Thursday November 15, 2012
A big day in front of us.
Visiting downtown Montgomery, but first, we needed a good breakfast.
IHOP is a very good
restaurant and they have big breakfast and they are cheap.
The old Union Station is where the information center is located, we
parked
under the old train shed.
The Union Station in Montgomery was built in 1898. The vocation
of
the station has changed over the years. It is now an information
center, banquet hall and convention center.
Here is a little bit of information about Montgomery.
Last year, we
really enjoyed visiting the Country Music Museum in Nashville.
We have learned a lot about
Hank
Williams. So why not visit his museum here in Montgomery.
He started his career in Montgomery at the age of 15.
Sadly, he died December 1st, 1953 at the age of 29.
Cute little
museum.
If you look closely at the top of the white building, you can see an
oblong
kind of thing.
The owner of the hardware store (below), is
rumored to have been "buried" in his casket up there.
Nobody
denies or confirms the story!
Behind us is "The Alley". This is the hotspot for
Montgomery. It has restaurants, bars, etc.
Montgomery played an important role in the de-segregation
in the United States.
December 1st, 1955,
a black woman refused to give
up her seat to a white man on a bus.
This was a turning
point. It started a movement for the de-segregation of the United
States.
When you stop and think about it, it was not very long ago!
Why this church?
Simply because it has two set of stairs. Back then, men and women
could not go up stairs together.
Not only was there segregation between black and white, but also
between
men and women!
Alabama State Capitol. Very nice, but
no guided tour, only self-guided tours. Good, but you miss a lot
of information and stories compared to a guided tour.
Beautiful wall, but it is only "
trompe-l'œil",
or "fool-the-eye". Really
well done.
The first White House of the Confederation. Lucky for us, a guide
was inside and even if he was not giving a tour, he did tell us a lot
about the house. Very interesting.
Behind this glass wall is the original facade of the building.
The reason for the glass wall is to protect the facade from the
elements because of its historic value. Really nice!
Chris' restaurant opened its doors in 1917 and has remained open ever
since. The same family has run the restaurant since the
beginning.
Good
hot-dogs.
Hank Williams used to come here for dinner, sometimes he stayed late
drinking beer. The owner had to kick him out at the end of the
evening.
The restaurant is very long and narrow.
Montgomery also has an historic village close to downtown.
A tavern from the late 1800. I like the utensils!
A family outhouse! It even has a smaller hole for the children.
This type of house is called "
dogtrot".
The house was used by one family, living on both sides of the
alleyway. The name dogtrot was given because the dogs could trot
between the two part of the house and warn the family if a visitor was
coming.
The very small doctor's house!
To the right of the small porch, you can see a tree with up side down
glass bottles
on the branches, so I had to ask why?
The answer I got was, when the slaves were brought from Africa, with
them came their culture and belief. One of their belief
was that the upside down bottle would catch the evil spirits lurking
around at night and they could not get out from the upside down
bottles. To
confirm this, when the wind
blows, you can hear the howl from the evil spirits coming from the
bottles as they try to get out.
Got to have a general store. So far, all general stores from that
time period, either from
Canada or the U.S. are pretty much alike.
An old waffle maker on the stove
This is the first time I saw one like this one.
The county school. Notice one of the row has smaller desks at
the front compared to the back?
Our first "
Cotton Gin" (inside the building). A cotton
gin is a machine that
quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds. The
photos did not turn out good!
Michèle standing next to a 500 pound cotton bale.
A view from one part of the village.
A very rare two story "Dogtrot" house.
Another part of the village.
A very interesting historical village. We did not realize
Montgomery had so much to offer.
I think we will have to come back here some other time.
After dinner, we got to skype with Daniel, Jérémy and
Gabriel.
Gabriel is one smiling/laughing little boy. We are proud of the
parents. We cannot wait to see them again.
What a busy day!
Friday November 16, 2012
We are back on the road and on our way to Alabama for our
next home. First, we had to get propane because of the cold
nights we use more propane than usual.
For the past few days, as we go south, we noticed the earth is
red. The roads are
just beautiful and the one on the right is not even an interstate.
The French influence is starting to show in the names of towns and
villages.
Our campground is situated between Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola,
Florida.
The campground is OK, but no more. The price is right with
Passport America.
It was still early in the day and we decided to wash all the window
tracks of the motorhome.
Unbelievable the mildew growing in there.
It comes
from having cold weather, it sometimes makes the windows "sweat".
Sand and dust also ends up in the tracks.
Perfect place for
mildew to grow.
A few hours later and it was all done.
Tomorrow we are going to a flea market in Mobile, Alabama.
Saturday November 17, 2012
Mobile
is about half an hour away from the campground. We took
Interstate 10 to get there.
The tunnel going under Mobile Bay.
A very big flea market, but one that we do not really enjoy. We
prefer flea
markets with lots of old stuff, not just new stuff. Here
everything was new.
Too cute!
To get back home, we took the back roads close to the Gulf
of Mexico.
Our BIG ferry, it would not be good for our BIG motorhome.
Michèle standing on the same spot that President Obama stood in June
2011.
Mobile Bay is a busy place with all the drilling going on. Sunset
are very pretty along the coast.
We had another very busy day.
Sunday November 18, 2012
Today is a "
do nothing" day.
Let me translate that, "
I will be
busy today".
I started the day with a nice 5 km walk. The truck stop close to
the campground has this nicely decorated restaurant.
I use this "do nothing" day to finally get my bicycle out of the
car for the first time since November 3rd. Cleaned the car and
even
cleaned the basement compartments of the motorhome. It sures
looks nice
now!
It is so nice to "
do nothing"
for a change!
Monday November 19, 2012
Oh my, another "do nothing" day. I started the day with a bicycle
ride and
saw some goats.
I surfed the net outside in this nice +23, a good day!
I have accomplished a lot less than yesterday!
Tuesday November 20, 2012
Today we are going to Florida.
We are taking the back
roads.
We like to see stuff, on the interstate you
see nothing, but trees.
Cotton fields ready to for harvest.
Ah!
Florida!
First stop in Pensacola, the information center.
My new girlfriend?
Our next stop is Pensacola Beach. To get there, we crossed a
toll bridge for a fee of one dollar.
In this area the coast is called
Emerald
Coast. The beaches are
sugar white sands and the water is crystal clear and warm.
Our first salamander and it is about 5 inches long.
Right in the middle of this beach community, with expensive houses, you
have those two different looking houses.
Kind of small for reading, but this is the first time we've seen a one
like
that. The one before said you would get a $25 fine if you run out
of gas on the bridge.
Quite often, right next to a bridge, you have either the old bridge or
even a new one like this one and it is only used for fishing.
Back in Pensacola, we had lunch at
Apple
Annie in the Seville Quarter.
Really good meal! I got the pulled pork sandwich and Michèle got
the Cajun shrimp on rice.
A view of the restaurant.
Here is the Seville quarters of Pensacola.
After our good meal, we headed to the
Historic Pensacola Village.
Our guided tour was not for another hour. We did the self guided
tour first. Houses date between 1763 and 1890, it also
have two museums, one for commerce and one for industry.
During our visit, we saw this unknown contraption (first photo).
Do you know
what it is?
It is a "wine funnel".
You place wild berries
in the funnel and place this contraption over 8 bottles and at the
bottom of the funnel you have a small slit, when you
press down on
the berries, the juice goes into the bottle. You then store the
wine for a few months and it turns
into a weak wild berry wine.
On the right hand photo, it may loos
like a baby crib on the wall, but it is the bread box and it locks
too.
In the latter part of 1800, Pensacola was taxing houses based on the
number of doors they had. To save money, the owner had small
doors build under large windows. During summer, when it was hot
outside, they opened
the windows and the small doors so they could walk out
from any rooms.
The second part of our tour was guided. Our guide was very
good. She really knew her stuff, the way she presented it was
more like a story rather than just information.
We left Florida behind us to get back to Alabama.
Another full day!
Wednesday November 21, 2012
Back to Mobile and visit the "
Bellingrath Gardens and
Home".
This is the creation of Walter and Bessie Bellingrath. Walter
was the first Coca-cola bottler in Mobile and later on for over 100
miles around Mobile.
In 1917, Walter's doctor recommended that he should "learn how to
play". So, he purchased a fishing camp on the Fowl River.
Shortly after Bessie started to plant flowers. In 1927, the
couple
hired an architect to turn the fishing camp into a country estate.
In the spring of 1932, the couple placed an ad in a Mobile newspaper
inviting its citizens to the estate and have a look at the
garden. 4,700 peoples showed up. The Bellingrath Gardens were
born.
The 15 rooms house was completed in 1935. Now the house showcase
most of Bessie collection of fine crystals, silver and porcelains she
collected over 35 years. Bessie died in 1943 and Walter in
1955.
With no children to leave the estate to, they created a foundation to
keep the gardens open and many scholarships that
still exit to this day.
Many photos of the gardens, but none of the house as we were not
allowed
to take any photos inside.
I have to say, all the flowers you see here are all grown on the
estate. Really beautiful and it smelled very good too.
We had lunch at the Cracker Barrel, always good and very reasonable
prices.
So far all the sunset were pretty.
If you are ever in the Mobile area, we recommend a visit to the
Bellingrath Garden and Home.
Thursday November 22, 2012
Nothing special today, I just went to check out two others RV
park. One of the campground is a member only park, and the other
is
OK. It is located by a river.
Friday November 23, 2012
We move again! Back in Florida and to
Mexico
Beach.
We had to stop at the information center. They always offer a
free orange juice in Florida. The information center on I-10 was
not very
good. The lady basically pointed us to the area will all the info
for the "Forgotten
Coast". Outside, a
F9F
Cougar used many years ago by the Blue Angels.
Along the side walk you have a place with many of the tracks made by
wild
Florida animals.
Michèle was very impressed by the alligator's footprints.
We drove by Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. They even have
F-18 on the bridge support.
Some of the sight on our way.
We are in the Emerald Coast area, but going to the Forgotten Coast.
Always surprising what you see on the side of the road!
The road takes us right through Tyndall AFB. Not much to see
anyway.
Our home for the next few night. Mexico Beach, Florida.
Saturday November 24, 2012
I am out and about on my bicycle visiting the small village of Mexico
Beach. With a population of 1000 soul, the main industry is
tourism.
They call it "sugar white" sand. It looks like snow!
After my bike ride, we decided to spend a few hours at the beach.
With a nice +21 and a cool wind, we used our shelter for the first
time. We bought it in Comox for a $1 at a yard sale, we love it.
After the beach, we headed to Panama City for some shopping.
Surprise, a flea market on our path! They are closing down
because it is 3 pm. Lots of old stuff like we love.
Right back at home after the quick shopping.
Sunday November 25, 2012
Our campground has a small restaurant next to the office and they have
breakfast on Sunday. I am there!
What a disappointment, nothing to add to that.
Michèle and me went for a bike ride in Mexico Beach.
The information center has this big chair. Had to use it!
Mexico Beach also has a pier like many towns and villages along the
coast.
Where there is a pier, there are fishermen. This gentleman uses a
net for fishing! Very neat to see him throw the net and retrieve
it.
The fish he caught are called
mullet,
he was very happy to have caught them, he also said they were very good
eating.
A collage of 4 photos from the pier.
And to the right!
Michèle had this idea to take our shadows photos.
It always make me laugh when I see a snowman and it is +20 outside.
They have this nice pool, but it is not heated and it is in the shade
all
day long.
The rest of the day was spent reading and preparing the next
update for the web page.
Monday November 26, 2012
A sunny day for today, we are off to
Saint Joseph Peninsula for a bike
ride.
On our way there we saw this great egret.
Our bike path, we did 26 km on this "road".
One of our stop along the way.
The exterior of this round house is like a cloth!
The water was nice.
Shadows again!
I really like this mailbox.
What a sunset!
Tuesday November 27, 2012
A cold front with rain is coming our way today. I purchased an
Ipod from Walmart online and it has finally arrived at the Walmart
store in Callaway (Panama City). So off we go!
Our home from the road.
We had heavy downpour for about 30 minutes and then mostly light rain
after that.
A cheap lunch, and good too!
Wednesday November 28, 2012
We stayed home today.
Ah, those Christmas decoration without snow!
We caught up on laundry.
Time to get some stuff ready for our departure tomorrow morning.
Thursday November 29, 2012
We had pretty far to travel today, our next campground was located 25
km from here!
This time the bears have cubs!
We crossed the big metropolis of Port St-Joe.
A few kilometers out of town was our campground.
Only three campers on site. As you can see, we were pretty close
to the water.
This guy was very curious, he made sure all was good.
It was still early in the day so I washed the car.
A panoramic view from the front of the motorhome.
Good sunset and the clouds stayed over the Gulf.
Nice campground with water and electricity, but no sewer, a dump
station
is located on site. WIFI is fast and free. On the negative
side, lots of "
no-see-ems", and they were hungry.
Friday November 30, 2012
The Gulf of Mexico does have tides, but they are relatively
small.
On the left, low tide, and on the right, almost high tide. Imagine the
water a few meters closer to the shore.
A view from the road, can you see our motorhome?
This morning, I took a short walk around the campground and by the
local
road. The tide was low and the small stream was almost dry.
What you see on the mud (or banks) are hundreds if not thousands of
small crabs.
Checked out Apalachicola. Small pretty town.
Here we can see both sides of the main street with all the
business. One block only!
Since we were close to St-George Island with the most beautiful beach
of the "Florida Panhandle", so they said!
You can see the bridge we are going to cross shortly. It is 6.4
km long. On the right photo, we were on the bridge.
Lots of small shrimpers out on the bay.
St-George Island.
Nice beaches, but we found the one in Mexico beach much better with the
sugar white sand. It was still pretty here.
Close to our campground there was a small seafood store.
We bought some local shrimps and also a fillet of
mahi
mahi.
Hummmm! Good local shrimps and they were caught right in the bay in
front of us. They even steam cook them for free. So good!
Here I was waiting for the sunset.
It was so hard to chose sunset photos!
See you tomorrow!
Here is what we saw from inside the motorhome.
A good day.
Until next time.
Life is good...