Day 27-28, Sunday/Monday, 14/15 April 2024 - Visiting friends, moving to Emerald Coast.

Sunday, we showered, had breakfast and left CB around 09:30 for Sylacauga, Al, which is just south of Birmingham, Al, to visit friends. We met Ann Marie and Marvin last year on our Germany trip. June has kept in touch with Ann Marie on Facebook.  We were in the area, so we decided to contact them and they very graciously invited us to stop by for a visit. 

Marvin and Ann Marie live on Lay Lake. Lay Lake is a 12,000-acre reservoir created by the Alabama Power Company. It is primarily used for hydroelectric generation and recreation. Marvin has his fishing boat and a pontoon boat hanging from their boat house at the ready at all times. 

We went for a very nice ride in the Pontoon boat on a perfect day, 80F, a light breeze and mostly sunny. 

Captain Marvin gave us a nice tour of the lake. 

After our boat ride we returned to the house and were treated to a delicious traditional southern dinner. Striper, potato salad, green salad and hush puppies.

We had a very nice dinner and visit. 

Monday, we knocked on the Pipkin's door around 7:15AM and Marvin greeted us with a big smile and the smell of sausage and bacon....yumm. Marvin and Ann Marie made us a nice breakfast of eggs, bacon, local sausage and cheese grits. All was delicious, even the grits, I got seconds. We had another nice visit but it was time for us to move on. 

We said our goodbyes to Marvin and Ann Marie, it was great to see them after connecting in Germany.  They have an idyllic home on a beautiful lake and they were extremely generous hosts.

We hope they make it north in the near future. 

We left Sylacauga about 09:30 and set out south.  We had put in a request at a Harvest Host for the night but had not heard back, my plan was to drive that way and see if we could get a spot. We stopped for lunch at the Dale County rest area on Rt 281 because it had a dump station.  It was 1PM and the HH had not replied, so we decided to try to book a campground in Panama City Beach, FL for the night.  I put a campnab search in for the St. Andrew State Park. After lunch I started looking for other camp grounds and booked Campers Inn for $75. I was no sooner on the road when the HH accepted our stay and Campnab pinged me for the state park. I guess I just don't have enough patience, we were committed to Campers Inn. 

We arrived at Campers Inn about 16:00, it is just an RV park but only one street off the beach and has full hook ups.   

We walked 2.5 miles round trip up the beach, the sand is very fine and feels great on your feet. The ocean is still pretty cool but people were swimming. 

The breeze made the 85F temperature feel just right...should we winter here next year?

We walked in the water enough to get a little wet, but avoided the dreaded Florida sun burn....

We retired to the RV park for drinks and dinner

June cooked another good meal in the LTV using both the gas stove and the induction cook top.  

The adult beverages went down pretty easy too. :)

Tomorrow we plan to make our way to Pensacola..in time to watch the Blue Angels practice on Wednesday.