Gulf Shores, Happy Birthday Judy

We have been in Gulf Shores for 4 days and today is Judy's 
birthday.  She started the day by doing water aerobics with the ladies in the outdoor pool.  The weather has been very warm in the 80s and sunny. 

Here's our 2016 winter home site, it's in the area we always select as we know many of our neighbors who always winter in this area of the campground.

We stopped by the beach and as usual......if you feed them they will come.  The snowbirds haven't arrived.....no cars in the parking lot!

This is the first egret I've seen perched in the top of a pine tree.  See him up there?

Patches is excited tp be back in Gulf Shores, can you tell? 

Soccer has come to an end in Michigan for Devyn's RUSH team, here they all are.  In 8 weeks the indoor winter soccer season starts.

Quincy and surprise visit with Ron and Lois

Once the windows were finished and the glue and caulk was dried we left for Gulf Shores.  We traveled to Quincy, FL and an overnight in a Passport America campground.  It was just an open field with hookups in a field behind a gas station on I10.  We were about to have dinner and there was a knock on the door........

Ron & Lois were on their way from MI to FL for the winter and coincidentally stopped overnight at the same campground!  We had a nice visit and also walked to the Burger King for breakfast before we both pulled out in the morning.  

Nothing like a Burger King breakfast in the auto supply  area!

Meanwhile in Atlanta someone has a new old toy..........

Hudson and Suncoast Designers

We have spent a week here.  This wasn't our plan but thanks to Matthew it's what happened.  Hudson is on the west side of FL just north of Tampa on the Gulf coast.  We were coming here for a 10/10 appointment to have 10 dual pane windows removed and repaired.  Over the years they have leaked and to various extends gotten dirty or foggy on the inside.

The first day here we drove back to Ocala to spend the afternoon with Bev visiting, she made a very good sloppy joe and tater salad lunch for us.
They had me back into their building as the weather was bad (some rain and wind from Matthew) so they could remove 5 windows and start working on them.  The rest were done outside as the weather cleared.  Matthew was not near as bad as forecast, I'm not sure all the forced evacuations were called for.  Bev said the wind was no where near 60 or 70 mph and there wan't much rain either in Ocala.

We had lots of time to explore, Judy easily found Hudson Beach where she and her mom use to go when mom lived down here. 

Meanwhile, back at the RV...........

Ocala and Bev

Ah.....well away from Matthew.  We are set for 5 nights at Ocala Sun park were we stayed last year to visit Bev.  It was a warm day (read HOT) so that evening Judy hopped in the pool for a workout.

The next day went to Leesburg to visit Tom & Heather who purchased a home there last winter.  On the way back we stopped to see Bev in the evening.

Well, we thought we were far enough from Matthew, the forecast now has it jogging more to the west and Ocala has 60 to 70mph winds in the forecast.  Lets move west again. 

Titusville and Matthew

We went to Titusville to explore the area, we are casually checking out locations were we want to be when we stop RVing all the time. We were in a 55+ retirement community called Willow Lakes.  It was less than 100 miles so it was a short tow.  As it turned out it was also a short stay.

On Tuesday morning we went to Krystals for breakfast and while there we checked the weather .  Hurricane Matthew is wandering around and was now forecast to pass near Titusville in 2 days.  The forecast was for 100 to 120 mph winds so we were on the road by 11am heading inland. We went to Ocala which is half way across FL to see Bev.  

St Augustine with Clayton & Pat

Well, I have been very negligent in updating the blog (we have been in Gulf Shores for several days already) so I'll try to quickly bring it up to date.  We left Flowery Branch 9/29 after a nice two weeks with Jody, Renato, Brianna and Dustin.  They kept us busy so now it's rest time now.  We spent one night on the road in Arabi, Ga on the way to St Augustine.  We will not stay there again, when we arrived in St Augustine we were infested by hundreds of ants.  Before we even set up Judy got some bug bombs, we vacated the HH to see Clayton & Pat while the ants died.  Judy was pissed.

 Prices in FL have really gone up for a campground, $50/night and no grass, paved site or pool.  We spent 3 nights here visiting.

We played poker every night and Clayton took us for a drive on the beach for a few miles.

Flowery Branch, GA with Jody and gang

Well, after taking US23 south again the joy of that road has worn off.  Yes, it's pretty through the mountains and the road is in pretty good shape but 55 and 60 mph tops, up and down, turning left, turning right I think we'll try a different route next time.  It was 280 miles to Flowery Branch and we arrived at 1:30 after an early 8am start time.

We like Old Federal COE (Corps of Engineers) park for several reasons......it's 10 minutes from Jody, Renato, Brianna & Dustin;
it's on Lake Lanier and picturesque, and we get 50% off for being seniors.  Two weeks for $180, the only drawback in there's no sewer.
We went to the Brasil's late in the afternoon to start the visit then went out for dinner.  We (me) was tired so back home.  Friday we got together in the afternoon and then off for pizza, it is Friday night you know. 
We'll be here for 2 weeks with the four kids.