BACK HOME IN CANTON, OHIO

Wednesday, June 30 – We've arrived back in Ohio and are parked in Rick’s, Marsha’s brother, driveway. This is so great of them to let us do this. Marsha’s dad lives in the house in back of Rick. Marsha is so happy to be able to see her dad everyday. Kelly is staying with her grandpa.

Kelly and Marsha’s dad together for the first time in a year. Of course the celebrating began immediately!

It took a little figurin' to get the electric hooked-up. We had to give-up on our attempt to get 30 amp electric out of an old A/C shut-off and simply plug into 115 volt plug in the garage. So far we can run just about anything we want...just not all at the same time. We have an EMS (Electrical Management System) from Progressive Industries which has a digital monitor that allows Paul to view our electrical usage. Pretty neat!

It's nice to be in cool weather for a change. It was 53 degrees this morning when Paul got up this morning. He even dug out a sweatshirt....brrrrr! Nice weather for all the jobs Paul wants to get done around the MH. Yesterday, he installed the electrical devices he got for Christmas (Voltage monitor,

 

Indoor/Outdoor thermometer). The top number is the temperature in the MH. Marsha put her heavy robe on and blanket around her legs. She said that we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to run the air condition…now we wonder if we can run our furnace…GEESH!!

He also rehung (Is that a word?) Marsha's book rack for the third time. Hopefully, this time it will stay put.

Paul also did some errands around town. Funny how things seemed to have stood still during our nearly one year on the road. He also went to the Wellness Center to sign-up for his back surgery rehabilitation and exercising while in Ohio.

More HM “to do list” items on tap for today. Going to paint the new air conditioner cover, check the roof for any needed caulking, clean the roof vents, and hopefully have time to work on the kitchen faucet. Another busy (Paul's type of fun) day!

Thanks Rick and Chris for letting us stay here!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Y’all come back again.

ON OUR WAY BACK TO OHIO

Thursday, June 24 – Travel Day. We checked out of Rainbow Plantation Campground and hit the road at 8:30. Our target is Noccalula Falls Campground in Gadsden, AL. The Noccalula Falls Park and Campground area is part of the City of Gadsden's Parks and Recreation Department.

This is a very nice campground. We are in site P-1 in the woods. The have cable so we didn’t need to worry about the satellite. The roads are paved and the sites are concrete with plenty of trees for shade. Bella (our cat) loves the place. Kelly went immediately to the pool to work on her tan. Marsha and I chilled.

Us chillin’

Beautiful landscape

Pavilion

Pool

The Noccalula Falls is at the entrance to the campground. There is a beautiful water falls.

The LEGEND OF NOCCALULA came from these early times. There lived a great Indian Chief whose young daughter, Noccalula. Many gallant braves sought the old chief for the hand of Noccalula, but only one was favored by the girl's father, a rich chief of a powerful neighboring tribe. Vainly Noccalula pleaded that her heart was already given to a young brave of her own tribe. But this young warrior, though noted for his skill and valor, possessed but little in worldly goods.

The old chief refused to listen and ordered his daughter to make ready for the marriage he had arranged. The girl's lover was driven from the tribe, and a marriage agreement was made with the neighboring chief.

The wedding day came and a great feast was prepared. In silence Noccalula allowed herself to be arrayed in festive wedding robes. Overcome with grief, she quietly slipped away from the merrymakers during the festivities.......the soft rhythmical rush of waters called her.....a moment she stood poised upon the brink of the yawning chasm. One leap--and her troubles were over.

"Heartbroken, the remorseful father gave the great cataract his daughter's name and since that day the falls has been called Noccalula.

A very nice park and a quaint chapel for weddings.

We will definitely stopped here again.

Friday, June 25 – Another travel Day. Our next one-day stop is at Raccoon Valley another Escapee’s Park. When we began our adventure in October, we stayed at this park the second night. It is only about an hour from the Smoky Mountains. Our friends, Louise and Duane, are workkampers here at the park. Marsha says she is sorry…she forgot to get a picture of them. We had a wonderful visit. We all went to a super dinner and then back to the campground for more catching up. Thanks for a great time, Duane and Louise!

Their have several walking trails in the woods. Bella loved the trails, our first time here. So we thought we would see if she still enjoyed them. YEP, she did!

So did Kelly.

Don’t forget Paul.

Saturday, June 26 – Almost to Ohio. Today,we traveled through the rest of Tennessee and up into Kentucky.

We are staying at Cincinnati South Campground which is really in Crittenden, KY. This is the first place we stayed when we left Ohio in October, 2009. Matters-of-fact, we are in the same site we were the first time we visited. This is a really, nice place. Lots of room for Bella to walk around. As soon as we got set up, Kelly saw a deer. We hope to see more later this evening. We got great satellite reception. There is one drawback…there are railroad tracks about a quarter of a mile away and the whistle is loud!

Entrance

Office with fountain

They have a great game room. We may play some pool later tonight.

One of the guys that work here stopped by to just be friendly. As we were sharing stories, he says that he and his wife are from CANTON, OHIO! Even more amazing is that his wife graduated from the same high school, Perry, that Marsha did. He told Marsha her last name and Marsha says, “Is her first name Susan?” “YES!” What a hoot!  We have learned that…You never know who you will run into!

Tomorrow…OHIO.

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all again real soon.

THERE IS OIL ON THE BEACH AND WE DON’T MEAN SUNTAN OIL!

Tuesday, June 22 – Well, so much for beach plans......rain, rain, go away! We wanted to take advantage of these beautiful beaches before the oil ruins them but......RAIN! So what does any woman (Paul's traveling with two of them...three counting the cat) do when there's no alternative....SHOP! We're going to the Outlet Mall....yeah!!!!

Now that was a huge Tanger Outlet Center. Kelly seemed to find many things she's been looking for....even two more bathing suits.

After the Mall, we went over to Lambert's.....famous for the “Throwed Roll.” And Yes, they threw the rolls to us. There are only three locations…Sikeston, MO, Ozark, MO, and Foley, AL.

The thrower

The catcher

All the food was delicious. The serving size was humungous...we carried most of our dinners home for tomorrow. It was Kelly's treat so that was nice!

On this page, there are a lot of fun facts about the restaurant like…

Their ovens turn out rolls from 9:15 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. usually without stopping.  Last year they averaged baking 520 dozen rolls per day, for a grand total of 2,246,400 individual rolls.

Their rolls are 5 inches in diameter and if they laid all the rolls that they baked in one year side by side, they would have 177.27 miles of rolls. In the past 21 months they have baked enough rolls to reach 300 miles. That's the distance between St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee.

We then drove down to Gulf Shores beach. OMG...the oil was awful. It wasn't even present last evening, but it was all over today.

It was so hot the tar balls were melting.

Poor little sea shells.

It even coated our feet from walking in the surf.

We found some big piles of oil on the beach and you could see additional balls washing up all the time. This is really sad.

Wednesday, June 23 – Well, we had a change in plans.....surprise, surprise...lol. We are not going to Augusta, GA to see Paul's brother. His brother is in New Hampshire on an assignment for work.

Sooooo, we decided to go to the beach today. It was a beautiful day for the beach.

Look how beautiful these waves look far away.

Man, have things deteriorated oil spill wise since yesterday. The clean-up crews were out in a big way and so were the oil balls.

The beach was a mess. I was amazed people were still going into the water. They had signs up and announcements on the radio, advising people to stay out of the water. People were even letting their children play in the water....YIKES!

This is what it looks like when the waves go out. See the tar balls left behind? How about the brown water?

We had helicopters, and huge Coast Guard planes flying over head. Heavy equipment and numerous smaller pieces of equipment working on the beach and 100's of recovery workers.

Kelly showing how the tar balls are melting in the heat.

This is really something. Paul talked to one of the workers and he said they will work all day and all night to get this cleaned-up, but will probably have to start right over again. You could definitely see it getting worse and worse as the day went on. We can't see how they will ever get ahead of it.

When ever the waves came in, the oil was so plain to see. Look at the brown foam and then the color of the sand.

After spending most of the day on the beach, we headed back to the MH for some relaxation time and to plan our new route to Ohio.

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all real soon.