RV Adventures – Pensacola Florida
Posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010
I am pleased to introduce our friends Anne-Marie and Al who have been traveling the USA via RV. These free-birds are willing to share the adventure here with us at Remarkable Wrinklies. So, why here? Because anyone who is willing to retire to an RV with their spouse and two cats… well those are some dang Remarkable Wrinklies! Please take some time to enjoy their story.
We were excited to arrive in Pensacola, our home away from home. There is a little something to be said for familiarity of one’s surroundings.
The plan was to spend the month of November visiting with friends, checking on our storage unit, biking and playing on the beach, making our annual doctor visits etc.
Surprise, surprise, the first thing to do was prepare for a late-season hurricane! Ida downgraded to a Tropical Storm, and she wasn’t much more than a rain storm for us, but when one LIVES in an RV, one needs a PLAN of action. Our friend Lee decided we should move the RV into a vacant building at the West Fraser Mill. Thus, a plan in hand, we waited…eyes GLUED to the WEATHER CHANNEL. Happily, there was no need to evacuate. Ok, so back to the fun we had planned!
Ida rearranged a lot of sand around the beaches and closed some roads.
It was a perfect opportunity for biking out to Ft. Pickens, with our friends Patti and Nicole, without the threat of vehicle traffic.
All of us being northerners, we had the strange sensation of being surrounded by snow banks instead of mountains of white sand…until the Gulf of Mexico showed itself between the hills.
Even storm damaged, the gorgeous Pensacola beaches are second to none!
We were enjoying ourselves immensely, squeezing in those doctor’s appointments here and there. When one begins to age, health maintenance takes on new and interesting meaning. My Dr. discovered a bit of a vitamin D deficiency…who knew? Al’s maintenance was more complicated and required us to extend our stay through December.
Thanksgiving dinner was a shared meal at the RV Park. It was a feast really–fried turkey, smoked turkey, grilled turkey, duck, ham and every side dish imaginable including the requisite banana pudding, pecan pie AND sweet potato casserole (y’all know it was made by yours truly.)
Understandably, local cooking in the Deep South involves lots of pecan and sweet potato concoctions as both are readily available in great quantities.
The ever-present, much-loved and sought after, elaborately- embellished banana pudding remains an enigma.
Let me back up just for a minute. If you’ve never seen a 15lb. turkey lowered into a pot containing multiple gallons of boiling LouAn peanut oil…well, you just need to see it… and taste it. Yummy! P.S. LouAn Peanut Oil is available in 5-gallon containers in any local supermarket…year round.
We finally got to see the Blue Angels fly! What an amazing show of pilot skill and airplane technology…and unbelievable noise! The photos are courtesy of our friend Victoria who remembered to take a camera.
By Christmas, Al was recovering from his much maligned maintenance. But, in his weakened condition, he could not prevent me from snagging Winn-Dixie’s last, red, tin-foil tree… that we trimmed with ONE ornament from the Visitation Monastery. It was BEAUTIFUL!
We bought lots of raw peanuts and mailed them off to Josh and Adrienne with their Christmas stockings. Of course, I included the Zatarain’s and instructions on how to boil the peanuts. Our friends Annie and Steve treated us to a delicious Christmas dinner! It was a nice, quiet Holiday.
The fireplace is absolutely our FAVORITE thing in the Big Horn!!! The weather was so cold, we dug out sweaters, winter coats, gloves…even socks. Thank goodness I had the foresight to pack my Couch Potato! My retirement plan to never wear anything on my feet except flip flops was foiled by freezing Florida weather.
Our furnace roared through four 30lb.tanks of LP gas in about 2 weeks. Tulip discovered the counter above the fireplace was the best place to stay warm while Zeus burrowed under whatever blanket was available.
We ate lots of really good food over the Holidays including black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Years Day–compliments of the RV Park owners, Lane and Wyndell, but we didn’t sample every Holiday special Pensacola had to offer…I wonder if that bologna is fried in LouAn??
The sun is setting on our time in Pensacola, and we’re sad to say good-bye to our friends…but, it’s TIME to GO! Gypsies need to hear the drone of a truck engine in their ears, feel the smooth ride of (six) brand-new Michelins rolling on pavement, see the landscape flying by the window and smell the aroma of diesel from the frequent fill-ups it takes to get the 8mpg Big Horn to a new destination.
Gypsies don’t need to hear a howling cat while enjoying the aforementioned pleasures of the senses…and Tulip is cooperating fully! Gone are the hours of yowling and howling. We anticipate a peaceful trip as we journey south to Everglades National Park where Al is scheduled to be a volunteer Park Ranger through the end of February.
Warmer weather would be great too!!
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