Summerdale, AL

We are at the Plantation Escapee park. They have plenty of space here but after January 1st th e park does get full. They have RV home sites that look either like a barn with the middle of it being a pull through parking spot. One side is a small house and a garage or workshop on the other side. The other style of houses are small with large covered carports. There are lots of planned activities at this park. Group dinners twice a week,games,trips and such. We have met lots of very nice people here. To our surprise our new friends Vern & Barb from the Branson park are right next door. Today we had some great seafood and walked on the beach. We had dinner at the clubhouse, played bingo(I won $14),and then Ken played pool. We will leave on Saturday but wishing we could stay a couple of weeks.

On the move

We are making our way back to Texas. Mark and Mallory are getting married on January 7. We left Ocean Pond on 12/27 and drove to Mariana, FL for a short overnight boondocking. Today we are headed to Summerdale,AL to stay at a Escapee park for a day or two. The weather has been great, warm and sunny! As we drop back into Lake Dallas, we will catch up with friends and family. Work on a few projects in the RV and plot our next stop. Hey, Kevin and Suzanne we may join you in south Texas after all!

Ocean Pond, FL

We set off for Lakeland, GA and walked around town. Ken told stories of growing up in a very small rural town...unknown era LOL. Information on who owned what businesses in town and their families. How one of the Patten cousins started growing sod and selling, how he was told that is crazy. Who's going to buy that. It's now a billion dollar business that owns pattens on the early equipment used in the thriving industry. We had some lunch at the Huddle House, not much open on Sunday afternoons. We decided to head on down the road towards Ocean Pond. We ended up at the Lake City walmart for the night. It was dark and raining not a good combanation when trying to find a campground known to be hard to find.
We awoke to more rain and made a dash into walmart for supplies. Our GPS, Lila,didn't come up with the Ocean Pond National Park so we followed the directions on the camp website and goggle maps. We understood the park to be about 15 miles or so down the road. Goggle maps on my tablet have been very helpful on our journey so far. Well we have been told that one day you will find ourself in a situation of unhooking the tow vehicle (toad) and backing your RV out of a tight spot. We just didn't know it would be today and in the rain. Not so lol at the time! Ken did a super job!
The road we turned on was sand/dirt/shell we kept thinking the campground was just around the corner. We could see water to our right on the bright side. Then the dead end sign sunk in. There were cabins along the sides but all of them had narrow driveways or closed gates. We came to the end of the road. Yikes! We walked the road and found one possibility. The tree foliage was brushing against the RV and the soft sand road held out. There was only about 6 inches of ground on each side of the wheels. Ken slowly backed up with me driving the jeep and staying in his sight tokeep the road and soon a turn in perspective. Ken set a line of pinecones down to help me tell him where to turn the wheels. A prayer and three attempts later he was in the driveway and inch away from taking the wood fence with us. Down the sandy road with rear tires trying to slide we hit the paved road again. A couple of miles down the road we saw clearly marked campground signs. the dirt campground was paved and looked great. We picked a sight on the water and here we will stay for a few days. The sunsets are beautiful across the water and we are craving a water toy to paddle.
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Adel, GA

We rolled into Adel to met up with Ken's childhood friend, Al. Al has a graphics shop in town. We have commissoned him to create the vinyl lettering for our coach. The Great Escape is a success! We went out to dinner with Al & Tammy that night. We stayed at Reed Bingham state park. The next night we had dinner at camp and a campfire with Al & Tammy. We had a great time! We are looking forward to seeing them again. We did have some excitement that morning as we awoke to a wet floor. One of the connections to our fresh water tank busted. Good thing Ken knows how to fix everything. Off to Ace hardware and found parts. It was a little trying but now works just fine. Yea, for Ken! Next stop is hometown of Lakeland, GA.

On the move

We have been on the move. We left Branson just in time to miss weather in the teens and snow. We overnighted in the Little Rock area with cold rain and snow flurries! We headed to Tupelo,MS. We stayed at Trace State Park for a few days. We enjoyed going to the Birthplace of Elvis. Everyone seems to be related to him in someway, mostly cousins at this point. We went to the automobile museum the next day. That was very interesting over 150 cars from the 1800's to today. It made Ken wish the 58 bug to be in a exhibit like this for everyone to enjoy. Then on to Lake Eufuala,AL. We met up with our brother Jerry and his home built tear drop trailer. We walked the old downtown business area and found lunch at the Cajun cafe. We all had the grouper special that was fantastic. We also toured the Shorter house and met some of the ladies from the historical society. They were so much fun to talk to and even invited us back to work a function that evening. LOL maybe next time. Next stop, Adel,Ga.