ALONE ON THE BEACH

Wednesday, October 26 – After a nice three hour drive, we arrived in Bay St. Louis, MS. We are staying at the Silver Slipper Casino Campground. They now call it Beachfront RV Park. We've stayed here in the past. It is located right across the street from the beach. We are approximately 150 feet from the water.

Looking at the rest of the park. Not too many here yet but Earl, Security Guard, told us they are filling up for the weekend.

Our trip through downtown Mobile was uneventful. Paul was a little nervous remembering the tunnel under Mobile Bay that we had to travel. Guess he's getting more confident driving the MH in traffic and through tunnels. He commented that it was easy.

We did have a minor scare. Our GPS directed us down a road toward our final destination when suddenly Paul went crazy. There was a railroad crossing directly in front of us that was impassable.

We would have definitely dragged bottom and probably gotten stuck. Look what happened to others who tried.

We should have known trouble was ahead when we saw this sign.

We stopped and unhooked our car. We backed into a nearby fire station to turn around. A neighbor lady came out and said that crossing has been the scene of many mishaps. Trucks get grounded there frequently, she informed us. They have to block the road, stop trains, and tow the trucks off the tracks.  YIKES!!!

So after turning around, we backtracked to the main road and found the correct route to the campground. Be aware of those GPS directions and be prepared!

After setting up at the campground, we walked across the street to the beach and enjoyed the sun for a few hours.

We have the beach to ourselves.

There actually were people here at some time or other. During our walk, we passed this cute "sand fort." Can you see the little guns sticking up in the middle of the fort? Good imagination!

Marsha is standing where the water begins. Look how far out the tide is. Can you see Paul?

As we walked in the water we saw tons of bait fish. It was a hoot to watch them swim away from us. Some were in such a hurry, they jumped out of the water.

One observation. We are only about 150 miles west of Gulf Shores in Foley, AL. Here in Bay St. Louis, MS the water of the Gulf of Mexico is much warmer. We easily walked into the water and even mentioned we would be able to go swimming. It's not as warm as it is in July, but one could comfortably go in without freezing. Maybe Paul will give it a try later in the week.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

THE SOUND OF FREEDOM

Tuesday, October 25 – Well, all good things must come to an end. Today is our last day in Foley, AL.

This adventure was NOT on Paul's “Bucket List”, but it should have been! Another MUST SEE! We spent the morning at the Pensacola, FL, Naval Air Station watching a practice session of the Blue Angels. AMAZING!!! And it's FREE! The Naval Station is the home for the Blue Angels and they practice several times each month. The shows are open to the public. Be sure to check their website for practice times if you are ever in this area.

The show started at 8:30 a.m. We were there a little early to set out our folding chairs for a front row seat. We did get one of the last spots, but being an air show it really wasn't necessary to be seated in the front row. They do have bleachers set up for those that prefer that type of seating.

The main thrill of these pilots is the ability to fly in VERY CLOSE formation!

They fly only 18” apart and at very high rates of speed. They twist and roll; loop and turn; and all in very close formation. While four planes are twisting overhead, two more Blue Angels are performing close to the ground. They head toward each other at very high speeds (approaching Mach 1) and roll on their sides at the last second missing each other by inches. Pretty scary!

They pull tremendous G-forces by sharp turns and zooming skyward in vertical climbs. They fly upside down in close formation, and join up in what's called a “delta” formation with all six planes flying in close formation.

The Blue Angels have flown over 10 different aircraft in the team’s 65 year history. Originally, the team flew four aircraft in the signature “Diamond” formation and expanded to six aircraft to showcase both the diamond and solos high performance capability as well as the precision formation flying taught to all Naval Aviators.

Today, the squadron flies the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet and the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules. When the squadron receives a F/A-18 Hornet from the fleet, which are at the end of their carrier arrestment functionality, we make a variety of modifications, including removing the nose cannon to install a smoke-fluid system, inverting a fuel pump, installing a stop watch and adjustable constant-tension stick spring, as well as the world-wide recognizable paint scheme.

Landing…The leader is in #1.

The show lasts about an hour and by the end many watchers (including Marsha) are exhausted by their own adrenalin rush. The excitement is overwhelming! A GREAT show! We visited the Naval Air Station Pensacola also, but we will tell you about that in the next post.

We almost forgot to tell you that once in awhile the touristy part of our personality comes out. We had to go see the "World's Largest Octopus."…Really?

Some final pictures from the beautiful beach at Gulf Shores.

Oh yea…Cotton is a huge crop down here. The pictures looks fuzzy but there is just so much cotton on the plants. It is hard to tell one plant from another.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!

 

THE SUN IS BACK…GULF SHORES, ALABAMA

Wednesday, October 19 – We are back into the Central Time Zone, our favorite time zone. We're here at the Gulf Shores Elks Lodge in Foley, AL. We stayed here before and find it a great place to enjoy the beach, and it's close to all the big box stores if you need to do some shopping. It has about thirty sites with gravel sites and roads.

Our site

Looking down the road

You have a big grassy area outside your door to enjoy. Luckily they aren't very busy giving us plenty of room.

The sites are set-up with two RV's sharing the utilities pedestal parking front to back. So if you had a neighbor, you would be parked quite close.

It was a rainy drive from Augusta, GA. The forecast calls for clearing with warmer temperatures by Friday. The rainy & cool weather gave us a chance to investigate Google Reader for checking our daily blogs. We've read about others using it but just haven't had an opportunity to give it a try. We're sold on it! You list the blogs you read, and it notifies you when a new posting has been made. That eliminates checking all your blogs to see if someone has made a new posting. Now what are we going to do with all this time we save......hmmmm?

Across the street from the Elks Lodge is the Tangier Outlet Mall. So with a cool day on Thursday, we decided to do a little shopping. We mostly walked along the shops enjoying the sunny but cool day, but did find a few items we couldn't live without and a few early Christmas shopping ideas.

Friday, October 21 – With the sun shinning and the temperatures hovering around eighty degrees, we decided to go to the beach today.

It's very comfortable this time of year on the beach. The crowds were gone, it wasn't excessively hot, but the water is COLD.

No swimming, that's for sure! We enjoyed ourselves and soaked up some sun.

I should mention that there is no lingering evidence of last years oil spill. The beautiful white sand is definitely back.

Marsha couldn't help herself. She had to show what some people are wearing on this SUNNY, NICE day. It isn't winter!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see ya'll back real soon. Have a great day!