September 22nd started rather dreary as we departed Georgia, heading to the gulf coast via a stop outside of Montgomery for a couple of days. As we drove south and west, the weather cleared and we found ourselves enjoying a nice fall day when we arrived at a COE campground just west of Montgomery. You might wonder why we made a stop on the way to our destination. As full timers, we try not to have to be in a rush anywhere and thus we operate by “The Rule of Two’s”. This means we try to do the follow:
- Drive no more than 200 miles in a day
- Arrive at campsite by 2 PM local time
- Spend at least 2 nights at a campsite
This means we don’t have to push too much, get tired, make mistakes, etc. Thus, we decided to stop halfway to Orange Beach for no other reason than the Rule of Two’s.
After this short stop, it was on to the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area for 7 days. We were happy to return to a campground we had visited back in the spring of 2019, Buena Vista RV Resort. Our site included brick pavers, a view of the lake, a covered kitchen area and furniture to enjoy the outdoor views. They also have a wonderful pool with winding river.
We spent most of the week relaxing at our site but did spend part of one day locating and exploring one of Alabama’s stranger sights. Evidently, there is a very rich man by the name of George Barber who has built a very nice marina near Gulf Shores (he also built a racetrack and motorcycle museum near Birmingham) and he decided to use some of his money to populate the road to the marina with various roadside attractions including several dinosaurs and a partial replica of England’s Stonehenge (because I always think of dinosaurs and prehistoric English monuments when visiting southern Alabama).
Bamahenge, as it’s called sits back from the road in a clearing so you have to know what you are looking for as it is hard to see from the road. We were very disappointed to find it is actually built of fiberglass, not stone.
Bamahenge! 
Looks like stone
After our visit to Bamahenge, we continued down the road in search of dinosaurs. When you search the internet for info, it says they are “dinosaurs in the woods” but we soon discovered that most of them are in clear view from the roadside. Only one was truly set back in the woods and due to recent rain, wasn’t really reachable from the road.
Dino #1 
Dino selfie 
Hiding dino
Back at camp, Jill was grilling another one of her delicious meals when a local “dinosaur” swam over to see if he could get any handouts…
On October 1, we headed east about 60 miles back into Florida to spend 1 1/2 months at one of our favorite places, Navarre. Emerald Beach RV Park is a relatively small park that sits directly on Santa Rosa Sound, looking out to Navarre Beach. During our stay, we visited with others who make this an annual visit, some staying as long as 6 months during the winter. When we arrived it was still pretty warm, nice pool or beach weather. By the time we departed on November 14th, we’d had some temps down into the 30’s!
Site 54 
View down to the water 
Beach at campground
Not a lot of activity to report for this portion of our travels. Days were spent walking, bike riding, chatting with neighbors, relaxing, reading, napping, etc. We visited the beach a few times although during our last visit we were chased away by sand flies! We also visited the pier on Navarre Beach which is billed as one of the longest public piers at 7,890 feet in length. We enjoyed the walk, saw a dolphin and a lot of stingrays along the way.
Gulf Islands National Seashore 
Navarre Beach from the pier – looking west 
Navarre Beach from the pier – looking east 
A group of rays, referred to as a fever of rays (not a school)
Our other favorite activity was eating seafood, which we tried to do as often as time and budget would permit. It seems most of our pics were taken at one of our many lunches. Below are various views from our tables along the way.
After getting our fill of seafood and sunny days, we reluctantly headed back to the Atlanta area on November 14th. As usual, we had several doctor and other visits to complete (hair cuts!!!) but also spent a few days with the grand girls of course 🙂
Skylar 
Savannah 
Look out, new drivers! 
Lolli gets a kiss from Savannah 
Savannah helping in the kitchen 
Skylar does not want to help 
Twinning
As we wrap up this blog, we’ve experienced our first below freezing night and woke up to find our water hose had frozen up. All of our internal pipes are fine but since we are running a 100 foot hose outside to the water spigot, enough of it got exposed long enough to freeze up. Looks like it’s time to order a heated water hose!
But, not to worry too much. Our much awaited “vacation” fast approaches. We’ll soon be flying to Miami to start a 14-day Caribbean cruise. Stay tuned on Facebook for pics and we’ll have a special blog dedicated to our trip when we get back.
Wishing everyone a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving!