Visiting the Beach

Our move to Gulf Shores State Park occurred on a Friday.  We saw a lot of traffic heading to the beach.  In fact, the lady assisting Beverly with reservations had to look around and manipulate the system a bit to get us a place to park for two weeks.  It seems this park is very popular with locals for weekend jaunts.  Typical to all government RV areas, the weekends are always reserved and therefore, it is hard to find one week without a weekend reservation already in place, not to mention two weeks.  But to her credit, the lady not only was able to work her magic, she helped us out on the rates by combining an end of month special, senior discounts and regular daily rates to get us the least expensive total cost.  People really do want to help and are nice, if you are nice to them.

There are signs scattered throughout the park that admonish folks to NOT feed or aggravate the alligators.  Those that know me really well, realize this is the most inappropriate warning for me.  It is almost like waving a red cape in front of a bull.  I have this very strong urge to hunt for an alligator just to aggravate since I am predisposed to aggravate anything that breathes.  It is not my fault, it is in the genes.  I do my best to keep it suppressed but usually with not much luck.  It also seems very odd to me the placement of one of these signs is adjacent to the kids’ park area.  Why do you think the sign is there?  Is it the alligators’ food source or the kids’ absolute enjoyment in aggravating?  I wonder….?  By the way, how do you aggravate an alligator?

Come here alligator, alligator, alligator... where are you?

This area is indeed Beverly’s ‘happy place.’  She has been doing her little ‘happy dance’ since we have been here.  My problem is this place is so relaxing, I only feel like sitting while she wants to ‘dance’ up and down the beach day in and day out.  So we compromise, I sit and watch her go up and down the beach.  Works good!  Everybody is happy, happy, happy!

Happy, Happy, Happy

We tried to watch the Blue Angels (US Navy’s flight demonstration squadron) practice session on the first Tuesday in the area.  Their website is very specific about times, etc.  When we arrived, we found the Air Force Thunderbirds were at the base too and interrupted the normal practice schedule, which had not been disclosed on the website.  The Blues had flown early that morning and the Thunderbirds were flying later.  We like a large number of other folks found ourselves waiting in line to go to the seating area about two hours before the Thunderbirds would start their practice.  Standing in the Florida heat for two hours is not my preferred activity so we decided we would visit again the following week and headed to Pensacola beach to stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Flounders.  Here is a picture of the partially eaten Key Lime Pie from Flounders. Mm..Mmm, good!

Yes, that is 3 Layers of pie!!!

Amazingly after we had finished the pie, we had this urge to go sit and veg on the beach.  The wind had come up and people were leaving because it had clouded up a bit and gotten pretty cool.  As we sat and pondered the surf and waves, I could hear in the distance jet engines.  Looking out into the Gulf, you could make out some airplanes and as I watched, it slowly dawned on me it was not only the Blues but the Thunderbirds.  They made a slow turn towards the beach and started flying right over the top of us at a very low altitude as they made their way back towards Pensacola.  As you can see in the pictures, we hurriedly snapped, all this was done in the Delta formation.  Oh by the way, the pictures makes them look further away than they really were.  They were very close.  My day was made!

Blues are right over my head!

Followed by the Thunderbirds.

On Saturday, we headed to a small town just east of Foley.  Our mission was to explore the German Festival held annually at Elberta.  One of the things on our bucket list is to soak up some of the local flavor by attending arts and crafts celebrations, festivals and fairs.  We knew this was going to be a small one but wanted to check it out anyway.  Sure enough it took us longer to drive to the event than it did to walk through the entire venue.  We did meet and visit with some interesting folks.  It never is a waste of time to check these events out.  The food did not look all that appetizing so we made a strategic decision to eat somewhere else.

Luckily just a few minutes back down the road in Foley is the restaurant, Lambert’s Café, home of ‘throwed rolls.’  Just about every time we are in the area of Branson, MO or Foley, AL we head to this restaurant.  The food is about as down home as you can get and the rolls are always hot.  You can check out our November 2016 post and pictures from Branson to see the type of fare available.  This place in Foley is no exception as it is patterned after the original.  It is owned and run by the same family who clearly likes the beach versus the mountains.  We like both equally.  Here are a few beach photos.

We like to visit churches as we travel around to meet new folks and experience local culture.  It is always exciting and encouraging to see like-minded folks around the country worshiping.  In today’s world, if you watch news programs, you think there are not very many believers left and we have turned totally to secularism.  It is not the case; in fact, I am very encouraged to see the number of young people in worship these days.  Mind you, the services do not look anything like they did when I was growing up but the message is still the same.

We attended the First Baptist Church of Gulf Shores our first Sunday in the area and thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.  The second Sunday, we received an invitation to join the campground Camper’s Devotion time at the activities building.  This particular Sunday a youth group from FBC Brinkley, AR led the worship time.  We really enjoyed them sharing singing, scripture reading and skits.  They had a lot of talent to be such a small group.  There were ten of them plus their leader.  It was as satisfying and encouraging as any service anywhere.

The bad storms that created tornadoes in TX, flooding in MO and AR finally reached us the following Sunday night which was our second Sunday in the park.  We were expecting them all day on Sunday but they did not actually show up until well after dark.  We went to the beach to see the big surf that was created due to the high winds as we waited for the storms to arrive.  When we got there, we saw not one but two red flags flying.  Of course, this means no one is allowed in the water due to the dangers of rip tides and high waves.  Sure enough as we walked along the beach a police ATV came driving by to make sure no one was ignoring the warnings.  They were patrolling the beach all day.

The bad storms hit overnight and we found ourselves doing a bit of rocking and rolling.  The next morning we surveyed the ‘damage’ to see what might need attention.  The grill had been blown from underneath the motorhome and filled with water.  A plant was blown over and had to be re-potted.  The satellite dish was blown over and had to be re-positioned.  The sidewinder sewer hose support was partially in place but fully extended and sticking out the other side of the RV.  Worst thing was the awning covering the long slide is going to need attention.  Some supports are broken and a small part of the fabric torn.  Wind and water combined in such force is pretty scary.

Speaking of scary, there is something I must share with you.  When you are mostly Irish, Scandinavian, Western European, white and fair-skinned then you must protect your skin with sun block whenever you go to the beach.  In the past I have used a strong SPF product to do just that but have always had some issues.  You see, when sweating, it tends to get into my eyes creating a burning, stinging sensation that is extremely uncomfortable.  This time I set out to find a solution to that irritation.  I found it in the local pharmacy.  A high SPF lotion for babies like the shampoo which does not burn or hurt the babies’ eyes.  Aha!  The answer to my anguish for many years supposedly was in this tube.  Our purchase made, we proceeded to the RV to ‘prep’ for the beach.  Now I must warn you in advance, what you are about to read and see in the attached pictures is indeed scary.  In fact, so scary I highly recommend the use of this product to keep unwanted intrusion at bay.  When this product is applied to the skin; it does not disappear like traditional sun block but remains firmly in place with a pinkish tint.  We did not have a single obnoxious (or sweet either for that matter) kid approach us to bother us when on the beach.  Similarly, there were adults who literally went out of their way to avoid us like the plague as we approached each other.  So in addition to repelling the harmful effects of the sun’s rays, this product also repels humans.  See for yourselves the scary results of one application in the pictures below.  WARNING: This is NOT for the faint of heart to see!!!

Yikes!

Comparison picture for effect.

That is enough scary stuff for now.  Until next time, be safe!