NOV 12 2018.  Lake Shelby

View from bike trail

bike trail 

Flowers everywhere

Board walk bike trails

#250 campsite

Tom and John starting a Leinies fire

Nov. 12 2018
Arrived at Gulf Shores State Park on the 31st of Oct. Site #250. Cost $766. for the month including the extra night. Expensive, but the bike trails in the park are so wonderful!! so far I have  biked approx. 135 miles in 10 days. Probably won't get out today as it is stormy/windy and predicted to be the same tomorrow. Todd and Beth and Laurie and John got here on the first so we have had many enjoyable moments and lots of laughs. We have found a few new places to go and have a beer. Month is almost half over already.

Dec. 3rd 2018
Wow, its been a while since I last posted but wi fi at Gulf shores was crappy at best. We reserved again for next yr., but changed spots to a place that hopefully will have better internet next yr. #12. Put down our $200 deposit. The weather was cool and rainy for most of the month with a few scattered nice days. We got to sit and walk on the beach twice and I rode my bike for a total of 300.5 miles in 28 days. 6 of those days I couldn't ride d/t rain and/or too cold. We had fun with todd, beth, laurie and john tho.

On nov 30th we left and headed to CW for our scheduled warranty repairs, so the faucet is now fixed along with a new front burner on stove and the trim on the ceiling trimmed and replaced. The front awning stopped working while at Gulf Shores and we had them check that out and of course the motor is shot and they didn't have another to fix it so they turned it in for a warranty fix and said that since it was turned in prior to warranty expiring that Keystone will pay for it no matter when it gets repaired. So Blake Crosby was a very helpful service person and seemed to take great care in doing things right. So off we go on Dec 1 to New Orleans and go to put out bedroom slide and it would not go out. Tom and Todd worked on it for quite a while and finally got it to go out but I question how long it will last. Seriously, how many more things will go wrong!!

Anyway we arrived at Ponchatrain Landing in New Orleans on Dec 1, site # 124. Cost $41 per night with PA. Nice enough place but seems to be in a icky neighborhood. The shuttle driver said it was actually a safer part of town due to the canals on both sides so that leaves less of an escape for thieves. We all went in to New Orleans yesterday and took a Mississippi river cruise and then toured the French Market and Bourbon street. It was a fun day. We may go back this afternoon for dinner and music. We leave tomorrow for Los Fresnos Tx. Seven hundred miles to go! Staying 4 months.

Our boat the Natchez. Original boat On the Mississippi

beth and I ready to board

New ORLEANS sky line

Dining room on the boat

Our last sunset at Gulf Shores

At the Gulf bar and grill. COLD/RAINY day!

Sunset at the Pink Pony

Beth, Laurie and I at FloroBama, bingo day

. True statement!

OCT 28th 2018

Opryland hotel. Nashville TN. Amazing place. Even a river running thru it!

Nashville Tn. Fun place. We got here last Tues. and will leave this tues. Broadway St. is so fun with bands and bars for blocks and every band is good! We are staying at Two Rivers campground off of hwy 155. site number 209. $350. for a wk. Nice place. So far we have gone to Broadway st a couple of times, toured the state capital, went to the Tennessee museum, toured opryland hotel and walked around the Grand ol Opry and the mall. Found a fun local bar that plays music all day just down the road from us called the Nashville Palace. Can even walk to it. Still have 1 more day here but haven't decided what to do yet. Had a decent trip down from Madison to here. Truck was shimmining a bit after we had the tires rotated in Menasha but it seemed to settle down after 400 miles.

Tennessee Museum. Very interesting

Tom and Brett mastering the Rocky Balboa steps by the state capitol on our way to the farmers market

view from the TN. STATE capitol

downtown Nashville on Broadway st

Fun fun band. spent 3 hrs listening to them at the Second Fiddle one afternoon

Two Rivers campground. #209

oct. 27th 2018

Now in Nashville! what fun!! Brad, Mallory, Brett and Breanna came for the weekend

Tennessee State capitol  senate room

Opryland Hotel lobby

Tennessee state capitol

Inside stairwell at the capitol

And we bought boots!

Oct 18th 2018!
 And we are off! First stop Kevins for a week and that week is almost over. We have enjoyed spending time with the girls and Kevin and Aprill too. :) Tomorrow we are off to Madison for the Badger game and it sounds like it will be a cold one! Great....: ( then off to Nashville for a week. Happy 10th birthday to Grandson Brett today. Those 10 yrs flew by!  A side note my old friend from grade school on, Diane Hickey Ewing died last week.. We had such fun together in our growing up years. She's had a tough life the last few years and we connected again with most of our core group last june and had such a great day. So glad we made that connection again. RIP Diane.

Oct. 8th 2018

 And just like that the summer season is over! Where did the time go? We have been busy cleaning up, packing up and getting in last visits with family and friends. We leave Friday the 12th for Kevins for a week and then onto Madison with Ed and Pat Lenard for the Badger game. It has been very cool and rainy for the last 2 weeks. Campground has emptied out and many of the seasonal's winterized and left last weekend. We had a end of season pot luck on Saturday and had tons of food. Lots of laughter and fun.  We pretty much have everything ready to go when we leave. After leaving Madison we go to Nashville for  a  week and are staying at Two Rivers campground. Looking forward to it. Then onto Gulf Shores for the month of Nov..Cindi, Mom and I went to Northern Liberty Iowa to visit cindi's new grand daughter. Long drive but fun. I left my car at her house for the winter. I cleaned mom's house for her at the end of sept.. Took a few bike rides on my new bike. Rides well! Looking forward to putting on some serious miles in Gulf Shores.

End of season pot luck. No chance of running out of food!

Phil and his look alike. We wont forget u Phil!

Lavonne and Betty sucking up the suds!

Phil and Mary Horton

Enjoying the meal

Myself and Brian

Peggy, Mary, Laurie and Bruce

George and Sandy with Sharon

Myself and Donna

Lorraine

Fall is pretty at the campground

Backside of our lot

Turkeys everywhere!

Tom and Phil enjoying the sunshine and football game

Cindi, Mom and I enjoying grasshoppers on Moms 87th birthday

My new wheels!

Gail Bernier, Suzie Ulmer, Mary Mishou and I enjoying our day catching up on our lives. Great friends from HAMH

Storm damage at the campground

That's the office under and behind that big tree

Sept 10 2018

Only 1 month till we hit the road again. I have been busy trying to get some general camper upkeep done. I  re chalked the roof in spots this week and retaped some edges. I need to wash and uv protect the roof sometime this week. Then wash the camper. I also lubed the slide tracks and put a silicone protectant on the rubber seals. There is a lot more upkeep to camper life than I anticipated.
Yesterday was mom's 87th birthday, so cindi and I went to lunch with her at Connell's. An old time supper club. Food was ok, but not all that great for its reputation.
The Asian beetles are making their appearance already, which makes me think it will be an early winter. Ughh for those left to deal with it in Wi.
We stopped and visited with old friends Jon and Debby Anderson last week. Hope to see them again before we leave.
Tom and his brothers did their golf outing the last weekend in aug and the sister in laws and I went walking in Irvine Park then out for ice cream. An awful storm blew up and we got a ton of damage in the park but fortunately not at our campsite. I had left the awnings out while we were gone but no damage. yea!
I went up to  Gordon to gather with friends from the hospital for the day, then on the way back to Chippewa to say goodbye to an old friend from Minong. Hoppy Wetzel. He died suddenly after shoulder surgery from an aneurysm. The memorial at the fire hall was incredible. Hundreds and hundreds of friends and family came to honor him. Many many  people were wearing bib overalls, hoppy's signature outfit. I saw many many old friends there that I had not seen since leaving minong.