Re-cap of Our Holiday Weekend

For me, Thanksgiving didn’t really feel like a holiday. I mean, every day kind of feels like a holiday since I’m not working. The only thing that actually made it feel like a holiday was the influx of families with children. Since early November, there have been few kids here. Most of the folks have been our age or older. The proverbial Snowbirds who flock south in the winter months, chasing warmer weather.

Some neighboring RV peeps were talking about a group gathering, but Mike doesn’t like peopling, so I politely declined. We still had to eat, though, so I drove over to Bayou La Batre on Wednesday (the seafood capitol of Alabama AND home of the fictional Bubba of Bubba Gump Shrimp) for some provisions. That’s when I saw this mob of  oyster fishermen near the boat launch just north of Dauphin Island. They were all getting ready for their holidays, too.

I not only managed to get the groceries I needed and some Asian food for a carry-out lunch, I also went to Dollar Tree and picked up some supplies to make Christmas decorations. (The actual crafting of those decorations may not happen until we get to our next stop.)

Since our time on the island is drawing to a close, I’ve been making more of an effort to watch the sunset ever day. There have been some good ones lately. On Thanksgiving Eve, I drove down toward the west end of the island for a different sunset view. That’s where these pics were captured.

 

 

Thursday ended up being a picture-perfect weather day. I baked an Apple Crumb Pie and then sat outside stitching for a couple of hours. By early afternoon, I was getting antsy and decided to go for a walk.

Initially, I headed for the beach. But, at the last minute, I decided to detour through the Audubon Sanctuary that’s adjacent to the campground. I’m so glad I did. I had the place almost entirely to myself and it was such a beautiful day. Being able to be there was such a gift.

 

The place really is a sanctuary. It is so peaceful and the late-afternoon Autumn light was just lovely.

The only other people I saw was a group of three Europeans who were at the little boardwalk overlook, and they were talking very little. When they did talk, they spoke quietly.

The air was very still, which made for a mirror-like reflection on Alligator Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner — homemade chicken pot pie and Instant Pot stuffing — may not have been pretty, but it was tasty.

I don’t  remember what we did on Friday. One of the hazards of not working is that all of the days kind of blend together.

I do remember the sunset. It was another pretty one.

 

 

 

Saturday was a bit cold and dreary so we didn’t do a whole lot. Mike had to do some work on the AquaHot water heater (there always seems to be something going wrong in or on the RV, and not just ours). Luckily, he got it working again.

Even the sunset on Saturday was “meh”, matching the tone of the day.

 

Late Saturday night, it started raining. And it kept raining well into Sunday. I was bummed because I’d planned a kayak trip to test out a hard-body sea kayak owned by a neighboring RVer. It would have been good to compare how my inflatable performs in comparison to a hard-body one. Everything I’ve read and heard say the hard ones track through the water better.  Inflatables are lighter and sit higher, so they tend to be more impacted by the wind. Not that it really matters; we have no way to transport a hard-body kayak.

I didn’t want to be confined in the camper all day, so I set out on a mini road trip. I’d been wanting to visit Daphne, Alabama, on the Eastern Shore. The town has a Gator Boardwalk where you can view alligators.

As it turns out, cool, cloudy days are not good for seeing alligators. Oh well. It was still good to get out and see some new scenery.

From Daphne, I headed south down the Eastern Shore toward Gulf Shores and Fort Morgan where I caught the Mobile Bay Ferry back to Dauphin Island. I stopped at the Publix in Gulf Shores for dinner supplies (Publix makes great deli subs) and a few groceries.

The pics that follow were all captured from the deck of the ferry.

 

One of the reasons I chose to take the ferry to get back home was the timing of the trip. The boat I took left Fort Morgan at 4:15 and headed east to Dauphin Island. That meant I got to enjoy not only a boat ride, but also the sunset from the boat’s deck. Win-win! (I never say no to a boat ride.)

The pics that follow were all captured from the deck of the ferry. The pics are nice, but pictures never do full justice to the in-person sunset experience.

Also, though I didn’t get pics, I did see two different pods of dolphins during the crossing. It truly felt magical seeing them in that amazing light.

 

 

 

 

 

I meant to get this posted yesterday (Monday), but got distracted. Today is my last chance for a Dauphin Island sunset. Here’s hoping the weather holds today. And that I make it back from my Mobile Costco run.