Hoover, Alabama

Monday morning we were checked out of Camp Red Bay and getting our air/moisture separator gizmo changed at Bay Diesel by 8:00.  We were out of there and getting propane by about 8:45 and on our way to Custom RV in Vina, which is about 5 miles or so out of Red Bay.  This is a shop owned by a former Tiffin factory employee and he works on all types of RV’s, but obviously considering his location and background, his customers are predominately Tiffin coach owners.  Last fall he installed our supplemental braking system for the car, and we wanted to have it checked and adjusted.  Good thing we did, he found a tiny hole in the air line that connects the motorhome to the car.  He had that replaced and we were on our way to the Birmingham area around 9:30.

We made a stop to fill up with diesel and continued our travel day.  We pulled into the Hoover RV Park and were set up and relaxing by 2:00.  Hoover RV Park is adjacent to the Regions Park Baseball Stadium; it used to be called the Hoover Met and is the home of the Birmingham Barons baseball team.  The RV Park is basically a parking lot managed by the City of Hoover with hook-ups.  There isn’t even an office to check in, just a self-serve kiosk where you use their provided envelopes to pay for your site.  There are no restrooms, laundry, activity center, just a parking lot. However, the City does include wifi and cable TV in their camping fee which is around $28 per night.  We like it here because it is quiet, usually not very crowded, surrounded by woods with lots of room to walk, yet close to all the city amenities.  It’s also patrolled by the local police.

Our friends Carol and Steve live about 7 miles from here, and invited us to their home for dinner Monday evening.  It was great to get caught up with them since our last visit.  Steve grilled the best filet I think I’ve ever tasted and Carol made a wonderful salad and baked sweet potatoes.

Yesterday we got caught up with a lot of our shopping needs, groceries and vitamins and all that sort of stuff.  It took us all day with stops at 3 stores – Sam’s Club, Walmart and Publix, but I think we’re set for a day or two!

This morning Carol picked us up and drove us up to Homewood for a Penzey’s Spice Store fix.  Of course we needed a lunch stop, so we went to a local Barbeque, Saw’s:

Where we enjoyed some very, very good pork!

Just a couple of doors down from Saws is Dreamcakes, a cupcake store, you know we couldn’t pass that up:

After we were completely stuffed, we made a quick stop at the Galleria so Carol could pick up a birthday present for one of her granddaughters.  We made a quick run through Macy’s and then she brought us back home.

In between all of this activity, we’ve been watching the news on Hurricane Isaac.  Our thoughts are with everyone being affected by this storm!    I noticed that the Weather Channel reporter stationed at Orange Beach, Alabama, was standing at a spot that might have been where we took the picture I posted in my last blog, but it was hard to tell for sure because it certainly didn’t look quite the same during that storm. 

We'll stick around here for a couple of weeks, make sure everything is OK with the Castle (so far, so good), and let things settle down on the coast before we make our way to Summerdale.