March 6, 2006

March 6, 2006

RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama to Tallahassee, Florida

YEAR 2 DAY 262

 

Today was sunny, very warm, and humid. The further east we go, the more humid it becomes. As we passed through Pensacola, Florida early this afternoon, a temperature display indicated 79 degrees.

First thing this morning I got on the phone to our family doctor in Ottawa, Dr. Trepanier, to arrange for appointments early in May. The receptionist answered the phone "Good morning, Dr. Anderson's office". HUH ? Who the hell is Dr. Anderson ? And where's Dr. Trepanier ? He retired a year ago ? How could that be ? He's about the same age as Joanne and me. Oh ... wait a minute ... we're retired, aren't we ? HA HA HA ! Dr. Anderson's receptionist and nurse were both very helpful in setting up appointments for us, and making the referrals we need. A half an hour on the phone, and almost all our medical requirements were arranged for the first week in May. Thank you very much.

I took Bo for an obedience training session. He was better than the last few days, but not as good as he can be. We prepared for departure. As we were pulling out of our campsite at Rainbow Plantation, the phone rang. It was my gastroenterologist's wicked witch of the west. Oh ... ! She was as sweet as pie, and was calling to offer me a choice of times for a colonoscopy. I selected one of her offered times, then she discussed the preparations with me. She will send me all the fine details by e-mail. Oh ... okay ! I wonder why she was so rude and hostile on Friday, and so pleasant and helpful today ?

We had decided to travel east on Hwy. 98 following the Gulf Of Mexico coast line, to explore the beach towns, instead of taking Interstate 10. That turned out to be a bad idea. We drove east on Hwy. 28 to Hwy. 59, then south on Hwy. 59 to Foley. I needed diesel, and was going to fill up at the Wal-Mart in Foley. We got to the gas bar at the Wal-Mart, and they didn't have diesel. DARN ! We headed east on Hwy. 98 towards Pensacola, Florida. We crossed Perdido Bay, and were out of Alabama, and into Florida. Hwy. 98 weaved its way through Pensacola. Lots of heavy traffic, narrow roads, and turns. We stopped in Pensacola to fill up with diesel at a gas station that was very difficult to get the rig in and out of. Finally we made it out of Pensacola, and I expected that the highway would become an easier, and more pleasant drive along the coast. No such luck. It was just more and more urban traffic, with lots of traffic signals, and lots of stop and go. By the time we had been on the road for a couple of hours, we had made very little progress, I was stressed, and we were seeing no scenery. Screw this ! I'm heading back to the Interstate.

We wanted to stop for lunch at a road side rest area near the town of Navarre, but we didn't find it. At Navarre I turned north on Hwy. 87 to travel 18 miles back to Interstate 10. We were going to stop as soon as possible for lunch, but there wasn't anywhere suitable to stop for lunch until we got onto Interstate 10 and travelled about another 30 miles east to the next rest area. We were tired and hot, and lunch was late. Joanne drove for awhile after lunch while I checked out where to stay tonight, in the Passport America directory. I picked a campground at Chipley. Before we got to Chipley, we changed drivers again. We got off I-10, drove through Chipley, and found the campground. Closed ! Out of business ! @(#*$&%^!)

Back through Chipley, and back onto I-10. There was really nowhere else to stop for the night before Tallahassee, another hour and a half down the road. It seemed to be getting dark earlier than usual. That's when we realized that we had crossed from the Central Time Zone into the Eastern Time Zone at some point today. Great ! We thought it was 6:00 P.M., it was actually 7:00 P.M., and we were still driving. It was dark by the time we approached Tallahassee, and we decided we were just going to boondock in Flying J's parking lot over night.

We pulled into Flying J's RV parking area. Joanne prepared supper, while I reset clocks and watches, and set up the little 12 volt TV. We had supper, then watched The Apprentice. I did today's accounting, and journal entry.

DSK

March 5, 2006

March 5, 2006

RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama

YEAR 2 DAY 261

 

Today was another beautiful "June 18" day. Sunny and warm ... again !

Joanne has been catching up on reading my journal entries. She wants me to mention that when we were at one on the Mardi Gras parades, she got a "ringer", like in horseshoes. As she was standing there, a thrown strand of beads landed on her head, and slid down around her neck. HA HA HA ! A "ringer" !

This morning I printed and reconciled the February bank statements I downloaded yesterday. I made an error in selecting the date range when downloading the bank statements, and will have to do it again. Next time I have access to Wi-Fi, I guess. Joanne took Bo for an obedience training session. We've decided that we will each take him for a short obedience training session on a daily basis, until he improves back to the point where he was a couple of weeks ago. I don't understand why he would regress like this. We have 2 theories. One reason might be because we left him alone in the trailer on a daily basis, for 5 days while we were in the Lafayette area celebrating Mardi Gras. The other thing is he seems to be suffering some manner of insecurity here at Rainbow Plantation. When we were driving down Hwy. 28 on our way here, he was looking outside and appearing worried, with his ears pulled back. Today when we were returning from a ride to Gulf Shores, the same thing happened. Is it possible that he recognizes this area as his previous home, and he's somehow worried that we're going to abandon him here ? The last time he was here, he was lost / abandoned. That's when we adopted him 15 months ago.

I disassembled the bedroom wall lamps to clean them. We had lunch. We went for a "drivey" to Gulf Shores to see how much improvement / reconstruction there has been since we were here 15 months ago, 2 months after Hurricane Ivan. We drove south to the Gulf Coast down the back roads from Rainbow Plantation, exploring as we went. Found a very nice small airport at Foley. < sniffle > I miss flying. I watched a Cessna 172 do a couple of touch and goes. The magnolias are all in bloom. Very lovely. At Gulf Shores we drove for a couple of miles along the beach front road. Reconstruction seems about 95 % complete. A big change from the mess we saw 15 months ago. We stopped at an empty lot that was for sale, I kicked off my shoes, and walked with Boto the water's edge. Beautiful, soft, white sand. Cold water ! The lot was 50 feet wide, and 350 to 400 feet deep, beach from the road to the water. The price for a 50 foot wide beach lot is ... wait for it ... $1.4 million ! ! !

On the way back to Rainbow Plantation we stopped for some groceries at Winn Dixie. A few of the items we bought were on sale, with the Winn Dixie affinity card. I went to customer service, and filled out yet another form to obtain another grocery chain affinity card. Joanne's wallet is packed with grocery chain affinity cards. All these different chains have the same policy. The "sale" items are only on sale upon presentation of the chain's affinity card. A few of them have a temporary card available for use by travellers, but most of them make us fill out a form, and obtain their card. We also refilled a couple of water jugs.

Once back at Rainbow Plantation it was my turn to take Bo for an obedience session. We cleaned, took down, and put away Teddy's tent, in anticipation of leaving tomorrow. We went to the clubhouse, for the first of 3 back to back social activities this afternoon. At 4:00 P.M. a four piece band was playing music. WOW ... great drummer, especially since he looked to be in his early seventies. At 5:00 P.M. was the Plantation Magnolias chapter of the Red Hat Society fund raiser, a Soup Cook-off. Fourteen women each prepared a large pot of soup. For $2, one could have a cup of as many of the soups as one wanted to try. Joanne had 8 cups of soup. I had ten. What a great supper ! And a very effective fund raiser. Attendance was 125 people at $2 each. Immediately after eating 8 and 10 cups of soup, we had a big bowl of ice cream at the regular Sunday evening ice cream social. We chatted with our table mates during the soup "cook-off", and with others afterwards, while eating ice cream, then socializing. It was a pleasant afternoon and evening. It's always interesting to socialize in an Escapees park. While we were standing looking at a large wall map, planning our route north back to Canada, we were joined by a couple from upstate New York, just south of Ottawa. They are 85 years old, and have been RV travelling for about 35 years. They can't quite remember how old they were when they started, but it was somewhere around our age. They don't travel as much as they used to, they claim. But I still find it amazing that an 85 year old couple are making the trek down from upstate New York to the Gulf Coast in southern Alabama, and back, in a big motorhome, on a yearly basis. And they still sometimes drive out to California to see one of their children.

We returned to the trailer, took care of the animals, then watched TV for a couple of hours. I did today's accounting, and journal entry.

DSK

March 4, 2006

March 4, 2006

RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama

YEAR 2 DAY 260

 

Today was another beautiful "June 18" day. Sunny and warm ... again !

This morning I worked on a bunch of minor maintenance and "home improvement" projects. I trimmed my beard. I got online using Wi-Fi. I realized that it's no more expensive to buy Wi-Fi here than it is to use the data port on the pay phone, and AOL's 10 cents a minute 1-800 access number. AOL has no local free access number. I sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog.

We had lunch. We took Bo for an obedience training session. It's the first time in awhile that Joanne has joined me on a training session. Bo has not been performing particularly well lately. Today, he responded somewhat poorly to my commands, and he acted as if he was deaf to Joanne's commands. Uh-oh. Bo has forgotten his status in our family's social hierarchy. Bo ... you are not top dog. You're not even mid-level dog. You're bottom of the heap. I walked away and left Bo with Joanne, to continue training without me. I read for awhile. I did my monthly test of the smoke alarm in the trailer. I went to social hour. Joanne didn't want to go. She was doing some housecleaning.

Strange social hour. Four people. Me, a "transient" / traveller from Detroit, and 2 park residents. I thought the poor attendance at the pot luck dinner on Thursday night was odd. Four people at a social hour was bizarre. There must be something going on behind the scenes here that travellers passing through, like us and the man from Detroit, can't be aware of. I chatted with the other 3 people for awhile, then the man from Detroit and I chatted while we walked back to our rigs. He and I were having an interesting conversation, and ended up walking around the park, with Bo, chatting for a couple of hours.

At dusk, when I went back inside the trailer, and saw Joanne preparing supper, I remembered that I was supposed to barbecue tonight. We had purchased some Cajun seasoned chicken the other day, and I was supposed to barbecue it tonight. Uh-oh ... I forgot. Sorry.

We had supper, then watched some TV while I did today's accounting and worked on today's journal entry.

DSK

Special entry

Special blog entry

"Lâche pas la patate"

 

I have been asked to explain my favourite new French / Cajun phrase ; lâche pas la patate ( losh paw la puttat ) / don't give up / hang in there.

I'm not exactly sure of all the little details. It's something like this ;

It's Mardi Gras time. Winter is almost over. Food supplies are running low. The less affluent, rural Acadians ... les Cadiens ... Cajuns go on a Mardi Gras Courir ( Run ). The coureurs ( runners ) "run" / ride on horseback from house to house, farm to farm, begging for the fixings for a communal gumbo dinner to be prepared the evening of Mardi Gras. They are all wearing costumes, hiding their identity, because they are embarrassed to be having to beg for food, except for the caped but unmasked leader, Le Capitaine. He approaches each house, and after determining that les coureurs are welcome, he waves his white flag, and les coureurs "run" / ride up. If the neighbour is a bit more affluent, he will toss a chicken out into the yard, and all the young, male coureurs will chase and catch the chicken. Catching a chicken on a Mardi Gras Courir is a right of passage from boyhood to manhood for Cajuns. If the neighbour is less affluent, like les coureurs, which is likely, because these were poor neighbourhoods, he might just give the coureurs a sweet potato, grown locally. The young coureurs would feel discouraged. The old wise men knew that eventually, they would be given a chicken, as well as all the other fixings for gumbo. Rice, maybe beans, maybe crawfish or shrimp, certainly some pork. The young, discouraged coureurs would be inclined to throw away the sweet potato in disgust. The wiser, old men knew that they should not give up. Stick with it / keep at it, and eventually they would have all the fixings for a fine gumbo.

Lâche pas la patate ! Don't let go of the potato !

DSK

March 3, 2006

March 3, 2006

RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama

YEAR 2 DAY 259

 

Today was another beautiful "June 18" day. Sunny and warm !

I spent part of the morning attempting to repair the exterior door latch. I have been working on getting it adjusted for a few days now. Nothing I did seemed to make it latch properly. Today I disassembled and removed the latch components from the door and frame, and ascertained that the door frame itself looked slightly bent. Interstate 10 has been a very bumpy, rough road, and I think the bouncing on a rough road at high speed, and resultant twisting and flexing of the trailer, bent the metal door frame just slightly enough to cause a problem with the door latch. I took a large hammer, and chisel, and did some "persuading" to the metal door frame, in an attempt to straighten it. I was successful. After reassembly and reinstallation, the door latch works great ... finally. I drove Joanne to the laundry room, and I went to the adjacent phone room to make some phone calls. I had a calling card that I wanted to use up, so I was going to use the pay phone to make a bunch of calls to Ottawa to set up medical appointments for the beginning of May. My first phone call was to my gastroenterologist at the Civic Hospital in Ottawa, for a colonoscopy. As a result of colitis, I should have a colonoscopy every 2 years. I left a message on Dr. Champion's answering machine. My next call was to our family physician, to set up appointments for general physicals, prescription renewals, etc. As I was dialling Dr. Trepanier's number, my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Champion's office calling back, just a minute or two after I called them.

I was stunned. Dr. Champion's receptionist / nurse / assistant / wicked witch of the west was exceptionally rude. I don't know why. She got up on the wrong side of the bed ? She just had a fight with her husband ? She just dealt with a difficult patient ? Her cat or father just died ? I don't really care ! I don't expect to have to tolerate that kind of attitude. If I had been less stunned by her attitude, and thinking faster, I would have told her to take her colonoscopy and shove it up her ass. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

Dr. Trepanier's office was closed. I'll have to phone back Monday. I managed to make an appointment for a mammogram for Joanne at Orleans Imaging. I wonder if they bill O.H.I.P at half price for women whohave had mastectomies ? HA HA HA < SNORT SNORT > ! I failed to make an appointment for Joanne with her gynaecologist. He has joined a new medical clinic, and they refuse to make an appointment without a referral from the family physician. They don't care that Joanne has been his patient for 18 years. They don't care that I was calling from Mobile, Alabama. They don't care that we will only be in Ottawa for 1 week this spring. So ... of 4 appointments needed, I managed to make one. Shouldn't be that difficult, should it ? ! ?

I got online, sent and retrieved e-mail, and updated my blog. I’m very glad to hear that Bruce in Thunder Bay is home after 40 days in the hospital. Get well soon, Bruce. I used a dial up connection, plugging into a data port in the side of the pay phone. I have tried to use those pay phone data ports in the past, and have never succeeded. Today I did it successfully, although I didn’t really like either the process, or the cost. Joanne wasn’t finished with laundry, so I returned to the trailer for awhile. I did some work on the computer, then took Bo for a short “drivey” over to the clubhouse to pick up Joanne and the laundry. She still wasn’t quite finished, so I did an obedience session with Bo. Once again, he didn’t quite perform up to his abilities / my expectations. I wonder why ? There’s “redneck” in the air here ?

Back at the trailer, we had lunch, then did some Florida planning. There are 2 Escapee parks in Florida we want to visit, we want to visit our WorkCamper friend Julie at her Florida State Park workcamping job, we have to pick up mail at General Delivery in Wauchula, and our friends from Kingston, Ontario may fly down to Tampa to visit us for a weekend of lying on the sand at St. Pete’s Beach. I fell asleep and napped. Then I did some computer clean up, scanning for viruses, scanning for spyware, defragmenting, that sort of stuff. I did today’s accounting. I started working on today’s blog. I reviewed and responded to today’s incoming e-mails. I downloaded and processed some photos I took of Hurricane Katrina's impact on Biloxi, Mississippi.

We left for the nearby town of Foley, to have supper at Lambert's ( Home Of The Throwed Roll ) and to shop at Wal-Mart. As we drove into Foley, we stopped at Walgreen's, to buy some of the advertised specials we saw in their flyer, mostly chocolate bars on sale. We went to Lambert's, a restaurant we ate at 15 months ago. The soft drinks are served in huge mugs that hold about 2 liters. The meals are very large portions of southern home style cooking. Serving personnel walk around with large pots, offering deep fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black eyed peas, pasta & tomatoes, sorghum molasses for your rolls, etc.. Every few minutes, a young man comes out of the kitchen with a tray of fresh from the oven, large dinner rolls. He walks around the restaurant, announcing the fresh rolls, and throwing a hot roll to anyone who wants one. For the young, male patrons, he throws rolls from 20 to 30 feet away. For Joanne, he tossed it gently into the air about 6 inches from her outstretched hand. She missed it and it fell on her lap. HA HA HA ! No wonder I caught more Mardi Gras beads than her. From Lambert's we went to Wal-Mart. It's hard to shop for groceries when feeling stuffed from over eating.

DSK

March 2, 2006

March 2, 2006

Mississippi / Alabama border to RainBOw Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama

YEAR 2 DAY 258

 

Sweet Home, Alabama ... from Bo's perspective. This is where we adopted Bo 15 months ago.

Today was sunny and very warm. Today's high of 81 degrees was a record high for this date.

This morning we left the Tourist Information Centre at the Mississippi / Alabama border and headed east on Interstate 10 for Mobile, Alabama. We passed through Mobile, and crossed over Mobile Bay. We turned south on Hwy. 59, heading towards the Gulf Of Mexico at Gulf Shores. At Summerdale we turned west on Hwy. 28 for a few miles to Rainbow Plantation SKP Park. We registered, got set up in our site, then set up Teddy's tent for him. He has been wanting to be outside lately, and today's weather was superb, so Teddy got to spend the afternoon outdoors in his tent.

I took Bo for an obedience training session. He didn't do as well today as he has been lately. No, Bo, you can't revert back to being a totally unruly little redneck dog just because you're back home here in Alabama. We had lunch. I took a long nap. I've been suffering from a cold the last few days, and have been very active with Mardi Gras activities, and a long, hard day of driving yesterday. I deserved a long nap. While I napped, Joanne prepared a contribution to tonight's pot luck dinner here at Rainbow Plantation. When I woke, I did a backup of all computer files to CD. I reviewed and responded to e-mails I retrieved yesterday morning before we left Lafayette, Louisiana. I printed the investment data updates I retrieved yesterday morning.

We went to the pot luck dinner, and were very surprised to find it very poorly attended, perhaps a dozen couples. We've attended a lot of pot luck dinners at a lot of RV parks and rallies, and they are always very well attended. Usually close to 100% of a park's resident's and visitors attend these sorts of social activities. I wonder why this park had such poor attendance ? During and after dinner we chatted with a couple from Delaware who were in Lafayette at the same time as us, celebrating Mardi Gras. They were even staying at the same campground as us. We also chatted with a couple from Minnesota who have visited Canada a number of times, from coast to coast. We chatted with the park manager, to remind her about our adoption of Bo here about 15 months ago. She said they had 3 strays in the park around that time, shortly after Hurricane Ivan, and shortly after there was a break in and release of animals at the local animal shelter. Two of the three strays were adopted by Canadians. The other stray dog that is now a "Canadian" was named Bama. Cute ! RainBOw Plantation in Summerdale, AlaBAMA .

When we returned to the trailer, we watched Survivor. I worked on today's journal entry. I spent the rest of the evening working on updating my investment files, while we watched TV.

DSK

March 1, 2006

March 1, 2006

Lafayette, Louisiana to Mississippi / Alabama border

YEAR 2 DAY 257

 

Today was sunny and warm.

First thing this morning I got online with Wi-Fi and retrieved updated investment data, so that I can update my investment files with month end data. I tried to fix a minor maintenance problem with the exterior door latch, but I needed some hardware. We prepared for departure, hitched up, and left Maxie's Campground. As we drove through Lafayette, we stopped at a large grocery store. I dropped Joanne off to do the grocery shopping, and I drove across the highway to Home Depot. I bought the hardware I needed, and fixed the door latch. I drove back across the highway to the grocery store, refilled 4 water jugs, then joined Joanne inside the store as she finished the grocery shopping. She bought another Mardi Gras King Cake, our third. Hey ... ya gotta make hay while the sun shines !

We departed Lafayette heading east on interstate 10. At Baton Rouge, we crossed the Mississippi River. We stopped at Love's to fill up with diesel. We had lunch in their parking lot, then continued east on I-10. On the east side of Baton Rouge, the road split into I-10 going through New Orleans, and I-12 going around New Orleans. We took I-12, thinking it would be a good idea to bypass "The Big Easy". The damage from Hurricane Katrina was evident as soon as we were east of Baton Rouge. Lots of broken and uprooted trees. We drove around the north side of New Orleans, and rejoined I-10 heading east.

We crossed into Mississippi. When we got to Hwy. 49 heading south to the Gulf Coast at Gulfport, we filled up with diesel ( again ) at Flying J, then decided to head south to the coast and see what the Hurricane Katrina damage looked like right at the shore. At the coast line, we turned east on Hwy. 90 which follows the Gulf Coast shoreline. Hwy. 90 has just recently reopened from Gulfport to Biloxi, a distance of about 25 miles. At Biloxi it remains closed to the east.

OMIGOD ! ! ! We had seen what damage Hurricane Ivan had done to Gulf Shores, Alabama when we there 15 months ago, about 2 months after the hurricane. But it did not prepare us for the awesome destruction and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and we saw the area today after 5 months of clean up and reconstruction. Everything was flattened and reduced to piles of rubble and debris. Brick buildings destroyed. Huge metal pylon signs bent over 90 degrees and flattened to the ground. Piles of concrete with girders sticking up out of them, where shopping malls used to stand. Even seeing it with my own eyes, it was difficult to comprehend that wind and water could cause that much destruction. FEMA trailers everywhere, providing temporary housing. Villages of trailers housing construction workers around the large hotels and casinos. The large hotels and casinos are being rebuilt first. Private housing, and smaller commercial buildings will have to wait. I guess big money talks. And maybe the tourism industry needs to get back on its feet to provide employment before everything else can get rebuilt.

At Biloxi we turned north to get back to I-10. At I-10 we continued east. We pulled into the town of Gautier, to find the campground we had selected in our Passport America directory. Because we had taken a Hurricane Katrina sightseeing detour, it was dark by the time we got to Gautier. It was a bit difficult to find the RV park. When we finally did find it, the office was closed, and we couldn't find any empty sites. The place was filled with FEMA trailers. We had been warned that it might be difficult to find overnight camping along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans, Louisiana, through Mississippi to Mobile, Alabama, because all the RV parks are filled with FEMA trailers providing temporary housing. We drove to the next rest area on I-10, only to find it posted as "no overnight parking". We usually don't find that posted in rest areas, and when it is posted, it's not enforced, but Joanne wanted to keep going. We continued driving until we reached the Mississippi / Alabama border. We stopped for the night at the Tourist Information Centre.

Sharon had called just as we were in Gautier, lost in the dark, and looking for the RV park. While Joanne prepared supper, I returned the phone call to Sharon, and sorted out some mail forwarding issues. We had a late supper. Joanne started reading the book I'm in the middle of reading ( I hate when she does that ) while I did today's accounting and journal entry.

DSK