Happy Anniversary to us......

Yesterday we relaxed, met up with some of our friends and did a little shopping after lunch at Krystals. Krystals is a slight upgrade from White Castle in the south. I haven't had one since we left in January. We played euchre last night but neither of us placed in the $$$ winners; next time!

Today is our 42nd anniversary so we celebrated by doing the laundry, getting the bugs cleaned off the front cap, and cleaning the truck real good inside and out. This afternoon we we to Jody & Bruce's then we all went to Felix's Fish Camp for supper. Boy was it good!!!! Remember it Randy & Kristi? Something special happen there?

Gulf Shores, AL

Sunday morning we went back to the old turn of the century wood frame church, a little grocery shopping, Subway for lunch then home. In the afternoon we started to break camp and pack up.
Today we pulled out at 9:30 and 3 1/2 hours and 180 miles later we covered 3 (small) states. LA, MS and AL arriving at Gulf Breeze RV Resort in Gulf Shores. This is one of our favorite places, it's got everything you could want in an RV park except a high price ($405/mo with everything included) , lots of park activities, all kinds of things to do in the area, some good restaurants, the Gulf of Mexico, a nice cat names Patches and yes, daughter, Dr. Bahnmiller is less than an hour away in Mobile.
After setting up we talked with neighbors from Tipton, MI; went looking for Tom & Ann but they weren't home; then stopped to see some HitchHiker friends. Kinda feels like home.

Abita Springs Opry

We stuck around home base today and I did some routine maintenance on Home Sweet Home. This evening we went to the Abita Springs Opry. The first two groups were OK, the second two were great. One was a zydeco band and the last was a gospel harmonizers. We really enjoyed them. One of the zydeco players had a rippled metal shield on his chest (like a washboard) and he ran two sticks up and down it, never seen one before. Can't say I understood many words in their songs because of the Cajun accent but we really enjoyed them. The gospel group also had the place rocking. It was a real gospel group because the lead singer had to open a Baptist hymnal for the words to one song as he said the had so many he couldn't remember the words to all the songs. Speaking of Cajun accent, it's interesting listening to some of the locals down here.
It's getting COLD. 33 or 34 tonight, only very low 60s today. Hi of 58 Sunday. Damn.

Insta-Gator

OH OH..........a tasty morsel walking by......

Today we went to Insta-Gator. It's a 20 year old enterprise (1 of 40 in LA) that harvests about 1500 wild alligator eggs annually, hatches them in August, raises them for 2 years until they are 4' long, then releases 14% back into the wild (only 6% of the eggs hatch & survive in the wild on their own). The other 86% are used for food and leather to support the business. This was a very interesting hour & a half we spent there learning why and how this is done. An ultralight plane is used to locate nests then marked with a flag so the swamp air boats can find them. Imagine digging through rotting swamp grass (with fire ants, snakes, various bugs, & vermin inside) looking for 30 to 50 eggs in a nest. Now, mom is lurking around somewhere and she's about 8' long and VERY protective of her nest. He said if you can see her that's great, when you can't see her you have a serious problem. One even snuck up under him between his legs as he was gathering eggs. The eggs have to be marked on the top, if you turn them upside down they will die. It was interesting when he put 2 mice in a tank full of alligators, we got to feed them marshmallows. He said they aren't too smart, all their small brains think of is swimming and food. It was very interesting.......

NASA Stennis Space Center, Mississippi

This is a Saturn V engine, 5 were used on the first stage of the booster in the Apollo program. The Center is also a refurbishment center for NAOO weather buoy's (left) anchored in the Gulf. It also has the largest concentration in the US of oceanographers.

How about a thermal image of us and me about to leave the planet?

Werner Von Braun's office and a moon rock.

This is a "test station" used for the Saturn booster engines in the 60s and for the space shuttle engines today.

Today we made the 35 mile trip into Mississippi to NASA's Stennis Space Center. Five small towns and all the residents were relocated in 1963 for the center to be built. When the Saturn engines were tested a small earthquake registers in Batan Rouge, LA. Today it tests all the space shuttles main engines as well as engines for all future spacecraft. There was an interesting video and display of the 2000 residents that were relocated, one old lady refused to go unless her house was moved. She sat on her porch in a rocking chair as her small old house was trucked down the road! The center is also hosts Navy Seals and many oceanographers and weather forecasters. There was also an interesting video and display on hurricane Katrina, the center housed many local residents during the storm.

Judy and I tried to land the space shuttle, we were 0 for 4 attempts in their simulator. The last noise you hear after you crash is a tinny hub cap rolling.

Tonight we went out with 4 other couples from the park for a good Mexican supper.

Vetreran's Day @ WWII D-Day Museum

We drove into New Orleans today across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, a 23 mile long bridge, $3 round trip. The Marine Corps Reserve Band played for half an hour followed by a memorial observance. After that we spent the afternoon in the museum. Not a lot of artifacts but lots of pictures, videos, first hand audio accounts and history. After that we walked to the Robert E Lee square and watched a few street cars pass by. The homeless like to have a few (lots) of beers there and nap in the corners.

Grocery Clerks

Sunday we went to church at Trinity Lutheran. It was a beautiful and simple old turn of the century wood frame church. Everything was painted white (inside and out) including the alter. The ceiling was pale something. In the afternoon we went back to the city center, by the pavilion and fountain, for an afternoon concert. The Grocery Clerks did a good job; 7 guys with 3 guitars, one base, one fiddle, one mandolin and a banjo. The second trio wasn't so hot so we left after they played their own songs......Gustave (his cat) and another about the clock in his car always reading midnight. Yawn yawn.
Didn't do much today, Judy went to Curves and grocery shopping. She's the active one, she's playing cards at the clubhouse now.