2012 Feb - Home to St. Joseph Peninsula SP, FL

Hoover, Alabama to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, Port St. Joe, Florida

Thursday, 2/2/12.  We departed Hoover at 12:40 pm CT.  OD reading 60,361

We arrived at Fort Toulouse Jackson CG at 2:40 pm CT.  The CG fee was $15/night.  $12/night with senior discount. OD 60,447, we had driven only 86 miles.   Upon arriving, we toured Fort Toulouse and the Indian houses on the grounds.  We could not find the American Fort Jackson.  Unfortunately, there was no signage or placards explaining the site.   

Large old trees with Spanish moss cover the campground.  Only 5 other RV sites were occupied.  We stayed at site #2, where we were able to get a signal to our rooftop satellite dish.  There were 4 public bathrooms/showers that  were old and moldy.  The sinks and toilets were dirty.  Otherwise, it was a nice park.  Very pretty grounds.

There were cannons at the Fort, but we couldn't tell if they were authentic or reproductions.  We did notice that the roofs on the Indian's houses, were made of rubber bark.  Ed's foot was bothering him (had surgery Dec 28 to straighten his toes) so we didn't explore too much.  We didn't see the mounds of dirt supposedly marking the site of the re-construction as stated in the brochure.  The Coosa River and Tallapoosa River join here to form the Alabama River.  However, you can't see the rivers from the campground.  The campground is Corp of Engineers, but the park is a State Historical Site, which makes it confusing because they don't take the senior pass for camping (1/2 off camping fee).  But that was okay because for $12 we got electric and water.  The water registered 78 ppm (particles per million), pretty good in our opinion. 

Friday,  2/3/12 - We departed at 11:10 am CT traveling to St. Joseph Peninsula CG, Port St. Joe, Florida.  We got gas at OD 60,642, stopped at Sikes and Kohn on 231 outside Montgomery to buy a couple pair of shoes, arrived at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park at 6:10 pm, well after dark.  By the way, we thought we were still on Central Time, but no...we were on Eastern Time. The office was closed, but we called ahead and got the code to the gate.  We arrived after dark.   Lean Cuisine for dinner.  OD at arrival 60,701.7.

There's a Bear in the Woods

Well...okay, my title is a little deceiving.  Not a big furry black bear, but a little 7 year old blond boy, Barrett, our grandson.  We call him Bear.  An adult week-end was calling his mom and dad to the beach with another couple, so we were the beneficiaries of Bear.  Spending time with him is a joy for us.  He lives less than 5 miles from us but his mom and dad take their parenting responsibilities so seriously that we don't get him overnight much.  We decided to take our motor home out to Oak Mountain State Park for the week-end.  He had a blast.  We did too!!  He brought his star wars guys, guns, bike and electric scooter and played with them all week-end.  We had a campfire, roasted wieners, and made smores.  After his bath, we climbed into the cab-over and read several kids books I had downloaded to my Kindle before we said the "Our Father" and turned out the lights.       

We woke to a pecking on our window.  A chickadee could see his reflection in our tinted window and he didn't stop pecking all day long.  We were afraid the little thing would hurt himself.  At least after dark the pecking stopped so we could get some sleep.

We didn't realize the temps would get down into the 20s.  Brrr...  But the weather didn't chill our spirits.  We had a great week-end with our little guy.  Several times during the week-end he said, "I love coming to the RV".  That warmed our hearts!!