"Just-Stayin"

Maybe I should think about changing the title of our blog, we sure aren't doing much of that "Justravelin" these days!  We arrived at the Escapee's Rainbow Plantation on September 10 and the only travelin' we've done since then is a move across the street to a different site, but I've already written about that.

Our days have become fairly routine, with a few notable exceptions.  I'm going to Line Dancing class three days a week, soon to be five days with the start of a Beginner 2 class this week.  There's a local restaurant nearby, known as "The Biscuit King",  that has a live country band several times a month on Friday evening; and a group of us goes for dinner and dancing.  Thursdays are usually laundry and cleaning.  Of course Saturday and Sunday are reserved for football!  Otherwise we fill our time with walking the dogs, going to the beach, shopping and all the other miscellaneous activities that seem to fill our days and weeks.

One day we were sitting outside, enjoying our beautiful weather, when a fellow rode along on his bicycle.  He saw us, and parked his bike, came over and said hello.  Of course we invited him to sit and visit.  Turns out he is one of the original builders of Rainbow Plantation.  He and his wife, JoAnn, own a lot at the Plantation, they've lived here since 1991.  We visited for an hour or so with George that afternoon.  He is quite involved with the Foley Elks Club, and we ended up asking him to sponsor Jim as a member of the Elks.  The start of a great friendship was created that day.  We've gone out to lunch and dinner with George and JoAnn several times since that day, and now Jim is an official Elks Club member as of November 15.

We've had visitors to the area;  our dear friend Carol and her sister Susan came down from the Birmingham area for a weekend.  We ate out, grilled at home, and shopped in Foley and Fairhope, it was a blast.

JoAnn Dubrouillet drove over from Panama City Beach, Florida in her new car and spent a weekend in Foley.  It was so good to see her and get caught up with her activities since we saw her in December last year.  While she was here Terry and Randy Guiler made a quick stop at the Plantation on their way to their winter work assignment.  We all got together with Judy and Darrell Patterson for a lunch in Fairhope.  Such a good time getting caught up with friends.

This is the group from left to right, starting with Judy (in the Aqua blouse), Jim, Darrell, Randy, JoAnn and Terry:

I drove up to Columbus, Mississippi for my Weight Watchers "Camp Taz" in October.  We rented a small car for Jim to use while I was gone.  I had a great week with my friends from all over the country, and I enjoyed the drive, about 4 1/2 hours each way.  We almost always get to kayak, and this trip was exceptional for that.  One run we wanted to make turned out to be impossible due to a huge tree that had fallen across the creek, so we decided to make a different run.  That one turned out to be about 5 miles and included a lake crossing.  Whew!  That was challenging, but truly beautiful!

This is Tibbee Creek, near the Camphouse where we stay:

Our good friend, Rosalie, came for a weekend too.  She lives in New Orleans, so of course she is a Saints fan.  She came to watch the Broncos/Saints game, too bad the New Orleans team didn't make the game, the Broncos totally dominated the action.  But, she brought a crock-pot of her authentic New Orleans red beans and we had that with rice, so it was all good.

We celebrated a special Thanksgiving with Judy and Darrell.  They arrived at their ERPU site not long after we did, and it was a special treat to spend the holiday afternoon with them.  They brought some delicious sweet potato casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a spectacular apple pie along with their favorite wine, while Jim and I did a "dueling turkey breast" cook-off, a broccoli rice casserole and a squash casserole.  Jim also made one of his semi-famous "Bubba" pecan pies, with a recipe from Uncle Bubba's Oyster House in Savannah.  The meal was awesome, the company very special.

I've had to get some unexpected dental work done here, but that should be completed by the end of next week.  I broke a tooth, and when I went in to have that checked out, the dentist found another broken crown that caused the next tooth to become decayed.  The result of all of this is I will have three brand-new crowns and the dentist can pay for his Christmas vacation!

Our "Jell-O" plans called for us to roll out of the Plantation around December 14 to head over to the Aransas Pass, Texas area to spend the rest of the winter in the same RV park where Janna & Mike and Rollie & Gina will be staying.  Our hope was that our kids would be able to make a trip from Colorado and Amarillo to spend Christmas with us.  But that plan didn't quite work out. The kids are not going to be able to make the trip, and we have decided to stay here through February and then head over to the Aransas Pass area around the first part of March.  We're OK with that decision, we really love it here and feel very much at home.

That covers most of our highlights from the last couple of months.  We're looking forward to continuing to build relationships here in "LA" (Lower Alabama) as we enjoy the mild weather, beautiful beaches and great activities here at Rainbow Plantation.