Alabama

Thursday

Woke up to hear it start to rain this morning so I got up and put the slide with the torn topper on it in. It only rained a couple minutes so went back to sleep.
We plan to move down to Athens Alabama this morning.  We have reservation at North Gate RV Travel Park, it is just off I-65 and about 12 miles from my son.  We stayed here last time we were down.  The park is owned by Greg Whites cousin.  Greg and Jan are full timers and I have been reading his blog for several years.  Its a little less than 200 miles today and we go straight through Nashville, some time we hope to spend some time exploring Nashville.

We have enjoyed our stay here and the owners are a delight.  We are surrounded by neighbors but the park is quiet and laid back.  Well time to button up and get moving.

All hooked up and ready to pull out

We pulled out around 11:30 after dropping off a book Bonnie had borrowed at the office.  Lots of trucks on the road and I drove until we got past the crazy traffic around Nashville.    Then we pulled over into a TA Truck stop and had some lunch and took about a half hour break.  By this time we had the generator running and the roof airs running to keep it cool.  It was in the high 80s all afternoon.  Bonnie took over the driving and in about an hour we entered Alabama.

We made it to Alabama

Then awhile later we arrived at our new home for about the next week.

Northgate

We have stayed here before and it is a very nice no frills place for $125 a week full hook-ups.  We signed in and got set up on a nice level spot.  We are headed West so I put the sun screens up on the windows and then got back in the A/C.

My son suggested the Catfish Cabin and we headed over there for dinner.  They have a graduation party to attend tonight.

Bring in your church bulletin and get 10% off on Sunday afternoon

 We both had catfish fillets and were happy to see they brought some real Hush Puppies!

Real Hushpuppies

They still use the family recipes to make their food and tarter sauce.  I also had real brewed ice tea.
We stopped at Tractor supply on the way to the rig, I needed a pressure gauge for my water regulator and Bonnie picked up some snacks at Big Lots.

Almost bed time and its so nice to have good internet at the second campground in a row.

Friday

When I updated where I was in RVillage.com yesterday, it a social media site for RVers, I saw that Terry another member was here at the same CG.  So I sent him a message and we hope to meet today and chat.  They are members of Campers on Mission which we would like to hear more about.  We had a nice long visit with Terry and Nancy B.  They are very active full timers in Campers on Mission.  Terry is also a HAM and we talked a little about that.  We enjoyed learning about COM and we will be checking more about them from their website.

We had a voice mail from my son when we got back to the rig that said they were cooking out and so we hurried up and headed over there.  Bonnie was in the midst of doing the sheets and but them in the dryer as we left.

We had a great home cooked meal and we were all able to sit down and enjoy it.  Shish kabobs, corn on the cob and beans and bread, good eating.

A selfie with Reagan

Harrison

Ashley and Gracie

After the meal we watched a slide show on the TV of all the pictures Ashley took in London and Scotland.  She was over there for 2 weeks on a study program from here studies to become a Nurse Practitioner.   Robby had to to to Colorado for work at the same time and we got to see his pictures from Pikes Peak.  Then we all headed out to the rig and visited for a while and they got to see the coach.

We used most of the chairs

We had a full house

The two girls are spending the night with us and so far have played hide and seek and now we are all settling down for a nice nights sleep.  A good day and we were busy most of the day I am ready for a good nights sleep and the sheets were nice and dry when we got back here.

We all laid down lights out and it was nice a quiet for about 5 minutes.  Then the girls wanted to call their mother, Bonnie went out with them and they called and asked to go home.  So they got picked up about 30 minutes later and went home.  Bonnie was disappointed.  Gracie has stayed with us before but never both of them together.

Saturday

The AC shut off last night so it must have cooled down some.  I was up around 7:30 hoping my son can help me with the slid topper today.  Its in the low 70s now but forecast is for 85.  My son is to come over today and help me repair the slide topper.

I went out and looked at what needed done and it looked like we cold do it.  I downloaded the manual from Carefree and looked at it several times.  My son and family got here around 2 and he thought we had enough time to at least get a good start.  We got the slide topper apart and down on the ground and set it in the sun to dry since the AC is plugged up and draining across it.  Oh boy another job up on the roof.  Once it dried we laid down the adhesive and taped it with Gorilla tape.

It came apart easily

Glueing and taping where the thread rotted away

Last little latch and we were done

I had too much sun and not enough to drink.  I told Robby to go ahead and take everyone to the balloon fest and launch and I would clean up and put things away.  I pretty much sat in the shade and drank a big glass of water Bonnie got for me before they left.  Took me about an hour but I got the tools put away and even changed the pressure gauge since the tools were out.  Then I managed to drink a glass of lemonade and even got a much needed shower.  I am on my third glass of drink as I write this.  I had some salty chips and am starting to feel better.  I think as soon as I finish this I will go lay down for the night.  The others called and were stopping to eat but I begged off too late for me to eat and then go right to bed.  This heat and humidity is getting to me, plus alleges are still in high gear.

Our supervisors wanting us to hurry and get done.

Well thats all I am up to tonight.

Sunday

Had a good nights sleep but the train whistles seemed louder than normal.  This is our 4th campground on this trip and all four have had trains that we would hear at night.  Of course Goshen takes the cake were well over 100 trains pass every day.

I knew I was too tired to write and publish the blog when we got back last night so I will try this morning.  We hat set the alarm for 730 on Sunday and we were up and got ready to head to church with my sons family.  We really enjoyed going with them to the early service and even got to chat with the Pastor for a few minutes afterwards before he started the second service.  He is my age and graduated from the same school in Arkansas that Robby did and growing up his family lived in Lockport, small world.

Mount Zion Baptist Church before the service started

After the service we took Harrison home and Robby and Ashley stayed with the girls to work in the nursery.  Harrison got the TV working for us and we watched the INDY 500.  Once everyone was home we had some soft tacos for lunch and were able to see the end of the race.  Nice to see a home grown American win the race.

We were invited for dinner over to John and Sandy's.  They are friends of ours from our church in New York.  They are in the process of moving again, John is currently working Oklahoma and comes home for a long weekend once a month.  They have had their beautiful house listed for a long time, but they are competing with a lot of new construction in the area.  Add them to your prayer list please so they can be together in Oklahoma.

John loves to BBQ and we had plenty to choose from.  Sausage, Chicken, Roasted Corn on the Cob, and Grilled Veggies.  Gracie our GD was with us and their GD Alexis was with them.  The two girls played together the whole time, we hardly knew they were there.  Gracie said she had a great time and they exchanged phone numbers to hopefully get together some more.

Sandy and Bonnie catching up

Chef John working his magic (really he has great skill)

The table setting was beautiful, Alexis has grown up since we last saw her

We had a great time and enjoyed catching up on all their news and sharing ours.  It was well after 10 when we got Gracie back home and almost 11 when we got back to the coach.  Bonnie went straight to bed and I tried to relax a few minutes before heading off to bed.

We have had great weather and are having a great time.

Thanks For Checking In!

"If Your Dreams Don't Scare You, They Are Just Not Big Enough"