Leaving Sweet Home Alabama for M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

  Time to move on.  We pulled out of our site by 8:45, but had to stop at the dump station (since the CG had no sewer hook-ups) before we could actually hit the road.  We left at 9:20.  For some reason our GPS took us on a lot of rural roads on the way to I-65.  It was a little concerning, but turned out to be quite enjoyable.  There was no traffic and it was interesting to see how far and few the houses were.  Most of them were small and run down and then out of nowhere there would be a few lovely houses.  Surprisingly, we saw a lot of cattle with babies.  It seems like the wrong time of the year for that.  They were so cute running in toward the barn beside their mommies!  We were watching closely for deer, too, because one of the campers at Fort Rucker hit one on their way there and had a lot of front end damage.  I talked with Mom.  All is well at Masonic, but she did say that Dad is having some sharp pains around his stoma.  He might plan a trip to his urologist, Dr Rommel.  I also talked to Paul and Vicki, our friends from home who are now in Florida.  They arrived safe and sound in their new Tiffin motorhome.  We tried to stop twice, once at a Pilot and once at a Love's to potty and get lunch, but neither one of them had a place for a towing RV to park...they were all back-ins.  What a bummer!!  So we decided to just wait until we got to the CG.  Once we crossed the Mississippi line we realized that we have been in 8 states in the last 8 days.  WOW!  We pulled into the CG at 2:30.  We had leftovers for "lupper".  We have a nice, spacious pull thru on a slab, but no cable. 

Nice big cement slab and the notorious tall tree
I'll mention later.

 

One of those nasty fire ant hills just below our step
We used great caution!!

We do get Fox and NBC with the antenna, so we were able to watch both play-off games.  They were both very exciting.  We were rooting for both the Packers and the Steelers.  I worked on the blog during the 2nd half of the Steelers game and we went to bed right after the game.
   Woke up Monday morning to sunny skies and 70 degrees.  It was supposed to be near 80 today!  We decided it was time to do laundry.  John took it down and loaded the washers and took a stroll while I fixed breakfast.  I wouldn't normally tell you what I cooked, but I today I made soft boiled eggs on toast.  I haven't made them for quite a while and they really hit the spot.  I helped John fold the laundry and then we headed to Keesler AF Base.  When you get inside the gate there is an enormous golf course with a landing strip right in the middle.  And the really amazing thing is that there is a rubberized walking path (like the ones around a high school football field) around the entire thing.  It must be at least 5 miles long!

Time to add another state...Mississippi!!

It was so impressive to have such a long and nice
 walking path around the base!

  We went over to the Bay Breeze Golf Club thinking we might get lunch there, but it was closed due to Martin Luther King Day.

The view from inside the club looking out
over the driving range.

The view from Interesting note:  there has been quite a controversy going on here in Biloxi because back in the 80's this holiday's name was changed to "Great American Day" and it was never changed back.  All of a sudden people are up in arms against it.  And to make things worse and add more confusion, some of the town's around here call this day Robert E Lee Day instead of the other 2.  Go figure??  Then we spent about an hour at the BX where John bought his favorite new T-shirt.  It's periwinkle blue with an AF emblem on it.  I call him Mr. Perry Winkle when he has it on :)  I got some more clothing bargains for the grandboys.  AND a SIZE 14 pair of khaki jeans!!  I haven't worn that size for a very long time!!  Felt pretty good!!

I don't know if I've ever posted a picture
of one of the BX's we shop at on base.  Here it is!!

  Then we drove to an RV parts store because we needed a new shower head.  The shut off valve on the one we have stopped working.  Got it!  John was hungry for Chinese, so we headed to the Golden Dragon on a recommendation.  But when I checked on line reviews it said it was permanently closed.  We looked for another one, but ended up at Newk's...a rather unique buzzing place.  They had soups, salads, and sandwiches that you ordered at the counter.  They gave you a number to display on your table.  You get your own drink and there's a small bar where you can help yourself to pickles, croutons, parmesan cheese, bagged thin bread sticks, and some sort of pepper relish.  The food was very good and the atmosphere was fun.  The restaurant just happened to be in a large shopping mall, so John suggested I go shopping.  There was a Marshalls, Michaels, Ross, and Kirklands.  I reluctantly gave in to his wishes :)  And, of course, I found a few things.  John napped in the Jeep while I shopped.  We went back to Harvey, changed clothes and headed to one of the many casinos just a couple of miles from the CG.  We picked the Hard Rock Café Casino.  It was a good choice because we came home with $115 more than we took!  John, especially, had an amazing night.  We watched a little TV when we got back and then went to bed.
   Tuesday we woke to lots of heavy fog and a bit cooler temps.  John cooked a yummy breakfast.  We decided to drive out to the beach along the gulf and take pictures of some of the unique shops and restaurants.

We got a glimpse of these turtles on the way out of the CG.

 

Isn't this restaurant sign a hoot?!?

 

The fog was still heavy on the beach over the gulf!

 

I thought the Baja Beach restaurant was neat looking.

 

The mural on the back of this one was impressive!

 

This entrance to "Sharkheads" is really fun, but
the store was mostly a lot of touristy junk!

 

This was in the parking garage under the steps
leading up to Sharkheads.

 

There's Mr. Perry Winkle (John) in his favorite new T-shirt.

 

A huge scary looking shark inside the store.

  There are also some neat carvings in trees that have partially died.

Herons carved into the remains of this fallen tree.
There is a pelican carved into the one in the background.

There's a dolphin.

That's a real bird.  Just not sure what kind.
I think it's a heron.

The beach was pretty, but boring.  No shells,
sharks teeth or anything.  Just imagine!!

  Then we had a late lunch at Wentzel's Seafood which was recommended to us by the camper across from us.  We shared a shrimp Po Boy sandwich.  It was very good!  We stopped at a Goodwill store on the way back to look for shorts for me, but they didn't have any :(  When we got back to Harvey we sat outside and did some reading.  I talked to Arlena and all is well there.  She started on meds for morning sickness which are helping.  It got a little chilly when the sun started to go down, so we went inside and watched some TV.  Then I decided to take a shot at making some raisin puff cookies.  The microwave in Harvey becomes a convection oven when you bake and I don't have too much experience with that.  They turned out ok, but I do need to experiment more.  It was a challenge baking cookies in our rather small space!  And I didn't have any cooling racks so we took each baked batch out to the picnic table (it was a metal honeycomb material)to cool.  Our system worked great.  And no ants, raccoons or bears showed up!!  Mom called to let me know that Dad did go see Dr. Rommel but no conclusion was drawn as to what is wrong.  Mom would like Dad to go to the hospital so he could be examined more completely.  The doctor will see Dad in the morning  and make some determination as to what to do.  I called Bonnie to let her know what was going on.  John and I did some prep inside and out of Harvey for tomorrow's departure to Louisiana and then went to bed.