Roaming to Warmth

December 29, 2014 (by Angela)

Cold and Wet. That is what the bulk of the last six weeks has been whether in Nashville or Cornersville, Tennessee, or Paducah, Kentucky. The only real reprieve has been the three days spent at Lake Guntersville, Alabama, so we decided to take the week of New Year’s to go somewhere warmer. We usually try to go somewhere for the week of New Year’s anyway.

December 26th, we left Paducah after visiting family in the Southern Illinois area across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky. It was a fairly decent day weather wise and an easy drive down I-24 west and I-65 south.

Kentucky Lake

The only glitch was that Cullum and Maxey was closed when we stopped on the way through Nashville. We had hoped to get our electric levelers checked out. We made it back to the Texas T Campground, where we still had three paid nights out of our month, by about 1 p.m. Jim and I got set up and decided we’d stay two nights before heading to the Gulf Coast area of Alabama. Reservations were made for the week beginning on the 28th of December.

Rising long before daylight, Jim and I broke camp and hooked the RV to the truck; it was hard to do in darkness and heavy rain. He and I did note as we worked that not only had the Texas T been full the night before, it was also in an overflow situation with two rigs parked near the office and hooked up to power by heavy-duty power cords. I guess lots of people wanted to escape the night’s heavy rain along that stretch of I-65. Finally, taking longer than usual, we were ready to hit the road.

A relatively dry “comfort” stop on the way

Raining again as I follow Jim driving the rig

Getting closer and the sky is getting lighter

It rained and rained and rained. I drove behind the rig in our car since our plans after this week are uncertain. The car radar indicated we’d clear the rain after Birmingham, and we did. What my car radar did not show was the fog and associated mist, which we endured until we were almost to Montgomery, Alabama. Once we broke out of the fog and mist, we began to see bits of sunshine and the temperature quickly increased to the upper 70s. With two rest area comfort breaks and a decent lunch break north of Montgomery, we still made it to Azalea Acres, where it was warm enough to justify turning on the AC, and got set up in 9 hours. Jim and I were very pleased with that since this trip was our longest repositioning jaunt to date. Having only been here a little over 24 hours, it seems to be a pleasing campground.

Our “patio” at Azalea Acres

Rain found us again last night and continued until just past daylight this morning. The difference was that it was warm rain, not cold rain. We’ve been 20 or more degrees warmer here today than it has been in Middle Tennessee! This morning, we went “foraging” for locally grown or produced food items, and we did well. We found two farmers’ markets, and a lady at one of the them hooked us up with a local peanut farmer who also sells grass-fed beef. We went to his farm and purchased 5 pounds of beef for $25 – a great deal. As we were leaving, the gentleman who helped us stopped our car and handed us two packs of roasted peanuts that were grown and roasted on the farm. What a bonus!

This afternoon, after a fantastic lunch at GooRoo’s in Robertsdale, Alabama, we drove to Gulf Shores and took a walk on the beach at Gulf State Park; it was such a nice day. As Jim and I drove home, I felt so relaxed. The fact that I had no clue what time of day it was made it even more magical. I can’t wait to see what other fun explorations we will have this week. Having a home similar to that of a turtle, allowing us to roam, is turning out to be immensely fun.