SOON TO BE ON THE ROAD AGAIN, LEAVING FL

 

We are soon to be on the road again, headed for Ohio.  Our last day was spent at the hospital visiting with my brother and sister.  Then we took my sister out to our new found restaurant, The Oar House for fish, fries and hushpuppies.  She was thrilled and enjoyed seeing the marina.  Too bad that a freightliner did not come through liked the last time when we were there.

I also took the time to take pictures of the shrubs that I had trimmed around my brother's house.  But more interesting than that was the neighbor's banana tree.  I only had my cell phone for taking the pictures, so not as good as could have been.  I thought it was interesting.  He told us that they will take six months to ripen, and that the Philipinos use the purple  blossom leaves to eat. His trees are not very tall either.  So I am learning things all of the time.

We are just driving into Birmingham AL so will have to keep half an eye on the road for Gary.  I don't have any camera out for pictures, too bad!!  We are making good time as we left at 7am.  Even though I drove the first hour, we still have made good time and not much traffic.  We will go a little farther than planned before calling it a day.  We usually do 250 miles, but will do more today.

Gary and I had our last day out on the town the Saturday before leaving  It was one of their annual art shows and also car shows around the weekly farmer's market.  So we did out share of walking that day.  We also took a lot of pictures of cars and many historic homes. There is not much to say about each so just  enjoy the pictures. 



There were several streets that has bistro fronts, but only got this picture.



This was on Pensacola Bay



Pelicans everywhere.  My brother said that it was a promotion a couple years ago to raise funds to save the pelicans.  I guess they are not as scarce as they were.



And more pelicans, one for every branch of the military.



Wonder if he drives?

 Our next Blog should be from Ohio.  Later!!  Take care.

 

PENSACOLA BLOG

You can see what the spacing did to me!!  Ugh!!

I appologize.  The missing picture is at the bottom.  It did that when I published it, and I had thouht that the layout was good prior to that!!

I can't wait to get some help with this when I meet up with someone who uses Blogger!!

PENSACOLA FLORIDA

MAY 12, 2012

HELLO AGAIN !!

Gary and I head out and about the area on Saturdays.  Then through the week Gary has time to do things on his own.  I have been with my brother most of the time through the week.  It doesn't keep me busy in and of itself, but I managed to finish up scrapbooking, do spread sheets of scrapbooking layouts that have been completed, sorting and throwing out many pictures (I have pared five boxes down to two with room to spare), catching up with Blogs, trimming shrubs and much reading.  So I am caught up on the scrapbooks except for my grandson's.  I sure hope that they have photos ready for me to use for his album. 
In the mean time, Gary has the motorhome all cleaned and waxed, many little time consuming jobs done and has been reading much more than usual.  This is a new hobby for him in this past year!!  So that is one more thing that we accumulate to take with us.  However, we do give them away as soon as we finish reading them.


Drifters RV Resort getting a trim.  This is the view behind us.





Home is where we park it! Which is a little 22 site park on the north side of Pensacola.  Very nice and good neighbors!



Our first drive down along the coast was awesome, as always.  Sand and more sand!!

What you see next is why they call it Emerald Coast!!

What a drive!!

Great Fish and Chips lunch, big enough to split!!





Even a freightliner through the bay.



 Having problems spacing after bringing photos in!!














Another day, Gary's outing - - -



Opps!!  Can't flip!!  153 steps up to the floor below the lense, and Gary did it all!!




Looking up!!




And looking down!

 Then he went on the Pensacola Air Museum.



How about that glasses repair??  Some engineering, huh??
He has since gotten new glasses.




Another day, another lunch.  Good Mexican Restaurant, La Hacienda.

 Not much else going on here!  Each day is pretty much the same. 

This past week we met the Seniors from East Hill Baptist Church at O'Charley's for lunch and had a great visit with new people!!  Met a long time RVer, Jonni Strawbridge.  She and her friend were so sweet and interesting.  She wants us to visit at her home to swap stories about fulltiming.  Her husband has been gone for a while so she no longer goes motorhoming on her own.  But she still goes to the FMCA rally near Pensacola for one day.  She is looking forward to it.

Gary will soon be here to pick up me and all of my STUFF that I have been working on.  It is time to stow it for our next move.

You all take care and see some of you soon!!



Marina beside our table.



BILOXI MISSISSIPPI

April 12 and 13, 2012

Traveling across Interstate 12 and meeting up with Interstate 10 kept us from having to go through New Orleans since we could not do that city justice in one day.  We stopped at the Magic River Resort  to go down on Hwy 90 to check out the damage and rebuildng after huricane, Katrina.  Our first stop was the Beauvoir Mansion which was the last home of President Jefferson Davis and his Presidential Library.  Here are pictures from now and pictures showing the destruction fro Karina.

 



After the Beauvoir House Tour, we got the tour bus and guide for Biloxi all to ourselves!  It was great and very interesting!  Our guide was a school teacher doing the tours as a seond job.  So he was very informative and humorous also.

His tour covered most of the destruction and the restoration, including the cemetery (with the actual water line marker) which indicated that the grave markers were under water.  While there one of the above ground vaults was being rebuilt.  Better late than never, as he said the city had been on the family to get this taken care of.





One stop was to view the Monument to all who had died because of Katrina, which also had any items found during the reconstruction on display.



The only carving that was painted.  What appears to be a deck around the tree in the picture is called a shoo-fly!

 There were many carvings done on the damaged tree trunks that were still standing.  There is some awesome art work.  One little fenced park with some of the carvings was paid for by the city.  After that a gentlemen  from Ft. Walton Beach volunteered his time and talent to do many more around the area. Many of the trees were killed by the 18 hours that the salt water covered the area.  They then were at risk by the winds.  Wonderful that someone was creative enough to think of turning it into art!!  Enjoy!!



Th Civic Center that we went back to visit is filled with a lot of Biloxi History.  Very Interesting!  I had no idea that there are so many ethnic groups, and when and why they came to this area!!





View from the garden of carvings looking across the highway at the Gulf of Mexico.

  



Just a sampling of house styles in the area that were restoration.



We walked the beach after our tours. I love the water and beaches!!




Sand Trikes, look like much fun to me!!  But chicken to try one!!



Now it is time for some good BBQ at Hog Heaven just a stones throw from the Gulf.  YUM!!

The following day we drove the other direction on Hwy 90 to St. Louis Mississppi to see their restoration.  Much of the same, but I did find this bank vault sitting out in the middle of nowhere!!  Evidently the storm winds took the rest!!



Wonder where the money went??

It is hard to imagine facing this kind of devestation!!  I often think that the follow-up after a tornado is bad, but think of that with all of the water damage also!! 

Our travels are over for a month of April while we jaunt around Pensacola FL.  Stay tuned and I will show you a little of that. 



Cemetery mentioned above.  Somehow it jumped to the bottom of the Blog.  I just don't understand, nor am I going to try to fix!!



Tour Guide mentioned above!!  It also jumped to the bottom!!