Sweet Home Alabama

Greetings from LA! That's "Lower Alabama", of course. We have arrived at this year's "winter home", lovely Bella Terra RV Resort in Foley. And, it is "sweet". The place is spacious, beautifully landscaped, and filled with some very friendly folks. The staff is simply the best. They definitely "get" that they are in the hospitality business. We are looking forward to enjoying our stay.

I say we're looking forward because, for me at least, it doesn't feel like our stay has really started. We arrived on Monday afternoon, and within 24 hours I was slammed with a nasty sore throat that evolved into a full blown cold. (This happens to me every January, but I thought I'd escaped it this year.) So, I've barely stepped outside. But, it feels like I've turned a corner and am on the road to recovery. We have lots of exploring to do in these parts, and we're eager to get started.

As we made our way from Louisiana to Alabama, we made a short stop in Summerdale to check out the Escapees park there. We were treated to a tasty travel day meal and lots of enjoyable conversation by Judy and Darrell. It was great to catch up with these two since our first meeting in Tennessee. We attended the Sunday night ice cream social where Darrell introduced us to Norm and Linda and Don and Gloria, whom we've heard lots about but had never met. Norm and Linda's web site was one of the first resources we discovered when we hatched this crazy idea of fulltime RVing, and it was jammed packed full of helpful information. It was nice to be able to personally thank them for the help they provided us. When we attended the Winnebago rally in Forest City in Summer 2010, lots of our RVing friends told us to be on the lookout for Don and Gloria. So, we went on a mission to find them among the masses. We did locate their Winnie among the 1200 or so that were on the rally grounds, but they weren't home. It was a treat to finally connect with these fine folks. Thanks to y'all for making us feel so welcome at Rainbow Plantation.

So far, the weather here in LA has been quite favorable. With daytime temps reaching into the 70s, we are oh so happy to be here. We're just minutes away from reportedly beautiful beaches. But, thanks to this cold, we've yet to see them. There's plenty of shopping nearby and a long list of restaurants we just can't wait to try. We're here for a couple of months, so we should have plenty of time to see and do it all.

But first, I have to get over this darn cold.