Moving forward.................

In October we drove over to Joplin, MO to see the damage done by the tornado in May 2011.  Nothing could have prepared us for the devastation.  Even now, 5 months later, the damage is overwhelming.   A lot of the homes and buildings have been leveled but the schools and the hospital remain ...  from the street we could see bulletin boards in the school with notes on them... but windows blown out.  The hospital has a temporary ER that looks like a giant tent.  We saw a number of temporary shelters being used by businesses.  It will be a long time before this town is back on its feet.  We left there counting our blessings and sending up a prayer for the residents.

We leave OK with no leveling system but with the promise from Dave and Sue that they will meet us in Florida in February!!!!

We spent 2 weeks in Austin, visiting with Emma, Aaron and my new granddaughter.. a chihuahua named Louisa.  She was lucky enough to be adopted into this family and she knows it.  While we were there we made a trip to the Hill Country.  We took the President Johnson ranch tour and enjoyed it immensely.  On our way back we drove through Luchenback, TX.  It is a post office and a bar....  but fun to see.   Since we were there so close to Halloween; Em and Aaron took us to a pumpkin patch farm.  We got to ride in their new Honda Civic, really nice.  It turned out that this farm had lots of animals to feed and visit, right up our alley.  This particular farm has Jersey dairy cattle and Blue Bell Ice Cream uses them for their advertising.

After leaving Austin we drove across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and most of that was on raised roadways over bays and bayous.  Fascinating really.  We wanted to spend a night in New Orleans but were unable to find an RV park.  Our New Orleans adventure will have to wait a while.  We were amazed at all the trees all along the panhandle.  Now we understand why it is call the Emerald Coast.


We are now calling the Maxwell-Gunther Recreation Area home.  This is located in Niceville, Florida.  It is actually part of the Elgin Air Force base on the Choctawhatchee Bay.  We are right across the bay from Destin, Florida and close to about 4 military bases.  Elgin Air Force base is the closest.

Exploring the gulf coast is our new pastime.  The Gulf Islands National Seashore is our personal favorite.  White sand beaches and no one around.  Evidently this is the off season for this area, to which we say PERFECT.  The weather is cool nights and highs in the 60-75 range.  This is summer temps in WA, so we love it.  The only downside has been the biting bugs.  Not mosquitoes but some other little varmints, luckily any breeze moves them right along.

We did manage to get our leveling system fixed in Florida, however our extended warranty would not cover the cost because they now say that the Oklahoma repairs were faulty and the cause of our problem.  In the meantime, we are now out more $$$$$$$.  We have complained to everyone involved but no one is willing to help with the cost.  GRRRRRRR  The only option we have is small claim court in Oklahoma.  We will see............

The weekend after Veterans Day was the Blue Angels homecoming, held at the Pensacola Naval Station.  It was a day of roaring jets, aerobatics, sky writers, and lots of one of a kind aircraft.  The show started at 9AM ending at 8PM.  At 2PM the Blue Angels did their performance, but there were lots of other fascinating performances.  We spent the day looking up til our necks ached but loved every minute of it.  The finale was a fireworks display and the "Wall of Fire".  The air show is an annual event and the locals were there to cheer them on.

We have been exploring the Gulf Coast and have been as far west as Alabama Gulf Shores and as far east as St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  And we look forward to revisiting many of these places. 

We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and want to send all of you our best wishes for a great holiday.

Love to all

Bill and Cathy