Amy's Rear View Mirror

Alabama ...
4/5 - 5/26

Alabama

4/6
The drive from Homestead FL to Birmingham AL wasn't any fun - it started out as a real Twilight Zone episode. When I left the KOA in Homestead the speedometer quit working for a while. I stopped at a traffic light on the way to US-75 and when I started again the speedometer stayed on zero! It's not easy trying to keep your speed even with traffic when there's not much traffic on the road. The next time I stopped was to pay the toll on Alligator Alley. When I started to drive away from the tollbooth the speedometer started working again. I spent the night at Rally Park at Lazy Days.

4/7
Today's drive was uneventful. I was glad after yesterday. I stopped at a new campground in Albany GA called Albany RV Resort. All the sites are in the trees - some as long as 120 ft. They've all got cement parking pads and patios, gravel roads, and full hookups including cabletv. It will really be a nice place once it's all completed.

Birmingham
I stayed at the Birmingham South KOA - it's expensive and they charge for every little thing. I spent most of the week caulking and painting the house as the realtor requested. I got the stuff in the storage room separated. RV friends Jerry & Dorothy Veil were at the KOA so I visited as much as I could around doing my chores.

Lynn & Tom Holberton came through town on their way to Gulf Shores. Jerry, Dorothy & I met them at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We had a nice visit.

Crane Hill
The weather started out beautiful - 50's at night and 70's during the day. But then a cold front moved through and it's been 50's & 60's during the day and 30's & 40's at night!!! I'm freezing my butt off!!! I think I came north too soon. Some days it rained, but one storm got really bad ... we had pea size hail, thunder, lightening, and rain at the campground. Ben, Mr Mike and Benny helped everyone get their awnings up - they even took care of the rigs with no one home. We heard that they were expecting a tornado to touch down on Smith Lake (the lake this campground is on) as well as 60 mph winds. We heard that the tornado sirens were going off in Cullman. Mr Mike (the campground owner) lives in a house here in the campground so Ben & Sue, their daughter Jenny, myself and Lady all climbed into the crawl space under his house until the warning was lifted. There were some tornadoes in the area but none of them touched down. The worst of the damage (down power lines and trees) was in Blountsville in Blount County - that's about 30 miles east of us. Some areas had hail as large as baseballs! But Big Bridge is still nice even in bad weather.

But we've had some great campfires (if Sue builds them, they're bonfires - 5 ft fire rings). When we lived in the house we used to come to this campground as many weekends as we could, so I know the other "regulars" here. It's been like old times and catch-up week. We spend a lot of time together - share in making suppers each night and then gather at one campsite for the campfire. Some nights we've gone in at 9 PM, but others we've been up 'til midnight.

And I don't believe it, but in just the 3 days I've been up here my Alabama accent is back already! I'm beginning to sound like I just walked out of the hills. I had lost a good bit of it the past year and a half I've been gone. But I talked to Judy on the phone and she was laughing at me! I think it's from hanging out with Elsy and Sue (both born and raised here). I've been teasing them that they're a bad influence on me - if nobody will hire me, it's their fault for making me talk this way again. <g>

When Lynn & Tom were on their way back home at the end of their Gulf Shores trip I met them for lunch.

Mr. Mike, the campground owner (we call him Mr. Mike because Elsy's husband's name is Mike), helped me work on the motorhome. We changed the oil, oil filter, and air filter in the motorhome and the generator.

During the week it's just us die-hard "regulars" here and Mr. Mike pretty much looks the other way as long as we don't get too out of hand. Mr. Mike took down some trees a while back. Us girls have been using his buggy, it's like a flatbed golf cart, to haul the logs to the campfire. Good thing he's only got one buggy - we've been joking about all the things we could find to do if he had more than one - buggy bumper cars, buggy races, etc.

That's about all that's fit for print ... there's been some good gossip, good lies, and hysterical true stories ... things you learn around the campfire late at night ... I wonder what will happen next? There's nothin' like being home again and this campground is home for me.

I'm sad to say that my stay at Big Bridge Campground has ended. I'll definitely miss the view out my front window and hanging out with all my friends here. Everyone's already asking when they'll see me again. I feel like I'm leaving home and don't know when I'll be back. But I really need to go visit my Grandmother so I'm driving to the Baltimore MD area over Memorial Day Weekend and will be staying there for the month of June.

In any case, I'm not ready to leave here, but then again I never want to leave Big Bridge.