A Day With Friends

Like the rest of the country, the “sunny” south is in the grip of bitter cold weather.  We, however, have had temperatures only in the mid 20s, and thankfully not the minus 20s like so many up north.  For the third night in a row we unhooked our water to prevent the outside lines and the campground pipes from freezing.  We were missing our heat taped, insulated water system we use in Nashville in the winter.  We left all that cold weather stuff in Tennessee.  We were, after all, going to the deep south where it is warm.  After a hard freeze overnight, the sun did its thing quickly this morning and without the steady wind of yesterday, we had a very pleasant day indeed.

We met our friends, Diana and Tony, early and drove down to Gulf Shores for a wonderful 6 mile walk at Gulf State Park.  Afterwards, we had a late breakfast at Tacky Jacks which is right on the water.  Well, right on the water if you wanted to sit on the deck.  It was still a little too chilly for that so we sat at a window table inside and looked across the deck to the water.  After that good walk, the Belgian waffle and omelet slid down without any effort at all.  We all cleaned our plates then chased it with several cups of coffee and great conversation.  We had another wonderful visit with Tony and Diana and are looking forward to seeing them as we make our way through Texas and on to Washington.

This afternoon, we had the opportunity to spend a little more time with new friends, Darrell and Judy.  Gene and Darrell got deep into a GPS discussion while Judy filled me in on digital scrapbooking.  We really enjoyed seeing the “home improvements” Darrell has done to their rig.  It is amazing how just a few little things here and there can make such a huge difference in the overall appearance.  Great job, Darrell!  Judy had family photos lined up above one of their slides, a place I never would have thought of putting photos.  It looks super.  After a little wine, cheese and conversation, we continued the RV tour at our rig.  We are anxious to get to know Darrell and Judy better and, since they have children in Middle Tennessee, I’m sure our paths will cross again.

We had originally planned to leave here tomorrow heading west.  However, the weather forecast indicates rain for most of the day.  Since we have no set schedule, we have decided to sit out the rain and leave on Monday.  What a great way to travel.