Leaving Alabama Heading to Kentucky

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Well it's time to leave Gunter Hill COE just west of Montgomery, Alabama.  We have an appointment to have the 5th wheel black water valve fixed at 9:00 am in Millbrook, Alabama.  This means we had to pull out of the campground by 8:00 am and drive the 45 minutes north to Clark's RV.

We had everything packed up the night before which made the early departure a little easier.  But, my biggest concern was getting Kitty up in time to avoid closing the bedroom slide with her still in bed!  There's no way out of the bedroom if you are in there when the slide is in; and, I could be several miles down the road before I realized she wasn't following me!  Then what would I do?  Thank goodness she was up early and we pulled out on schedule. Whew!

We arrived at Clark's RV and they understood we had reservations in Decatur, Alabama, nearly 200 miles away.  So, they got right to work on the RV.  The guy working on our RV wasn't too happy.  The first words out of his mouth were "it would have to be the BLACK WATER VALVE!  My reply was, "everyone should start their day working on the BLACK WATER VALVE.  It makes the rest of the day seem fantastic!"

In order to get to the valve, the mid section of the underpinning has to be dropped down. Once he could see the valve operate , it appeared to be a problem with the cable that opens and closes the valve, not the valve itself.  Naturally, they did not have a cable long enough to replace the one on the 5th wheel.  So, he just lubricated it and it worked fine.  But, just to be sure we don't have any more black water leaking out, I had them install another slide valve directly behind the removable sewer cap. If there was any leakage, this valve would hold it back until I could get the sewer hose connected.  Problem solved and we were on our way before noon.

We made reservations at Mallard Point Campground in Decatur, Alabama.  We drove about 30 miles and stopped at a rest area on Interstate 65 for lunch.  Had I trapped Kitty in the bedroom by moving the slide in, she wouldn't have been able to pack the lunch and I would have most certainly had to let her out for that!  Ha!

The rain started less than an hour after we were back on the road from our lunch break.  It rained quite hard at times and we had no idea what problems that was going to cause us later.

We arrived at Point Mallard Campground around 4:00 pm.  When I checked in, I asked the clerk to be sure the site was big enough for our fifth wheel.  "Oh, yes sir. No problem."  The camp ground was nearly full with very few sites left.  Most sites were very close together and not very long.  They had recently installed sewers in our section, and the ground was still torn up and mud was everywhere from all the rain.

Our site had new gravel on it, but it had not been packed down nor leveled.  When we back into the site, the trailer wheels became marred in mud and sand.  I got out of the truck to check things out and waded in water and mud.  I had shorts and sandals on and the temperature had dropped into the low 50's and was continuing to drop as the front was coming through this area.

It was difficult getting into the site with a pile of sand in the way.  Why did they put that there?  What were they thinking? We finally managed to get into the site leaving deep ruts in the soggy gravel.  Thank goodness I have a big dually with enough power to navigate the muck.  The 5th wheel wasn't level; but, at this point, we didn't care.  I continued to wade in slop and mud and sand to get the utilities hooked up. We could not lower the rear stabilizers because there was a ditch full of water underneath the jacks.  Had they made the site two feet longer, it would have been long enough for our 5th wheel.  It makes me think the people in the campground office have no idea about the site length.

We unhooked the truck and went into town to fuel up for tomorrows drive to Kentucky.  We stopped at a Papa John's and got a pizza and some wings and went back to the 5th wheel for supper.


Thursday, April 25, 2013

We gladly left Point Mallard at 9:00 am heading north on I-65 all the way to Nashville, Tn.  Then west on I-24, and North on the Pennyrile Parkway to Madisonville, Kentucky.  We are staying in Elk Creek Mobile Home Park.  They have several empty sites and rent them out to RV'rs.  Kobie and Jerraca met us here and helped get us set up.

Here's a couple of shots of our site.

Our reason for being here is to visit with friends and family the next few weeks. But, we plan to see some sites also.  We'll keep you posted. 

Great Time at Gunter Hill Campground

Friday, April 12, 2013

Today we talked to the camp host at Gunter Hill Campground about moving to a different site.  This campground has a new section with paved streets, concrete RV pads, and full hook ups.  There aren't as many trees in this section, so you don't have those little wormy things falling all over the camper and vehicles.  This is a very nice and new section of the campground.  The good news is we were able to move to site #68 for the remained of our stay here.  While it is not a water front site, we are quite pleased with this site and quickly moved our fifth wheel and were set up in plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the day.

Here's our new site at Gunter Hill Campground.

While sitting outside enjoying the fresh air from the woods and nearby Lake, we noticed a woman walking two dogs.  Kallie became quite excited as one of the dogs was a beautiful white standard poodle.  We immediately struck up a conversation about our dogs and found her to be a single full time RV'r traveling with her two dogs, Willie and Cisco.

Later, Saturday morning, we joined Robbin and the three of us walked Willie, Cisco, and Kallie around the park.  Sorry, but we neglected to get a shot of Cisco.

Here's a shot of Kitty with Willie and Kallie

Kallie said that Willie is quite a hunk!  He actually makes her look petite!

  We enjoyed meeting Robin and her dogs and look forward to seeing her again somewhere on the trail!


Monday, April 15, 2013
It rained all day Sunday.  Just as I was about to finish the ark, the rain stopped!  How's that for timing?  Since it rained all day Sunday, we didn't venture outside until later in the afternoon after it had quit raining.  One good thing about all the rain is we now have a water front site! Ha!

There is still a lot of water standing around here today, but it is turning out to be a very nice day.  We took a stroll around the campground and took this shot from an overlook deck.

This is Catoma Creek on Woodruff Lake.  The Lake cover 20 square miles and provides great fishing, boating, and flood control in Alabama.

We had to replenish some supplies, so we ran into Prattville to stock up.  You'll never guess where Kitty wanted to eat!  Hey, how did you know it was the Cracker Barrel?

That's all for today.  We look forward to more fun in the Alabama sun tomorrow.

Gunter Hill Campground West of Montgomery, Alabama

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

We pulled out of our site in Panama City Beach, Florida, dumped our tanks, and headed toward Montgomery, Alabama.  Our route would take us more than two hundred miles on all two lane highways, except for a two mile stretch on Interstate 65 just south of Montgomery, Alabama. It's nice seeing the back country, it's Spring here, and the roads were in good shape.  But, after a few hours, we began to wonder if Alabama had any four lane roads!

Gunter Hill is another COE campground located about 8 miles west of Montgomery on Woodruff Lake. This lake was made by the COE and covers 20 square miles. We had reserved site #99 for the next two weeks.  This site had water and electric hook ups, but no sewer. However, it was right on Lake Woodruff and this section of the campground is heavily covered in trees. An awning is not necessary here, which is fine because a tree was in the way and we couldn't get the awning out anyway.

This is a view of the Lake from our site.

 This is the view looking out of our rear window. Several fishing  boats stopped and fished at this very spot. One boat was here the second morning and one of the guys in the boat took out a gun and shot at    something on the shore just below our camper.  We assumed it was a snake.  But, that incident didn't give us a warm and fuzzy feeling either.

The weather forecast was calling for sever thunderstorms with possible wind sheer.  Our weather radio was on the blink, so we ran into Prattville (just north of Montgomery) to find a new one.  Prattville is loaded with all kinds of stores that had Kitty's head spinning as we drove down the main drag to the Bass Pro Shop.

We found the radio we wanted and began to check out of the store.  The clerk told us that the schools were getting out early due to the severe weather forecasted for the afternoon and evening.  She also said this area is not in tornado alley, but has a lot of tornadoes.  This was our second non-warm and fuzzy feeling today and it's only mid morning!

We grab our stuff and headed to the grocery store to pick up a few vital vittles, and beat feet back to camp before the storm hit.  The sky was getting darker and we managed to get the new weather radio set up and waited to see what would happen next.  Within minutes, the radio set out its shrill warning of the impending thunderstorm and rain began falling.  The rain got heavier and the sky grew darker.  Rain was pelting our roof so hard we couldn't hear ourselves think.  Then, the weather radio let out another shrill warning for tornadoes in our area!

The rain continued for several hours alternating between heavy and light.  Fortunately, we did not experience any high winds or tornadoes. But, we began thinking that a site with all these trees may not be such a good idea.  Also, we could not see any of the other campers in this area and that made Kitty feel very uneasy.  We decided to see if we could find a better site in the morning.  Hopefully, we find something here we like.

Panama City Beach, Florida

Saturday, April 6, 2013 Through April 9th

We departed Thousand Palms RV Resort mid morning and set our course to St Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida.  There are two different routes that we considered to get there.  One route would be to take I-75 north to I-10, then head south on US-231 into Panama City.  The other route would have us take I-75 only a few miles, then head north west on various state routes and US highways.  When pulling our 5th wheel, we usually choose Interstates. But, we decided to take the more scenic back road route this time.  It was actually fewer miles and a little shorter time even though we would be going through several small towns and two lane roads most of the way.  But, it provided a beautiful view of several horse farms and rolling hills with painted fences and fancy barns.  We were only on I-75 a few miles, but it was like a moving parking lot with all the snow birds heading north.

We took our time and stopped to eat our lunch that Kitty always packs when we travel several hours.  We also crossed back into the central time zone giving us an extra hour to reach the park before they close the gate. As we entered the park, the sign at the entrance said "Sorry Campground is Full!"  Normally, we don't make reservations. But we did this time, thankfully.  However, we could only find one four night slot, so we booked it last week.

We checked in and headed site #58. I could see its location on the campground map, but I had to get out of the truck and walk around for 10 minutes looking for site #58.  This is a really small site and poorly marked and I walked by it twice before figuring out it was our site.  Yikes!  We're going to put a 38 foot fifth wheel in there?!!

In addition to being smaller than the website indicated, the street is narrow and one way offering very little wiggle room.  There's a big tree leaning over the road at our site just waiting to take our roof off.  The best way to avoid this tree would be to come in from the other direction.  But, since the street is one way the wrong way, and the campground was buzzing with trucks and RVs continually passing by to their sites, this was not a good option.

After studying the situation, we developed a plan on how we would back the 5th wheel into the site. Now the fun begins!  We had to jockey back and forth a couple of times, to everyone's amazement, including mine, we were in the site.  My truck was blocking the road so we needed to unhook as fast as possible since we were preventing several vehicles from getting to their sites.  We leveled the camper, got the jacks down, and put the wheel chocks in place.  All we had to do now was unhook and pull the truck off the road.  No!  That would be too easy!  When I pulled the hitch handle to release the camper, the handle came off in my hand!  I couldn't release the camper from the truck and the line of campers was getting longer by the second.  I hopped in the truck bed and replaced the pin that holds the handle on the hitch.  A quick temporary fix, but it worked and we were able to unblock the traffic jam!  Some body fix me a stiff drink, PLEASE! Golly, this is fun stuff! Ha!

St Andrews State Park is located at the southern tip of Panama City Beach and has the beautiful gulf beaches on one side, and the Grand Lagoon on the other side. So, you have your choice of beaches. The campground is located right on the Grand Lagoon.  The Grand Lagoon is salt water and enters the Gulf around the southern end of the park. A water front site here would have to be reserved many months in advance.

Here we are relaxing after getting set up.

Here's another shot of our site taken from across the street.  Note that the nose of the 5th wheel is right on the edge of the street.  We had our finger crossed that no one would hit it! 

These next several pictures were taken on the Gulf side of the park.  As you can see, the beach was not crowded.

   

This guy is going to take advantage of a windy day and fly his kite.

He got it flying just before we left the beach.

These next shots were taken on the Grand Lagoon side of the Park.

We saw several deer in the park.  Here's one of them enjoying lunch.

Our four day stay here was nice.  The bathrooms were new and clean, and we enjoyed the view of the Grand Lagoon.  But, the beaches really made this place special.  The weather was mostly in the mid 70's although somewhat windy, and the beaches in the park were never crowded and always beautiful.

We had no problems pulling out of our site.  We dumped our tanks and continued our track heading north.  If we ever decide to come back to St Andrews State Park, we will make sure we get a larger site.

Lake Pansoffkee and Fort Island, Florida

April 2 through April 6, 2013

We left Ortona Lock and Dam (near La Belle, Fl.) around 10:00 am, heading west on SR80, then north on I75 to SR44 then west a few miles to Thousand Palms RV Resort.  This campground is near Lake Pansoffkee, Florida.  We arrived around four pm making three stops along the way.

Thousand Palms RV Resort has several park models that are owned by the resort, and are available for rent by the week or month.  But, the majority of the sites are for RV's.  There is a nice game room, heated pool, and very nice rest rooms.  However, the campgound needs a little sprucing up.  There was a guy doing some trimming around the campground the last day we were there.  So, hopefully, it looks better now.

After we had backed into the site, we realized we were rather close to the electical box.  So, we moved the slide out before we unhooked to be sure we would have room.  Yep, we had less than 1/2 inch to spare.  Just like I had planned! Right!

Here, all three of us are enjoying a beautiful spring day at our site in Thousand Palms RV Resort.

These guineas are the "watch dogs" of the campground! They will let you know if some one comes around.

 

We have a leaking black water valve again.  We are on our third valve, and we noticed it leaking when when we dumped our tanks at Ortona.  We were able to get a mobile RV repair service that could fit us into their schedule before we depart Thousand Palms.  The day they were scheduled to fix our leaking valve was raining on and off, most of the day, forcing the repair service to reschedule our appointment.

Since we only had one more day here and didn't want to spend the day waiting around for them to show up, we cancelled the service and decided to head out and see the sights. We headed west on SR 44 until it ends at the town of Crystal River, Florida, located on the Gulf of Mexico.  There is a park and beach area there called Fort Island.

We took this board walk to the beach.

We walked along the beach for a while.  It was nice to be on a beach that isn't packed with people.

From this pier, we could see several feet into the clear gulf water.  About 50 yards away, we could see a dolphin feeding.

It was rather windy, so we didn't stay too long on the beach.  As we headed back to town, we stopped and took this shot of Crystal River.

We headed back to Thousand Palms.  But, at the last minute, decided we would see what Lake Pansoffkee looks like.  It's a nice small lake full of fishing resorts.  We took this shot at one of the resorts.  I think Kallie likes this place!

Then we spotted this duck swimming around just a few feet from the dock.  When we got back home, we consulted our trusty bird book but could not find anything that resembled this duck with the strange head piece and coloring.

Whenever we can not identify a bird, we consult Bird Man Barry.  He identified this as a Muscovy Duck.  Thanks for the help, Bird Man.

That brings us to the end of our stay here.  Next, we head to St Andrews State Park in Panama City Beach, Florida, for some more fun in these beautiful Gulf coast beaches.  Stay tuned!