October 9th, 2024
A chance to enjoy our country!
The Journey Begins. We are headed South to
Safe Harbor RV Park at Riverside AL. We are planning on spending the first night at Love’s Travel stop at Corbin KY (284m).
Love’s is great, coffee, food and a place to park and sleep.

October 10th, 2024
After a good night’s sleep I am still tired but feel a lot better than I did last night. A cup of coffee and I am ready to go. Driving through the mountains is beautiful in the morning but with the fog, it’s very serene. The fog didn’t  impair our vision.
We are finally at Safe Harbor (323m) The power of photography is amazing. From the pictures on the internet I wouldn’t of imagined this, but it was only two hundred and forty a week. We are in the overflow lot.

Riverside AL is an area not affected by the hurricane. I can’t imagine going anywhere to enjoy myself where the people are devastated from a natural disaster or any event.
Tomorrow we will start exploring the area.

October 11th, 2024
Carol asked if there were alligators in the area because we are on an inlet on the Coosa river and the person that owns the RV park said we could walk the dog down by the water. The answer is “Yes, alligators have been spotted in Riverside, Alabama, including in the Coosa River and at Riverside Park”. Riverside park is next to us. In addition to that there are four different venomous snakes in the area and don’t forget the fire ants.

The owner of the RV park said that there is a cemetery next to us that his great, great grandfather started. I would think it’s a historic site since there are confederate soldiers from the Civil War buried there. Sounds like a very interesting and historic area. I’m sure we will visit the cemetery.
The weather here is similar to what we left behind in Indiana, it is cool in the morning.
I love it here, when you make a reservation, all you need is a name and phone number, no deposit and no identification.
We have reservations for Lake Jackson RV park at Florala AL on October 16th until the 25th. I am surprised that the park wasn’t full with Floridians that left because of the hurricanes.
We went to the Coleman cemetery and found it very interesting, historic and sad. The cemetery was established in 1841, has a number of veterans buried there, along with neonatal deaths and confederate soldiers from the Civil war. This cemetery is also segregated. There are division markers dividing the cemetery by race.

October 14th, 2024
The area isn’t known for its tourist attractions but a great place for fishing and we did go to the track.

The town of Talledaga is an old town that it appears that they are restoring and working at getting businesses back in the area. They have a historic district with beautiful old homes and large mansions that we enjoyed seeing.

With the number of small RV lots in the area. I think that a lot of people call these lots home. There are a lot of poor in the area but they are a very nice, friendly people. They seem to be laid-back and less stressed than I am use to.
We woke up this morning to a couple hundred ants throughout the trailer. They were climbing up the water line and through the seams in the siding. We killed most of them but still have a few wandering around.
There is an old three section truss bridge down the road from us. The bridge is no more than twenty feet wide, if that. It is bad enough when two pickup trucks meet on it but I ended up facing a dump truck and then a Tractor trailer. We both slower down.
It is a beautiful area. The hills are dotted with ponds and lakes everywhere. With this being the south there are a lot of cotton fields waiting to be harvested. A very religious people, there are small churches throughout the countryside with the parking lots full on Sunday.

October 15th, 2024
As I said earlier, we literally threw everything in the trailer to clean out the house. We also put a half dozen bags of trash in the truck because we had no place to get rid of them.
We have disposed of the trash and are starting to get organized and make a list of things to leave when we go back to Indiana.
Carol looked out the window the other night to see eight to ten police cars on the side street across from us. We don’t know what was going on but they seemed to have caught the person they were looking for.

Nothing on the internet about the incident.

We Leave Wednesday for Lake Jackson RV park. We will stay there until October 25th. We are anxious about the move. I think the park and the town of Florala will be interesting.
The way we were put in his overflow lot next to a busy road instead of a regular site, this is not my favorite place. We are on a gravel lot with a piece of old used astro turf from a local field that is damp and is staining our rugs from walking on it. There are a lot of good sites with grass we could of had but he said they were saved for overnight stays only. We were tired and desperate when we took it. Never again. Safe Harbor RV Park is off our list.

October 16th, 2024
What a great way to start the day. A nice hot shower on a cool morning is a great way to wake up. Top that off with a good cup of coffee, and I’ll be ready to pack up and head down to Lake Jackson. I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.
We started the day by driving over that old bridge one more time. This time, I had the trailer behind me. Thank God only one vehicle came the other way. It was a pickup truck and he moved over as far as he could.
Wow, Lake Jackson RV park (219m) is definitely a destination for the view. It is a beautiful park! Our site overlooks the lake and we have a nice sandy beach. There are alligators here, but they seem to treat it like people do sharks in the ocean. The internet advertises Lake Jackson as a good place for fishing, water sports, and swimming, with it being one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the state. There are also hiking and bicycle trails. They say that if you come in the winter you can avoid the bugs, snakes and gators but nothing is perfect. Always be aware of your surroundings. A lot of Snow Bunnies winter here. That’s how we found it.

The temperature has dropped and the wind has picked up but it is a beautiful location.
We had a nice ride down from Safe Harbor, mainly back roades. We don’t go the speed limit, what’s the rush. We stopped at a DG Market to buy some groceries. Carol said that it isn’t much different than a regular Dollar General but it has a few more options on packaged meat.
With everything we have done to the trailer and the things we carry, we are very good at setting up and tearing down the trailer. Very little time involved. Our communications when backing into a site are a lot better than when we started RVing. We have always worked well together.

October 17th, 2024
44° this morning, glad Carol wanted a trailer. I don’t think this would be as much fun in a tent although we have spent colder nights in one.
FYI: Lake Jackson is Alabama’s only natural lake, the five hundred acre Lake shares it’s shores with Florida.
I have slept better since we left Indiana than I have in years except for my time in the trail. I owe it to lack of responsibility and our new matress in the RV.

Gotta love this next Pic.

We went shopping at the very small Piggly Wiggly grocery in the small town of Florala AL. Carol asks if they have gluten-free food. I was just glad they had a store that big.

October 18th, 2024

Cool morning, 43°. Lake fog forming over the lake.

We went to Florida to do some shopping and run around. The state line is so close that the last site in the park is on the state line. I think we will probably go to the coast tomorrow.
Mac&cheese with ground beef tonight, great meal!
I checked tire pressure on the truck and trailer. They were all low, so I pulled out the compressor and added a few pounds. I bought some leveling blocks for the trailer in Florida to try to stabilize it a little more. It seems to shake a little more than I like.
We killed a lot of ants today. I think the cold weather is bringing them in from the outer walls. I sprayed in an area under the bathtub where Buddy can’t get to.

October 19th, 2024
It is easy to loose time doing this. I had no idea it was Saturday. We are going to Santa Rosa Beach FL today. The weather is good so we will have lunch on the beach.
Low 50s when we got up this morning. Buddy woke up about six this morning. I let Carol take him out so I could stay in bed.
We are currently having coffee and watching an old Moody Blues concert. Great group!
We still have a few ants. I think we are close to the end of the problem. I am vacuuming up the ants from under the bathtub where I sprayed.
We are at Fort Walton Beach FL. 77° with a slight wind. Great day.  The barrier island is packed with beach lovers and most were on the ocean side which was so rough they had yellow and purple flags out. We left.

Yellow flag: Medium hazard conditions, such as moderate surf, currents, or rip currents. 
Purple flag: Dangerous marine life, such as jellyfish or stingrays, are present.

Nice old sailboat!

October 20th, 2024
Yesterday the neighbor kids were playing in the water all day and building sand castles on the beach. The neighbors have a large dog that they tie out all the time. He is big but still gator bait. It is late in the year for gators, if they aren’t dormant yet, they have probably slowed down on eating.
The people in the RV park, the town of Florala and in Northern Florida are very unfriendly, cold. Very few acknowledge our presence. I have never been around people that don’t want to meet Buddy until now. They talk to each other but ignore us or maybe a little nod at most. We must look like Yankees or democrats and we don’t belong here.
We walked the trail around the lake today or I should say half way around the lake. Very nice park they have, well maintained.  Our trailer is in the center of the picture just to the left of the dock post in the water.

Pizza Night!