Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Lower Alabama!  Winter has found us and taught us a few things about living in an RV full-time.  Propane tanks need to be filled about every other week when the furnace runs frequently and the garden hose that brings the water to the trailer from the spigot will freeze quickly even though it doesn’t seem that cold outside.  These inconveniences have not put a damper on our Christmas spirit, however, and for this post I will tell you the story of our Christmas tree.

We live in a state forest and are surrounded by pine trees but are not allowed to cut down any live trees.  Living in a trailer we don’t have room for one inside anyhow, so we decided to dig up a small tree, keep it in a bucket until after Christmas and then replant it.  On one of our morning walks we selected the perfect tree and marked it for later.  In case you were not aware or maybe have forgotten, not all pine trees are made alike.  Little River State Forest is mostly a longleaf pine forest so we don’t have any of the cute little triangle-shaped Christmas trees that we drew in first grade or find on a Christmas tree lot.  Most of them look like this one – kind of shapeless and sparse. 

We went back after lunch and Dan dug it up for me.  Did I mention we live in a state forest?  Our tree looked small enough so the root system shouldn’t have been too big, but we didn’t think about the hundreds of trees within a twenty foot radius of it.  Dan prevailed though and we got it out without too much carnage, put it in its temporary housing (i.e. bucket), and took it back to the trailer.

Dan hard at work

 

 With memories of the Christmas tree in the Charlie Brown Christmas special I watched as a child (and actually watched the other night on ABC but was terribly disappointed because it had been edited from an hour long show to thirty minutes.  I was upset because they edited out the part where Linus tells the Christmas story – but that is a whole other post) I set out to make decorations to make it sparkle.  I strung some borrowed lights all around it but when I finished the branches were sagging under the weight so I took them off and put them straight up instead.



Before Deer



I spent all afternoon stringing popcorn together and ended up with five strands, each about three feet long.  Buddy thought I had two strands too many so when my attention was elsewhere he quietly ate two of them, string and all.  He thought we could go without one more but I disagreed and rescued the third one.  I put them on the tree and added some stars I had cut out and was pleased with what I had accomplished.  But it seems everyone’s a critic and that night the deer decided the popcorn was too fluffy and proceeded to nibble it down so it wasn’t quite so big.



After Deer



 

While I don’t think it will win any awards I thought it turned out kind of cute.  It brings me joy when I see it and reminds me that Christmas is coming – what more can I ask for?

USS Alabama

We recently made a trip to the USS Alabama in Mobile.  This is the ship Dan’s father served on during WWII making it a very special and often emotional day.  We went on November 1, the day before what would have been Jeep’s (Dan’s dad) 87^th birthday.  Memories of the many stories he told us about his days on the ship kept coming back as we walked the same decks he would have walked.

Jeep was a Boatswains Mate and served as gun captain on one of the big 16 inch guns.  It was very humbling to crawl up in one of the turrets and imagine what it must have been like to be in that cramped space when the guns were firing and you were fighting for the survival of your shipmates.

  

 

One of the most emotional moments was when we found his name on the list of sailors who had served on the ship between 1942 and 1947.  Of course we couldn’t remember the names of any of the men in Jeep’s stories – everyone went by a nickname, but we knew many of them knew Jeep as a young sailor and probably featured him in their stories as well.  Probably some of the men listed are still alive but the majority of them have passed on making it even more touching.

Being retired Navy Dan obviously has been on his share of ships.  But visiting the USS Alabama was one of the items on his bucket list and meant a great deal to him. 

Work, work, work

While we are enjoying getting to know the area, we also put in 40 hours a week working at the park.  Our duties include anything and everything but there are a couple of things we do on a regular basis. 

 Every Saturday and Sunday we have opened the park at 7:00 a.m. and closed it at 7:00 p.m.  For you non-math people that’s two twelve hour days in a row.  Most of the visitors to the park for the week come on these two days so we are kept pretty busy meeting the needs of our guests.  Deb stays in the office taking gate fees, renting boats, assigning campsites, etc.  There are times when it is really slow so she has a chance to catch up on her reading.  So far she averages one novel per weekend.

Dan gets to play on the four-wheeler.  He says he is working, picking up trash and so forth, but he looks like he is having too much fun riding around for it to be considered work. 

On Mondays and Tuesdays we wear our groundskeeper/maintenance hats.  When we first arrived there was a young teacher about Zack’s age who did all the mowing.  Once school started the bulk of the mowing fell to us.  We each have a zero-turn tractor that we use to cut grass.  Dan’s is called the Grasshopper and Deb’s is the Hustler.   As you've seen in previous pictures there are lots of trees here but at one time there were a bunch more.  We know because the areas we mow are filled with stumps and holes where trees once stood.  By the end of the day you feel as if you have been riding an old-fashioned, wooden rollercoaster for eight hours straight.

Every once in a while Dan gets a chance to use his carpentry skills.  Thomas (our boss) says that once the grass mowing season is over there are several projects he wants Dan to do.  Recently he built a storage area for the park’s trolling motors and batteries.

Another workamping couple is scheduled to arrive next Saturday so our duties most likely will change somewhat.  Because we work for a non-profit agency, any work we do is appreciated so it really doesn’t matter what we are tasked with, we’re happy.

Our NIght on the Town

We had our first overnight trip last weekend.  We left Buddy with his friends at the doggie day care and went to New Orleans which is only a little over three hours from the park.   Mapquest and our GPS disagreed on the best route once we hit the city but we found it ok.

 

 

We stayed at the Inn on Bourbon Street, right in the heart of the French Quarter.  It was built in 1859 as the French Opera House, the first opera house in America. 





Our restaurant -- sorry guys, Dan was too shocked
 to get a picture of the girl.



We had dinner at a nice restaurant and walked around for a while – nothing too exciting.  I guess we are getting too old for all the carousing that was going on after dark.  We headed for the hotel around 9:00.  Kind of early you might think but it was late enough to see the bare bottoms of dancers hanging out of barroom doors and for Dan to see a girl turn around in front of him raising her shirt to show she wasn’t wearing a bra.

It was nice to be able to watch television in the hotel -- we still haven’t figured out how to get any consistent reception here.  For the trip back we followed the coast through Mississippi.  That was truly beautiful.  US 90 literally hugs the coast for much of the state.  Beachfront homes are across the street from the gulf.  It was such a beautiful drive.

Hi! I'm Buddy Lee

Hello all!  My name is Buddy Lee Nesbitt, the namesake of this blog.  I am accompanying my owners on this grand adventure of their’s and thought you might want to know how things are going from my perspective.

So far it has been a lot of fun.  There are so many different smells and sounds here.  I have seen two deer – boy, are they tall!  When we go on our long walks I can smell all kinds of tracks they have left behind.  I hear there are alligators in the lake but have not seen any yet.  I keep looking for them, though.

Is that one?

Nope.  I'll keep searching.

I miss the dog park back on the IOP (hi Otis!) but have made some new friends at the Doggie Day Care I go to on Thursdays when my owners go sightseeing.  The proprietor has a black Great Dane and one of the workers has a couple of black mixed breeds like me.  Their dogs come to work on Thursdays so I will have someone to play with.  They call us the Black Dog Gang.

Meeting a new friend

Speaking of work, when my owners go somewhere I get in my new office that Grandpa made for me.  I really like it!  It is the perfect size for me.  I like it so much I sometimes curl up in there even when everyone is home.

But the best part of living in a trailer is I'm allowed on the couch!  Because I can’t see out of any of the windows from the floor, my owners spread a blanket over part of the couch so I can look outside.  It’s great!

Ahh, heaven!

The grand adventure has started!

After a week in Florida at Deb’s mom and dad’s we have arrived at our first Workamping job, Little River State Park in Alabama.  The address is Atmore, Alabama but it is actually closer to a little (tiny) town called Uriah (pronounced U-rye).  The park is approximately 60 miles north of Pensacola, Fl and 60 miles northeast of Mobile, Al.





It is beautiful here.  Our morning walks with Buddy have taken us through most of the developed part of the park.  Every time we start out I hear the Brooks and Dunn song Red Dirt Road playing in my head.  It is definitely red dirt!  I now understand my mom’s complaints when we were kids about “that old red clay mud”.  It is like a dye that hardly comes out of our clothes.  Dan already has a pair of jeans that have been designated “grass cutting days only”. 



 It has a 25 acre lake that we can see from the front steps of our trailer.  Dan takes Buddy on alligator hunts.  There are gators in the lake but Buddy is only allowed to get in the water that pools under the spillway – less chance of actually seeing one. 

It has been great so far.  When the park closes at seven we are often the only people in the park.  The other night we sat “on the porch” and watched the moon rise over the lake.  It was very quiet and relaxing.

My goal is to post something at least every other week on this blog.  I hope to take lots of pictures and keep everyone that is curious informed.  Until the next time…