Can’t seem to get out of this state. Sunday night found us in Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, still in Florida. Getting into the site was an exercise in patience and finesse. Whoever had deemed this site suitable for a 36 foot motorhome was a sadist. With Carol watching a low post by the right (curbside) rear wheel I got that wheel within a couple of inches of the post while missing a tree with the front left (street side) corner by a similar couple of inches. I still had to cope with a tree three feet behind me once I got clear of the front tree. I pivoted neatly into place wondering how I would ever get out when the time came. A short time later as we completed setting up we met Al Hanks, who with his wife Nancy, was on the site one away from ours. I have no idea how anything bigger than our car would negotiate the entrance to that intermediate site. We agreed to meet for Happy Hour at 5:30 and Carol and I set off by car to explore the Panhandle beach area. We drove along 30 A and were suitable impressed with the many fancy large homes that line the beach blocking almost all access to the hoi poloi that do not own the beach front property. Certainly the view is blocked. We drove through Watercolor and Seaside and it is clear that these are very nice places and very PLANNED.

On our return to the campground we made the coach neat for visitors and shortly the Hanks arrived bringing additional goodies to our small gathering. Somehow, before we knew it, three hours (and a couple bottles of wine) had passed. Al is retired from Consumers Union where, among other jobs, he built and then managed the automotive test facility. His wife, Nancy is a retired school teacher. She and Carol had a great time and Al and I had many things to talk about including improvements to our motorhomes and experiences with buying and maintaining them, his is a 2004 Allegro Bay on the same chassis with the same drive line as Gee2. Nancy was particularly taken with the many hooks we have mounted in strategic locations, like the ones on either side of the entry door where wet coats can be hung to drip into the stairwell rather run through the coach to the shower to hang them up. These never seemed like a big deal to me, although I do remember that we discussed what kind of hooks and whether we would like their appearance for several days before mounting. Such is life when the two of us have many hours and days together with limited other company.

The weather continued to be cold and wet. The second day we drove out to the west to explore and found more large beach houses and too many repeats of the same stores you can see everyplace else in this country. Also there was too much traffic. We turned back and got on our bikes to ride around the park, out of the traffic. At 6 we joined a group that Al had put together for a social hour in the clubhouse. Then we went back t their coach and finally to ours for a snack and some sleep.

When we awoke it was Thursday and we knew two things; we were leaving the very expensive (by our standards) Topsail Hill Preserve and we were going west. We had not put together a more serious plan and it seemed more sensible to depart and figure out what we would do as we rolled. We had been in touch with some organizations in Louisiana about volunteering some time, but Mardi Gras is coming and all the volunteer programs are closed down as all accommodations are booked for revelers and everyone takes part in Mardi Gras. There is no place we want to hang around for two weeks in lousy weather so we are moving on a bit aimlessly.

As we crossed out of Florida into Alabama we stopped at the Welcome Center to have lunch and maybe figure out where we would spend the night. We recently joined yet another RV organization, Escapees, and they have several facilities in the south and southwest. We had never seen one, much less stayed in one so we found there is one in the Gulf Shores area, not too far from the Joy and Shaul Antar as it happens. Escapees is an organization for full and extended part times RVers who have SKPed the grid and gone off to live on their rigs. The defining bumper sticker is “Home is where we park it”. Is this too convoluted? I have several threads running here and I am losing track. The campground is fantastic. It is an RV park designed by people who have been is a lot of RV parks. Access is easy, there is plenty of space and when they asked if I had a satellite dish for TV my affirmative answer resulted in some shuffling to be sure I would be able to see the satellite with my dish. All the people we have met here are really friendly and pleasant. Tomorrow we will do some shopping, I forgot my dress shoes among other things and there are plenty of shops and then we will meet the Antars at Temple in Mobile for Shabbat Service. Who knows what Sunday will bring.

If you are looking for pictures, I have not taken many and most of them are of the coach in a campground, boring!