Memorial Day

As you celebrate Memorial Day, during your picnics and family gatherings, please take a moment and remember those who are serving and making the ultimate sacrifice every day.

If you want to help those who are coming home wounded, please contact, ReMIND, you can help

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Sunday Praise

She is getting stronger every day.

To God be the glory, great things He hathdone;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life, an atonement for sin,
And opened the lifegate, that all may go in.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done!

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Home, this and that.

We have been home three days and I am slowly working my way through my to do list. Although it does seem for everything I check off two more are added. My sisters were on the top of my list, I spent Sunday with Connie at the hospital visiting with Louise. She had to go back in over night for a med mixup. Then Monday Iz and I went to visit Louise and Heidi, today I started tackling "the list".

Once we get everything on the list completed we are going to start seriously attempting to resolve the house issue. It really is silly to have a house sitting here empty for almost 2/3 of the year, but we have not been able to find a spot where we can park the RV for the five months we are here in the summer. Illinois is just not a place where you find an RV resort. If we don't find a solution we will have to keep the house and if we keep the house we have to do some updating this year, carpet, cabinets, counter tops.
We would prefer to sell the house, it is to big for us. I will be so happy when this gets settled.

I wasn't able to show you what "lovely Camp Red Bay" looked like because the air card didn't work very well. So I will share a few pictures with you today.

there are forty eight of these bays, each has a team of technicians and all of them were full this is us in bay 4

We had to report to our assigned bay at 6:45 a.m. every morning

there were over 200 RV's waiting for service

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

We are going home.....

Finally we are through at camp Red Bay! Tomorrow morning we will be heading home, yeah. Home to my sister's and my brother and their families, home to my house and home to my regular cable and internet.
Can't wait, this has been a very, very long week.



Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Sunday Praise

Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. James 1: 3

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

I wanna go home, I wanna go home, oh how I wanna go home....

The coach did not get finished Friday, even though I crossed my fingers, I crossed my toes and I cried, please, please, pretty please to everyone who would listen. So I am sitting on a runway ( yes they park us on an old unused runway) with over 200 other Tiffin coaches waiting for Monday morning when they will start working on the coach again. I think what is the worst is knowing I am only two days away from home but now probably will not be there till Thursday. They are saying if everything goes will we will be finished by Tuesday end of business.

We are only about an hour from where I was born in Mississippi so we are going to see some family from Mama's side today, that will be nice.

This morning we got up and went to a diner in a converted gas station and I had biscuits and chocolate gravy. It was really good, I haven't had any since my brother's girls were home last summer and made some for me. Red Bay has a population of a little over 2000 so needless to say there is not much here, a couple of grocery stores and a lot of churches.

Sorry no pictures, but the internet here is a little wonky.


Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Today we hit Red Bay

Last night we spent the night in Toomsuba, Mississippi (do you hear the theme of Deliverance playing) in the middle of the woods. This KOA was the only one we could find between Gulf Shores and Red Bay. I did not stick my head out after we parked. The air didn't stop running until 11 pm and it just came on again and it's only 7 am.

 We will be arriving in Red Bay this afternoon. I will be so glad when this part of the trip is over, I have been dreading it forever. When you are having warranty work done, they keep the coach from 7 to 3 and you have their lovely(not) lobby to sit in, with your dog and your dog's water and food. And that's what you do, you sit on a chair or squished on a couch with a zillion other people waiting for their coaches for eight hours every day until they are done. The fact that they start work at 7 am means you have to get up at 5 am, 'cause you have to have the whole coach packed up and closed up and be at the bay doors at 6:45 am.

Think I have whined enough? OK, just wait till I've gone through 3 or 4 days of this and you will really here some whining.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

USS ALABAMA

Jay and I have both been reading books about WWII that I got him for Christmas, he is reading LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay and I just finished Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption which is an outstanding book about the survival of a POW in Japan.
Our conversation the last month has been around these books and Japan's involvement in the war, so it was perfect that we had the opportunity to explore the USS ALABAMA which was active in the pacific part of the war.

these are her battle stars, she shot down 22 Zero's

somebody was in heaven crawling all over this thing

And of course after the tour we went to eat! It is what we do when we are down here folks. I know I am probably gaining weight daily, but this is the only time we have access to fresh seafood and I will not pass it by. We went to Felix's fish camp , which is built right on the Gulf. It was very nice, prices were a little high but food was good. 

I had crab cakes over fried green tomatoes, had to take one home and J had it last night.

J had combo plate, fish, shrimp and of course, oysters!

 Talked with my sister Louise's husband last night ( she was a little too out of it to talk with me) after the good start of her day it kinda went down hill, still a lot of pain and the poor thing broke out in terrible hives and a reaction to the pain meds, so they had to pump her full of benadrly to counter it. I so hope today is a better day. If things go as planned I should be home to help take care of her when she comes home from the hospital.


Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Sunday Praise

My sister came through her surgery well . I thank God my sister Connie is there with her and keeps me updated to her progress   Louise  has difficult days of recovery ahead of her and we still don't know what the results of the biopsy will bring.  But I talked with her last night and was so happy to hear her voice.  I will be thankful for the gifts we have and take each day one day at a time.  When we could not have children of our own ,Louise  gave me the greatest gift of letting me share in the lives of her children, for that I can never thank her enough. 

Happy Mother's Day to my sisters, nieces, sister in law and all of you that are blessed to have been given the gift of children. 

To God be the glory, great things He hath done,

So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

Who yielded His life our redemption to win,

And opened the life-gate that all may go in.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

  Let the earth hear His voice;

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

  Let the people rejoice;

Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,

  And give Him the glory; great things He hath done.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/39#ixzz1LlTz24J2




Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Oh what a beautiful day

Yesterday we went to the beach, it was glorious. It is about three weeks before the official "season" starts here, so there was almost no one there. We took our chairs and just sat there in the sun and the breeze listening to the waves. Then out of no where a school(not sure what you call a group of them) of dolphins starting jumping and playing right in front of us. The show went on for at least twenty minutes. I so wish I had my telephoto lens with me.

Iz did not like the waves but loved the seaweed

If you look in the middle of the picture straight down from the shrimp boat you can see the dolphins

Iz did want to chase these little guys

To end the day we went to Doc's Seafood Shack for dinner. What a cool place and the food, outstanding.

I had royal red steamed shrimp

and of course, J had oysters

As perfect as it was, I would have traded this day in a heartbeat to have had even fifteen minutes at home with my sister Louise. She is in the hospital and this morning she is having a lung biopsy. This is a nasty procedure and she is already weak because she has pneumonia. She will be in intensive care for 2 to 3 days. This is the downside of our life. We get to go to all these wonderful places and see all these amazing things but when someone in my family is ill or hurting I want to be with them and it is not always possible to get home. I have a big family and we are all close, but I can't fly home every time I want to and that is the price I pay for this life. Sometimes it weighs very heavy on me. Please remember my sister in your prayers.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

Today's History Lesson

Today we went to Mobile and took a tour of the historic district.  We took a tour of Oakleigh which was really interesting. We were the only ones there ( yeah, their season doesn't start till after Memorial Day) so we had the full attention of the tour guide and she filled us in on all kind of neat Mobile history. She has lived here her whole life so she knew a lot.

aren't these trees beautiful

Then we went to Wintzells Oyster House for lunch, a very cool local place. Of course the J had oysters, the man loves fresh oysters.

Tomorrow our plans are to visit a beach that allows dogs, I'll keep you posted.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

It doesn't get much better than this...

I know at least four times yesterday, if not more, I turned to Jay and said, we are so blessed to be living this life and we are. We are at Bella Terra RV Resort and it is so lovely.

view from our patio

J fixing supper

Yesterday we went driving along the coast before we knew it we were in Florida. Ha! I forgot Alabama doesn't have much coast. But what it does have is beautiful. You could not ask for better weather, in the low 80's during the day and 50's at night. I love not having the air on and all the windows open, there are so many birds here, they sing all day. Iz loves it, the dog park is bigger than our whole site in AZ.

Yesterday we went to  the  Original Oyster House for lunch. J was in heaven, the boy loves fried oysters.

fried green tomatoes,m-m-

shrimp poorboy

and J's fried oysters

I can only say it one more time, we are so, so lucky to be living this life.


Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

I know, I know, I am so behind in my posts.

So sorry, somethimes I am just to busy living this wonderful life to have time to post. We are now in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It is a gorgeous place, I will take some pictures and post them tomorrow. My new Kindle was here waiting for me so all is right in my world.
Just to drive my sister wild I want to post the pictures of our last meal in Louisanna.  We went to Crawfish, USA and had ....wait for it....CRAWFISH, all you can eat crawfish and it was wonderful.

before

during

after

The last picture is definetly for my sister Connie, their little dead,stripped carcasses! Three pounds of them we ate, with great relish!


Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt

la bon temp rouler part II

Last night we went to dinner at Mulate's. It is a very old tourist stop here. We used to drive all the way from Gulfport out here to listen to the music. The food is so so but if you stick around till the tourists crown leaves you can watch the locals dance. The band was really good but I just didn't last past 9. Guess I am getting old.
Most of the local spots don't start till 9 pm so maybe next year.
Today we are doing house cleaning stuff and then tomorrow we leave for Gulf Shores, then Red Bay, then home.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. Theodore Roosevelt