BAY ST LOUIS

today was laundry day so that is what we did this morning now we have clean clothes for a few days...

then off we went to see some of the sights of bay st louis..first we stopped at the visitors center and talked to a couple of women one from syracuse who goes back to vist when ever there is a wedding or a funeral...she lived in the area that i used to live with while i worked at st joe's before larry...so we had alot to talk about even syracuse basketball..small world ..they then sent us to go look at the old train station which we did..and again talked to a very interesting women and the recovery of the coast and all that has happened to the area in all these years...

after which we headed to the police station i forgot to mention we stopped to look at some birds and lar noticed something on the ground and checked it out..a lady purse so we dropped that off at the station..hope they find the owner...

the lady at the train station told us a bout some angels that were carved on a vacant lot where the building had been a B&B till katrina..the water came up to way over the second floor and a couple jumped on a floating roof and others hung on to a tree all survived and there was a tree still standing on the property so they had some angels carved into it...

off to lunch for a shrimp po-boy..again on the water and we heard the story of recovery of it and the hostess of the place..how gratefull she was/is for all the volunteers who came down...one very special thing she remembers is getting a package of famous amos cookies and what a treasure they were...

when we came down in january right after katrina and volunteered out of the methodist church and was told if people want to talk let them so we did today..and heard lots of interesting things that had happened ...most are still very thankfull for all the volunteers that came from all ove rthe USA to help in one way or another,,lar and i are still so much surprised how much this is on the front burner for most of them...

NEW TRAVELING COMPAINS

some of you recieve larry's e-mail and i know not all of you so what i have to say is a tad different than larry's...

we revieved the pillings decoration as a gift for christmas and along the way a couple of flamingo/penguins just happed to hop up on it and so now this is where they are...but for some reason a geico has been trying to get at them..not sure if it is hungry or not or maybe just likes to climb and make a fuss....

today we are off to take a tour of bioloxi....more later when we return

A 2 STAMP DAY

today we started the day deciding what we wanted yo go and see so it was decided that we needed a stamp...so off we headed to the gulf shore national park..

we traveled along route 90 wich goes along the coast where katrina came ashore..with all the trees left after in many shapes and sizes a young man thought why not carve them into shapes which he has done...thus the pictures of some of the sculpture of wildlife along 90...i don't know how many he did or is still doing but lots ...

then we stopped for lunch and a neighbor hood diner we ordered andthen don't you know about 20 or more teenagers came in..it was a girls socceer team that just won a game and wanted snow cones...so we had a nice quiet lunch...hahahahahahaaha...they were not quiet in the least little bit..some were polite and others were not...the good ones probally ahd one of their parents with them...

off the the national park we went saw the movie about the place and if we had done this on sunday we could have gone on a boat trip around the bayou but we already have other plansfor tomorrow...right now the plan is to go to bioloxi for a historic train tour..thought maybe we might learn some more stuff abut the area/...

last night at dinner we found out that this part of mississippi is one of the poorest counties in the us....they were on the upswing when katrina came along and washed away lots of homes and hope...so some moved out...then the oil spill came along and again hopes were washed away..we understand that there is more to the oil spill than we have heard..of course there hae been many who have made money from each disaster but more that didn't...we asked about having shrimp today for lunch and were told oh we wish we had some to sell....so the shrimp industry has not some back to where it had been even the oysters market (that's ok by me) has been but on hold ..not sure how long it will take them to recover...

we just have to be thankful we live where we do...

LAST FEW DAYS

these last few days have been uneventful...the gator was what we saw when we biked on the trail in the state park back in gulf shores..this one we had seen for several days each time we biked that part of the trail she wasalways out in the water and we joked that she was a plant and not real till she finally moved...

now we are in bay st louis,ms near waveland, ms...of course mardi ggras festivities are ove but we went shopping yesterday to restock the cupboards and found all kinds of mardi gras decorations on sale (just like after christmas up north) and people were filling their carts with all kinds of stuff...beads-door hanging wreaths-wall hangings- anything that had green-purple-gold on it was for sale...as you can see what lar bought was a chocolate king cake from wal-mart..(it was not nearly as good as the one we had bought and shared with larry and mem...but it was a king cake so larry is a happy person...

yesterday we also spent some time riding down th coastal highway where katrina and the oil spill came on shore...you just wonder how some of the people who live here can bounce back...

today we spent over an hr in the office of a abused children center where friends tom and christine worked right aftert katrina and chris has kep in contact with them since then..she sent us there to see if maybe they could use our help for a few days..terry the director (or the one in charge) said right now they are all set so i guess we will be tourists for the time we are in the area...after talking to him your heart just goes out to all these children and the effects of katrina are still there...tonight we are invited to their house for dinner....

we all are just so lucky to be living where we do and have not had to put up with these natural disasters just SNOW...

also along the coast a person who wanted to give back to the area has made carved animals-sea life out of trees that lost their tops and and look like something..eagles-dolphins-turtles-etc..when we take a ride donw th coast and can take some pictures of the cravings i will put them on the blog...

FAT TUES PARADE

SOwhat does a person don on fat tues...go to a mardi gras parade and that is just what we did...along with jim and tish from back home and had nev er been to one of these things we told them that they just had to go and see what it was all about...the parade staarted at 10 ..so we picked them uo around 9am and off to wal-mart to park and off to see the parade...as usuall there were lots of floats of various shapes and sizes..one of the things they do from the floats is throw stuff like beads--stuffed toys--and just stuff..it took awhile for jim and tish to get in the swing of things of knocking down those in front of you to get the good "stuff" being thrown but they did ahhahahaha...after the paradewe took a little ride jim wanted to put his feet in the gulf of mexico so off to the beach we went...then it was time for lunch...

we had to wait 15 min to get a table then we ordered and it took about an hr to get our food...at one time the waitress stopped to tell us that the kitchen was rather busy..da we sorta thought that or we had been forgotten...finally our meal did arrive almost dinner time as it took so long..

back to the rig we went to start getting ready for travel today...we are now in bay st louis for a few days..we have several things on our mid that we want to do and one of them to look up an orphange that our good friends the hounsell worked at after katrina and we will se if they can use us to help out for a day or two...

still working our way to lousianna..

lunch-14 miles-2 large alligators-6 babies

today we met up with some friends from back home...jim & tish kane who live in cortland and jim was th former pastor of cousin bonnie church and married my niece sarah...

anyway we had had dinner with them at cousin bonnie back in nov/dec and they knew were were going to be in the area around thed time they might be here..so they made contact via e-mail and the rest if history...

we met at lambert's for lunch ads they had never been there and were told that it is the place to go..we had been there with lar and mem but decided to go again...brought home most of our meals...if you don't remember it is the home of the throwed rolls which they really do throw..

after which lar and i went to the state park and did a 14 mile bike ride and hope i rode off some of the calories i had just put on...along the way we saw 2 adult alligators who were our sunning themselves and also each had some babies..one had a couple of the babies on her back..the other one the babies were in the water and she was on shore enjoying the sun...

tomorrow we are off to a mardi gras parade in gulf shores...jim and tish have never been to one and this one is a family parade as it is 10am..we went to this parade several yrs ago when we were here with caroline and tony...so i'll bring a bag to fill up wiht goodies....

14 miles-lun ch-2 large alligators-6 babies

SAT

yesterday saturday our friends left heading towards texas and we stayed put...the forecast wasn't a good done and lar and mem even thought about not heading out but decided too anyway...not sure exactly sure when they left but before 8am...the morning was rain on and off but nothing serious till the afternoon..then we were in a tornado watch heavy-hard rain and wind..so needless to say we were glad we didn't have any travel plans...just to do odd jobs around the rig (inside) like clean...make a pot of soup--work on a shawl...and lar worked on his letter to virgin mobile regarding our mi-fi that we bought just before we left home to use for internet...of course that is a long short story that some of you have already heard about and it is too long to go into it on my blog...

today sunday we need to go to wal-mart to pick up a scriot of lar's..the med he takes is something he takes twice a day and most of the time the pharmacies don't seem to have a full supply for 90 days...

ther are also mardi gras parades in the area that were cancelled from yesterday and not sure if we will go to one today or not but on tues we plan on going into gulf shores for their fat tues parade...

so all's well here in alabama....

12---14

we are now nearthe gulf shores, al area and have met up with larry and mim halstead for a few days...what better thing to do than bike..on the first day we did 12 miles on trails on and near the state park..then yesterday we biked 14 on the trail out to fort morgan but didn't get to the fort as the trail stopped before it got there....


but of course after biking we went to lamberts the home of the throwed roll...and yes they really do throw rolls from across the room...a fun place..the waiter even walks around with a picture the looks half full then trips and you think you are getting a lap full of iced tea..then i was asked if i wanted a pried pickle yes i say so what do i get served is some sort of hairy creature...

of course being here it is marda gras season and there is to be a parade on tues and lar and i hope to go ..but wat is mardi gras famous for KING CAKES we we of course bought one...and it was mmmm good...

off to bike again today...

MR. BOING

some of you know about mr boingand what his purpose is...he has been an ice breaker with new habitat groups and given as an award at the endof the day....he is given for something dumb that happens to someone or even for something good...

he has been buried..he has beentreated with repect and loving care..but his year he was awarded to betty jo and she had him nutured......she had him for one night and had his surgery and is still recovering fom it....he also eecieved may boo-boobs--during his stay with her..he then was then presented to dan who really did get his pinkie finger tangled up with a saw...

all in fun...

AIR FORCE MUSEUM

WE HAVE FINALLY MADE IT TO ELGIN AIR FORCE ARAMENT MUSEUMN...LAR HAS BEEn WANTING TO MAKE A VISIT FOR SEVERAL YEARS OOPS so this year we have made it a point to stop ....

especially we needed to get some meds refilled and pick up our mail and it is in the area...

lar spent his time just drolling over the air planes and the ones he remembered while he was in many yrs ago...

i must say it is cold and windy in florida today...everyone is running around with hats-coats-mittens on...not us northerners we are still in short sleeved shirts but we are wearing jackets over them...have to heater going in the rig... and i have made a pot of soup so that will be tasty later on..

have gone thru the mail now to sort it out and pay some bills...don't know why they don't stop while we are away ahhaha...

on tues we are heading towards alabama and will go down to gulf shores for a few days and maybe be around for a mardi gras parade ..it is that time and i am sure in new orleans the parades have already started and are going strong...lar hasn't even bought a king cake yet so i a sure that he will be wanting one soon...especially when he sees one...

hope all's going well with whbo ever reads this....

NEW ME

lar is in his new used t-shirt...while in dade city he gokt talking about always as a kid wanted to be a train engineer and he talked more about trains so our friend peg took the t-shirt off and gave it to lar...so he now has a train t-shirt and is happy..

now for me it was tme for a hair cut so we picked a spot where they had walk-ins so i walked in and had about a 10 min wait...so i got a new do...with spikes and aas lar says fluff..something different for me and by the time we took my picture some of the do has changed a wee bit...it was the most that i have ever paiod for a cut but i was entertained while getting the cut...kelly was very talktive and keep muy in stitches all the while she was hacking away at my hair..now if i can only keep it the way she had it when i walked out...i don't think so...

we then toured around old st andrews and while driving around lar spotted a KRISPY KREME and guess what the truck made a turn tok go in to enough a coffee and donut..so he was a happy man...

tomorrow on the move again...heading to the area around crestview to pick up our mail..and will stay in the area for a few days..

BEEN BUSY

we have been busy these last few days..of course there was the super bowl and i guess he best team won...

while in tallahassee we biked on the st marks trail did 15 and our back sides knew it..

then it was of fto panama city where we did our first care-a-vanner build and met our core group...we thought we were on the way so why not stop by to see what we might remember..we camped in this state park but we are not in the same site as were had been but he park sure looks like the same...funny while biking around we could pcture the sites where each one had been...saying to each other of the hoff's were there--the lee's were ther--and the legro..also the hounsell--along with andy and mary...just brought beck good memories...

today we went off to find the office and when we got there which was in the same place and =had not moved NO one was there..we went into the restore only to find out that the man in charge mother had passed away and the women working was out due to having a baby so that is why it was closed..we were told to come back next week but by then we ill be on our way towards lousianna..so i guess it wasn't met to be...we had hoped to talk to them about doing a build next winter late jan or feb so maybesome of us who had build together yrs ago for our first could get together here again...wasn't met to be....

we have plenty of other habitat friends who would have joined us oh well

the temps are getting cooler this morning it was only 55 and the forecast for the next few morning it might get donw into the 30"s ...and as they are saying it is winter..

SUPER SUNDAY

first i'll back up a tad to yesterday...we arrived here in tallahassee and were told that last night there was to be a pig roast in the park and all were welcomed...what shuld we bring and how much was it...we were tolda don't bring anything and NO cost...sounded like a good deal to us ..so off we went at 6 to a B-B-Q and i must say it was mmmm good...about the best i've ever had...

today was laundry day and we had thoguht of going for a bike ride but by the time we got the laundry done we had gotten into a couple of projects around the rig and decided that by the time we went biking riding maybe we wouldn't be back in time for kick off...

so instead we finished the projects made a trip to wal-mart to pick up stuff that we had on a list...lar also needed some stuff from a hardware dept and nop lowes or home depot close by so wal-mart it was...after all was bought we had found a sma;ll city park that we took a nicelong hike/walk in...so we did get some exercise after all..

now it is back to the rig and get ready for the game....hope your team wins...

FOUND FIVE

this morning found us back on the bikes and on a different trail..this time we did W/ bay trail...one of the things we did was to do more geo caching ad frank had his gadgets with him...we found five of gthem...but we decided to ride the trail to the end and it was windy and thought we might need to rest on the way back so we would stop to find the caches on the way back...the first one very easy and i found that one...the second one was also easy...then on to the third one which was a wee bit tricky and lar was the one who found that one...we had almost given up on that one but lar finally said i think i found it...it was a small canister and they had drilled a hole into the beridge to hide it there...the next one was also eaast but tehn on the another one which we gave up on...the gps said we were in the right place and should be right where we were looking but none of us could find it...anyway the total finds were five and one miss...

then on to find bo diddley grave in a town called bronson...we didn't have to direction to the cementry so we call on star and asked them for directions the young lady laughed when we told her where we wanted to go but could not find the directions to it...she has heard of bo...so how do we find it well stop at the local gas station and we were told exactly where to go ...seems as thou they are asked that question often..

it is getting late by now and we had planned on going out for dinner--needed to fuel up so while lar was filling the tank frank when into the station to ask direction to a seafood restaurant...we were told to go to gainesville...way to far away..and the other place was in the town we had just been in..so we foound one by ourselves...goo fish and chips and alot of local flair..

so a good day was had by all...

GEO-CACHING

yesterday we were off for a bike ride on the nature coast trail and also to do some geo caching...frank is our gadget friend and of course he had his GPS with him so we could find some...there was on in fanning state park near on a bridge in the park...it was classified as a micro cache which ment that it was a little one usually in a magnetic key case...for the next at least 1/2 hr to 45 min we all search on the bridge and had almost given up finding it when frank found it..amen...

then we biked across the street and went to a fort which was no longer there just a sign overlooking the OLD SWANEE RIVER but a pleasant place to have had a fort or even a house...

today we are off for another bike ride and i think we are going to go thru a swamp and also some more geo-caching...

if you look in cathy's hand you can see what we were looking for and there we are in front of the fort...