Settled in for the night

We are in an Army Corp of Engineers campsite about 15 miles west of Montgomery Alabama. The temperature is about 72 and calm. We are spending the night here and will move to Pensacola Beach in the morning. Everything is going smoothly thus far. (knock on wood!)

Camped on the lake, we barbecued chicken and are listening to the owls and Canada Geese by the moonlight, Peace to all.

We made AlaBAM!

We are in a rest area right between Birmingham and Montgomery Alabama as I am writing this. The temperature is a balmy 79 degrees! We drove through a lot of wind yesterday and wound up at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentuck and spent the night. We stayed above ground and didn't see the sights. Today we drove through a lot of rain until we hit Tennesee, and now its warm and sunny.
Here are a few pics from the trip so far....

First camp of 2012 at Mammoth Cave National Park.

My favorite, Mountain Laurel, in bloom along I-65

Lunch in Alabama and it's 79 degrees!! Quite a change from Tuesday and all that snow!!

Lemme-Outta-here!!

Packed and ready to rock-n-roll!!!

We spent the day packing and getting last minute things done. Checked in with the post office and hooked up the camper. It was quite an ordeal shoveling the mountain of snow and ice build-up off the roof of the camper, but I finally got it cleared. We are ready to leave in the morning.

Everything is hooked up and ready.

We'll be glad to see some warm weather and sunshine and take a break from construction, I hope this snow is gone when we get back for Easter!!

Then we want to start getting some company so start planning your next visit!!

We Survived The Storm of the Year!!

Never take Mother Nature for granted.
We have been having a mild winter this year with small snowfalls here and there and mild temperatures reaching thirty and near forty on many days. Then it happened! On Friday afternoon it started snowing. And it snowed and snowed and snowed! We saw a flash of lightening and a rumble of thunder just after it got dark. We were watching a movie in the evening when the lights and TV started going on and off. Then OFF!
It was just before nine o'clock so we found the flashlight and started pulling out candles. We got the candles going and sat back to watch the fire in the fireplace. Nothing happened. We looked outside and saw that the trees were hanging low and full of snow.After a while we decided we might as well just go to bed and hope the power would come back during the night.
In the morning we still had no power and when I looked outside the snow was HUGE! We got between eighteen and twenty inches of snow overnight! I got the snow blower going (after disconnecting the garage door opener and lifting the door by hand), and ventured forth to conquer the driveway. I had to run the snow blower on a low speed or the snow would overwhelm the hopper! At that snails pace it took me three hours to blow off the driveway, turnaround and along the road. The county trucks had not been through yet and there was a tree across the road right in front of our house.
Getting back inside I got the fire going and we ran an L.P. heater to keep the house as warm as we could. We were in this mode until Sunday evening. On Sunday afternoon we took a ride into Leland to see how the rest of the world was faring. Leland was without power as well as Suttons Bay and parts of Traverse City! We heard on the radio that about 90,000 customers were without power in Northwest Michigan!
Finally on Sunday evening at about 8:30 the lights came back on and we breathed a huge sigh of relief! This morning it's back to normal and we will be packing to get out of here and head to Florida.

Good morning to this??

This is why so many power lines were down. The wet snow clung to everything like foam only heavy!

The road was a mess and trees were down.

The county didn't get through until Saturday evening, and only went as far as my neighbor's driveway before turning around because of the trees across the road.

Looks like these guys aren't going anywhere for a while!

We couldn't see the swing seat under the snow.

Pines along Wheeler Road.

Wheeler and Trumbull on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday evening, the moon is out bright. This was to be the coldest night of the winter going down to four degrees and no power!! Luckily the lights came on at 9 pm. About forty eight hours later!!  Look out Florida, here we come!!

Turkeys Beware!!

I got news from the Michigan DNR today... I was successful in my spring turkey hunting application! I drew the second hunt from April 23 through the 29th. I can hunt from my own back yard this year and we have been seeing and hearing the turkeys pretty regularly. Who knows, maybe there will be a wild bird on the table this Thanksgiving!!

It started snowing again this evening. Big fluffy flakes and lots of 'em. We even saw a flash of lightening and the rumble of thunder. Very unusual for a snow storm. We will be packing shorts and t-shirts for our late winter camping trip heading south.

Lots of love.

The Return of Old Man Winter

Just when the sunny skies and warm weather made us think spring was in the air Old Man Winter dumped five inches of wet heavy snow on us overnight!! It makes us want to go camping in search of warm weather even more! We're hoping to get out of here by the weekend or early next week.

News from Wheeler Road

We got a little more done today. I built shelves in the pantry for Nancy and she was unpacking clothes and hanging them in our closets. I also got some more wood split and stacked to ward off the winter chill. Later we went for a long walk and took some pictures of the sunshine in the woods. It was only about thirty degrees today but the sunshine was beautiful!

Keeping the winter fire crackling.

Our walk on Wheeler Road. The sun was shining bright.

The hills to the west.

Leelanau Conservancy property about a mile north of us.

The sun getting low over the hills.

Walking home.

Peace and love to all!