Saying So Long…For Now

              

After returning home from our camping adventure last week Mike began his painting of the house. Between the two of us we have scraped and primed the other side of the house.  I scrape and he paints.  There are many times we look at each other and wonder why??  I know, I know we chose to purchase another house but it is beginning to keep us from doing what we really love....camping/traveling!!!!  Don't get me wrong,we love our home, it is comfortable and is truly "us."  Oh well, perhaps one day we will revisit "downsizing" to an apartment or condo so somebody else can do the yard and maintenance.

             

Not long after returning to Lagrange we met a truly wonderful couple that we have grown to love.  We met them, of all places, while eating lunch at Wendy's.  It seems they eat there most every day at lunch.  They not only eat there every day, they eat in the same booth (if at all possible) and they eat the same item(s) from the menu.  In case you haven't guessed by now, they are an older couple.  Older but in excellent shape both mind and body.  We started out by just having a few "small talk" kind of conversations.  Then we realized these two have a keen sense of humor...very sharp and you have to be on your toes to participate. 

Life has a way of moving on and for this special couple they have decided that it is time for them to move closer to their children. So after thirty years of retired living in LaGrange, they will be making a move to Illinois.  Their son has added a spectacular suite for them onto his home.  Their new place will overlook a beautiful pool and they are so excited about being close to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  We are happy for them but will really miss them and their amazing sense of humor and wit.  We've grown close to them over the past several years.

              

Today we invited them over for a brunch.  We cut up some fresh fruit, made some poppy seed lemon bread and banana nut muffins.  That along with orange juice and coffee rounded out our morning menu.  As always, it was the company and fellowship that was the best.  We will miss you Sherman and Patty...may God bless you both!!!

It appears the Casita might be making its way toward Illinois in the near future to visit this special family.  Isn't it a blessing to have friends EVERYWHERE!!!!

“Good friends are like stars.  You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.”

Chewacla State Park

                

After arriving at Chewacla, we spent the next four days just checking out all the different sights in the park.   I can honestly say that there are many different activities to do here.  The park offers over 16 miles of neat mountain biking trails…but not paved, multiple hiking trails that pass by 2 different creeks as well as a 26 acre lake. You can swim and fish in that lake as well as just enjoy the different terrains in the park. 

              

While we were there, it rained hard almost every night, but the days were simply great.  We were going to hike down the steep trail to the waterfalls, but the ranger recommended we wait until the slope was dryer because it was quite slippery with the night rains.  So we will make that our next visit.   We did see this guy from the top of the path that led down to the falls.  I didn’t get a good shot since I was facing the sun, but anyway.

              

              

You can see the water that leads to the falls in this distant pic.

              

Wednesday Gerri and I found a creek bed that we followed for a good distance and saw some really neat areas on that creek. 

             

             

             

We did manage to find these guys sunning and enjoying themselves.  After that hike along the creek bed, we made it back to the camper and just chillaxed outside.  The temps were very pleasant during the daytime, especially since we were surrounded by trees.

Thursday we decided to take a hike of a different terrain

           

           

           

through the woods and just enjoy walking on the trail.  It was so calm and relaxing just to have that casual walk in the woods.  That night we met Stephen and Raegan at El Dorado Mexican Restaurant for dinner.

Friday, we met an interesting camper 2 sights down from us. During our talk, we found that he was the Director of The Alabama Scenic River Trails and he shared many interesting tales including stories about Blakely State Park in Alabama that makes us want to go there.

Reality kicked in and reminded me I have a house to finish painting so this morning we reluctantly packed up and headed home.  It was a fantastic four days and we are already planning our next outing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Visiting Chewacla State Park

 

We decided it was past time for a little outing, so off we went to Chewalca State Park in Auburn, Alabama. The state park has 696 scenic acres and a 26 acre lake with many different hiking trails. Each site has full hookups and the weekday rates are less than weekends. There is also Chewacla waterfalls in the park. Since we just arrived this afternoon, we haven’t hit the trails today. We are snuggled in a sight surrounded by trees.  Stephen and Raegan also live in Auburn, so it’s a double treat…camping and visiting family.

            

They came over for a cookout, campfire and smores…and boy did we put away some smores.

           

           

After eating, we just sat around and had a real good, relaxing visit in our campsite. We talked for a couple of hours and ended up almost falling asleep we were so comfortable.

             

 

           

Tomorrow we are going to explore some of the park and venture into Auburn and explore that community.

A WEDDING IN THE PARK

                   

Once upon a time there was a wedding in the park....  Our son, Stephen, was married in the beautiful park overlooking Mobile Bay in Fairhope, Alabama on May 8, 2014.  His bride, Raegan Smith became his forever friend and wife in this sweet, private wedding ceremony.

                   

The wedding was originally planned to be held on the beach in Gulf Shores.  Upon arriving we discovered that the wind was wild and holding a veil on might become a problem along with crowds of people.  They planned to stay in Fairhope, Alabama following the wedding so we suggested that they take a look at the Fairhope park at the municipal pier.  The minute they saw it they fell in love.  Beautiful green grass, tall beautiful trees overlooking the gorgeous Mobile Bay complete with a fountain and blooming roses. 

                    

                    

Since this was a small family wedding, changing the venue was no problem.  A phone call to the minister and everything was set. 

We couldn't have been happier since Mike and I fell in love with Fairhope during the winter of 2010 when we stayed at Rainbow Plantation.  Fairhope was named the second best small town in the south by Southern Living magazine.  It certainly isn't hard to see why!!  It was founded in 1894 as a single tax colony.  The municipal pier was also opened in 1894 and played a vital role in the development of the area!!

                   

                   

                   

                   

                   

               

The weather was perfect and the wedding sweet and personal. We are so happy to see Stephen begin his family with Raegan and welcome her with open arms to our family!!

 

Wedding Bells…Staying Busy

                   

               

Our little Casita has sat in the driveway looking rather lonely and forlorn for the last few weeks since our return from the Green Eggs and Ham Rally.  There is a good reason....no there is a fantastic reason!!!  Our son, Stephen, is getting married May 8th on the beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  His bride-to-be, Raegan Smith, is a wonderful young lady and we couldn't be more excited about having her join our family. Even though we are the parents of the groom we have been very active in the planning and organizing for this exciting event, along with the bride and groom of course!!  There will be more about this in a later blog.

                               

We have also been very busy helping them move into their new apartment in Auburn.  This is a beautiful apartment complex on a lovely golf course.  They have a nice apartment and are having lots of fun decorating it and putting their unique stamp on it.

                                

When we "purged" our "stuff" to full-time we made sure to save many furniture items for Stephen.  These went into storage during our full-time stint and then in our basement until now.  Their apartment is full!!!

On top of all this excitement we discovered that our house was in great need of painting.  Our last several homes have all been brick until now....what were we thinking????  When we bought the house, 3 years ago, the gentleman that owned it had it painted.  We felt really good about that but little did we know that he took the easy route...not much scraping and priming so this job didn't last.  It's a big job but Mike is doing a great with it.  We decided since we had to paint, now was a good time to change the color, slightly. 

                  

We went from what I call blue, technically it is a blue/gray, but it looked blue to me, to a deeper gray color.  In my humble opinion, it looks so much better.

                   

This coming week we will be cleaning and getting the Casita ready for a road trip to Gulf Shores State Park.  We will stay there for the wedding festivities and then a couple days after to enjoy our favorite spots in this area.  We plan to meander our way back home after that.  We will be posting where we land along the way.  We may not be full-timers any longer but we are crazy passionate about RVing/camping and whenever we get ready to "go" we get soooo excited.  Hitch itch still strikes...quite often. 

Green Eggs and Ham Rally

              

Gerri and I are attending our first Casita rally. It is being held at Gunter Hill COE outside of Montgomery, Al. There are “eggs, eggs” everywhere, the most we have ever seen. We were able to meet a few people that we have got to know through blogging. We met Jerry and Wanda of http://eggrollings.blogspot.com/ and Lynn and David of http://casitandesert.blogspot.com/. It is really neat to meet folks whose blog you have been reading; it puts the people with their stories.

            

Last night we went down to the pavilion and enjoyed some music being played by some very talented members of the rally. Jerry had built a really good fire and all was going well until the rains came.

              

Those rains lasted all during the night, but sounded relaxing as it fell on our egg. This morning the rains were gone, but we know the cold front was pushing them out. The winds have been strong today as it is bringing in the colder temps.

 

             

We walked around the campgrounds and stopped by to see some friends we met last year. John and Ellen just happened to be in the area and decided to stay at this campground the same time we are here. We picked up right where we left off last time we saw them. A good time with good friends!

              

             

We are looking forward to Thursday as it is suppose to be sunny with the high in the mid 50’s!

A Life Well Lived…and Loved

 

                      

Fourteen and a half years ago Cody came into our lives and boy did he ever make his way into our hearts.  We remember our 4 hour drive to Dublin, Georgia to pick him up as an 8 week old puppy.  We had recently traveled to Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado and Montana and decided to name him after the town of Cody Wyoming.  As he grew, all he wanted to do is to sit on the sofa with us or even work his way into our lap.  Needless to say, as he got much bigger, the lap didn’t work.

                    

Cody wasn’t a Golden that liked to go fetch or retrieve items, but he did like to play in the yard and roll around on his back.  When he was full-grown, we put him in our fenced in backyard so he could be out and about safely.  He truly loved outdoors when we were at work, and loved spending time with us when would get home.

                   

When Gerri and I went fulltime, Cody made such a great transition from being in the yard to living in our motorhome with us.  Even though the bedroom was small, he would always sleep at the base of the bed on my side or Gerri’s…or even share both bedsides with us.  He was such a grand “fulltime” Golden rv’er.  When we spent the winter at an Escapees park in Summerdale, Alabama, Cody had the time of his life there.  We stayed in a friends backyard and Cody make himself at home with the birdbath…thinking the water was for him.

                  

When we came off the road, Cody stayed in the house with us from then on.  He would be with us wherever we found ourselves in the house.  He loved to walk with us and each night we would go on a walk through the neighborhood and he was so happy.

Wednesday night, Cody had a seizure that lasted 2 hours, and I think he may have also had a stroke.  We gave him Phenobarbital to end the seizure, but Cody never really recuperated. Our vet recommended giving him a few days to see if he would improve, so Gerri and I kept food in him and got water into his system.  This morning we went to talk to our vet about Cody.  When we explained his condition 5 days after his problem, he suggested it was time.  Even though we knew it, it still hurt.  Cody was a part of our family!!!

Our vet came to our home and helped us take that step for Cody and we said our Good-byes to our friend and family member.  Cody epitomized everything about a Golden, he was our friend, family member and a grand companion.  He gave us as much love as we gave him!

Rest In Peace my friend, you so well deserve it!  We Love You!