Happy Birthday America!

I wanted to save this for myself so I could look at it from time to time.

Just click here and enjoy My Beautiful America.

Happy 4th of July!

Father's Day & First Day of Summer

WHEN? Sunday · June 21

WHERE? Orange Beach, Alabama • (find us on the map)

When we left the Foley area, the temperature was around 98 degrees, but when we arrive in the areas near the Gulf and the beaches around the Alabama-Florida line, there was a breeze and the temperatore was 89 degrees. That might have been reason enough to take our little Sunday drive in that direction.

While in that area, we tried a restaurant we had never dined in. We could critique it, but we won't. Let's just say that we consider a Sunday afternoon at Big Daddy’s Grill is more to our liking. The Wolf Bay Lodge restaurant is now located at the Zeke's Marina, and it caused us to realized we had dined there before many, many years ago, but it was then called Zeke's.

We took a few photos you can view quickly in a slide show at:


Zeke’s and Wolf Bay restaurant

5th Annual Balloon Festival

WHEN? Saturday · June 20

WHERE? Foley, Alabama · find us on the map

We stopped in briefly Friday morning before all the booths and vendors were set up, but the hot air balloons had already come and gone by that time. One vendor reported to me that they missed the soccer field where they were supposed to land and some landed on the road and in peoples' back yards because of the prevailing southeasterly winds. We looked around a bit and took a few photos and went back home.

Today was better, and we saw quite a few balloons land at the correct destination at the festival site. We got photos of the balloons and met four friends there. I'm guessing that at least 30+ balloons were involved in this festival. By using the brochure/schedule for this year's festival, it seems like at least the following was true:
State/Number
Alabama 7
Florida 3
Georgia 5
Kentucky 1
Louisiana 6
Mississippi 6
Missouri 2
Tennessee 1
Texas 2

Total Identified 33
There were at least two balloons we could not identify and possibly some we identified wrong.

After that, the six of us gathered at the Magnolia River Bar & Grill for a yummy breakfast cooked by Bob.

Since we were actually able to see lots of hot air balloons today and looked around some Friday morning, I'm not sure we will go back, but the 5th Annual Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival will be much like last year's except for the weather. We noticed that the frisbee dogs are on the schedule to perform. We even took a few tractor photos on Friday. One was very old and rusty, and we did not remember seeing it last year.

See more 5th Annual Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon Festival photos on flickr

The website for the festival is very informative with a schedule of events and an audio that comes on after you are on the site for a little while.

Second Visit to Bahama Bob’s

WHEN? Friday · June 12

WHERE? Gulf Shores, Alabama • find us on the map

Along with good food, today's lupper at Bahama Bob's included a beautiful day to enjoy the beach out back of this beach cafe.

We pretty much covered what a relaxed dining experience it is to choose the back patio where one can look out on the beach and the Gulf. All ages were there on the patio with us on a gorgeous day. Our first visit was covered in a post in July of 2008 at Cay Key Quay .

This visit was mostly occupied with (besides eating) experimenting with shooting short videos such as:

Embedded:

Sunday Live Music

WHEN? Sunday · May 3

WHERE? Big Daddy's in Fairhope, Alabama

I was a little undecided about which blog to put this on. But I did want to mention a good choice for reasonably priced entertainment on both a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon, particularly when the weather is nice.

We've only mentioned Big Daddy's on the Fish River once on this blog along with quite a few other restaurants we had tried since we settled in Lower Alabama on the post sho'nuff fine dining on February 12 of last year.

We really did not go for the food on Sunday afternoon. We saw in a local publication that there was live music there. We had some adult beverage and mixed in some fried crab claws between us, but the live music was really good.

Randy Branch played the guitar and hormonica and sang. Some of the songs were written by him and are on the CD Long Black Car on his website at Poppaskeeter Music, while other songs he sang were written by other songwriters and musicians.

On Randy’s MySpace you can listen to three of the songs on the CD. It looks like he is really quite busy performing locally, and apparently he can also help you with your real estate needs.

Big Daddy's has a street address of 16542 Ferry Road, Fairhope, with access by boat from the Fish River. The Big Daddy's website gives good directions, but once you know where Ferry Road turns off of CR 32, you won’t have any trouble finding it the second time. Those with boats in the area don’t have any trouble finding it once they come into the Fish River out of Weeks Bay by just following the river upstream.

This Sunday afternoon, several people had brought their dogs, so it reminded us some of Pirates Cove in that respect.

We took a few photos you can view at Live Music at Big Daddy’s.

Tolstoy Park

WHEN? Monday · April 27

WHERE? Montrose, Alabama • (find us on the map)

Recently I sent a video on Turkey (the country) to a member of Wells United Methodist Church in Jackson, Mississippi. Earl Hill, Jr. replied, thanking me, and added this: "Be sure you read The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer and see his little house in Fairhope."

I purchased the book and read it and then started trying to find the little round house referred to in the book. It took a second day of searching with more specific directions to finally locate the house.

I recommend the book to you if you are one who likes to read books of a spiritual nature and about philosophy. It's very much like a journal of sorts and is based on a real person, Henry Stuart.

Excerpt from an interview with author Sonny Brewer:

THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK is based on the true story of a 62-year old man, Henry Stuart, whose doctor in Idaho in 1923 told him he was dying of consumption. He moved here to Fairhope, left his shoes out west, and lived barefooted in a round concrete house he built by himself with his own two hands for twenty-two years! He had a divinity degree from Mount Union College and listed his occupation in the 1920 Census as “weaver of rugs.” Clarence Darrow befriended him and visited Henry a number of times in Fairhope. He was a writer and poet, a gardener, and a self-reliant man Thoreau would have loved.

That's probably enough to grab your interest without giving away the plot. The little round house was not easy to find, even though I had some photos of it from the internet. I think the house had become "bigger than life" in my mind by the time I finished the book because I was really surprised at how small it seemed when I stepped inside of it. It was a pleasure to visit it and take a few photos, which you can see here.

A Surprise Dance

WHEN? Probably never except by armchair

WHERE? Antwerp Belgium

Several people have shared this video with me via email, and I think it's too good not to put up on our travel blog.

Since I'm Hop-a-long Smith for awhile, real travel is out of the question anyway.

One of the most beautiful buildings of Antwerp is the building where this video took place, which is known as Central Statie, Railway Cathedral or simply Antwerp Central Station. One person who posted a video of this on YouTube described it thusly:

"We had a 45 minute gap between two trains and there was a school group performing the Do Re Mi! It took us a while to realize that this was a performace. It seemed like people were randomly joining the dance."

Almost rained out

WHEN? Saturday · March 28

WHERE? Elberta, Alabama • find us on the map

We wanted to go to the Sausage Festival in Elberta again this year, but the weather was a problem. We felt bad for all those who had booths to sell their wares because the attendance was way down from last year's since it rained up until 9 A.M. But it was reasonably good weather when we arrived. Of course the grounds were soggy from the rain we'd had for the last few days.

We managed to enjoy ourselves inspite of the situation, but we might have stayed longer if the weather had been more cooperative.

Check out our Flickr photos at:

Elberta Sausage Festival

Before returning home, we enjoyed hamburgers and fries at Rusty's in Foley.

We also attended this event last year:

Oom-Pa-Pa 3/29/2008

LA Entertainment

WHEN? Fri., Sat. & Sun. · March 20, 21 & 22

WHERE? Fairhope, Alabama • (find us on the map)

Last year we heard about this festival from our neighbors, but we were just too involved in getting settled into our Lower Alabama home to take the time to attend it. This year, we chose Saturday to attend. As I'm posting this, things are underway for the final day for the 57th annual Arts & Crafts Festival.

The weather could not have been more beautiful for this event, and today looks like that trend will continue. We followed a bus to the Big Lots shopping area and took it to downtown Fairhope to attend the festival. It's big, so we certainly got in our walking exercise yesterday.

Admission is free. We each paid a buck for the bus going and coming back, and I'm proud to say I only purchased one bargain item for three bucks. This may leave the impression that our total cost was only $7.00. That's not the true picture, because we ducked into the Ravenite Pizzeria for lunch. It was less than $20 for more pizza than we could eat and a cool brew to go with it.

Our photos do not reveal how big this was, but this event offered over 200 exhibitors from throughout the nation. Live entertainment is included as well as many food and refreshments booths. All of this takes place on the streets of beautiful downtown Fairhope.

Where we lunched looked like they had a place up front for live entertainment. They told us that occurred on Friday nights and BEGAN at 10 PM. There's not much chance we'll be attending that because we're getting our ZZZZZZZ's most nights by that time.

We left the festival in a mood to continue enjoying ourselves and stopped three places before we called it a day. We were both happily exhausted and slept like babies.

Here’s the unusual assortment of photos we have to share with you from yesterday.

Exotic armchair travel

WHEN? Probably never except by armchair

WHERE? Pamukkale, Denizli, Turkey

My cousin, Billy Walton, sent me a PowerPoint slideshow about Pamukkal. It was the first time I had heard of it. The show said that perhaps it should be considered the 8th Wonder of the World.

Since I have no idea I can ever travel to Turkey to see this spectacular natural site, I am happy I am able to share this video with you as I armchair travel.

I was disappointed to find this note in my internet research:

Pamukkale has mineral springs that have been in use for thousands of years. Calcium-rich waters spilling from a hilltop spring are responsible for creating white stone basins. The "cotton castle's" terraced basins hold in the 102ºF water, and up until the 1990's you could just walk up and jump in. No more. Hotel development and irresponsible tourism around the springs choked the water source and the basins reverted to a dry, dingy gray. Although their luster has since returned, visitors can only walk on carefully laid out paths around the site.

Source: About.com

Wales West Bluegrass Festival

WHEN? Saturday and Sunday · March 7 and 8

WHERE? Silverhill, Alabama • find us on the map

This is the 4th year that Wales West RV Resort has held their THANK YOU SNOWBIRDS BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL. The show takes place on both days of the weekend with eight musical groups participating. It's pretty much non-stop music from 10:30 AM to 5:00 PM each day with a half-hour break for lunch, during which sweet rolls, popcorn, chips, candy bars, cookies, ice cream, soft drinks, water, coffee, brats and hot dogs are available for sale at very reasonable prices. Also during the festival, train rides on the railroad were half price at $3.00.

It could not have been more convenient to attend this unless we were staying in the park itself because it is located about 7-8 miles from where we live. The weather cooperated completely. What beautiful spring-like, sunshiny days they were.

We tried to capture for you what the RV resort looks like where this festival took place. The owners, Ken Sr., Ken Jr., and Ann Zadnichek, have a really nice piece of property and seem to be continually improving on it.

Having been fulltime RVers, it was somewhat of a joke for us to realize that this park, along with most others in Lower Alabama, don't have the usual problem of having train tracks nearby to serenade the RVers all the time, night and day. So what did they do? They built the only authentic Welsh Victorian two-foot narrow gauge railway in the Americas right in their park. The good part is, this railroad only runs when they schedule it themselves.

Check out our Flickr photos at:

Wales West Bluegrass Festival

The Rest of the Story*

WHEN? Monday · March 2

WHERE? Hattiesburg, Mississippi • (find us on the map)

WHY? Lunchtime ... once again, we were hongry

Last September we put up a post on Robert St. John's Restaurants after we stopped in Hattiesburg and ate at the Crescent City Bar & Grill. We agreed to have today's lunch at the Purple Parrot Cafe on our way back to Alabama. Both restaurants are owned by Robert St. John.

The Purple Parrot didn't seem to be as large and was decorated with colorful abstract art. I'm no more an art critic than I am a food critic, but I do know that I like anything filled with many colors. That was true for my food that I selected on the basis of wanting to know what black-eyed pea gravy was. I also knew that I like pork tenderloin (peppercorn encrusted), mashed potatoes and green beans. The portion was a little bit more than I could handle, but I did my best. Wendell chose the pecan encrusted catfish, which also had some black-eyed peas with it, I think. I’ll have to say I was concentrating so much on my own meal that I don’t remember what else he had.

Certain things the servers and staff did were interesting to me. I don’t frequently dine in restaurants of this class, but I do appreciate the service when I do, such as help with my chair as I'm seated.

Here’s something neat: Have you ever dined in a nice restaurant with cloth napkins that are white and come out with lint all over a dark colored outfit? Because I had on black, they switched out my white napkin for a black one. At least that was my take on it.

The other thing that set this restaurant apart for me were various quotes written on the hallway walls. Two favorites:

“Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.”
~ Garrison Keillor

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
~ Mae West

*An aside:

Paul Harvey passed away very recently on February 28 of 2009 at the age of 90. What an icon he was and will remain so because of all the memories of the many years he did what he loved while his fans enjoyed it. I’m one of those fans. I thought it was interesting that my first thought for a title for this post probably brought Paul Harvey to your mind just like it did mine.

Mardi Gras Parades

WHEN? Sunday · February 22 · 2:30 PM
WHERE? Mobile, Alabama
WHAT? Joe Cain Parade

WHEN? Fat Tuesday · February 25 · 10:00 AM
WHERE? Gulf Shores, Alabama
WHAT? Gulf Shores Mardi Gras Parade

WHEN? Fat Tuesday · February 25 · 1:30 PM
WHERE? Orange Beach, Alabama
WHAT? Orange Beach Mardi Gras Parade

We've put up two albums on Flickr of photos taken at these three parades. You can check them out at:

• Mobile Joe Cain Parade
• Baldwin County Fat Tuesday Parades

Checking Out a Beach

WHEN? Monday · February 16

WHERE? Perdido Key, Florida • find us on the map

WHAT? Gulf State Park Florida Point

As the map shows, Alabama Point is on the west side of the Perdido Pass bridge, and Florida Point is on the east side, which is the state line location between Alabama and Florida on Highway 182. As their sign indicates, it is part of Gulf State Park in cooperation with the city of Orange Beach, Alabama. Florida Point has lots of parking, a bathhouse, a covered picnic area, and the beach runs the length of the pass and around to the Gulf. It has four boardwalks over the dunes and sea oats if you want to go directly to the Gulf.

Hurricane Ivan struck this area in September 2004, causing extensive erosion damage to the this beach on the east side of the pass. When we arrived in this area in early 2008, it appeared that the environmental restoration was still underway, which included dredging approximately 560,000 cubic yards of sand from the shoaled navigation channel and placing it on Florida Point.

Until a person has been here awhile, it is hard to even know how many beach locations are part of Gulf State Park. Gulf State Park has over 5 miles of beaches available in both Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama. All areas in Orange Beach are free of charge to everyone.

I am not knowledgeable of maritime terms and such, but I am learning some. The photos of piled up rocks that go out into the water are jetties. A jetty is a protective structure of stone or concrete which extends from shore into the water to prevent a beach from washing away.

To check out our photos on Flickr, click on Florida Point Beach Access Gulf State Park

Our neighbors have been telling us about this public beach they go to ever since last year, but we had not been there. We've passed the turnoff for it many a time and really wondered about it, but just did not check it out. Since the weather was good, though cool, we decided it was time for an outing in the sunshine.

We encountered a young couple from Bowling Green, Kentucky, on the beach and asked them to take our photo together and we did the same for them. I hope we hear something from them because I have forgotten information that might allow me to find their Christian work on the web.

This facility does have real restrooms, which is the only public beach we have found so far that this is true of that has free admission. It is further to drive than other places we have gone to. Only time will tell how crowded it is when it is really beach weather.

Fort Condé

WHEN? Wednesday · February 4

WHERE? Mobile, Alabama · find us on the map

WHAT? Fort Condé

Today's visit to Fort Condé came about because we weren't hungry enough for lunch when we finished with a VA appointment. A friend in Mobile suggested visiting this downtown museum before she joined us for lunch.

Several school buses were parked outside the fort, and we were joined by students on a field trip. Since it was a cold day, we concentrated on the fort's indoor artifacts, including many historical photos, some of which were from early Mardi Gras and the reign of King Felix III, the first royalty associated with this annual festival. You'll notice in our Fort Condé photos on Flickr that the decorations for Mardi Gras were everywhere we went.

This fort has had many names and was much larger when it was needed for protection. As it now stands, what visitors see today is what was recreated for Mobile’s 1976 United States bicentennial celebration. To learn more about the fort's history, visit Fort Condé on Wikipedia.

LuLu’S

WHEN? Monday · February 2

WHERE? Gulf Shores, Alabama · find us on the map

WHY? LuLu'S at Homeport Marina

Many is the time we have noticed this landmark as we were crossing the Intercoastal Waterway on Highway 59 in Gulf Shores, but we had never gone inside. So it was high time we did. There was a small crowd when we arrived there around 4:30 PM. This will not be hard to understand since the date was Superbowl Sunday.

As we came in, Greg Brown was playing a James Taylor song, and we took a seat at the bar and ordered drinks. It was a beautiful day weatherwise, so it was a good day to get some photos. We listened to several songs, and then I asked if Greg knew anymore JT songs. He did and played Carolina In My Mind.

While sitting there we glanced over the menu, and Smitty said you'd better bring your wallet when you came here. When you look over all the real estate, furnishings, etc., it is not hard to understand the prices. There's lots of overhead here.

As LuLu'S website tells you, their first location was on Weeks Bay, much closer to where we live, but being located right on the waterway means they get lots of pleasure boat traffic, and the atmosphere here is worth a lot, and live entertainment as well.

You can check our our photos on Flickr by clicking on LuLu’S.

Cozumel Cruise

WHEN? Thursday · January 8 through Sunday · January 11

WHAT? Carnival Holiday Cruise

We took our first Caribbean cruise almost twelve years ago. It was on a much smaller ship with Commodore Cruise Line, no longer in business. We took a bus from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans and stopped in several ports on the cruise. It was a very enjoyable experience, but last week's cruise to Cozumel was better in several ways.

• The cruise left from Mobile, Alabama, much closer to home.
• The larger ship provided many more recreational opportunities on board, so many that we had to pick-and-choose among them.
• The two live entertainment shows, Xtreme Country on Friday, and Shout on Sunday, were outstanding, with nonstop singing and dancing.
• A group of friends were on board ship with us!

It was fitting that we left on the cruise one year to the day from when we arrived in Lower Alabama last year. Little did we know then that we would settle here after being on the road fulltime RVing.

On Thursday, January 8, we were on board the Carnival Holiday Fun Ship in time for lunch from the buffet on the Lido Deck. There was no time to be bored because recreational activities abounded. Once we were at sea, a good size casino was opened. Our photos and those of our friends tell the story of the fun. I even took a photo of the Fitness Center, but never set foot in there again. There were just too many other things to do. Since the ship was pretty big, we got quite a lot of exercise just climbing stairs and walking on board.

Our assigned-seating dinner in the Four Winds dining room was the best way to dine, in our opinion. Open seating was available for breakfast and lunch in the Seven Seas dining room. Both places were very much like dining in a restaurant, where we were given menus and each person made their selections. There was a buffet on the Lido Deck, but we much preferred the dining rooms.

Friday evening's dinner included an "elegant dining" dress code. I balked at this at first, but it turned out to be fun. Since our group was among the best-looking guests on the ship, we naturally turned lots of heads when we arrived. Although it's impossible to choose a Best Dressed among us, Jan certainly deserves an Honorable Mention for her head-to-toe coordination, which included a fashionable scarf and clever shoes that matched her dress perfectly. And Cheeryo in his authentic Scottish kilt was, of course, the Holiday's most originally dressed diner that evening. I encourage you to click on each thumbnail to really appreciate how spectacular we all looked.

Most of Saturday was spent in Cozumel, beginning at Carlos 'n Charlie's. Then we moved on for a time at Jimmy Buffett's Marguaritaville on the water. Several photo ops were in Cozumel as well as some typically tropical scenery. One lady almost missed the ship's departure. They actually had to pull back in a short distance so she could get back on board. Two other bigger cruise ships were docked at Cozumel also. They left first, and then the Holiday pulled away.

Sunday was another day at sea as the ship was on the return trip to Mobile. The first thing I noticed that morning was the beautiful sunrise, which reminded me of a traditional folk melody, I See The Morning Breaking.

It is truly amazing what it takes to entertain and feed this many people on a large cruise ship, yet the staff do it so well. We recommend your checking to see just how affordable these trips have become.

The Fun Ship's drink of the day


Our favorite pole dancer

See all our cruise photos on Flickr:

First Day of Cozumel Cruise

Second Day of Cozumel Cruise

Third Day of Cruise – in Cozumel

Fourth Day of Cruise – return trip

Bon Voyage

Celebrating our golden anniversary with all the trimmings!

We'll be on the Carnival Holiday cruise ship when it departs for Cozumel from Mobile this afternoon. What better way to begin our next fifty years?

Christmas Hallelujah!

WHEN? Sunday · December 14

WHERE? First United Methodist Church, Arlington, Texas

WHAT? Gloria by Vivaldi ~ Christmas Music Program

This classic music was performed in Latin. The two videos below provide a taste of this splendid program:

• Gloria by Vivaldi
• The program concluded with Vivaldi - Gloria (RV 589): Cum Sancto Spiritu

Holiday Fruitcakes

WHEN? Saturday · December 13

WHERE? Theatre Arlington

A very funny and entertaining show! We had front row seats, right beside the pig that blew up. That's because we have a "pure heart".

From Artistic Director B. J. Cleveland:

Fruitcakes is a celebration of Jamie and Jack who, during a Christmas season of confusion, hurt, and loneliness, find in each other the strength to reach out to those they love the most. The story also touches on how chance encounters change our lives -- change them as much as a visit from a mystical angel might change them. As Miss Alice notes in Act Two, "Perhaps we're all angels."