January 29-February 1 2013

Wow, January went fast! We headed to western Alabama to visit with Barbara and Terry in Grand Bay. We met them in a campground on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were part of a group listening to some impromptu music. I was working on my pine needle basket , we got to talking and they have huge needles in their yard. To make a long story short they sent me a HUGE box of long leaf pine needles last summer. We went to harvest a few more since we were in the neighborhood.

Fog on Mobile bay made these cranes look ghostly. The USS Alabama battleship in Mobile. We toured it on our way through last winter.

The GPS tried to take us through a tunnel with a 12 foot clearance. We are 12 feet 6 inches tall, so we had to detour around and see lots more of Mobile than we planned to. Above is Government street, lined with huge oak trees historic mansions. We were hoping they were high enough for us to get under. Barbara and Terry with the basket I made for them out of their pine needles. They went to a lot of work to collect all those other needles they sent and I am assuming I will call them and ask for more, so I gave them a gift. Barbara showed us some of her many beautiful quilts that she makes.

These are some loooong needles. Great for the baskets. We stayed at Payne’s RV park in Theodore, Alabama. Here is the bus by the lake. It rained hard all day, strong winds, so we hung out.

I took this great shot with the dramatic filter on the new camera. Palmers are about in Mobile area, the Palmer Grocery, Palmer Toyota and Palmers quik stop.

We headed out to Mississippi. On the way out of the RV park we passed Barbara and Terry in their RV, They had been going to leave on Monday, but the storm delayed their departure , so we got to stop by. the bus at Buccaneer state park on the beach in Waveland, MS.

John walking on the beach by the state park. Sea wall and water. Only this tiny piece of beach. When Katrina hit this area it hit with a 28 foot surge wave and took out 90% of Waveland and most of the rest of the Mississippi coast down to Biloxi. Not much is built back yet, this highway was new last year.