Happy New Year!

Since my last post Judy has won $32 playing bingo Monday night. We did one of my favorites....

shoe shopping. While at the mall I made an observation. Seems every teenage girl must have gotten a cell phone for Christmas as 80% of them were walking around talking on one. Another observation, they like to wear boots and shorts. Why boots? There's no snow down here and it's not raining? I played poker a couple time and lost a pound or pound & a half, of nickles & dimes. Spent time cleaning the truck and polishing the wheels. We also cleaned out and organized the basement. Jody and Bruce arrived (with their dog) about 8:30am today to drop off the dog while they spent the day at Baldwin Hospital. Jody is considering starting a clinic associated with the hospital after her residency is completed in the summer of 2010. She got her Step 3 US Medical License Exam exam results back just before Christmas and she easily passed the final exam. Good job Jody!!! I easily understand why doctors made the money they do and do not begrudge them that. If you consider 4 years of college for a Bachelors, 4 years of medical school, at least 3 years of residency as slave labor, racking of $250K of expenses (this is not counting the 4 years for a Bachelors degree!!), and the stress......who the heck would want to go through that?????

Don & Zola arrived early this afternoon, it's Zola's 39th birthday. All six of us went to the Shrimp Basket at 5pm for supper. We all had shrimp except Zola had oysters. It was a pleasant evening and we ate outside. There was a looong line waiting to get in when we left. We returned to our place and played cards. It was nice watching the Times Square New Years celebration at 11pm and going to bed before midnight our time. We heard lots of fireworks at midnight as we tried to sleep. In the morning none of us will have a hangover!

Christmas at the park

We received a nice picture of Kristi, D & Randy so our friends can see the northern Bahnmiller clan. Judy baked the lebkuechens Christmas Eve day, we have 100 of them! It takes loooonger to bake them in a tiny oven. We went to church at 7pm with neighbors Lucy & Jack from Tipton, MI. On Christmas Judy went to water aerobics then we went with Barb & Ray, fellow HitchHiker friends, to the movies to see Marley & Me. Oh the sobbing and falling tears! We also finished shelling 10 pounds of pecans we purchased when we arrived in Gulf Shores. At 4pm we joined the rest of the park for a Christmas pot luck, the park supplied the ham & turkey. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we did!!!!!!

The weather has been GREAT. I had to turn the A/C on last night at 6pm when I returned from the pot luck. It's been in the 70s daytime & 60s at night. Lots of clouds but that's OK.

THANKS for the Charlie Brown Christmas tree D!!!!! Gramps

Windy but warm

As you can see in the pics it's overcast and very windy BUT.....warm. It's back into the 60s from yesterdays 40 degrees. Today we did lunch at Arby's (exciting huh?), visited the beach, then some grocery shopping, & dropped off the old newspapers at the zoo. I'd like to see them put the papers down in the lions or tiger cages! Tonight we played euchre and I did miserable (but had fun!!!!) and Judy tied for second for $6. If you click on the RV park picture to enlarge it (it was taken from the entrance) you can look between the trees and see our flag flying on the back of our home.

Christmas & Mobile

This morning Judy made a pecan pie and I mixed up the lebkukens. Later in the morning we went to Jody & Bruce's for Christmas before they left for Bruce's parents in SC. We went to Butch Cassidy's for lunch, a well known bar that has good burgers. We visited the old Church Street Graveyard were many were buried due to yellow fever. We then went to a downtown

park on the waterfront. After that we returned to their home for Christmas before returning home.

Judy's home & Clayton & Pat too

Clayton flew into Ft Lauderdale and met up with Pat then they drove to St Augustine to see Margaret. After spending a little time there they brought Judy back Friday. We chowed down on shrimp at DeSotos Friday night and Lambert's Saturday night. The weather was good and we ended up staying put Saturday after all the driving they had done. We did get caught up playing Tonk & 7-up! After Clayton & Pat left to return to Margaret's Sunday morning Judy & I went to church at the park and played euchre tonight, I tied for second....again. While Judy was gone I didn't do too much but did spend time cleaning the joint up before she returned. It's been warm (70s) the last few days but it's getting cold now!

Gary & Deb; Christmas cookies

Friday Deb & Gary Pearce stopped by and after visiting for an hour we went had lunch at DeSotos (Sea & Surf was closed) and checked out the beach. It was a nice sunny day so we drove along the beach and also the state park. They are spending 2 nights at the Escapee CG on their way to Rockport, TX. I really enjoyed their visit. Deb had a new camera and I was playing with it so much I forgot to take any pictures with ours! Saturday Jody & Bruce were here and we mixed up 2 batches of Christmas cookies then went to the Christmas boat parade at LuLu's.

The parade was smaller this year but still nice. Afterwards we went to the Shrimp Basket for supper, I'm developing a hankering for shrimp. Sunday I went to Jody & Bruce's and assisted in the cookie baking by tasting them. We also moved some furniture so they could set up their Christmas tree. Today was nice, low 70s but solid overcast and a little light rain, but still very nice outdoors. I did get a little work done in our home on wheels. HO HO HO y'all.

the zoo

Sunday we went to the Gulf Shores zoo with our friends Ray & Barb after lunch at DeSotos. It was a very pleasant and warm afternoon. We played euchre Sunday and Tuesday evenings but didn't do too well other than having fun. Wednesday morning I took Judy to the Pensacola airport and she rented a car and drove to here sister Margaret's new place in St Augustine to see her and help her unpack and set up her new condo. It rained real hard all the way to the airport, we are almost swimming down here. Clayton will be in St Augustine about December 18 or 19 from CA to join the party. Now it's turned cold, 44 degrees at 2pm and still spitting rain. BUT......it will be back in the 60s and perhaps low 70s next week!