A few sights around Foley, AL

The first hospital in Baldwin County is located in Foley Alabama.   The hospital operated from 1936 to 1958 and is now the location of the Holmes Medical Museum.   It is housed in the very building of the old hospital allowing visitors to step back in time and see what it was like to get treated and hospitalized almost a century ago.  It features a wide array of historical displays most of which are exactly the way they were during its operation ( no pun intended).   Displays include patient rooms, x ray equipment, an actual operating room, pharmacy  and a medical quackery devices display.   The hospital is located on the second floor of the building and never has had an elevator.   The story is if a patient couldn't navigate the steps, Dr. Holmes would go across the street to the local tavern,and recruit a couple of burly guys to carry the patient up the steps.  Other times he would bring his equipment downstairs and treat the patient outside of the hospital in whatever was their mode of transportation at the time.   We find these small, unique museums fascinating.   Although I for one would have rather let nature take it's course than to submit to the medical techniques of that time.

How dreary!

Operating Room

Laboratory.

Typical patient room

Prior to heating pads, this domed equipment used light bulbs to provide heat treatments.

Various instruments.

A show globe.   Symbol for a pharmacy much like the barber pole was for the barber.  From the early 1880's until the 1950's most pharmacies would display a show globe to identify their drugstore.

This one was used to alert the town's people to stay away from town if the show globe had red liquid in it.   Red if there was an epidemic and green if there was not.

They have a scrapbook featuring many of the birth certificates of babies born at this hospital.

This is a picture of the first and last babies born there.

After visiting the museum we spent some time walking the Antique Rose Trail.   The trail  is a public walking trail that winds 6 blocks through the heart of Foley following the path of the old railroad line.  Although this wasn't the best time of year there were still a few blooms, still very fragrant and a nice place to take a walk.

The trail features over 5,000 antique heritage roses.

Even found a geocache hidden in a palm tree among the rose buses.

A thorn among the flowers?????  Did I really say that.....he knows I love him!



Hope all is well

Not too exciting.

Not sure why I'm writing this post since we have pretty much only been hanging around the coach.  Ron hasn't felt well the last several days...trying to recuperate from we think just a cold.  I am getting some things done around the coach that we have been neglecting.     We have a few places we want to see and do but just can't get the energy or motivation to get up and go.   I think it is the atmosphere we are surrounded by ...it is a very laid back, quiet campground and it is making us very laid back and quiet.  

We got a good start on our Christmas shopping and should be done in the next week or so.   Then it's finding boxes, wrapping, packing and mailing.   I really enjoy wrapping gifts and Ron is a big help.    We are in a small town (15,000+/-) and their peak visitor season is not until January so I'm hoping the lines at the post office will be smaller.

We drove to the beaches of Gulf Shores, grabbed our chairs and walked down to the beach.  Spent a couple of hours just talking and watching the boats on the horizon and the people on the beach.

Our goal was to visit the Gulf Shores State Park Pier.   The new pier is the largest pier on the Gulf of Mexico at 1540 ft long and 41,800 sq. ft.  They charge to just walk out to the end and back.  Now grant you it's only $2.00, I am still having problems paying to just visit a state park. However, I do agree with the people who use state facilities are the ones who should pay instead of a general tax to all residents so I guess I can't have it both ways!  The old pier was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, making this pier only 5 years old, so I guess somebody has to pay for it.     But..............     We didn't pay and walk for a couple of reasons.   One is I want to visit the pier at sunset so I'll save my pennies for then and to the end and back is a little over 1/2 mile and Ron wanted to save his knees for our return trip.  

Here's a picture from the net from an angle I would not have been able to get.

Hopefully the next post will be more exciting!

Hope all is well!

Relaxing in Foley

We have been in Foley AL since the 20th of October.   We are staying at a RV resort that only allows class A motor coaches  over 32 feet in length and less than 15 years old.   It is a complex where the sites are privately owned and when not in use are rented to vagabonds like us.

Our coach upon arrival.   We did our best to try to root our St. Louis Cardinals to victory, but their 12th world series in 2012 was not meant to be.

View out of the front of our coach.  A nice large concrete pad makes it a  great place to sit and read.

A visitor Ron has  named "Whitey" visits us early every morning.

The campground has a pool that is suppose to be heated but is still chilly, a really nice hot tub, exercise room, theater, library, clubhouse and several planned activities each week.

Infinity pool and hot tub. 

Our plans are to just lay back and relax.   We aren't planning on doing too much site-seeing.

We did drive into Pensacola,FL (about 35 miles) to attend a Romney rally.    We waiting in line 1.5 hours to hear him talk for 20 minutes, but we had never been to a political rally before so we thought we would see what it was like.   Unfortunately  Ron had to rest his knees for 2 days afterwards.

The lines wrapped around the convention center.

Have no idea who this guy is....but we thought his hat was interesting.

Based on the turn out at this rally we thought he would have had a better chance.

Hope all is well!!

We are alive and well.   Since our last post (August) we spent several weeks in St. Louis visiting family, friends and doctors.   The time just flew by and we know we missed making contact with a few people we had every intention of visiting.   We apologize and promise to be sure to organize our time better on our next visit.   It seems each year we visit doctors they add a visit, test or procedure which takes up more time than we initially plan.   Guess a testimonial for getting older.    But we had several dinners, card playing events  and visits in front of the TV rooting our Cardinals  with my sister and brother in law.  Celebrated a 50th birthday with my sister in law Margie at a party of 40+ people.  Also, made a great opportunity to see several members of the family and friends.   We made a couple of trips to the winery with Ron's side of the family. Spent time with Ron's mom (88 years young), had a luncheon with a few folks from the office we use to work in and  had cousins who had never seen the coach out for an afternoon chili lunch.   We also celebrated our 39th anniversary at our favorite (non-hill) Italian restaurant - John Mineo's.

We stayed at a city owned park in St. Peters, MO, a location close to most of the family.   Although we were there for several weeks, we never felt settled since we moved the coach 5 times.  We took the coach to a Tiffin dealer/service center 4 times.   A 70 mile round trip venture. The first visit was to get an estimate for replacing the passenger mirror that was attacked by a suicidal duck.  Why they wouldn't order the mirror without seeing the coach still baffles me.  The second time was to install the mirror and the third time to have a motor replaced on our slide.    While in STL we decided it was time to purchase another car, (which also took up time)  so the 4th trip consisted of them installing a new base plate on the new car and to be sure it was in line with the mechanism on the coach.   The 5th move was to Babler State Park for 3 days, while the campground hosted a festival.   They more than doubled their rates for that week-end and since we didn't really want to be in the middle of the chaos we chose to move.

All in all we had a great visit and it was time to leave before we knew it.    We then made a short trip to Lafayette IN to visit Ron's brother and sister in law.    We also got a short visit in with our nephew Steve, Karen and our great niece, Dahlia.  

We really enjoyed our colorful trip from STL to Indiana.

Dahlia, 21 months.   She wasn't feeling well, so this was the best "smile" I was able to capture.

Ron and his "older" brother.    By only 11 months but he keeps reminding Bob that he's younger.

I really like this picture of them.

As we were leaving the campground to meet Bob and Terri one evening I found this visitor on the front floor of the car.    We got rid of him and went along our merry way, until I heard a chirping and scratching coming from the back seat.     Oh no.....he had a sibling      I rode the rest of the way with my feet up on the dashboard and keep urging Ron to drive faster!!

When we got to Bob's house we shook the coach tire covers we hastily threw into the back seat of the car  and sure enough another baby mouse ran out.     Not sure where we picked them up, but they used our tires and covers to seek some warmth. 

We are now in Foley, Alabama and plan on being here until the middle of December.    Stay tuned for our next blog in the next couple of days.

Take care, feel free to leave a message and we hope all is well with you!

"Check Engine" light...never a good sign!

We left Montrose last Wednesday and had planned a 5 day- 4 overnight trip along the way.   Our first day was a short 175 mile trip to Gypsum, Colorado for an overnight stay at the Riverdance RV park.

We left the next day around  8:45 am and had an uneventful drive  until we were about 170 miles out traveling along I-70.   The coach was sluggish as we approached several 11,000+ ft summits.  Then the Check engine light/ coolant level low light came on.

We were able to move onto the shoulder along one of Colorado's many chain up areas.   After Ron made several phone calls and tried a couple of things, we continued our drive another 67 miles into a Freightliner Service Center in Commerce City, just north of Denver.

The issue was a cracked surge tank that was leaking not all, but enough coolant to cause the check engine light to come on.   The people at this Freightliner Service Center couldn't have been more accommodating and pleasant to do business with.  We called them while we driving there to let them know we were coming in.   Most of their service centers are first come first serve, but they pulled the coach into a bay within 20 minutes after our arrival.   And luckily they had the parts they needed to make the repair.  It is a 3 1/2 hour repair and we got there too late in the day for them to begin, so we spent the night in their lot.  We were back in the bay by 7:30 am the next morning and on our way again by noon.

We spent the night in a campground in Seibert Colorado only 135 miles from the repair shop.

 Saturday morning we began our 300  mile trip at 8:00 am, again heading east on I-70 trying to get to St. Louis for our annual visit.

Shortly after we crossed the Kansas border a suicidal bird decided to make this his last flight.   Unfortunately our passenger side mirror was in his way.    Ron was in the passenger seat looking down reading and heard a loud thump.   Then I cried out....oh  no look at our mirror....

Ron asked, "what kind of bird was it"?    I said,  "a BIG bird".   He asked again, "what kind of bird was it"?

Now I am not an expert on birds and it happened so fast that I just said "it was a duck".   He stopped asking me.

We stopped as soon as we could so Ron could tape it up to prevent the pieces from coming loose and flying back and hitting our Jeep or worse someone else's car.

Another trip to a repair shop....this is getting old, fast !  

I guess we owe some thanks for the "duck" giving up his life to give us some excitement as we travel through flat, boring, hot Kansas.

Do any of our RV buddies out there know if the mirrored part can be replaced or do you have to install a whole new mirror frame and all?

And other than driving through a small field fire we made it to our destination.

We are spending the weekend in Salina, KS for a one day rest and so we can attend Mass.   Will be back on the road tomorrow and hopefully get into St. Louis by Tuesday.

Hope all is well!

Montrose, Colorado

We spent 15 days in Montrose Colorado, a town population of 19,132, elevation 5803 ft and the County Seat located on the Western Slope.

I had forgotten how beautiful the drive into Montrose is:

;;

Layer and layers of hills and mountains.

Steep canyon walls...and magnificent rock formations.

I 70 through Glenwood Canyon hugs the northern edge of the Colorado River.

We fall into the bottom speed limit.   Although a beautiful drive, it at times can be very slow.

We really like Montrose, besides the fact that we travel here to visit my nephew and his family,  it is a really nice town, very progressive and quant at the same time.   It is located near the Black Canyon of Gunnison, Box Canyon, Ouray, Telluride and Grand Junction.    During our past visits we have visited all of these  places and  only repeated a trip to Ouray this time.

My nephew, Joe and his wife, Shani and there two children, Lucy and Daniel, are a very busy family, but we were able to spend quite a bit of time with them.    We've enjoyed several meals together, one very delicious steak dinner with all of the trimmings at their home.   We have been able to watch Lucy practice her gymnastics and Daniel enjoying time at the local skate park.   We also attended our first BMX race with both Joe and Daniel as participants.  I joined Shani and Lucy at Amazing Glaze and tried my hand at pottery.

Daniel all decked out in his racing gear, waiting for his race to begin

Joe taking a practice run.

Daniel during the race....go Daniel go!!

Joe during the race.
   Opps....going too fast for me...either I need a better camera or photography lessons....or both!

Lucy didn't have any gymnastic meets while we were there but we were able to watch her practice.

Here she is on the balance beam...one of her favorites.

We attended the annual Sweet Corn Festival in Olathe, Colorado.   

The festival began in 1992 when the people of this small western Colorado town decided to celebrate the community's agricultural jewel... Sweet Corn and   as a way to improve the social, economic and  cultural environment of the Town of Olathe.

The celebration this year was kicked off with a Joe Diffe concert on Friday night.  Other events included a corn eating contest, local restaurant cook-off, continuous concerts by various bands, lots of booths and children's activities.  And of course lots of corn on the cob, which all you can eat is included in the price of admission. 

This was our second time in attendance and we had forgotten how much fun it is.

We left the festival mid afternoon, took the kids home then the adults, along with Shani's cousin Randy and Debbie ventured to the outskirts of Olathe to visit 3 of their wineries.  We love to vineyard hop!

  

We got to spend some alone time with Lucy and Daniel.  They are at a great age 11 and 9.  We introduced them to geocaching and spent a couple of hours one day hunting down a few finds.

Their first cache find.

Their second cache find.

Their third cache find.  Now they are experts.

We also spent time at the campground pool and ate Daniels famous bagel pizzas for dinner.  They spent the night and after a  chocolate chip pancake breakfast made by Ron, we swam one more time then we dropped them off at their activities for that day.

The trivet I made at Amazing Glaze.   Now I just have to figure out a way to display it and not have it in a million pieces as we roll down the road.

Almost every day there was a brief rain shower which left beautiful billowy 

cloud formations over the San Juan Mountains

Good-bye Montrose.   We enjoyed our visit and will be back!

Hope all is well!