May 14, 2011
Mobile, Alabama
Today was Alyson's graduation day, and everything went off without a hitch. We car caravanned to the campus early to get decent parking, and got excellent seats on the upper deck of the arena right behind the stage. We were able to have a decent view of the proceedings, although we didn't stay through all 1,300 graduates.
After a quick trip back to the coach to walk, water, and feed the pups, we headed back to the party zone. Alyson and a group of her friends went in together to get a back room at the local Buffalo Wild Wings. Wings and craft beer; how can you go wrong? Everything wrapped up around 9:00, so we had another early night.
Here's a video I was able to get at the graduation...
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
May 13, 2011
Mobile, Alabama
Alabama is a "tall" state. We drove almost the whole length from North to South today. Rick and Annette live near Huntsville and the border with Tennessee. Alyson goes to school at the University of South Alabama ("USA") in Mobile, on the Gulf. As far as the "downhill" part, we lost over 1,000 feet, but it took 340 miles to do so, so we really didn't notice.
It was an easy drive for the most part, US-431 to AL-77 to I-59 toward Birmingham. We looped around the South side on I-459 then took I-65 south through Montgomery to Mobile. The weather was cloudy for the most part, with a few sprinkles at times until we were about 50 miles out of Mobile. Then we ran into some sort of microburst storm that involved blinding rain and 40+ MPH winds. Well, that slowed things down! It was over in about 10 minutes (5 miles) and we continued on our way without further incident.
Unfortunately, Annette's father, Gerry, didn't fare as well. Everyone else was just a bit behind us (we all left Albertville at different times and travelled at varying speeds; we were surprised to be the first ones in since we're slowest), and Gerry got rear-ended just as they were getting off I-65. That's what he gets for stopping at a red light that locals just cruise through, I suppose. They were able to get a local body shop to pry open the trunk (luggage) and bungee/tape everything together so it was drivable. Ouch!
Dinner was a group party at a local seafood restaurant, Felix's Fish Camp. I think everyone had seafood, even though they had "landlubber" items on the menu. Geri had a stuffed Flounder and I had seared Ahi Tuna. I won.
We had a nice sunset and dinner (I'll get configured to copy pictures from the new phone next week), and everyone was ready to call it an early night. Big day tomorrow!
Mobile, Alabama
Alabama is a "tall" state. We drove almost the whole length from North to South today. Rick and Annette live near Huntsville and the border with Tennessee. Alyson goes to school at the University of South Alabama ("USA") in Mobile, on the Gulf. As far as the "downhill" part, we lost over 1,000 feet, but it took 340 miles to do so, so we really didn't notice.
It was an easy drive for the most part, US-431 to AL-77 to I-59 toward Birmingham. We looped around the South side on I-459 then took I-65 south through Montgomery to Mobile. The weather was cloudy for the most part, with a few sprinkles at times until we were about 50 miles out of Mobile. Then we ran into some sort of microburst storm that involved blinding rain and 40+ MPH winds. Well, that slowed things down! It was over in about 10 minutes (5 miles) and we continued on our way without further incident.
Unfortunately, Annette's father, Gerry, didn't fare as well. Everyone else was just a bit behind us (we all left Albertville at different times and travelled at varying speeds; we were surprised to be the first ones in since we're slowest), and Gerry got rear-ended just as they were getting off I-65. That's what he gets for stopping at a red light that locals just cruise through, I suppose. They were able to get a local body shop to pry open the trunk (luggage) and bungee/tape everything together so it was drivable. Ouch!
Dinner was a group party at a local seafood restaurant, Felix's Fish Camp. I think everyone had seafood, even though they had "landlubber" items on the menu. Geri had a stuffed Flounder and I had seared Ahi Tuna. I won.
We had a nice sunset and dinner (I'll get configured to copy pictures from the new phone next week), and everyone was ready to call it an early night. Big day tomorrow!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Another great visit winds up
May 12, 2011
Albertville, Alabama
Where does the time fly? I sure don't know. We wrapped up another great visit with Rick and Annette today, and we're all packed up and ready to head out tomorrow morning for Mobile and Alyson's graduation on Saturday. We did some shopping up in Huntsville on Tuesday, since that's the nearest Costco location. Oh, and since Geri's phone has started to fail, we upgraded our cellular technology since we went right past a Verizon Wireless store.
OK, Geri's phone could probably have just used a new battery, but where's the fun in that? And, since we were both eligible for discounts on upgrades (we bought the old phones in AZ before we left for our Alaska trip in 2009), it just made sense to upgrade both. This way, we can help each other through the conversion from BlackBerry to Android.
We also picked up a nice beef tenderloin, which I cut into steaks for Wednesday night's dinner (an early nod to Rick and Annette's anniversary later this month) and a boneless leg of lamb, which I ground up using the Kitchen-Aid for Geri's dog food recipe (we can't get ground lamb everywhere and it's often priced way too high).
So, we're all ready for travel: tanks dumped, awnings up, car packed. Rick's ordering pizza for dinner and we'll call it an early night since we have a full travel day tomorrow.
Albertville, Alabama
Where does the time fly? I sure don't know. We wrapped up another great visit with Rick and Annette today, and we're all packed up and ready to head out tomorrow morning for Mobile and Alyson's graduation on Saturday. We did some shopping up in Huntsville on Tuesday, since that's the nearest Costco location. Oh, and since Geri's phone has started to fail, we upgraded our cellular technology since we went right past a Verizon Wireless store.
OK, Geri's phone could probably have just used a new battery, but where's the fun in that? And, since we were both eligible for discounts on upgrades (we bought the old phones in AZ before we left for our Alaska trip in 2009), it just made sense to upgrade both. This way, we can help each other through the conversion from BlackBerry to Android.
We also picked up a nice beef tenderloin, which I cut into steaks for Wednesday night's dinner (an early nod to Rick and Annette's anniversary later this month) and a boneless leg of lamb, which I ground up using the Kitchen-Aid for Geri's dog food recipe (we can't get ground lamb everywhere and it's often priced way too high).
So, we're all ready for travel: tanks dumped, awnings up, car packed. Rick's ordering pizza for dinner and we'll call it an early night since we have a full travel day tomorrow.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Visiting with Linda and Wendell
May 8, 2011
Birmingham, Alabama
We packed up the Rover and headed for Birmingham on Friday morning and - get this - we left the pups behind! Rick and Annette were kind enough to offer to watch them while we headed off for a few days to visit our long-time friends, Linda and Wendell. It's been several years since we had a chance to visit them at their home in Birmingham; we've seen them at their "lake place" on our more recent trips through the area. This was a nice change since we had a chance to see their family and friends this time as well.
Friday afternoon, we did some shopping with Linda before Wendell got home from work, then she made a new recipe: Pulled Chicken Pizza with Peaches and Gorgonzola Crumbles. Woo-hoo; was that good! We paired it with a couple of white wines, both Sauvignon Blancs (one still and one sparkler). This one's a keeper; we got a copy of the recipe and will make this one on the road when peaches are easier to find.
Saturday was one big party. We started out at Cosmos Pizza, where they put on a great weekend brunch, including a "make-your-own-Bloody" bar. After a power nap, they put on a barbeque spread of tri-tip and pork loin for us and family/friends - Wendell's son Patrick, Linda's Mom, Dad, and brother (Til, Bob, and Joe), and friends Pat and Clarence. Wendell set up the outside table under the lights and we took advantage of a beautiful spring evening; doesn't get much better.
Sunday, we were treated to another brunch including Wendell's Fritatta and Linda's Blue Corn Gouda Grits. Full once again, we packed up and headed back to Albertville, thankful for another great visit. The pups were none the worse for wear, having bonded nicely with Rick and Annette. we capped off the day with dinner at Annette's parents, Gerry and Lois, , including a belated birthday cake for Erik.
Birmingham, Alabama
We packed up the Rover and headed for Birmingham on Friday morning and - get this - we left the pups behind! Rick and Annette were kind enough to offer to watch them while we headed off for a few days to visit our long-time friends, Linda and Wendell. It's been several years since we had a chance to visit them at their home in Birmingham; we've seen them at their "lake place" on our more recent trips through the area. This was a nice change since we had a chance to see their family and friends this time as well.
Friday afternoon, we did some shopping with Linda before Wendell got home from work, then she made a new recipe: Pulled Chicken Pizza with Peaches and Gorgonzola Crumbles. Woo-hoo; was that good! We paired it with a couple of white wines, both Sauvignon Blancs (one still and one sparkler). This one's a keeper; we got a copy of the recipe and will make this one on the road when peaches are easier to find.
Saturday was one big party. We started out at Cosmos Pizza, where they put on a great weekend brunch, including a "make-your-own-Bloody" bar. After a power nap, they put on a barbeque spread of tri-tip and pork loin for us and family/friends - Wendell's son Patrick, Linda's Mom, Dad, and brother (Til, Bob, and Joe), and friends Pat and Clarence. Wendell set up the outside table under the lights and we took advantage of a beautiful spring evening; doesn't get much better.
Sunday, we were treated to another brunch including Wendell's Fritatta and Linda's Blue Corn Gouda Grits. Full once again, we packed up and headed back to Albertville, thankful for another great visit. The pups were none the worse for wear, having bonded nicely with Rick and Annette. we capped off the day with dinner at Annette's parents, Gerry and Lois, , including a belated birthday cake for Erik.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Happy Birthday, Erik
May 6, 2011
Albertville, Alabama
Erik (our nephew) arrived home from college Thursday afternoon. He's just completed his freshman year at the University of Montevallo, just south of Birmingham. And today's his birthday. Good deal!
Albertville, Alabama
Erik (our nephew) arrived home from college Thursday afternoon. He's just completed his freshman year at the University of Montevallo, just south of Birmingham. And today's his birthday. Good deal!
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Power Up...
May 5, 2011
Albertville, Alabama
We've had a nice stay in Albertville so far. Power came back on and everything's back in operation with no real damage. The only thing requiring a "reset" appears to be Rick's cable modem and/or router, since Internet access has been spotty. All the "old" food is consumed or tossed (very little of the latter), although fresh supplies aren't being loaded in too quickly since store shelves are still a bit bare. Interestingly, even though this area is home to numerous Tyson plants, chicken is the last thing to appear in the stores since the factories were also shut down by the extended power outage. I'm sure the shortages will translate to price increases somehow...
There's no shortage of portable generators, though, as every home improvement, warehouse and hardware store has palettes of them sitting around now. Good luck with that; people who don't have one already won't think about buying one until the next disaster.
Back to local happenings, I changed out the bad macerator pump and toilet, so everything's flowing smoothly in the coach now. Rick and I painted the bedroom in the apartment side of their house (where Mom used to live) so Alyson will have a place to stay when she comes home from College in a week-and-a-half. Annette and Geri picked out a nice color in the "brown" family ("Vanilla Brandy"?) that looks like something from a magazine ad.
And, the weather has cleared somewhat, with no strong storms in the forecast at this point. Yea!
Albertville, Alabama
We've had a nice stay in Albertville so far. Power came back on and everything's back in operation with no real damage. The only thing requiring a "reset" appears to be Rick's cable modem and/or router, since Internet access has been spotty. All the "old" food is consumed or tossed (very little of the latter), although fresh supplies aren't being loaded in too quickly since store shelves are still a bit bare. Interestingly, even though this area is home to numerous Tyson plants, chicken is the last thing to appear in the stores since the factories were also shut down by the extended power outage. I'm sure the shortages will translate to price increases somehow...
There's no shortage of portable generators, though, as every home improvement, warehouse and hardware store has palettes of them sitting around now. Good luck with that; people who don't have one already won't think about buying one until the next disaster.
Back to local happenings, I changed out the bad macerator pump and toilet, so everything's flowing smoothly in the coach now. Rick and I painted the bedroom in the apartment side of their house (where Mom used to live) so Alyson will have a place to stay when she comes home from College in a week-and-a-half. Annette and Geri picked out a nice color in the "brown" family ("Vanilla Brandy"?) that looks like something from a magazine ad.
And, the weather has cleared somewhat, with no strong storms in the forecast at this point. Yea!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Back in 'Bama
May 1, 2011
West Memphis, AR - Albertville, AL
Yesterday, we followed storms and today, we made it to my Brother's in Alabama.
It was sunny when we left Oklahoma City, looping around I-240 back to I-40. Clouds were on the increase as we traveled east across Oklahoma and almost all of Arkansas. We stopped for the night in West Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. Our original Destination, a RV Park down near the River, had called a week before to say they expected to be flooded when we arrived. I booked us into a safer location in Marion, along I-55, for the night. If it wasn't for our plumbing issues, I'd have found a boondocking spot, but I wanted to head for Rick's with empty holding tanks.
Soon after we were parked and set up, I could see from Weather Underground that a line of storms was approaching, and we had thunderstorms all night long. These storm systems are different than we're used to, which would be a line of storms along a weather front. Once the front passes, the storms are gone. Not with these systems. The storms form in a line, but then move along that front one after another. From what I could see, we had a series of storms from 8PM on, but places 50 miles northwest and 50 miles southeast of us got nothing. In any event, we kept the slides in and Maya Lynn had a very difficult night as she was quite frightened by the thunder.
We were up early and on the road by 8:30, following I-55 back to I-40. Although it was only 10 miles or so, the rain and wind increased significantly. We stopped for fuel and I was looking around for the Weather Channel guys (didn't see them). I was soaked by the time I was back in the coach, and we slowly made our way back to I-55, across the Mississippi, and then leaving the interstate to cut across the corner of Tennessee to pick up US-72 in Mississippi. We followed this route (US-72 and US-72A) to Alabama, turning to AL-67 in Decatur and AL-69 through Arab and Guntersville, then US-431 into Albertville.
Once we were in Alabama, we started seeing some evidence of the tornados and strong storms that had hit the area several days before. just before Decatur, we saw a row of houses that were heavily damaged and even totally destroyed, and we started seeing areas where the power was still out. Common sense suggests that drivers treat inoperable traffic lights as "stop signs", so we had some minor slowing but nothing too bad.
Once we got closer to Guntersville and Albertville, the damage was more evident with more trees snapped off or uprooted. We saw several power crews working to restore electricity. Interestingly, most (60%?) of the downed trees weren't snapped off but rather their whole root system came loose from the ground. We saw several sections where numerous trees were damaged this way. It's possible that these were what's called "straight line winds" as opposed to tornados. Overall, the damage can still be severe, just different. Right up the street from my brother's place, an older house was just crushed by a large tree.
They haven't had power here since last Wednesday at 6:00 AM (it's now Sunday), but it should be back soon. Rick's done a fine job of managing out of various coolers without losing much of the food stocks. This has been a good thing, since most stores in the area are closed and not getting new food shipments at this point.
More later...
West Memphis, AR - Albertville, AL
Yesterday, we followed storms and today, we made it to my Brother's in Alabama.
It was sunny when we left Oklahoma City, looping around I-240 back to I-40. Clouds were on the increase as we traveled east across Oklahoma and almost all of Arkansas. We stopped for the night in West Memphis, on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River. Our original Destination, a RV Park down near the River, had called a week before to say they expected to be flooded when we arrived. I booked us into a safer location in Marion, along I-55, for the night. If it wasn't for our plumbing issues, I'd have found a boondocking spot, but I wanted to head for Rick's with empty holding tanks.
Soon after we were parked and set up, I could see from Weather Underground that a line of storms was approaching, and we had thunderstorms all night long. These storm systems are different than we're used to, which would be a line of storms along a weather front. Once the front passes, the storms are gone. Not with these systems. The storms form in a line, but then move along that front one after another. From what I could see, we had a series of storms from 8PM on, but places 50 miles northwest and 50 miles southeast of us got nothing. In any event, we kept the slides in and Maya Lynn had a very difficult night as she was quite frightened by the thunder.
We were up early and on the road by 8:30, following I-55 back to I-40. Although it was only 10 miles or so, the rain and wind increased significantly. We stopped for fuel and I was looking around for the Weather Channel guys (didn't see them). I was soaked by the time I was back in the coach, and we slowly made our way back to I-55, across the Mississippi, and then leaving the interstate to cut across the corner of Tennessee to pick up US-72 in Mississippi. We followed this route (US-72 and US-72A) to Alabama, turning to AL-67 in Decatur and AL-69 through Arab and Guntersville, then US-431 into Albertville.
Once we were in Alabama, we started seeing some evidence of the tornados and strong storms that had hit the area several days before. just before Decatur, we saw a row of houses that were heavily damaged and even totally destroyed, and we started seeing areas where the power was still out. Common sense suggests that drivers treat inoperable traffic lights as "stop signs", so we had some minor slowing but nothing too bad.
They haven't had power here since last Wednesday at 6:00 AM (it's now Sunday), but it should be back soon. Rick's done a fine job of managing out of various coolers without losing much of the food stocks. This has been a good thing, since most stores in the area are closed and not getting new food shipments at this point.
More later...
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