Our first day in Gulf Shores

Today has been an awesome day so far. But first to back up....we finally met Howard & Linda of RV Dreams. We had an excellent dinner of taco soup in their beautiful 5th wheel. I was amazed at how much kitchen storage they have. Linda has brought everything you can think of. I brought them a loaf of apple bread that was my first attempt at baking in the moho. After dinner we played a few rounds of Blokus, Rich winning 2, and me one. They seemed to really like the game because it's simple, but requires a lot of strategy.

So today we finally got rolling around 9:30am. After a applebread breakfast I got a paper from the campground office. We talked bikes with Howard & Linda & went to get lunch, while they went to get bikes. We decided to make dinner tomorrow night and go to a restaurant Howard suggested tonight. We got the supplies to make basic marinade for some chicken breasts, some shrimp for appetizers, & green beans. Later we took them on a 10 mile bike ride through the state park, down to the beach, and back on the sidewalk of the main road. They both did really well for their first time on bikes in many years. When we were riding along the beach, you could really see the devestation from Hurricane Ivan that struck here. There's not a lot of trees around and many are dead from the salt water. Some buildings were just abandoned after the hurricane destroyed them. There's even a sign for a RV park across the street that doesn't exist anymore.

Oh.....also wanted to mention Linda's love of Snuggles that currently not returned. Poor Linda just wants to love and scritch Snuggles, but Snug. is afraid of her. She will "talk" to Linda, but will not allow any scritches. I'm afraid that's not going to improve much before we leave. It usually takes Snug. monthes to get comfortable with anyone. Linda did point out that you can hear big birds (macaws, etc.) from the campground. We went on a little exploratory bike ride yesterday and found what appears to be a breeder of birds. There were probably 20-30 of them....in pairs. We saw macaws, goffins cockatoos, greater sulfer crested cockatoos, indian neck parakeets, cockateils, and a dog. Of course as soon as we came around (once I corrupted Linda into ignoring the "No Trespassing" signs), the alarms were sounded with birds screaming...loudly. We made a hasty exit back to our campsite.