Winter Excursion 3, Day 153

We had a little bit of firewood left from Honeycomb, but that all got burned up last night. The neighbor and I bought some firewood at a local joint this morning. There should be enough for both of us for the rest of the week.

We took a few short walks with Kaylee. The campground is still packed, but it's going to clear out today and tomorrow. There will only be a few of us left.
We spent the late afternoon and evening by the fire. Had a nice sous vide salmon dinner and watched a little TV. Forecast is for thunderstorms tonight and temps falling into the 30s. It will be a good night for sleeping.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 152

We left Honeycomb at 1000 and made the short drive to Monte Sano State Park just south of Huntsville. Here's a pic of the new campsite.

We are on a bluff overlooking the industrial park outside of Huntsville.

It is a great view.

You can see the mountains in the distance.

A night the lights are really beautiful.

The blue is from the Boogey Lights.

Kaylee says she is getting tired of moving every few weeks, but Cath and I are still liking life on the road.

We will be here until next Friday (5 Apr). We just hung out at camp today and watched all the other campers. The place is full as it is still Spring Break for the folks in this area. There are plenty of walking trails in this park. We will be exploring the trails during the week.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 151

We did some camp clean-up in preparation for our move tomorrow.
Jerry & Carolyn came over in the afternoon. We swapped stories of our travels this year. It was good to see them again. We went to Wintzell's Oyster House for dinner. The food was great. We all had our fill of oysters.
For all you folks up north we had this visitor in camp this afternoon. Spring is in the air. The weather has been perfect!

Off early to bed. Moving day tomorrow. It's been great here at Honeycomb Campground, it's one of our favorites.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 150

We spent most of the day around camp. Weather is nice, but it was a little chilly this morning. The wind kicked up and the breeze stayed cool all day.
Turns out the problem with our neighbors camper was that the converter was unplugged. All is well now.
Washed the truck in the afternoon and went to a local pizza joint up the road. Pizza was good!

Jerry and Carolyn are stopping by tomorrow afternoon. It will be fun to see them and we can swap winter camping stories.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 149

Planned on fishing with the kayak this morning, but the wind was pretty strong and temps were in the low 40s. I went over to the boat dock and threw a worm in the water. First cast I got this guy. Nice catfish, close to 4 pounds! He is back in the lake living large!

We went into Huntsville and checked out our new campsite at Monte Sano State Park. Nice site and we move there on Friday.
We went to Redstone Arsenal and hit the PX and Class VI.
Back at camp the wind is still whipping and temps in the low 50s. We will spend the evening in the camper.
A few movies, a nice dinner, then off to bed. Hopefully kayak fishing is in the cards tomorrow.
Need to add a little to today's blog:
We had some neighbors move in next door at about 1930. Young couple with a small child. He came over around 2030 and asked if I knew anything about campers. Seems they have no power, lights, etc. Turned out their battery is shot and their converter is not working. I lent them our spare battery, so at least they have lights. We will trouble shoot it tomorrow.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 148

We did laundry this morning and got this pic from the deck at the camp store laundry. It's a bunch of albatross sitting on the swimming area flotation rope. Sometimes there are many more of them.

We spent the afternoon hanging around camp. Got this pic of the ever-present coots. We call them the "mob".

Later in the afternoon some storms started brewing.

Kaylee did not like the distant thunder and headed for her bed.

The storms went north and south of us. We barley got a sprinkle.

After dinner we sat by the fire. We got a text from our pilot friend saying he was going to do a flyby tonight around 2000. We waved our flashlight at him when he flew over.
It's been a good day!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 147

I spent a few hours in the kayak early this morning. The lake was like a mirror. Had a great time, but once again no fish. I've not talked to anyone who has caught anything!

We spent the late morning watching everyone leave the campground. All said and done there is only three of us left at this end of the campground. It is very quiet!

Watched this yacht cruise up the river this afternoon.

With all the campers gone the wildlife came to visit.

These two were very noisy

The neighbors and their kids were having a great time in the late afternoon. Check out these vids.

Even Dad got in the act.

Another fun day. We really like this campground!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 146

First thing this morning I went to the office and we are able to move right to site #37. This saves us a move!
I lent our Kayak to Z (the pilot from Ft Drum). He took both of his little kids for a ride (one at a time). I think they had a blast. His little boy, Charlie, spends hours fishing from the shore. He has a little Zebco and he has actually caught two fish that we've seen. I think they are the only two in the lake, no one has caught any others to include all the bass boats.

Here's the view from our campsite of all are neighbors along the shore. The kids are having a great time.

We watch the coots all the time. They swim up and down in front of the campsites. Sometimes there are 50 or more in the flock.

Could not resist one more pic of our view in the evening. We really enjoy this place.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 145

I fished again this morning with no luck.
We went into town to do a little shopping at our favorite Piggly Wiggly up the road. Back at camp we got this pic of a lady kayaking, towing a little kayak that we guessed was her son or daughter. They spent quite awhile on the lake.

We had a young couple move in next to us. He looked like a soldier so I asked. Turns out he is an Apache Experimental Test Pilot stationed here at Redstone. Even more coincidence is they were stationed at Ft Drum for awhile and still own a house in Carthage! Small world.
By evening the campground was full. I'll bet there are no open sites. Got this pic of the shoreline at night. This place was rocking and rolling.

All is well in the Boss camp.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 144

Went fishing with one of our neighbors this morning. We both have Kayaks and we had a blast. No fish, but just paddling around was fun.
We watched all the other campers coming and going. People watching is fun.
We had another couple in a Class B move in next to us on site #37. After talking with them we discovered that they got site #37 because there was a cancellation. We are currently in site #36 and have to move to site #42 on Saturday for one night and then move to site #37 on Sunday. The couple in site #37 in the Class B are leaving Saturday. I'll go to the office in the morning, maybe we can move right to site #37 and save ourselves a move.
Here's a pic of the beach at the campground. The point in the distance is where we are camped.

Had a nice afternoon and evening hanging around camp, fishing, and enjoying the weather.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 143

We left Deerlick Campground at 0930. I don't think we will ever forget turning the camper around in the cul-de-sac below our campsite. I pretty sure it was at least an eight point turn! Cath was nervous!
The drive today was only 150 miles and we took all backroads. Gypsy really took us on some true backroads today! Almost all the roads we have traveled in Alabama are totally full of litter. We never cease to be amazed. None of the other states we visit are this bad. Alabama is a beautiful state and we hope they can get this trash problem cleaned up (that's a joke)!
We stopped for lunch along the way and arrived at Honeycomb TVA campground at 1330. It is just north of Guntersville, AL.
Here's a few pics of the site.

Our view from the campsite.

We were treated to a  nice full moon after dinner.

We are looking forward to our stay here. We will be here until 29 Mar.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 142

We spent the day slowly packing up for our move tomorrow. Kaylee say "Geez, we have to move again"!

We took one more long walk around the campground. We really like this place and we put in the paperwork to do some camp hosting next year.
Early dinner and off to bed. We are anxious to get to Honeycomb tomorrow. It's another of our favorite campgrounds.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 141

We headed to Hoover this morning for Cath's hair appointment. I took Kaylee for a nice long walk in Moss Rock Preserve. She had a great time and ran her legs off. She will sleep good the rest of the day.We meet Cecilia for lunch afterward and said our goodbyes.
Back at camp the weather is still beautiful, so we sat outside.
Had some new neighbors from Michigan come into the site next to us. We had a good time talking with them.
Dinner, a John Wayne movie, and off to bed.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 140

We were up this morning at 0730. Cody (the soldier from Ft Drum) came by for his morning coffee at 0800. He and his dog Piper have to leave today. It's been fun talking with him.

After breakfast Jacob and I went for a short hike. I got a few pics of him near the lake, down a steep hill.

We spent most of the day around camp whittling, splitting wood, fishing, and playing games.
We were visited by a few small lizards out sunning themselves.

Jacob left this for us on the chalkboard.

As it was St Patrick's Day, Cath made Corned beef and cabbage. We all enjoyed it and later had smores by the campfire. Jacob headed home afterward. It was fun having him around again and we will miss him!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 139

After breakfast Jacob and I went into town to get dog food and a few things we needed for the camper. On the way back we stopped at Lake Nicol. Nice little park and I got a great shot of Jacob.

Back at camp we got some of the wood split up for our campfire this evening. Here's Jacob standing on my splitting stump with Kaylee supervising.

We all took a nice hike on the "Tree Trail".
Towards evening one of the tugs came by with all it's lights on.

We were treated to a really nice sunset. This was the best one since we've been here.

And here's a pic of the camper bathed in blue.

A great stromboli dinner with smores for desert. It's been a fun day and with a Jacob in the area a crazy one too!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 138

We left camp around 0900 and headed to Hoover to do laundry and pickup Jacob after school.
Back at camp we enjoyed the usual Jacob craziness; whittly, chopping, fire building, climbing on the truck, and talking non-stop!
The weather is perfect and there is no rain in the forecast (imagine that)!
Grilled Salmon on the egg for dinner, a few shows, then off to dreamland. It's good to see Jacob again!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 137

We ran into town this morning to do our weekend shopping for Jacob's visit. On the way back we got these pics of the dam at Lake Tuscaloosa. The road is actually on the dam and the outlet (spillway) causes these "fountains". Pretty interesting!

Back at camp we spent some time outside and watched the weather. We were under a tornado watch for most of the afternoon and early evening. All said and done we hardly got anything. Almost no rain and a few rumbles of thunder. We were not complaining!

Winter Excursion 3, Day 136

We spent the day at the campground. Had a nice breakfast and then took a long walk. Kaylee had a blast.
On the walk we met a guy tent camping. He had a new German Shepherd puppy. We talked for awhile and it turns out he was Army Infantry and was stationed at Ft Drum. He was wounded in Afghanistan. Nice guy and we had a good talk.
We watched the coal barges go up and down this afternoon. 

I split some wood in preparation for Jacob's visit this weekend.

The forecast is for heavy rain tonight so I covered the wood.

A couple with their teenage daughter came by the campsite with their brand new trailer on their maiden voyage. He had never backed the trailer and basically got stuck on our road with no way to turn around. I backed their camper up the hill and put it in their campsite. Then helped them get level and hook everything up. It was fun helping them.
DInner, some shows, then off to bed.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 135

Ray and Melinda packed up this morning and were on the road by 1300. Cath and I made a quick store run for a few things. We spent the afternoon by the fire and did some reading. Temps were in the 70s and it was dry all day!
I went down to the fishing pier and caught this guy. Nice largemouth, around 15" and maybe 2 pounds. It was the biggest one so far.

We had a lazy evening, a few shows, then off to bed.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 134

I think everyone slept in a bit this morning. Allen and Stephanie left around 1300 after the rain stopped (yes it rained again)!

Later in the afternoon the rain stopped for good and Ray and Melinda came over. We spent some time by the campfire and enjoying the cool, DRY, weather.

Cath made her White Lasagna for dinner and everyone enjoyed it.

Here's a pic of Ray and Melinda with their dog Cola. Of course the vizsla had to get into the pic also.

After dinner we yakked and had a few toddies, then off to bed.

Winter Excursion 3, Day 133

Everyone slept good as we are still catching up on the hour we lost.
We had ham biscuits for breakfast, but Jacob wanted scrabble biscuits! He also asked for salsa for the biscuits.It's the first time we've heard of that combo!

We have an Eastern Redbud that just went into bloom right in front of the camper. You can see the river in the background.

Here's Kaylee waiting for her walk. Jacob and his Mom took her on a nice long one before they had to leave.

Went to the neighbor's (Allen and Stephanie) camper for dinner. They made a really good Tex-Mex salad with all the trimmings. It's been fun talking to them as they have done quite a few mods to their camper. It gives us some ideas for projects on ours.