler gender feels about the lifestyle.

While the men were involved in painting, laying carpet, cutting and installing woodwork trim, taping and bedding, installing cement board, etc. the ladies were busy helping get things ready to sell in the gift shop.  They had small crafts to put together as well as some sewing.  Additionally there was a lot of packaging and pricing of a myriad of items for the gift shop.  There was plenty of work for everyone and the time just seemed to fly by.  Before we knew it the end of the session was here and it was time to say ‘see you down the road’ as we left.  They never say goodbye, only see you later.  The Camp Builder motto is: “come when you can, do what you can, stay as long as you can and we’ll see you down the road.”   These are my kind of folks!!!

We have enjoyed several rousing games of '42', Phase 10 and miscellaneous others during our recent sojourn. After spending some of our time watching several volleyball, basketball and baseball games the grandchildren were involved in and finishing the doctor appointments we have ‘officially’ hit the road again.  Stay tuned for the next installment on our adventures.