Back To Alabama

 27 Apr    Nashville, TN - Tuscumbia, AL   139 miles     4 hours

We had a lot of fun hanging out with our new friends at the campground. They are planning a trip out to the West next spring. Maybe we can meet up with them at some point. 

Before we left Nashville, we went on a nice walk with Alfred and Elaine. Right below J. Percy Priest Dam there was a Greenway along Stones River. We walked for about three miles along the river. Nice path for walking and biking. We're going to miss our friends.

Alfred & Elaine

Me & Elaine

We spent one night at Alabama Music Hall of Fame. This is a Harvest Host location so we can boondock in their parking lot. We did a tour and it was real good. The senior rate was $8 per person. So funny, now we qualify for senior discounts!

Alabama's Tour Bus

This was a great Harvest Host location. Plenty of room to park and pretty quiet. They will even let you stay more than one night if you need to. 

We're headed back to Red Bay Alabama for an appointment at Bay Diesel to service our generator. This place is so busy, we tried to get an appointment when we were in Red Bay but couldn't get in. 

28 Apr     Tuscumbia - Red Bay - Greenwood Springs, AL     119 miles

Bay Diesel

 We were only 46 miles from Red Bay so it was a short drive for our appointment. After we dropped the RV off we went to Spark's for breakfast. We like this little restaurant. We ate here a few times when we were in this area earlier. 

Our generator got serviced and there was a recall on the valve stems for the tires so we got it all fixed up. 

We drove over to another Harvest Host location in Greenwood Springs, MS. R & R Vineyards is a little winery and getting there was a little frustrating. Our stupid GPS keeps taking us on some funky little roads that we're not supposed to be on. We finally made it and once we got settled we went in for a little wine tasting. Was pretty good stuff, we ended up buying two bottles of wine. Not sure if we would stay here again because of the location and plenty of mosquitos. Joe reacts to mosquito bites and he got a lot.

29 Apr     Greenwood Springs - Gulf Shores, AL     307 miles     6 hours 15 mins

We'll be staying on the Gulf Shores for about a week. I told Joe I wanted to see how nice the beaches were on the Gulf so here we are. We are also going to try and book a few days close to Destin, Florida. I heard the beaches there are super nice. 

I booked the first two days at Luxury RV Resort. We booked a water view site. I didn't know our water view was going to be wetlands. So funny, this whole area got plenty water but a lot of it is wetlands not beach. We paid $180.90 for two nights, kind of expensive but that's the price around here. 

This RV park is kind of nice....not a luxury resort but it's okay. The beach is about two blocks away so close enough to take a walk and get some exercise. It's very crowded here and very touristy. It's like being in Waikiki. 

We took a long walk to the beach one day. We went pretty early so it was a nice walk. The water here is not as nice as back home, it was kind of green. On the way we saw an alligator in one of the waterways.

Yes, that's an alligator

Shrimp

There's a few good places to eat. Seafood is big around here. Joe enjoyed the shrimp po'boy. He could eat it everyday. I liked everything!

  

One of my favs

01 May   Luxury RV Resort - Gulf Shores State Park   6 miles

We moved 6 miles down the road today to Gulf Shores State Park. This is a real nice, huge state park with over 400 RV sites and over 28 miles of hiking/biking trails. There is also a very nice swimming pool, tennis courts, and bike/kayak rentals. Kind of expensive for a state park but the amenities are great. The daily rate is $57. 

02 May   We took a long walk today, over 3 1/2 miles. It was very hot and muggy but it was very nice. As we were walking along a canal we saw an alligator, very still, across the bank from us. There are signs all over to warn about alligators and snakes....so scary!

Turtles sunning themselves

Another Alligator

Beautiful water lilies

 03 May   Another long walk today in very muggy weather. We walked almost 5 miles.  The trails here are so nice so you just keep walking. We walked to the lake today, so beautiful. We had to cool off in the pool afterwards. 

These signs!

We took a drive out to the pier today. We walked out and watched people fishing off the pier. The water is so ugly. The weather is pretty junky today so I guess it affects the water. It's brownish, green and very rough. Every time someone would snag a fish and start reeling it in, a shark would bite it off the line. We saw so much sharks. Even if the water so junky there were people swimming....with sharks about 50 yards away!

Green water

           

  04 May   Again, another long walk, almost 5 miles. I told Joe we really should rent bikes because I want to see the whole park. So the last 3 days, same schedule. Long walks and cool off in the pool afterwards. 

This afternoon we took a drive out to the Alabama/Florida state line. This area is called Floribama. Another touristy area. I guess this is the closest I'll get to Florida on this trip. I've been trying to get reservations to stay around Destin but no luck. 

05 May   We got our 2nd Covid shot today. Feels so good to get vaccinated. The weather is real ugly today. Lots of rain, in fact, this whole area is under a tornado watch. We didn't feel too bad after our shot, just a little bit of body aches. 

06 May   After a few days of very muggy weather, and yesterdays rain, today is real nice and sunny. Joe and I both feel like shit today. I guess it's from the Covid shot yesterday. So we just stayed in all day and rested. I'm so bummed, its our last day here and I wanted to rent bikes to see the rest of this park.

07 May   Gulf Shores - Alabaster, AL      286 miles      8 hrs 30 mins

This morning we left the Gulf Shores and headed to our harvest host location, Siluria Brewing Co in Alabaster, Alabama. We got stuck in traffic on I-65. There was a bad accident and we had a 2 hour delay. What made it worse is, our low fuel light came on before we got stuck. We had about ten more miles before we got to the gas station. Traffic was not moving, not even crawling. So Joe had to pull over and just wait for a while to conserve our gas. He's always so careful about not going too much below half tank before filling up. Our timing to push it was not good.

Siluria Brewing Co

 

Esperanza was the best

We finally pulled into Siluria Brewing about 6:30pm. After parking, we hit the brewery. We both needed a drink! This is a real good harvest host location. We had a few beers, some dinner, good music, and we met other harvest host campers. When we finally settled in for the night, the train passed and holy shit.... we didn't realize the train passed right behind the parking lot. There was a train crossing close by so every time it passed, the whistle and rumbling....It went on till well after midnight.

Boondocking in the parking lot