A Beautiful Day on the Beach

Fort Picken's, Gulf Breeze, FL

I had another ruff night last night.  I went to bed early as the rain had gotten the best of me with my back.  I took some more pain medication and headed to bed.  Unfortunately it didn’t last all night long and i was back up by 12.30 AM.  I was awake until after 2 AM waiting for the pain med's to kick in.  It was another ruff night of sleeping.

the dogs had me awake early as they needed to do their business.  Last night before bed time hubby went to put them out and before they could get their business done it started pouring buckets.  They got soaked and so did hubby.  So they were overly ready to go out this morning.

It was a cool morning but it wasn’t long and the sun was out.  Since hubby wasn’t feeling too good his kidneys are bothering him and i still wasn’t from my aching back i went back to bed.  We slept in late this morning.

While i was still sleeping hubby put a ham in the crock pot to cook for dinner.  Since we are so far from civilization we will be cooking all week long.  It’s not a short jog to town from here. 

Here is our campsite .. we have a nice size yard although we don’t have enough room to park our truck on campsite, so it’s parked in the extra vehicle parking around the corner from where we are parked. The down part about this site is there is no grass and so all that black and white sand junk ends up inside.  We did put our green rug out and that is helping some but if we forget to wipe the dogs off, it is everywhere. 

We had a simple lunch of mac and cheese and then after lunch we went down to the beach to enjoy the beautiful sunshine as temps were warming up.

This poor jelly fish has met it’s fate on the beach.  I spoke to a resident here and she said they were overrun with them this summer.

This is the campground registration center that you can see from the beach.  Isn’t it a beautiful picture?

 
There are several families camping here in the park since it’s Christmas break and as you can see they were enjoying the beach too.

They have a nice pavilion here at the beach that has restrooms and they say it’s very nice and cool in the summer time to sit under and enjoy the breeze off the Gulf.

The sun was really glisten off the water .. i am so happy to be on the beach!

My ride waiting to take me home

We had a great afternoon on the beach.  We just had a ham sandwich for dinner as neither of us felt like fixing anything to go with the ham.  Our evening was spent just relaxing and watching the nature channel.  My back is really tender as it gets when i suffer with back pain and muscle spasms.  I was in bed early.  Between too much fun and this back.  Thankfully the rain is gone for now and the temps are suppose to continue to rise.  Yesterday it was in the 60's but i'm looking for those 70's temps.

Moving Day

I had a ruff night last night with my back.  The dreary weather had me down in my back.  I was awake early as i really didn’t sleep much.  I got up took some pain pills and went back to bed.  Hubby wasn’t sure we were moving and we knew that until my pain medication kicked i wouldn’t be doing anything.

Hubby helped me get most of the inside done last night so i didn’t really have much inside to do.
 
While i was laying down he got all the outside done and got us hooked up.  Once he got that all done it was time for me to get up, get dressed so the slides could come in.  Just as we were getting ready to pull out it started to rain.  I got on my computer and it looked like we would be driving out of it and since we had the slides in, were in the truck we bit the bullet and went ahead and headed out.
 
It wasn’t long and we were in Alabama.  The rain had stop but it was dreary looking. 
 
We stopped at the rest area in Alabama for me to stretch my legs.  We are taking it really slow with my back.

Wasn’t long and we were in Mobile


the rain caught back up with us as we were getting ready to go through the tunnel

my pictures didn’t take very good
   
  
We arrived in Florida and stopped at the rest area for me to get out and stretch my legs.   
We’ve been to this rest area before but it’s still pretty and i love the blue angels plane.

Here we are parked in the rest area .. Yes it’s rained here too
 
Look at all the water

We got through Pensacola okay but our address for the campground we are going to was wrong.  It took us to a visitor center for Gulf Islands in Pensacola.  Were going to Gulf Breeze.  Our turn wasn’t too far back the way we came and we found it okay.

We didn’t see any signs and the directions we were received said to turn right, go across the toll bridge and follow.  Well we did that and ended up in Navarre which was about 10 miles out of our way. 


Although it was a beautiful drive and along the beach.  Finally we found a place to pull over and asked directions.  A nice man told us where we could find a parking lot big enough to turn around in and how to get back to where we were going.  He gave great directions and after our drive back we finally found the Seashore.
 
The white sand dunes and the Gulf is just beyond ..

Look how close the road is to the water .. oh that beautiful emerald water

We found the campground registration office and checked in and then we drove around to select the spots highlighted that would hold our rig. 

We got setup just in time as it was starting to sprinkle.  The rain had found us again.  After setting up we went back and to let them know what site we selected.  It was a bit of a snug maneuvering but hubby put us right in.  I watched to make sure the front of our truck didn’t collide with the tree.

The campground is along the beach even though you can not see the beach from the sites it’s not far away and even though it was raining i just had to stop and walk to the water and take in the breath taking view.  As you can see by my hair the wind was blowing and it was misting rain.  We didn’t stick around to long as we were both hungry and it’s been a long day.

We had hamburgers with grilled onions for dinner and then we took the dogs on a short walk in between the rain.  Once we got home the rain really hit. 

We are enjoying a relaxing evening in our new surroundings.  Life is great, hubby had our satellite setup in minutes.  In fact he leveled it and came inside and it worked.  The best part is my internet seems to work here :) 

We paid for a week, i will get more pictures this week as we do some exploring.  I’m sure i will have lots of beach pictures to share as i plan to spend lots of time enjoying the beach.

Merry Christmas

Pascagoula, MS

 
Shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.  Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" ~ Luke 2:  8-14

We had a relaxing morning at home.  Although i did get stressed for a bit as i went to put cherry filling on my cheese cake and i only had 1 can of Cherry filling.  I got online and searched until i found that Winn Dixie’s are open until 3 on Christmas Day.  Yes, i can hopefully find a can of Cherry filling.

Good friends of Jimbo, Becca and their family are sharing their Christmas meal with us .. We are so thankful to them for inviting us. We left home a little after noon and stopped on our way to Jimbo and Becca’s and i got lucky as they only had 1 can of Cherry filling left!  Close call.  We arrived and had a great meal (thanks Becca and Jimbo) we visited for several hours and it was getting dusk so we hit the road.  We drove in rain all the way home and temps are dropping. 

Thanks again Jimbo and Becca, we had a great time and it was a great way to spend our Christmas.  We love you guys.

We got home and it was time to go to work on getting things ready to roll in the morning.  I have all the last minute stuff put away .. stool are secured down.  All i have to do in the morning is put the computers away, make our bed.  Hubby still has to empty sewer, unhook water and electric as it was raining when we got home and he didn’t feel like getting wet.  Since he hasn’t unhooked i took this opportunity to do one more load of laundry since i will be 2 weeks without my washer.  Plus they are calling for 80 percent chance of rain tomorrow and if it’s raining we will stay another day as we are not on a schedule and i do not like traveling in the rain.
We have decided to head to Pensacola, FL to Fort Pickens .. how many days we are staying we are not sure yet.  We will decided once we get there, for now we will pay for a couple of days and go from there.
Hope you all had a wonderful day weather it was spent with family, friends or just by yourselves. 

Christmas Eve

Today would have been my mom’s birthday .. she passed on several years ago.  Mom we love you and we miss you.  Even though your not here with us on this earth you are always with us in our hearts.  Happy Birthday Mom!!

We got up this morning and i was very slow moving.  In fact I was so slow we ended up being 20 minutes late meeting our friend Steve.

Once I we finally got out the door we were on the road.  There wasn’t too much traffic in the beginning

   

Mississippi has lots of marshes and wet lands and Shipyards.

 

Lots of bridges too

       

Once we got past the marsh land and bridges …

 

It was wide open road.  We finally arrived and our friend Steve was still waiting for us to arrive.  We had lunch at KFC!  We visited with Steve as this will be our last time seeing him this trip.  We have plans with other friends tomorrow and he is going to spend his first Christmas in his new home at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

  

Steve has settled in and loves his new home which we are thrilled for him.  Of course we will still worry about him but we know he will be well taken care of and if he needs anything he always help available at any time.  He seems to be really happy and says his new home has so much room.

 

It was time to say good bye which Steve doesn’t like to do.  He always get’s tears in his eyes and has a hard time letting us move on. 

We got home and I have made a Cherry Cheese Cake for tomorrow.  The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing.  Watching the Hallmark Channel :)

In Loving Memory

We woke up this morning and received another dreaded phone call.  Our good friend Dave finally has went home to his final resting place.  No more days filled with pain for him, no more days of going for treatments, no more days of trying to be strong for everyone else around him.  He has went home to be with our father and savior.  Dave has fought the battle of Leukemia for several years now. Dave was only in his 50’s.  It’s such a shame that he was so young and only in the beginning of his retirement days.  His retirement days were spent fight a battle for his life.

Our hearts are heavy with sadness with the loss of dear friend Dave.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Barb and family.  May God give you strength and love to endure this ruff period in your lives.  It’s horrible to lose someone but it’s esp horrible to lose them so close to the holidays.  It’s been a ruff week for us as we’ve lost 2 young men in our lives that were very close to us.  We are miles away and can only be there in spirit.  May you rest in peace Dave, you will be greatly missed by many of us.

This week has reminded us how much we should cherish our lives and take each day as tomorrow may never come because we do not know if it will or not.  Remember to tell the ones you love that you love them as you never know when it will be your last chance to do so.

So many people think they will enjoy their retirement years and when that time comes it does not happen.  I know that i have lived with my disability for years and for over 10 years i laid in a bed and looked at the same 4 walls. Even though i am still fighting that disability, I have been blessed that I can spend my good days doing what i love and that is getting to see this great country.

With Christmas fast approaching remember how much your family and friends mean to you and remember what  a gift God has given to all of us by bringing his son to world.  What a glorious day that is fast approaching.