Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.
Made Christmas green breakfast smoothies, cheese omelets and sausage and leftover biscuits from last night's get together. Jim went outside and started working on replacing the seal for the second time on the slide. I started cooking for our Christmas dinner. I made a cornbread casserole, cornbread stuffing, orange creamsicle cake, and cranberry sauce. Then we went for a bike ride. Came back got everything heated up and went to our dinner, it was very nice here's a few pictures.

Everyone had their table set  so nice. The park provided turkey and ham and then each table had like a mini potluck for each one so everybody can start eating at once, it was a very different and nice way to do it. Each table had pre-planned their menu we got here so late we sat at the staff table. We had two sweet potato dishes four corn custard dishes my stuffing and macaroni and cheese, two green beans casseroles with bacon, roasted potatoes, and a lot of desserts. We talked to a lot of nice people. When we got home put some stuff away and we went for a walk for about an hour. Came back and Jim started putting some stuff away, we're going to leave a day early to try to drive at least one day out of the rain.

Biloxi Mississippi day trip

Woke up, got out of bed, ran a comb across my head. I was up before Jim, woohoo. Made sausage and eggs and coffee, I did it all. A lot of decisions to make, deciding what to do, what to do. Decided to do a day trip to Gulfport / Biloxi Mississippi where our oldest son Thomas went to tech school with the Air Force  probably over 10 years ago.

Jim never got to see it but we brought him home with my parents in there fifth wheel when he was finished. We drove all along the Gulf Coast, pulled over I ate a salad I packed with chicken.

Jim was figuring out where to go next. We found the Base he was on first, we couldn't drive on it. We found a Burger King for Jim to grab a quick Burger. On our way driving back I found fresh shrimp off the boat, it was $4 a pound, we bought 5lb.

Stopped at Walmart yet again Jim bought three cases of beer for The escapees Bash coming up. Topped off the fuel tank with diesel that was 2.53 a gallon and they also had Pepsi for 99 cents. Then we stopped and picked up oranges that were sold along the road that our neighbor here told us about a big bag for $7. We came home had a lot of stuff to put away. When I started cooking shrimp I dumped a whole bunch of Old Bay on it with two cans of beer.

We ate some, froze some and Jim cleaned a couple big handfuls to make with a pasta and a light parmesan cream sauce in the next day or two. Then we got ready for our Christmas Eve party. I made Red Lobster biscuits mini size to Take Along. Finished wrapping my gift we went up to the party they sang a couple songs, they do a gift exchange. Everyone that had a gift we sat in a circle and a funny lady read this poem and every time she said left or right in it you passed your gift around.

At the end of the poem The Gift you had is the one you took it was fun Jim watched and laughed. Then we had our finger food, was really good we came back put the heat on watch a little TV I'm trying to clean up the mess in here, Call it a night.

Working on our home

Jim was awake before me, he made coffee, I was up shortly after that, I made us a smoothie.  He went outside to start working. So I made myself some eggs and sausage and went out to help. Not that I do that much. Jim changed out all the old screws to stainless steel screws in the underbelly and taped over them. And change the license plate light that was out. I told him to sit down and take a break for a minute and I made him his sausage and egg's for breakfast. Then he put on shorts so we can wash the camper. Today's high 72 degrees. I washed the side of the truck that was closest to the hose. After we were done washing the camper and truck, I pulled some premade food out of the freezer and a steak for Jim. I had salad and some pre grilled chicken he made his steak. While he was putting all the hoses away we also got an anal rod from Camping World and he change that too. Should have changed it a year ago it was as thin as a pencil. Then we got ready and went for a bike ride around the campground. Some people were sitting by the road and said where's your Christmas decorations. We were a little confused. We got back to the camper, in about a half an hour later there was a Christmas parade that went by with a really cool old car and decorated golf carts here's a few of the pictures.

I was decorating our little tree too and sitting right by it when they went past. We both took a shower I threw a load of towels in the washer. For dinner I made yellow rice and mixed vegetables in the instant pot, pot in pot if you're wondering, and we had pre grilled chicken with that. Jim was working on the blog putting pictures on, it was about quarter after 6, Then we went down to the ice cream not so social. It was supposed to start at 6 but the blog delayed us so we got there at 6:15 and no one pays us any attention, and finally somebody said something to us and they got us ice cream and cake but first they told us if you're not early you're considered late for activities there, alrighty then, lesson learned. Which truly it is Jim philosophy too,  he's always early . We had a nice walk back to the camper look to the Stars, watch a little TV and called it a night.

Gulf Shores Alabama

Woke up today and made blueberry paleo pancakes for us. I washed two loads of laundry and Jim went outside and grilled chicken. I ate some grilled chicken for lunch and I made Jim a sandwich and he grilled it outside. it was leftover chicken fingers from Ruby Tuesday's that I didn't let him eat because I wanted him to have a sandwich with it later. it was the chicken fingers provolone cheese barbecue sauce a piece of uncured bacon and grilled outside. Then we got ready and left for our next adventure. We went to the Gulf Shores, nice drive a lot to look at. We walked on the beach, quite a lot of people out.

Was a little Breezy but pretty warm. We went for a long walk, the sand was very firm and easy to walk on. When we left we did our shopping on the way back. Found Publix, it was the first  stop there we   mainly bought food that I want to make  for three different parties we're going to here.

 We stopped at Walmart for some food and beer. We stopped at Camping World for anode Rod and a light around the license plate that was out. Lowe's we needed a smoker cover, stainless steel screws for the panels that were falling down, and some black duct tape. We got back just as it was dark, beautiful sunset. I heated up the last of the turkey lasagna made some green beans and a salad. And Jim watched the hockey game.

Sweet Home Alabama

Today we're heading towards our Sweet Home Alabama and escapees Park for a week, unless we decide to move closer to New Orleans area. Jim woke up around 3:30, the motorhome that came in after us was gone. He looked to see how much power the inverter still had, he acted like he wanted to stay up, and I said NO go To Hell  back to bed. As usual he listen to me and was very glad 3 hours later when we woke up again. By then power was very low but not totally shut off. Fridge temperature was up a little but still on.  He fired up the generator charged it up it only took about an hour. Jim made the coffee  and I made him some eggs. He unhooked the fifth wheel and went and got diesel right next door because it was so cheap at 262 a gallon. Then he came back hooked back up and we took off. We stopped at our first rest area, we always walk around check everything out. Jim said we have a problem. Something  I do not want to hear. The access panel for two of the holding tanks had dropped down and insulation was hanging out. So we had to dig out some screws and his DeWalt and get to work again. Luckily it was an easy fix but it was freezing cold out. We went in the bathroom grab lunch and back on the road. Traffic was pretty light and we realized we hadn't done the blog from yesterday. So we did it on my phone going down the road. Which is really nice made the time go fast. We arrived here at our first Rainbow Escapees Park around 2.  We got set up, and realized on the other side the access panel fell down and he had to fix that too. Jim played with the satellite for a while, but he finally got it.

We went and signed up for all the Christmas activities coming up. Christmas Eve bring a finger food and a gift, Christmas Day they're doing potluck tables so each table does their own thing, the club provides the main entree turkey or ham. And the day after Christmas they're doing a dessert or side dish. Just Like Home 3 days of eating. For dinner I heat  up a premade instant pot turkey lasagna I had Frozen.  For an appetizer we ate the rest of the fish and shrimp we had at Ruby Tuesday's. They actually made me a second one and I took it home because I said I didn't want parmesan cream sauce and they gave it to me anyway. We watch some TV and Jim went to bed first I went later. We decided to stay here for six days, through Christmas and get some more things done.

Rainy travel day

Rainy travel day, heavy at times. We left the Nashville KOA North headed towards Alabama. Traffic was heavy Nashville area and Birmingham, which we expected the rest of the driving wasn't bad.
We arrived at Walmart in Alabaster. We parked went inside to ask permission, they said no problem,  just park in the back. Walked around couldn't think of anything we needed so we went back out.
Jim leveled the fifth wheel as best he could while still staying hooked up. Then we tried to start the generator, which is in the bed of the truck. Our surge protector said faulty ground. Ok, now WHAT. By now we were starving  and there was a Ruby Tuesday's right next door ,  so we decided to go eat  and think about the situation .  He had a drink or two  wonderful meal  more money than we wanted to spend for our free site . So we made a second trip back into Walmart for some electrical supplies he said he needed. Came back out he worked some magic, went back into Walmart a third   time's a charm as they say he's amazing. And he fired it up again, Eureka it works. So we felt it was safe then to put our two slides out on the back side. I really wanted to cook something of course Too Late by then we had already eaten. Had the TV on tried to catch some weather. Talked to Tony and Sue charged everything back up, Jim went out and shut the generator down , went to bed around 10. Their time our time don't ask me which one.

Trolley Tour of Nashville

We woke up excited about our adventure for the day. I made us bacon egg and cheese sandwiches, we had our coffee and got ready for our adventure. Jim called for an Uber so we would be able to, as they say bar hop and he'd be happy. Our very first Uber ride arrived around 10:30. Takes about a good 20 minutes to get there he dropped us off.

We bought tickets for the trolley ride tour. The whole round trip ride has 15 stops, we rode a good half-hour and our first place we got off was Marathon Motor Works. They have a marathon car that was built before Ford there's eight left and there was four of them there, Ford Company put them out of business, here's some pictures.

A lot of cool gift shop areas it was a Hair Salon Spa in there all kinds of old tools, Jim love looking at, the machinery.

Jim also did a whiskey tasting there five different types of whiskey. Then we got back on the trolley and rode some more. We got off near the end and then went to eat lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. There were two guitar players in there, that is what brought us in, they were so good. The food wasn't bad either kind of pricey.

Then we did our bar hopping, I think Kid Rock's Bar  was the first one we went into and that place was hopping .

We went to the WildHorse, they taught a line dance there so we got to line dance a little,

there was another bar where a guy was playing Garth songs, called Big Shotz.

Then we went back to Kid Rock's Bar, different group was playing but it was really good.

Every place we went to the music was just incredible. By this time it was well after Dark,

we are die hard Survivor fans I realized it would be on in about an hour. So Jim called Uber, and it's amazing how fast somebody is there, they picked us up and we got home right before 8 I took a quick shower and a snack, Jim packed up some stuff outside because  we leave tomorrow and we watch Survivor and worked on the blog. Which ended one fabulous day in Nashville Tennessee.